My run with Cancer

  I was really hoping that I would be updating everyone to say that I’m home and things weren’t as bad as the doctors said they’d be. Unfortunately it was pretty awful. I have had constant fevers, with periods of Tylenol induced reprieve, from Monday afternoon through early this (Thursday) morning. With some of these fever spikes I would get rigours, which the nurses here affectionately call the “shake n bake”. You start by feeling a bit chilled which quickly progresses to shivering and then to violent shaking… it’s a trip. Luckily they can calm it quickly with some demerol. I also have a mystery rash that feels and looks like a sunburn and then over night last night I developed a mouthful of sores. The mouth seems similar to the mucositis I’ve had previously… but the combination of symptoms along with low platelets is making the doctors nervous… so a Wednesday discharge has turned into a “hopefully Friday” discharge.  Overall, I’m feeling much better today, mouth soreness a...

  For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you’ll likely have seen that I successfully completed my second half marathon in October, with a personal best time. Had you asked me back at the end of 2020 if I thought I’d ever run another half, I would have said absolutely not. At that time, not only had running become difficult and painful, but I was also just hoping that I would outlive the pandemic; that I would be able to do the traveling with my kids and make those memories that we established as goals when I received the inoperable diagnosis at the beginning of 2020.  Tonight, as I sit and write this, I’m struck with how blessed I am to still be here, to be as strong and “healthy” as I am, and that I have the treatment opportunities that I do.  While the last trial was determined to have failed in November, I have been given the opportunity to start in a new phase 1 trial (phase 1 meaning first time in human use). In the meantime… as our family tends to do when my tr...