Graduation Day and Easter!!

Wednesday February 18, 2009 is a day that will remain in infamy for me for the rest of my life. It was the day of my last therapy treatment. I am done with this phase. YAHOO!! I am not fully cured yet but let’s just say I am curing as we speak. 2/18/09 was my graduation day and 2/19/09 was my personal Easter of sorts. But before I continue my epilogue of the last eight weeks I must say that I cannot say enough about the doctors, nurses, radiation therapists and staff at The City of Hope. These are the most caring, professional and on point people I have worked with as a customer/patient. From day one they worked with the precision of Swiss watch. These guys are clearly the brand and a model for any business, health related or otherwise. They give you a reassuring feeling that we are all in this together. I became a part their team. On my last day I received a gold medal acknowledging the completion of my treatments and a bevy of good bye genuine hugs and handshakes and it got a little misty in there. (On my part as the reality of that day’s events sank in) So COH if you are listening, you are the best!!!!
But anyway as I enter my curing stage which involves a check up in 30 days and then a check up 60 days after that. The agenda is to make sure the side effects are gone and my PSA is moving in the right direction. Then we shift to 6 month intervals for checkups. I define this as my Easter because this is a beginning. This journey has touched me deeply. This has clearly been a metamorphosis of my view of life and where I am it. The only things that are really important in life are your personal health, the health and love of family and friends and of course your faith. I have had eight weeks to ponder this and reset my own mindset. I am certain that I will be 100% cured but I can’t help but think about those patients I left in the oncology treatment waiting room. I can’t help but think about my Aunt who is battling liver cancer and how chemo therapy is ravaging her body and slowly sapping her strength each day. That said I am in full acknowledgement that I am very blessed in many ways. In retrospect my overall treatment regiment was not that bad comparatively speaking. Thank God this is not my Grandfather’s Radiation treatment from back in the day.
I hope I don’t sound selfish but my front burner goals are to be cured, healthy, happy, and share my experience. Maybe I can save a life. I have offered to volunteer as a support group speaker/helper at COH. Again thanks to each of you for your prayers, and positive thoughts and I will update you in another 30 days. So let the curing begin. But I must leave you with what I believe to be very profound dialogue from the movie “The Curious Case of Benjamin Button”. This was an excellent film, long but excellent.

"What I think is, it’s never too late...or, in my case, too early, to be whoever you want to be...There’s no time limit, start anytime you want...change or stay the same...there aren’t any rules...We can make the best or worst of it...I hope you make the best...I hope you see things that startle you. Feel things you never felt before. I hope you meet people who have a different point of view. I hope you challenge yourself. I hope you stumble, and pick yourself up. I hope you live the life you wanted to...and if you haven’t, I hope you start all over again.”

The treatment end is near...Yahoo!

Friday February 6 was treatment #35. I am thankful again that things continue to be uneventful with minimal side effects. Plus my doctors say that I am doing exceptionally well. But there was a minor glitch discovered when I mentioned my count for my remaining treatments. The schedule given me on day one showed my last treatment date as February 17th. But I learned that it is really the 18th. After a recount of my appointment schedule dates and a review of my weekly lab work/doctor visit print out, it was clear that the appointment schedule showed only 42 treatments and it was not the correct number which is 43. Of course you know I questioned the accuracy and why the discrepancy. I will not go into why the differential, but please believe that I had to be made comfortable with a make sense explaination. Anyway Wednesday the 18th is my last treatment date. So I guess an additional day is not the end of the world at this point. The bottom line is I have 8 more to go..... and I will be done!

So keep sending up those positive thoughts and prayers. As I said in the begining of this jouney....."I am going to be fine". We will chat next week!