Good news

The doctor called yesterday afternoon. The news was exceedingly good, she told me. The bladder cancer was low grade and not a threat, the best possible outcome. I'm good for three more months, until my next scope.

I broke down, was very emotional. Told her I loved her, thanked her. She said that she should have called me earlier, that I was very worried on the operating table last Wednesday, something I don't remember.

I have fought this stuff for close to forty years, don't remember being so fragile or clingy before. For some reason this one really hit me. Must be getting soft in my old age.

Thanks to everybody for your best wishes. I have said it before but once you have fought cancer, you spend the rest of your life with an eye on the rear view mirror, never fully out of the woods. But you also tend to take big gasps of air and enjoy your life with renewed gusto, knowing that our life here on earth is both temporary and precious.

If you are over fifty and have never had a colonoscopy, now is the time to do so. If you are a woman, get a regular mammogram. Don't wait and don't gamble, like I did. Don't be a fool like I was. I still need to deal with the tumors in the remaining kidney but they are slow growing and I don't believe they pose a clear and present danger. One thing at a time. I will enjoy this temporary victory in the long war.

I hope that we can take a little vacation and chill when it is safe to do so. Everybody be safe.