Breaking Free

I see by the date of my last post it’s been a while since I’ve added anything here.  My life has always been busy, but now it’s tighter than ever.  I found out a year and a half ago that I have cancer, a slow-growing but incurable form of lymphoma.  Though incurable, the doctors are rather confident that it is manageable, and I will likely live a long time with it, maybe even to the point that it would eventually be considered to be cured.  I actually have had no discomfort, and not even any symptoms other than a lump on my left temple that started the process.

The main problem is that I am in a clinical trial at MD Anderson in Houston, and I live in Michigan.  The clinical trial requires me to be in Houston one week out of every four for chemotherapy (mild, I haven’t had any side effects).  So I’m now squeezing 4 weeks worth of work into 3.  In addition to that, the week I got back from Houston last cycle, I attended two weddings and four funerals, and basically lost another week.

So if you’ve tried to reach me by phone or email, I simply haven’t had time to catch up, and probably won’t! 

Incidentally, I heard of a wonderful ministry, Angel Flight Network in New York that arranges for patients all around the country to hitch a ride on corporate jets.  It turns out that Dow Chemical Corp. flies every day from an airport near my home to Houston.  As long as they have room, which they have so far, they allow my wife and me to fly with them at no cost.  Wow, that ends up being a huge savings.  I’ve already made 7 trips to Texas this year (most of them I paid for before knowing about the Angel Flights), and I have at least 6 more this year. 

Well, I’ll try to keep my posts more up to date…