Courage

hello to all of you - sorry for taking so long to check-in. this cycle has been my most active by far and it's also my most emotional - both very good things. i've been real fired up and frustrated that i can't do more. the doctor cleared me to start doing some light upper body exercises and being a guy who's been running around his entire life, it's hard to take baby steps. jenny has been great at keeping me focused on the task at hand and the fact that we only have 1 more chemo treatment to go. i look forward to crossing that threshold, and the radiation treatments only have fatigue as a side effect and that's a big "only". we were also informed that the tentative post chemo schedule is something like this:

• july 2nd - last chemo visit
• july 10th - last interim check-up
• july 30 - pet scan to determine what the anatomy looks like where the tumor was [ it could be a peanut sized tumor remaining or just scar tissue ]
• first week of august - dry run for treatments where i receive my freckle tattoos to mark the area to radiate
• 4 weeks after start of radiation - the radiation treatment [ or our insurance policy as my doctor calls it ] finishes up

i tell you what, i get pumped just writing that schedule. by labor day we'll be looking at all this from the rear view mirror!!!

i also wanted to take this time to wish a happy belated father's day to all you dads out there. i had the pleasure of having my dad here this cycle and it was wonderful. for all of the people who have touched my life in so many ways he's the guy who's always set the standard [ and lived up to it ], been the mentor and help make me the man i am today. he's where i get my love for the yankees, the marx brothers, technology, and marrying a woman who's way out of my league. many thanks to you dad.

1 more thing - as you all i know i've been watching alot of movies lately and i stumbled upon a pretty impressive quote from the movie "three kings" - i paraphrase:

• soldier approaches george clooney: we movin' out [to battle]
• george clooney: yeah, you scared?
• soldier: no... maybe a little
• george clooney: here's how it works, you do the thing your afraid of first, then you get the courage after you do it
• soldier: that's stupid, it should be the other way around
• george clooney: yeah, but that's the way it is

each new day is another bit of courage we're picking up - i felt like clooney was talking to me last monday afternoon. hope you have a great start to your week.