Well once again my blog is suffering from neglect.   Let’s get the dreaded medical update out of the way first.  My surgery August 22nd went well and I had two of my favorite ladies taking care of me for the day.  My older daughter drove me home after I was awake enough to get into her car and on the way home we picked up my granddaughter at daycare and they came and spent the rest of the day with me.  Some pain but nothing that a few percocets couldn’t handle.  Jenny took good care of me and Taylor kept me entertained.  Just over a week later I was in a cab in Montreal when my phone rang and I saw it was my surgeon and as expected the mass I had removed showed no signs of cancer.  Even though I was expecting this news it still feels great to hear it officially.   The rehab from the surgery is going well and I am nearly back to where I was before the surgery.  I also had my 90 day check up with my oncologist this week and it was very uneventful.  Everything looks good and he was as happy with my lab results as I was.  I was hoping that this would be the trip where I walk into his office and the receptionist didn’t recognize me but no luck, she still knows who I am.  Maybe next time.  It may sound odd to most of you but it will be so nice when I walk in there and it has been so long that they forget who I am.   I got the flyer that I posted above from his office.  It made me stop and think about what cancer cannot do to me instead of what it has done to me. Attitude really is everything.  It also made me think of my former classmate who lost her sister to leukemia last month.  Once again I really really hate this disease. 

The Sunday after surgery I headed out to Colorado to check in on my daughter at CSU.  A quick funny story and I am about to show my age I suppose.  I knew it was a co-ed dorm but assumed that it was like dorms were when I was in school where opposite sex member were not allowed on each other’s floors for the most part.  Well apparently sometime during the last 30 years this has changed and the floors are actually co-ed.   Two rooms of girls who share a bathroom, then two rooms of boys who share a bathroom.   I asked Sara what time I was allowed on the floor so I could come and see her room and she gave me this confused look and I now know why.  Anyway, she is doing well at school and I think this adjustment is harder for me than it is for her.  So far this empty nest thing is overrated; maybe it will grow on me.  I had a great visit with her and we did escape for an afternoon in the mountains.   On my last evening there we had dinner with some old neighbors from when we lived in Colorado and a daughter of one of my cousins who now lives in Fort Collins.  It was a great evening and both Bob and Sandy and my cousin Sarah made themselves available to my Sara which meant a lot to me.  I feel better knowing that she can call some of our old friends or a family member if she ever needs something.  It gives a nervous dad peace of mind.  She joined a sorority this week and is pretty excited about that.  Not sure how I feel about it but she was quick to point out that they have the highest GPA on campus which she knows will calm my fears.  I am trying to not remember my freshman year and the things I did.  Surely she has better judgment than I.  I am really looking forward to next weekend when I am headed to Atlanta to see my brother and his family.  It has been way to long since I have seen them. 

It’s hard to believe but I am coming up on my one year anniversary of being diagnosed with cancer.  It seems like I have been in the battle for 10 years.  I think the best analogy I have heard so far is that it’s like trying to jump back on a merry go round.  The world keeps spinning even for us cancer patients and at some point we have to jump back on.  Right now it still seems to be spinning too fast but I am getting closer to jumping on I think. 

Once again thanks to all my family and friends for their support during this last surgery.  I don’t know how I would get through this without you.

Paul