In May of 2010 I was diagnosed with stage 3 stomach cancer.
At that time I created this blog to keep friends and family informed of my progress throughout treatment. The blog has been a wonderful tool for keeping people informed of what was going on.
The cancer treatment has been a tremendous struggle for my family, particularly for my wife Anne. The blog has been a great way of letting people know what was going on without making them feel they were bothering us with a bunch of questions.
We are particularly grateful to Anne’s sister Marcia who kept the blog going while I was too sick to contribute.
I have successfully completed treatment and the prognosis is good. Though there are no guarantees, it is looking promising that I have probably beaten the cancer.
A number of people have suggested I keep the blog active even after treatment was completed. They thought it might be helpful to others facing this illness to follow the progress of someone who has been through it.
They also said they liked my writing, and my humor, and didn’t want to see it go away.
I decided to take their advice.
I have reformatted the blog so it follows the progress of my treatment from first diagnosis to final outcome.
The menu on the right lists the archives of the all the posts that are broken down my month. The archive begins in May 2010 when I got the diagnosis and ends in November 2011 when things pretty much returned to normal.
Though I am not intending to add any new posts, I will respond to comments people make on the blog.
Though the blog has outlived it’s initial purpose of keeping my friends and family updated, I still think it may have value to those struggling with this challenging disease.
If you or your family have been touched by stomach cancer I hope your reading about my experience will offer you insights into what lies a head as well as hope.
If nothing else, I hope it helps people realize there can even be humor in something as dreadful as cancer.
My prayers are with you.
I’m glad you’re going to keep it all on the internet–good decision. I’m sure that it will be found by many people who need it.
Hugo
I’m not surprised you think it was a good decision since it was Linda and your idea. It is a good idea, and I’m glad I’m doing it.
Gary ~ Thanks so much for the update. I was seriously thinking of printing out the whole blog just to be sure it wouldn’t disappear – I think it truly would help others who encounter this diagnosis and have to undergo the same or a similar treatment. Your writing is so well balanced between offering information and letting us know your sense of humor is still intact. Marcia did a stunning job with it, too. Thanks for keeping this out there!
Printing out the whole blog is rather extreme. This way is much better.