Cancer Update.......What Next???

Meet "Cancer Fox".  Cancer Fox is a cherished gift given to me by a great, true friend and his family.  Cancer Fox has seen me through some tough times and has been a huge help, a symbol that I am and never was alone in this battle.  Cancer Fox also went on some trips with us.  Cancer Fox has visited the back-roads of Oregon and the pumice-covered trails of Mt St Helens.  Cancer Fox now wears our blue fighting-prostate-cancer wrist bands instead of Hanna and me.  Mostly as a sign that we all beat the heck out of this cancer.  But also because Cancer Fox looks good with those on his ears.

It has been just over 30 days since the evil cancer tumor was eradicated from my prostate.  How am I doing?  GREAT!  The cancer appears to be gone.  The pain and side effects from the procedure are dwindling and healing.

My Urologist was actually giddy at my two-week post-op check up.  He lost his own father to cancer, so every battle won is huge for him.  And he exudes compassion.  Great doctor.  He explained how, using the pictures from the MRI, he first froze a circle around the tumor to ensure he got all of it.  Then he froze the tumor itself.  He had images from the Ultrasound to prove his work.  Giddy.

My emotions are still confusing.  I go from jubilation at still being alive and cancer free to mourning the amount of lost time and resources this past almost year.  Roller coaster ride.

What is next?  Another giddy appointment with the doc in late December to take a "base-line" PSA blood test.  I will likely be testing my PSA regularly for the rest of my life, just to make sure there are no signs of more cancer.  It is not uncommon for those pesky cancer cells to escape the prostate before treatment somehow and wreak havoc in other parts of the body.

A few weeks after that, I will again have an MRI so the doc can clearly see the shriveled up hole that used to be a cancer tumor.

MRIs will likely become a regular part of my life too.  That's OK.  Early detection is a huge part of the game.  The sooner I know there is a problem, the easier it will be to deal with it.  DEATH TO CANCER!

That is actually a picture of a guy learning.  Trust me.  I googled it.  That is also me studying Prostate Cancer Treatments.

So, what have I learned about surviving cancer?

Attitude is huge.
Be a survivor, not a victim.
A survivor gets outside of himself and serves others.

-It is my life and my cancer.  I get to make the treatment decisions, after learning all I can.
-Don't let fear guide you.
-Learn everything you can about the cancer.
-Don't be scared.
-Study, get tons of medical opinions.  Talk to other cancer warriors.
-Fear will kill you, don't fall into decisions based on fear.
-Learn everything you can about the cancer.  I had procedure after procedure to do just that until I knew exactly how large the tumor was, where it was at, how aggressive it was.
-Ignore fear.
-Evaluate every single treatment option thoroughly and pick the best one for you and your situation.  Most treatments (medical at least) had a good degree of effectiveness.  Some, however, are very invasive and essentially destroy your life just to keep you alive.  Take the side effects into account.
-Don't let fear move you too quickly.
-Do proper follow up.  It always comes back.
-And, finally, don't screw up your decision because you are in fear of the cancer.
BEAT IT.  DON'T BE SCARED OF IT.

Here, have a pic of me and the love of my life standing in front of a place we love being at, on our anniversary this past summer.

Cancer tested us.  The perfect couple.  It tested us mightily.  From that first night when we tried to eat ourselves to death with Fried Chicken, Mac n Cheese and Ice Cream with her spending the night holding me tightly and sobbing, until the jubilant calling out by the doctor "I got it all!"  It was a test.  We saw each other at our worst.  Sure, I did my best not to be a victim.  But there were those days when I didn't want to take another freakin' step.  When I was cranky as heck and mad at everything.  She knew I needed calm and confident and always there, and did her best.  But she cracked a few times too.  The time that I, during a conversation about our new home in Fairfield, casually asked her if she had considered the issue of her living there alone if I didn't survive cancer.  She hollered (which she never does) "DON'T EVEN GO THERE WITH ME TODAY!!!" and bawled the rest of the way to work.

Yes, cancer tested us.  But we survived.  We are survivors.  And we learned just how deep our love, support, and concern for each other runs.  A for sure sign of true love is for someone to see you at your weakest, at your worst, at your bottom, and still be there for you.  That is us.  Both of us.


Meet Lauren Daigle, my favorite musical artist right now.  I took this picture myself from the fifth row at her concert here in Spokane.

Attitude is everything when it comes to battling any illness, especially cancer.  While fear can kill you, a positive attitude can save you.  Lauren Daigle and her music gave me hope and positivity.  Her music has a consistent theme:

-I feel hopeless and broken
-God rescues me
-I now give him everything

I needed that.  I needed that over and over and over again.  Lauren Daigle saved my life and my attitude nearly on a daily basis.  And still does.

The best advice my Chiropractor gave me during this ordeal was that I needed more Bob Marley in my life.  BEACH MUSIC!  It became a staple of my morning routine.  (We shower to Bob Marley).  And every morning now starts out happy.  Happy kills cancer.

Between Lauren Daigle and Bob Marley, cancer had no chance.


This picture proves that even hungry homeless people make faces at large salads.  And I promise that he is not naked.  Look carefully at his neck.  That is a collar.  He just needs some shoes.

While our diet of vegetable juices, limited meats, large salads and avoidance of dairy and eggs did not cure cancer, it did make my body healthier.  And it needed to be healthier to deal with the medical tests and the fatigue that cancer causes.  We continue to try to eat healthy.


Trust God.
I had a two-week reprieve of my anger at God.  Right after the procedure when all I could picture in my mind was my awesome grinning, giddy Urologist almost hollering to me "it's gone!  The procedure was a success!"  But the anger has come back a bit as I deal with the minor side effects and pain and wonder why God let this happen to me.  It's like He took away almost a year of my life and replaced it with personal cancer research and being poked innumerable times with a needle.

Was it a miracle that the cancer is gone?  I say "yes".  I feel like I was divinely lead to the right help, the right warriors, the right solutions, the right doctors.  And in the end, God showed his power, even to a shaking, angry, weak man, and cured my cancer.

The Sunday before my procedure, four young missionaries from my congregation came to my home.  We fed them ribs and mashed potatoes.  They laid hands on my head, as outlined in the New Testament, and gave me a powerful blessing.  A blessing that the cancer would be eradicated.  A blessing that I would be cured.  A blessing that I would feel peace, especially during recovery.

They were giddy when they saw me a week later and asked how it went and I told them the cancer was gone and I was doing great.  I'm sure their mission journals all say "the man with cancer that we blessed was indeed cured!  We were instruments in God's hands in curing the cancer."  I do believe that.  They do too.

(These are not them, but they kind of look like them and very well could be them......)

Finally, I am grateful.  Nothing brings gratitude into your life like having your life taken away from you.  Thanksgiving was especially good this year.  Surrounded by just two of our nine children, an in-law, Hanna's mom.........a small group, we shared what we were thankful for and consumed a large quantity of turkey.  Not very unusual.  But what was unusual, was that this was the first Thanksgiving that I could call myself a cancer survivor.  A survivor.  Not a victim.

Thanks for following my blog.  Doing so made you part of the battle and I needed that.  THANK YOU.

This isn't the end.  Any time something new develops, even a routine blood test that shows I am healthy, I will check in.  God Bless.