This and That

Last week at the Farber, everything came out normal again, thank goodness.  I'm very lucky to still be in remission at cycle 45 of my maintenance therapy.  Believe me, I don't take this for granted.

We are getting ready to head to Florida at the end of March to commemorate Pat Killingsworth's death at a memorial celebration for him at Amelia Island.  I'm still not over the shock of Pat's passing, as are most of his devoted followers.  I look forward to meeting in person some of those MM survivors with whom I have been in contact over the years, as well as new friends I don't yet know.  I hope this can be both a solemn memorial and a new dedication for us to move forward in his memory to find a cure for this insidious disease that took him from us.

Afterwards, we will then drive down to Cape Coral, FL for a few days to visit my college roommate and his wife, Steve and Sue. Even though this winter has been kind to us so far, we are really looking forward to getting away to the sunny south of Florida and spending time with our good friends.

Tuesday, I had some minor surgery on my face for a couple of skin cancers:  a squamous cell carcinoma on my jaw (Mohs surgery) and a basal cell carcinoma on my nose (scrape and burn).  I now look like I've been in a street fight as I sport my bandages (I'd like to think the other guy looks worse).  I'll spare you by not showing a selfie.  Anyway, this is the price I have to pay for the indiscretions of my Irish youth by basking in the sun without using enough sunscreen.  I'm sure there's more of these to come, but I plan to keep on top of this by frequent visits to my new (as yet to be named) dermatologist.

The big thing in our lives right now is my sister-in-law, Kathy.  I've been helping her with research and in finding her the best oncologist: Dr. Temel, Clinical Director of lung cancer at Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.  Yesterday, she finished her 3 week regimen of whole brain radiation for her metastasized lung cancer.  She has been a real trouper, and has survived this phase amazingly well, with few side effects so far.  Her hair has now fallen out, but she is sporting a new wig, and she looks and sounds as great as ever.  She starts her chemotherapy on March 22.  If anybody can beat this down, Kathy, with her amazing health, energy, and incredibly positive attitude is a good bet to do this.  In the mean time, there are a lot of new therapies being tested that might give more favorable long-term prognoses to lung cancer patients like Kathy.  Let's just hope for her to live many more years along with those of us who love her.

I'm really looking forward to the MMRF 5K Run/Walk event on May 1.  We have 19 participants signed up to run or walk.  So far, we have raised about $4,000, but that is far short of our goal of $10,000.  I invite any of you who have not yet contributed to please make a contribution to this worthy cause.  I would really appreciate it.  Here is the website which you can copy and paste into your browser:

http://support.themmrf.org/site/TR/RaceforResearch/General?team_id=41495&pg=team&fr_id=2362

I thank you in advance.

Today I went to the gym to train for this event.  I am doing interval training, some walking and some jogging, to prepare myself in case I might want to run rather than walk.  I wasn't supposed to do any exertion after my surgery on Tuesday for a full week, but I felt I could run and walk today.  I did 25 minutes of combined walk and run.  My surgeries were fine.  Unfortunately, I forgot to put on my knee wrap today.  I got through the exercise fine, but afterwards, my right knee started hurting, and I have been hobbling ever since.  Shit!  Maybe I just screwed everything by pushing too hard today.  I don't know.  I have been using this 5K run/walk as an impetus to get myself in shape.  I hope I can still do this without screwing up my knee.  We'll see.