On February 17th, it will be my 3rd anniversary of the day Dr. Michael Choti of Johns Hopkins saved my life. I still have two more years to go before Doc C. tells me I'm can say i'm cancer free, but I'm past the half-way point now and very confident that I'll see no more of it.

It's a rough thing to recover from a Stage 4 cancer, I kid you not. It takes a total commitment and willingness to do ANYTHING to battle it and have a chance to come out alive on the other end. There is pain. There is fatigue. There is frustration and fear and there comes a time when you want to go to just one medical appointment without getting something stuck in you for blood or tissue samples and running cameras up your bottom.

I think about cancer every single day. Somedays its to marvel at how I'm still here, and how can I ever repay Dr. Choti for what he did for me when other doctors said I was doomed. Other days its the stitch in my right side from the surgical site where they removed the majority of my liver and a good chunk of my small intestine, and I'm reminded that I can't load those sofas in the trucks quite as gracefully as I used to be able to do.

Somedays if you call my store and get the voice mail, its because I'm talking to someone on the other line who is newly diagnosed with cancer and terrified. I never put them on HOLD, and can spend up to an hour on the phone with them. I do that as a cancer hotline advocate for a couple of different non-profit cancer organizations and find it hugely rewarding, especially when they call back six months later and tell me I was instrumental in them getting the right treatment.

I'm a believer that YOU must take charge of your own medical destiny, and get educated when you are battling a mortal disease. For those that have followed this thread this far, you may want to read about Karen P., who is an email friend of mine and another one saved by Doc C's Most Excellent Treatment Protocol. Her story and mine are much alike, and the New York Times did an article on her journey with cancer that I think is well worth reading:

http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/07/...cer.php?page=1