April 26, 2009

I am writing this entry from southern Missouri, about 150 miles from my destination in Mountain View, Arkansas. High winds, blowing dust, heat, and fatigue stopped my progress, and landed me here at the red neck RV park in search of electricity for air conditioning. Just a minuet, there is someone at the door.... is that banjo music I hear?

Let me back up a bit..... I got the pathology report on Fri, and all of the samples tested negative for carcinoma. Very good news. The Doc. went in and scraped around the edges of the craters (his word) that resulted from his last fantastic voyage into my bladder, in order to see if there was any invasion that had been missed. He must have done a great job last time.

I had already been feeling better physically, and this report gave me an emotional lift as well. I start BCG treatments on June 3, and continue every wed. for 6 weeks.

I took stock of the situation, and, in a rare moment of great clarity, realized that this was the perfect storm. I felt pretty good, my friends were in Arkansas playing in the water, I had 3 weeks free, I am still unattached, I have a kayak, a motor home, and a credit card. So, I connected the dots, did the math, saw the writing on the wall, and here I am.

I have to be back for an appointment in DuBois on the 18th, so I will spend about 3 weeks working diligently on a major component of my recovery, reduced stress...... No really, all of the books talk about it.

I have been invited to a “banjo party” tonight, whatever that is, they did say that I was going to be the “guest of honor”. If I survive, I will try to post updates on my stress level semi regularly.....