Celebrating NED with a new photo

Call me NED! Let me first thank each of you for your support and encouragement during this life-changing experience of having colon cancer. Yesterday I met with an oncologist who was great in his explanation of my cancer. He said it was a stage 1, but more likely a stage 0. He said we caught it early and it was fairly small. I suppose doctors are like fisherman and tend to exaggerate their catches. Until now, the gastroenterologist hadn't been specific on the size but led me to believe it was large and involved. I know we all agree than one cell is too large and awful. He took a baseline blood sample and said he doesn't need to see me until Febrruary for another blood sample and a PET scan. He went through the whole episode with me from beginning to where the surgeons could not find the cancer when they did the resection. He further said in his experience that the cancer got removed with the polyp and didn't grow into the colon wall or through it nor into any nodes. His estimate was that maybe there was a 1, perhaps 2 percent chance of it coming back. After two checkups three months apart, he'll go to a 6 month checkup and if still NED, I'll be through with him.

And today I had the staples removed. There were a lot because the surgeon started out doing a lap technique and when the couldn't locate the cancer tissue, opened me up. Wonder if I'll get a 2 for 1 deal? The staples were really irritating and for the first time since the Big Dig, I feel really good physically about the incisions. Having the staples out was not a big deal. Didn't feel most them them, and only a couple stung, about like a little kitten playfully biting on a finger. The rest of the day was without irritation. Still not much appetite or stamina. I'm told I need to learn to like brocolli.OMIGOD.

In my new photo at left shot this morning, please check out the golf shirt my wife, Mary, had made for me. Note the Semicolon "logo." The surgeon got a big kick out of it. However, no one else was foolish enough to ask me what it meant, as I'd have gone on and on about them getting a screening. I'm running out of space, so I'll close. Thanks again, you all are the wind beneath my wings.