Sabbatical

In a blog about the experiences with and about cancer, no news is good news...at least that's what I tell myself so that I can justify not posting anything to my blog since (gulp) last April! A couple of people actually have asked me where I've gone and why I haven't been posting anything recently. Well, the truth is I really haven't had anything to post, which is good, except for marathon training, which isn't really exciting, trust me. If I wrote about marathon training, it would read something like this:

Monday: ran 4 miles - my knees hurt
Wednesday: ran 8 miles - my knees hurt
Thursday: ran 4 miles - my knees hurt
Saturday: ran 18 miles - my whole body hurts

So that is another reason why I haven't been keeping y'all as updated as I could have...it would have just been far too boring.

BUT, there have been some things happening that are worth telling you about so I'll get you caught up as best I can. After running the 10-miler in April, I decided that indeed yes, I would train for the Marine Corps Marathon on October 29 in DC. Well, I started my serious training in June and went throughout the summer. During that time, I moved from studio--filled with lots of memories of what has undoubtedly been the hardest year of my life--to a small house with three other guys about 2 miles away. That was at the beginning of July. Then, I was approached by a buddy about interest in working on another campaign--this time, the Governor's race in Oregon. After a lot of missed connections and waiting, I was finally given an offer and decided that I would do it despite the fact that it was so late in the election and it would be very difficult to get up to speed before Election Day.

So ever since the day after Labor Day, I've been working for the Saxton campaign in Portland. That meant no more marathon, sadly. I've still tried to run when I can, but there would have been no way that I could continue the training and then fly back for the race. I was pretty bummed but I guess I'll just have to do it next year.

The reality is that I overextended myself this past summer. After spending all of 2005 in either pain, surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, recovery, or some weird combination of all of those, I was eager to get on with life and I think I tried to make up for some lost time! So working a full-time job, playing on two softball teams, and training for a marathon really meant that I had no time left for me. Latching onto a campaign was the last thing that I thought I would want to do but nonetheless the opportunity came up so I took it. Hopefully it will yield some positive results and honestly we are looking pretty good with less than a month to go before Election Day.

Just before I moved out here to Oregon, I had my 9-month checkup since radiation and I was expecting another clean bill of health. One thing you should know about my checkups is that there are two types. There are the big checkups and small checkups that alternate every three months...really confusing, huh? Well, the first checkup was in February and was a big one, then three months later (May) was a small one. So my last checkup was in August and that was a big checkup--basically they do all the physical stuff but they also run a PET scan. Well, the most recent PET scan (remember, the PET is basically a presence of cancer test) indicated some kind of "activity" as they like to call it. THE BIG NEWS is that the levels of activity were no different in August than they were in February, but still enough that they want to err on the side of caution.

So after checking with my doctor to see if I was taking any unnecessary risks by doing the campaign (he assured me that I was not), I decided to do the campaign and get checked out at Oregon Health Sciences University (OHSU). At his request, I was seen by a doctor he knew and trusted. So that happened a couple weeks ago and he came to the same conclusion--that I should go in and just have this problem area removed. I've got another checkup later this month and then I'll probably have what will amount to a tonsil removed the week after Election Day. Fun stuff.

The weird thing about all of this is that very few people really understand my concerns. I'm not worried about the surgery (this will be my third), but about the tests that are run afterwards on whatever it is they remove. If it is negative, all is good. If not, then I could be looking at the possibility of another round of radiation, which is enough to make me want to vomit. I honestly don't know if I can go through with something like that again. But, that is getting way ahead of things so right now I'm just focusing on working on the campaign the best I can and hoping that everything works out alright, which it probably will.

I'd be lying if I said that I wasn't disappointed. Obviously I was hoping that I was over and done with all this, but the situation is still pretty good. The important thing to remember is that there wasn't any change in activity--based on the PET scans--between February and August. Nevertheless, considering my health history, this isn't something that I want to mess around with.

Hopefully I'll get a few more posts in before I go under the knife again. My next checkup is on October 24 (I think) and I'll most likely have my surgery scheduled at that time. I'll try to take a few minutes to post an update at that time.

Cheers!