just dropping by

hi everybody, it is good to see so many of you still around and sad to see some are not.
I first started on the disc. board in 2008 when my stage 2 colon cancer had gone to my
liver and i had surgery and chemo, thot i was headed to the great beyond and by golly i
am still here in 2012....the marvels of modern med. My story goes back to 2004 with my
first colon resection. Still doing ok, see my onc. every three months, scans every 6 months,
a few nasty little lung nodules are showing up and i will get a PET scan in June to see if
they light up but so far they are doing nothing but sitting there.

Last year I had planned a trip to Montana, always wanted to see Big Sky country, and was
thrown for a loop a couple days before leaving with pain in my right side, throwing up
and brown urine, a little fever......turned out to be a bile duct stone, NOT cancer,
but had a ERCP where they go down your throat and clean all the stuff out and widen
the opening so any other stones flow out easier. Spent night in hospital since the
procedure may cause pancreatitis but cleared that hurdle and no problems since then.

My dog Kelsie now has melanoma in her jaw, believe it or not. Am taking her to a
vet oncologist where she gets the same vaccine that people are getting now. Have had
to puree her food in blender and found out that a large tumor is on her tonsil. This
is being removed tomorrow.

It is difficult to see her in pain and it has been a real dilemma in decision making
about treatment or not. But she still does get some enjoyment out of life and it seems
a reason to keep her around as long as she is getting some joy.

So the problems come and go and somehow we do get through, over or past them and proceed
on. There is great reason for all of us who struggle with this disease to have a whole
lot of hope and belief.