Wow! I can’t believe it’s been nearly 4 months since I’ve posted an update! What can I say, the war rages on, but I suppose you get, what, used to it? I’m in my 4th round of the new chemo at the moment (infusion every 3rd Monday), and so far, so good. The “collateral damage” has fallen into a predictable pattern and has been very manageable. My goal has been to do something “big” each round … Round 1 was my 3-week mileage record on the bike, Round 2 I joined up with my old-school (well, really just “old”) adventure racing teammates, Logan “Paddle Boy” Welsh, John “JohnnyWash” Washko, and Kristen “Turbo K” Washko, to compete in the 2022 VentureQuest AR … the time limit was 6 hours 30 minutes, and we finished in 6 hours 29 minutes 36 seconds (yikes that was close). Round 3 I got my 1-week pedaling mileage record. This 4th round? I’m going for my 5-mile sprint record on the bike. This is the very specific 5-mile route I’ve used for the past year to gauge my cardio-pulmonary function (kinda important when you have a bunch of tumors in your lungs). I’ve been besting my record consistently over the past year, but as I’ve shaved more and more time off, it’s getting tougher to beat … we shall see.
I go in for scan next week to take a look under the hood – we’ll take a look at the lungs, the ribs, the spine, etc. to see if the chemo is doing anything. As I said back in July, we don’t need much. If the chemo works at all (shrinks the tumors even a little) or even just holds everything to a stalemate, I’ll just keep taking it for the foreseeable future. Yes, that does sound a tad strange … just keep taking chemo every 3 weeks … forever? But honestly, that’s a winning lotto ticket to me, especially if “forever” equates to many years. After all, it’s all gravy to me at this point, if that makes sense. I can honestly say I am happier now than I have ever been in my entire life. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still a well-oiled machine when it comes to losing my s***, feeling sorry for myself, or being an occasional pain in the ass to live with, but the fact is, I’m just … happy. I’m intensely grateful for every day, every stupid joke, every cup of morning coffee with my wife, every football game I get to go watch Graber play, every visit I get to JMU and UVA to see my older girls, and especially every minute I get to torment Tegan with my singing (nothing better than a Bon Jovi / Elton John / Commodores / Zeppelin / TuPac mashup to annoy her).
The real reason I haven’t put anything out there the past few months is because, since I’m back in chemo, I wanted my next post to be the sequel to C3 ISO, the amazing, groundbreaking, award-winning, short film I made during my first bout with chemo (okay, it’s none of the above, and it’s only got like 7 views in two years – but whatever). Anyway, this new creative project started out small but quickly spiraled on me. It’s kind of a sports mockumentary combined with a tribute to cheesy 80s music, television, and movies. Quite frankly, it’s a mess. Yes, I know I should be taking my creative endeavors a little more seriously (i.e. writing another novel), but the film project has been a fun distraction, and there’s a very, very small chance that it comes together somewhat like I imagined, sometime in the near future … so (maybe) stay tuned for that …
God-willing, things will look “okay” next week, and we’ll keep taking the performance-enhancing drugs every three weeks. If something comes up, we’ll make some half-time adjustments and go from there. Either way, God has blessed us beyond measure to this point, and I’d like to think that will continue for a bit. Needless to say, we have also been blessed by the many, many friends and family members who have continually prayed for our family. Thank you for that! Thank you also for everyone that has added C’s sister, Connie, to their prayers. Connie’s been through surgery for breast cancer and is currently in chemo treatments, with radiation still to come. Anyone who knows Connie knows she’s got one foot planted firmly on cancer’s ass. She’s a warrior, plain and simple, not to mention an inspiration.
Okay then, I’ll shoot out another update in the next week or two (and just maybe a link to another cinematic masterpiece). Until then, thank God, thank you, and peace out!