The Cancer Daze...
December 31, 2000. After 4 rounds of chemotherapy, 6 weeks without walking, and and 2 surgeries.....I was still smiling! As you can see I had 4 very good reasons to smile.
I don't spend a lot of time thinking about my battle with cancer anymore. But since I've reached the 5 year cancer free date (January 27, 2006), I feel a little reminiscing is in order. For those who knew me before and during those days, I still thank all of you for the many words of encouragement, supportive phone calls, meals, cards, gifts, visits and all the positive thoughts; it all made a difference. For those who did not know me then, here is a brief summary of what I went through. On August 26, 2000 I found out that a bunch lingering ailments were the symptoms of testicular cancer. I was 26, father of 3 and totally blown away by this new reality. The worst symptom was a large blood clot in my inferior vena cava, resulting in a damaged left leg vascular system. The doctors finally realized I might actually be in a pretty serious condition and ran me through the CT scan only to find several tumors in my abdomen, chest and lungs; including one the size of a grapefruit. After surgery and a diagnosis, I paid a visit to Dr. Craig Nichols (Lance Armstrong's doctor) in Portland, OR to determine my hopeful path for recovery. His protocol included 4 rounds of chemotherapy based on the quite toxic medication called Cisplatin (the metal platinum). My rounds of chemo were every third week, for 4 hour sessions all 5 days that week. Chemo puts me in a state of toxicity and illness like I could have never imagined. Driving to and from Reno for treatment with Jodi and the girls ended up being a major effort in itself. As you can imagine it was no ordinary year for birthdays, Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years. But I somehow managed to get through it, despite losing all of my hair, thinning gums, dehydration, ringing in the ears and 45 lbs of body weight. I gained strength and inspiration from Jodi, Clara, Lissie and Sophie. At the end of the chemo I had to endure one more surgery (orchiectomy) and then wait patiently for doctors to determine my fate. I will forever remember the phone call I received from Dr. Craig Nichols on January 27th, 2000 (Sophie's 1st birthday) when he said I was Cancer Free, would ski again, and will be cured of this cancer in 5 years. Fortunately he was right.
Bad luck? I thought so for a very long time. Now I think of it more as the beginning of my new life. There is the Joe before cancer and the Joe after cancer - two very different people.
Here's a few pictures that I scanned from those low down dirty cancer daze. (sorry for the poor quality):
Before I was aware I had cancer, I somehow I dragged myself up the Hotlum-Bolam route on Shasta in June of 2000. Two months later I would no longer be able to walk due to the tumor caused blood clot in my left leg. I thought a lot about my times in the mountains while struggling with Mt. Cancer. I dreamed of returning to the snowy mountains as soon as I could begin to recover. It proved to be a difficult challenge to recover the strength I once had before the blood clot rerouted all of the big veins in my lower body. Cancer had beaten me down, but not out.
I spent most of my time on the "chemo couch". Despite Jodi's numerous requests to get rid of it, I still have it downstairs:
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My reason to fight hard during the toughest battle of my life - my family:
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I have written a lot more about my experiences with cancer, and there are volumes and volumes of words still to be written, but that's a future project. At the moment I'm still reveling in joy to be alive, living in Tahoe, surrounded by my world of girls.......and regularly doing this:
High on the Hotlum-Wintun Route on Shasta - July 10, 2005
Summit entry from that redeeming day