Wow

I read somewhere that the first rule of journalism is not to bury the meat of a story deep in the text so here it is:

They found no evidence of cancer in my belly.

That’s right. No evidence of cancer. During my surgery on Friday, the surgeon took many small biopsies of what looked like cancerous tissue. It was sent to the lab and there was no cancer in the samples. Diagnosis: negative for cancer.

Wow.

I have to admit, I am more than a little freaked out. When the nurse called, I started sobbing uncontrollably. Jacob came up and said “why are you crying daddy?”. I told him “because I am so happy.” He gave me a hug and a kiss and asked why I was happy. I told him “cause daddy isn’t sick anymore.”

Not sick anymore. Wow.

My aunt made a good point, saying sometimes good news is hard to take. It is very true.

I will have more information later, after I talk to the doctor. Thank you for your prayers, there could be no better evidence of them working.

Death to Cancer

Cancer is Dead

Back From Surgery

Just a short note. I had my surgery yesterday and everything went fine. The doctor poked two holes in me and looked around, took a couple biopsies, and sewed me back up. I had some trouble getting out of the hospital, but I am home and in a relatively small amount of pain (thank you Oxycodone!).

My surgeon saw improvement in my cancer since the last time he looked (October). There appears to be less cancer than before, and the doctor is happy with that. He biopsied (took samples) of the cancer he saw, and sent it to the lab. The lab will determine if the cells are viable (alive) or dead. There is a chance that the cancer has been killed by the chemotherapy, but still sits in my belly as a dead mass of tissue.

I should get the lab results on Wednesday, so look for news then.

Thank you for your thoughts and prayers, they seem to be working! I love you all.

Death to Cancer

What Am I Going To Do?

Sorry I haven’t written in a while. It seems that the more nervous I am, the less I write. Right now, I am very nervous. I have completed 4 rounds of IL-2 treatment, and responded well. I had my re-staging scans yesterday, and the doctor says they don’t look any worse than before. It is very hard to tell if there is cancer in my belly from CT scans, so we are going to do another diagnostic laparoscopy on Friday.

If they find don’t more cancer in my belly during the surgery, I plan to do 2 more rounds of IL-2, and then I’ll be done. I’ll come back every three months for scans, but no more treatments for now.

If they find cancer, I will probably switch treatments to something else. As you can imagine, a lot is riding on the outcome of this surgery, and I am very nervous about it. So, rather than drone on and on about my state of mind, I decided to take the positive route and list all the things I am going to do after I am proclaimed free of cancer.

- Throw a big party. Everyone and anyone will be invited., If you are reading this, you are invited.
- Get a tattoo. This is something I have always wanted, but I have never been sure what to get. Now I know. More on this later.
- Go skydiving with my wife, Jennifer. What better affirmation of life is there than risking it for sheer pleasure. I figure, if God let me beat cancer, he isn’t going to make my chute fail a week later.
- Play a round of golf. I haven’t played in a year, and I am ready to get out there.
- Take a bath and go swimming. I can’t do either until I get my PICC line out. I missed swimming all summer.
- Personally thank everyone that sent me a card / note / gift/ prayer card. I have saved everything. You all can expect to be hearing from me.
- Take a deep breath, cry, kiss my wife and my son. Enough said.
- Get back to life. Get an internship, finish school, and try to live up to my wife’s high opinion of me.

Any other suggestions?

Death to Cancer