One More to Store and Thanks

Over the time of this blog and some team work on Deb's blog it seems that you reach the point of reaching a time when you ask this question.  "Why are you doing this?"  What happens is this. As a family endures a traumatic event you look for a couple of things.  One of those things is that you look for some sort of therapeutic outlet just to vent feelings and for me one of those things has been doing some writing.  I thought it would be good to record some of the events of our lives. Those of you that know me know that I have always looked for some of the more interesting things that happen in life.  Also, the yearn for some outlet of the more humorous events in life.  There was a time when we all felt that the destiny of the disease that Deb has experienced all felt that the results would be fatal.  But recent evidence has lead me to a new spot. A large part of me now  understands and says that this cancer she faces can be endured and life can be prolonged in a way that we did not think before could be possible.

If there is a big unexpected event in all of this is the fact that Deb's body reacts very well with the chemotherapy.  When we first encountered this whole thing I can recall they gave us these choices.  The surgeon said we had three choices. 1. We could do nothing. 2. We could do only chemotherapy. 3 We could choose the combination of chemotherapy and surgery.   In our case, as it all turns out the surgery is what has caused all of the problems and the complications from that have had the result of lots of days of trial and many many days in the hospital.  Hindsight is 20-20 and I am not sure  we picked the right thing but if we knew what we do now I am confident that we would have chosen to elect the path of chemotherapy only.

Years ago I read a book by JFK. It was called "Profiles in Courage"  As I reflect on that I think I want to say that the way that Deb has endured some of these events fall someplace within the title of that book.  She is out tonight with a friend at one of the tulip time events.  She has followed to a T the advice of some of the people in the "cancer business" and that is, Live your Life!!!  In 4 more months we will reach the point of 2 years of working through this and very frankly if you would have been in those first diagnosis meetings you would have also said "no way."

Right now we face a a new round of chemotherapy starting as soon as next week.  As best as I can say we have some confidence that this will continue to have good results.  There are some new spots that need to be treated and the plan is to wipe them out.  This is not the type of cancer that goes away but it is evident that it is the type that can be treated and the hope is that it can be so for many more years. (Thank you for modern medicine)

What I am going to do is close down this blog. Any updates we have I will post on Deb's. I read through some of the stories from earlier on this blog and a few of them are good and a few of them I wish I had over, but they stand as they are.  If there is such a thing as Humor in a Storm all I can say is that I tried.  

Thanks for staying with us and for your many kind notes and expressions. In a way that you may never know they have kept the program going over here.

Stan the Man