Third Anniversary

Today is the third anniversary of my diagnosis. This is the date I'll mark from now on, so that I'll know how many years I've survived cancer. And silly me, I forgot it until a reader sent me a congratulatory message.

I could consider it a second birthday, if I think of my life with cancer as a re-birth, a new chance at life with deeper knowledge of self and awareness of my mortality. Sounds good, anyway.

The medical highlights of this past year with cancer:

1) I learned my cancer has spread to my lungs, liver, brain, bones, soft tissue, and lymph nodes.

2) I had a lung biopsy that nearly killed me because I was mistakenly given more than twice the necessary dose of anesthetic during the procedure.

3) I had brain seizures caused by tumors in my brain and had whole-brain radiation.

4) I went through ten different chemo combinations.

Things I've learned this year:

1) I can drag out my dying for a while yet. We can't tell whether I'll last another month or another year.

2) Because of the above, it's still hard to take dying really seriously - for me and for people around me.

3) I've done something useful with this blog.