Tom's Blog

I've been published. Two of my photos from our recent NYC trip were selected & used in the new Schmap New York GuideEighth Edition. It's an online travel guide for a variety of places/things in NYC. One photo was of ST Paul's Chapel at Columbia University and is listed under "Sights" and the other was of our room at the Affinia Dumont hotel where we stayed. WHen you get to the pages it will list alphabetically the various places. If you hold your mouse over each place the various pictures will rotate for that specific place. My name is listed under my 2 photos. HOpefully the link will work. Take a peak if you're interested or if you're planning a trip to NYC.

Hello my friends!
This morning I had my 3 year post-transplant PET scan to determine if I'm still cancer free -- the results came back -- I am still cancer free!! I also had a physical by my oncologist who said everything felt normal. No signs anywhere that the cancer has come back!! It is indeed a Happy, Happy Day!!

Thought I would be going on a 1 year scan cycle at this point, but to allay my wife's anxieties, it was decided to stay on the 6 month cycle for now. Since it came back once before after only 3 months and without any symptoms, we are a little skiddish about going too long without a scan. However, if I can stay clean through my 5 year scan, then I won't need any further scans as the relapse odds are negligible after that point.

Thank you to all who have been sending me prayers & good energy. We've been dealing with this for over 4 years and you have all played an important part in my success in beating cancer. A thank you is but the words for a feeling of tremendous gratitude.

With hugs & love,
Tom

Hi Friends,
I'm asking everyone to please send lots of good energy & prayers my way tomorrow morning, Tuesday, Aug 11. Approx 8:30am I will have my 3-year post-transplant PET scan to check for signs of my cancer. So far I've been cancer free and although we have no reason to suspect it is coming back; it's still a time of apprehension. All your prayers & good energies have done a superb job in the past; so I'm asking once again if you'd send a prayer and good energy my way.

Hoping for another clean, cancer-free scan!!

Thank you all so very very much!!
Tom

I really need to spend more time here. Life's been spinning along at a hectic pace lately. That's not a bad thing but haven't had as much free time to visit with my friends here. We had a nice long visit from our son & granddaughter in July. Hard to believe she's 8 and starting the 3rd grade this month! She's growing like a weed and eating like a horse right now -- all good things.

After our visit with them we had 2 days to tend to work duties, do laundry & pack for a long visit with our daughter & her husband in NYC. Always nice to spend time with all of the above, whether here or there. Had fun in NYC - got to travel via subway without our daughter holding our hands -- took 3 trains from mid-town to the upper east side and back again -- never got lost!! We were quite proud of ourselves!! Trip was mainly to do wedding site research for them. They had a civil ceremony back in March but want to do it up right with a "real" ceremony. So a lot of our visit was running here & there. Ate some great food while there which is always a fun thing to do in NYC.

Then at the end of July we joined friends to go to Greensboro to watch an old friend, Mike Cross, perform at the Triad Stage. He's a folk singer/entertainer. Every song is preluded by a story - his show lasted about 2 hours and then we got to have a short visit with him. A very enjoyable evening. Highly recommend if he's ever in your area that you make plans to see his show. Unless you hate folk type music, I guarantee you'll love him. And even if you don't like that music you'd probably still have a great time!! :-)

I am trying to give this new Yahoo a chance but so far it's not living up to our old 360. But times change and so will I... I've popped up on numerous other sites -- some of you have found me there or I've found you. Made some new friends in some of the other places. But my group of friends here are still the dearest to my heart -- I do miss our 360 days, but the important part is that somehow, someway we do our best to say hi whenever possible -- HI MY FRIENDS!!

Have a wonderful day, an exciting (or quiet if you prefer) weekend! I'm going to try to stop by here more often and hope you will too!

Tom

The last weekend of June 2009 has passed and we're now looking at the start of July. Where has the year gone?? It was a good weekend, with nice weather, great food, a couple healthy walks. I walked both Sat & Sun for a total 9.85 miles. I try to walk a minimum of 3 miles each weekend day as part of my health regimen. Started walking on a treadmill while I was confined to a hospital room during my bone marrow transplant. Doctors wanted me to do it and suggested I keep at it after discharge which I have done. My farthest walk was this Sunday at 5.25 mile at just over 15min/mile which I was quite proud of.

Also spent part of the weekend processing 240 pictues which I had taken the previous weekend when we spent it in the mountains of SW Virginia with close friends. It was a weekend of good weather, fantastic food, and wonderful people. Very relaxing, rejeuvinating -- nothing like a nature weekend with good people and food! If you are interested in seeing the pics go to http://www.flickr.com/photos/amayzing/sets/72157620668021284/ While some of them are probably only interesting to the people who were there or who know them, there are also several pictures that have a more general appeal. I managed to get some great Hummingbird pics (IMHO).

With July approaching we will be preparing for our daughter & son-in-law's birthdays, a visit from our son & granddaughter and a trip to NYC to visit our daughter & her husband. But first we'll celebrate our country's Independence Day with the traditional grilling out. We don't go watch fireworks anymore because since I got sick from cancer I have gone from being a nightowl to someone who is ready for bed at 9pm. I don't mind going to bed early as I get a good night's sleep and am usually up at 5am so I've now become a morning person. Downside to this new ritual is that I don't get to see things like fireworks, etc. If it's really important I can stay up, but most times I'm ready for bed. How life changes sometimes.

I'm feeling very lucky right now -- I've made a lot of very good new friends online through a number of sources; plus I've been able to reach out to others who have been diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma like myself (and even other types of cancer). I've posted info on a number of web sites that deal with cancer & have several people contact me to ask me questions about what I went through because they're getting ready to travel that road. I remember how others helped me when I was going through it and how much it helped me, knowing that someone actually went through this and are still here, alive, in remission...it could happen. The thing about this type of help is that you can not usually repay those who helped you; but with time you get to pay forward their help by helping others facing this life altering disease. It gives me a good feeling inside when I can lay aside some fears someone has. It's a very scary road, but it is possible to get through to the other end. This sharing started for me when I started a Yahoo 360 page blog. It chronicled what I was going through. I've brought those blogs forward to this new profile in hopes that others can also benefit from my experience.

Well that's my little soap box discertation for today. Had someone new contact me today because they had read one of my blurbs and they were getting ready for a bone marrow transplant and wanted to talk with me because it seemed like I had been where they were headed. So in reflecting on that got me thinking about where I am now, how lucky I've been to be almost 3 years out from my transplant and still cancer free. It's a fantastic feeling. But it all comes tumbling back quickly when you come across someone else who is where you were. I dont' mind talking with anybody about it -- if I can help someone and make it a little bit lessscary that's helping me repay those who helped me.

So, with that I will sign off for today -- I've rambled enough. But it felt good to get it out.
Happy end of June to all, and have a fantastic July!!