IT'S OVER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well........I've been thinking of how to finish this blog and I'm at a loss for words, for the first time in my life.

Now that it's all over, the fact that I had cancer, is really hitting me for the first time. Like many, I have several roles in life; Husband, Father, Son, Brother, Coach, Sales Rep, Friend, neighbor, etc. , and because of those first two, I think I just went head first into this situation and never looked back. I had to be strong or at least appear that way to be the husband and father that I set out to be. If I would have freaked out, my family would have followed suit and my positive attitude could have been lost forever. So really, I think I was in denial this whole time. This blog gave me an outlet. An outlet that I would recommend to anyone. By having this blog, I never had to talk about my situation to anyone. I would just fire out my thoughts for the day and deal with cancer for the minutes that it took me to write an entry and then move forward like nothing ever happened. A major lesson I learned: If you ever need strength.......fake it long enough......and it WILL come.

I've also wanted to change some posts before I end my blog but have decided against it. The main post I thought about changing involves Dr. Quadro. I felt bad that I totally threw him under a bus and anyone that googles his name will come across my blog. My well thought out decision is to leave it alone. I never said anything untrue about him and he did have a incident in his background that made my whole family and I uncomfortable. Also, even after my PET scan he still had a bed ready for me for full chemo. If I would have went through with that, things would not be the same right now.

Now on to gratitude.........I want to thank everyone who took the time to check on me or got to know my family and I on this blog. I just checked and this blog as of about 10 minutes ago had 6,220 page loads which shows me that we have so much support in our family, friends, co-workers, customers, and even complete strangers. You really get to know who's who when you go through a crisis and we loved what we saw from everyone in our lives. Thanks for all the cards, emails, and phone calls that came in on a regular basis. I don't have time to list everyone individually, but everyone knows who they are, that stepped up and helped us out when we needed it. Special thanks to Dr. Miller, Dr. Logsdon, the Perez Family, Pennington Family, my mom, Becky, Kristy, the King Family, Erica, coach Dave and our Wild Pony Family, Marge & Nicole, Brian Dowd, Dan Amman, the Sommers, Brandi and Haileys Girl Scout Troop 2663, Myla Mar, Kathy and Tyler, all my friends at Edward Don, the best boss in the world..Gerri Katz, UC Davis, the Ahwahnee Hotel, Cache Creek Casino, Kathy Green, and Rick Meyer.


Grandma Chris, Aunt Donna, and Aunt Elva,

I guess God wanted a man in the club. Thanks for all your support and kind gestures. I really appreciate all of you. Thanks again.

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Brandi, Hailey, and Evan,

Thank you for being the best family in the world. Thank you for putting up with me when I was tired and cranky and I'm in debt to the three of you for the rest of my life. I love you!
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Uncle Tom and Aunt Tommi,

Thank you for all you both did for us. Words cannot describe how appreciative we really are. Thank you so much! Oh, and Aunt Tommi, I'm sorry I ever voted for Bush, you were right!


I hope that I someday have the chance to support someone the way that everyone out there has supported my family and I. I'll be looking for the chance and can't wait to find it.


The End.

Uno Mas

One more day until the present becomes the past.

One more zap of radiation.

One more day until we can tell Hailey that daddy isn't sick anymore.

One more blog entry.

Tomorrow will be a great day!

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15 and 16 of 17

Both treatment days went perfect. I feel like a healthy person!
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13 and 14 of 17

Again, all good. No side effects at all. Today I got pulled into Dr. Logsdons office for my weekly face time with him. Again, he said we are in remission as far as he is concerned and he booked me a PET scan for 60 days from now. I will be seeing him and Dr. Miller every 6 months for a couple years.

3 more treatments and this shit is in the past. I have a sales trip planned for next week to one of the remote parts of my territory. I haven't been able to leave Sacramento since January when this all started, so I'm pretty fired up to go sell somewhere outside the Central Valley.

One of my fears before this all started was returning to the soccer season looking sick or different to our girls. I'm very fortunate in that, this will not be the case. I look just as I did before this all started. Soccer starts at the end of May and runs for 18 weeks. I can't wait!

12 of 17

No issues at Fridays treatment. It was a great day and night.

This weekend went by so fast and I felt fine the whole time.

5 treatments left!
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11 of 17

Another great day. No pain. I felt 100% normal.

10 of 17

I had mild stomach pains this morning but nothing to complain about. The rest of the day was a piece of cake. Seven more treatments to go.
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9 of 17

Today was a rough day. We woke up to Brandi having a flat tire and Hailey barely made it to school on time. Then I started having some stomach pains around 9. I think it's because we ate mexican food last night. I went to my treatment and the radiation reserve lot was full, so I had to park a couple blocks away. I did my treatment and went home to take a stomach spasm medicine Dr. Logsdon gave me. Since he told me that it would knock me out, I had to reschedule the rest of my appointments for the day. I took a nice 4 hour nap and woke up feeling fine. Just one of those days I guess. I was able to get out around 3:30pm and get caught up a bit. Tomorrow is another day, thank God.

8 of 17

This weekend went by in a flash. I did have some stomach pains Saturday morning because I ate a steak Friday night, which I know better than to do. The pain came and went. Later Saturday night Hailey and I went with some friends to see the California Cougars play. They're a professional indoor soccer team. After that we went to our friends house until 1 am. Hailey and I both slept in pretty good.

Sunday we played at the park, hung around the house, then went grocery shopping. No radiation issues.

Todays appointment was short and sweet. No issues to report. I haven't had a nap in about a week and I feel just like I did before all this started. We went to the gym again today after work. The gym is becoming an everyday event, slowly but surely.

Tomorrow is the treatment that puts us past the halfway point as far as radiation is concerned.

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6/7 of 17

I'm so happy that my blog is uneventful. Yesterday was another perfect day. No fatigue, no stomach pains, no meds, just a normal day again. The light is SO clear at the end of the tunnel. At this point, in my mind, cancer is behind me. I'm going through the motions of the rest of my radiation even though I believe I don't need anymore. If the chemo took care of the large lymph nodes, it only makes sense that it killed any and all micro malegnancies that might have been present at the same time. The reality is I don't know crap about medicine or cancer so I'll finish doing whatever my doctors ask.



Yesterday I went to the gym after work for the first time since I started chemotherapy, another big step forward.



Today, my sister Kristy, is taking me out to lunch after my treatment because she lost a bet. I had told her to rent "August Rush" and she said the cover looked lame. I bet her that it would be the best movie she had seen all year. After she watched the movie she admitted defeat. To lunch we go.



On to another normal day.

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5 of 17

I was in, I was out, and have felt perfect all day.
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Dr. Miller Appoinment

My appointment and bloodwork went fine. Dr. Miller said that we won't be able to say with certainty that I'm cancer free until after a PET scan that will take place 60 days or so after my final radiation appointment. He did say that it was terrific news that my lymph nodes are back to normal size. What a great day!
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Great News

After my 4th treatment which I received today, I got called into Dr. Logsdon's office. He told me that he has spent time going over the CT scan that I did for my Radiation Summilation. My lymph nodes are back to normal size at less than one CC. He also took a slice and compared the surface and was happy with what he saw. We have 13 more Radiation Treatments to go and then we will be able to proove that I am cancer free. This is the best news that I have ever heard!

I still have to go to Dr. Millers at 3 for my appointment. I can't wait to hear what he has to say as well.

Finally!
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