Giving Thanks

It’s Thanksgiving Day, 134 days TN, and 95 days into chemo.

Giving Thanks

Sometime close to the beginning of the journey one of my friends remarked that there were a lot of people who cared about me and would be there for me. At the time I didn’t quite know what to make of that – the number of people I generally turn to can be counted on one hand (ok, maybe two if you don’t count the chemo-neuropathied fingers…) But over the past four months I’ve been amazed at the number of people who have been there to help and walked the path with me.

A heartfelt Thank You…

• To my friend Rob for sharing his wife’s experience with cancer treatment (also at PAMF, coincidentally) and suggesting I need periodic “protein infusions” (i.e. steak!)
• To Rob’s son Jackson and my sister Lisa for hosting the NextGen TV satellite systems in Phoenix and Portland and bringing the broadcasts to me while my oncologist have banned me from going to them. (If you’re in DFW, Denver, Raleigh, or Orlando those are on my NextGen TV places-I-would-go-if-I-could 🙂).
• To my Auntie Gail for her encouragement and support, for being not just a relative but a friend, and for providing the Hamada cancer family history.
• To my cousin Lena who helped gather the Minakami cancer family history. (It appears I’m a trendsetter as far as that goes…)
• To my friend Bill who is currently undergoing treatment for lymphoma and has been sharing his experience.
• To my brother Dean who has been helping to maintain and fix up my parents’ house, which if things go according to plan I’ll be buying next year (“to keep it in the family”), and for setting up a FaceTime with my father who I last spoke to in 2016.
• To the team at LiTV for including me in some of the technical challenges they run into and taking my mind off of chemo side-effects. Hopefully most of my suggestions aren’t too chemo-brained.
• To my neighbor Melissa for taking me to the ER during that unfortunate incident with the severed line to the chemo pump.
• To my neighbor Paul who took on the street sealing, asphalt replacement, and sidewalk replacement project at Bella Corte (the planned development I live in and am the Board of Directors for).
• To my neighbor Bill who took on the backflow preventer replacement project for the Bella Corte complex. As it turns out we don’t need to do anything – but it can take an awful lot of time to discover you don’t need to do anything!
• To Caper and her team at Sage Veterinary for a prescient education in cancer treatment (and cardiology).
• To Dr. Bahl at Palo Alto Dental Foundation for expediting her work so it was done before chemo. Knock on wood I won’t need her services until the journey’s over!
• To my medical oncologist “Dr. C” and all the physicians and staff at Palo Alto Medical Foundation who found, diagnosed, and have been working on curing me. I just wish they’d focus on the cancer and not acute vampirism.
• And last but by far not least, to JT. Because sometimes what you need most is someone to walk with you and believe in you. And she’s been that and more from the very beginning of this journey.

And to my neighbors and friends who have taken the time to check in on how I’ve been doing, offer assistance, and otherwise do what they can to get me through this journey. Even something as simple as going out to lunch makes life seem normal.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!