I have been away too long and I apologize.  This is the longest I have been away from the blog since I started it in 2008.  My Mail program on my Mac has been on the fritz since April.  I was on the phone with Apple Support yesterday when the program came back to life, at least for the Being Cancer address.  I was shocked to find that several dozen folks had left messages and requests, including a family in Greece seeking advice on treating my original illness, T-cell prolymphocytic leukemia.  I felt a sense of guilt as I always try to communicate with fellow T-PLL patients, as there is so little information out there on this rare cancer.

I was cancelled at the hospital today so I plan to use the time to go thru my correspondence and subsequently highlight some of the new blogs that have been created recently.  I was gratified that, even in my absence, people have found Being Cancer Network to be a valuable tool.  So I will be adding new blogs and gradually weeding out some of those that have been discontinued.  As there are over 1500, it would take at least 75 hours to go thru them all.  If you know of any software that culls inactive links, please let me know.

Briefly my own life is continuing on.  A repeat CT of my abdomen showed no further sign of pancreatic cancer.  A recent head CT showed no sign of additional parotid tumor.  The site has healed well although the right side of my face is still numb.  Good news is I no longer have to shave on that side of my face.  I am due for my annual visit to my bone marrow transplant doctor but I expect no bad news there.  I still work my basic part-time schedule in the bone marrow transplant clinic but have changed my status from regular to supplemental.  This means I receive no benefits other than hourly wage but I can take off whenever and as often as I want.

When my wife’s parents died, she and some of her siblings bought the vacation home (trailer) in a retirement community in Estero, Florida.  After my last cancer diagnosis last spring I bought a sailboat and we are keeping it down there for sailing in Charlotte Harbor.  I will be 68 this summer and intend to start actively enjoying these years while I still can, especially with two new diagnoses of cancer in the past two years.  With my reduced commitment at work I should have more time to spend on this blog site.

Take care,

Dennis