The New Year begins
Jan 6th 2010PostmasterCoping & Family
Hi everyone. As you no doubt noticed, we pretty much shut down over the Christmas holidays. I did this on purpose as I really wanted (needed) to focus on having an incredible Christmas and some complete down time. In addition, I wanted to focus on launching my new book! I’m pleased to say that I was successful on all fronts.
On Dec. 20, we held an “exclusive” family and friends book launch for The Wolf at my Door. Given the time of year, I was very pleased to have about 75 people attend. My brother and good friend Gayla surprised we with humbling and heartfelt introductions and then I had a chance to read excerpts from the book. It was an amazing day and incredibly emotional for everyone who attended. Many people read the book over the next couple of days and I have received incredible feedback and requests for more copies. Thank you to everyone who attended, with a special thanks to my daughter Caralia who arranged the event and to Meghan and Dayna who also helped.
Christmas itself was wonderful. It can be a very difficult time for someone with cancer as the disease becomes a giant elephant in the room and can often make it difficult to really enjoy the spirit of the holidays. When I was first diagnosed seven years ago, I didn’t even want to have Christmas as I didn’t think we had anything to celebrate. But this year, we surrounded ourselves with family ( including friends we now consider as family) and had a wonderful time. Having my nephew’s two-year old son Levi here provided that wide-eyed child component and my eighty-nine year old mother provided a link to a lifetime off Christmas memories. It was the best Christmas I’ve had for many years and was very important to me as I worry more and more about what the future brings.
Unfortunately, as all cancer patients know, you can never completely get away from your body’s assault on itself. Leading up to the book launch, my PSA started climbing quickly, evidence the cancer was actively spreading. The day after the launch, I had another test and found it had jumped way past what it was when I was first diagnosed and we have been unable to pinpoint where it is growing, which is cause for much anxiety. In the meantime, the pain in my back is increasing. I tried another type of hormone in a bid to slow things down, but the side effects drove me off that after only a week.
While this was all going on in the background, I pushed it away and did my best to enjoy all the good things that were going on around me, blessed with the support of my wonderful wife Dianne who continues to give me her strength.
So it’s a new year now and I am back to work and trying to figure out how to deal with an advancing cancer that will limit the time I have left. I wish all of you the very best in the new year and ask that you throw some good wishes my way.
Good health and much happiness to you all.
Posted by Doug
1 Comment »
Russ on 12 Jan 2010 at 1:44 pm #
Let me start by throwing you those New Year good wishes – as many as you can handle!
It is great that you had a wonderful Christmas – enjoyed by all from age 2 – 89.
I am sorry to hear of the recent spread of the cancer and the unsuccessful nature of the most recent hormone therapy. I hope that you are able to come across a therapy that will slow down (even stop!) the spread and will also be tolerated by your body.
Thank you once again for the invitation to the book launch event. As you say it was a memorable and emotional day, and one that I am happy to have shared with you.
I have read your book as well (more about that in future post) and highly recommend it to anyone. It is thoughtful, insightful, honest, sometimes depressing, but an ultimately uplifting story of an incredible individual who is doing the best he can to play the cards dealt, and who has found profound meaning and purpose through the experience (with the help of his wonderful wife Dianne and many others who love and care for him). An incredible read!
All the Best in 2010. Russ