Weekend Update - 1/8/16

Weekend Update - 1/8/16 And a Happy New Year to all! This is the year I believed I would not see. This once again proves just how well I can predict the future. It also says a lot about the progress of modern medicine. My holidays, for the first time in many many years, were brilliant. A special thank you to all who shared them with me. It was very special to be “out and about” during this very social season. And a special “shout out” to my family who came down from Richmond to spend this time with me. It was good to be around “family” and to remember the ties that bind us. I also was reminded that time does not stand still and the years became even more apparent as I watched my nephew. Life does go on and I am looking forward to continuing and enhancing my volunteer efforts this coming year. I might not be able to do much but I can be a support to others who have and are experiencing life with cancer and the life “after” cancer. I am once again a social worker and proud and grateful to be so. My visits to the doctors, nurses, hospital and labs continue on. I am beginning to realize this will be a part of my new normal. I have been waiting for a time when “going for medical treatment of some kind” would not be almost a weekly feature of my life. I am beginning to surrender to the fact that these “trips for medical whatever” (along with the recurring side effects of my operations/treatments) will be a permanent fixture in my life. While these trips are very necessary, they are inconvenient, an ongoing financial burden and really cramp my “social calendar”. This time after the main cancer surgery in November 2014, the follow up radiation treatment and the thyroid cancer surgery in April of 2015 - and not even looking at all the medical drama which has followed I am now considering as my “extra-time”. I am viewing this time as time gifted to me and it is up to me to make the best possible use of it. I am still sorting out my identity in how I answer when someone asks “What do you do?”. My focus has been on my illness and ongoing treatments. It is tiresome and depressing to be the “sick guy”. I am now trying to focus on other things I would like to do and on the new paths which are opening up for me. I foresee a lot of volunteer work in my future and that is good. My hope is to share with other cancer patients my experience, strength and hope and to let them know, ahead of time, at least some of what they can expect and the “ending” is not yet written. I have found, and continue to find, an enormous amount of strength and hope in the fact that I do not know what the future will be. And I am going to say this …. again …. cancer sucks. And the treatment sucks too. I am just grateful as hell I can sit here and write about how much it sucks. Once again … in closing, the reality of my financial situation continues to be what it is…. not good. I am asking all to give what you can and to remember that no amount is to small. Every little bit helps. I am living month to month, and without the support I have received I would not still be living in my home. A big “THANK YOU” to all who have shared their experience, strength, hope, time and resources. ***Please note that the 12/3/15 post in my blog is one which I encourage you to share freely.*** Please read and share my story. www.gofundme.com/j55wek