The Open Road

A lot has happened since my last entry. My travels took me to Newfoundland Labrador and Portugal. I’ll be posting about those travels soon. On my return from Portugal in October I landed in Boston for my routine lab work at Dana Farber Cancer Center and thats when I got the news. My old friend Cancer is back. They call it a recurrence, but in reality it means that they found three cancer cells in my pelvic  lymph nodes. I was told we need to address this ASAP. 

The mind goes into rollercoaster mode.The drama, the emotions travel at hyper speed. High doses of radiation for a week and chemo for a year.

But I feel great ? What will this do to my greatness? Will my quality of life be radically altered by the treatment? Should I go this alone and not do treatment?

Just last month I lost two of my oldest friends to cancer. One who I exchanged phone calls after each lab work, hospital visit to talk about the results. The other who was producing a play about our experience  together in a commune and my journey in a band in the 1960’s. I had encouraged her to write a blog about her own experience with cancer.https://titaniumgirlfightscancer.com

These are two big losses for me and threw me in a tailspin of doubt and depression.

I had to make a major decision and it had to be now, so I went into the woods, a place that nourishes me in my darkest hours.

On January 14th I start my next round of chemo and get fitted for the new “Machine”, the “Vu Ray “ radiation guided by MRI. A guided missile. Now the mind and spirit commit to treatment and focus on being positive, probably the hardest challenge.

No matter what they tell you, cancer patients, your heroes have down days.

Today as I skied with my wife through snowy wilderness, I wonder if, this will be my last winter skiing..