Getting Started

This “cancer journal” is a personal chronicle for public consumption. If you choose to read it—whoever you are—I hope you find it useful. But please understand that I am writing as much to and for myself as for you. I choose to view my situation as “living with” rather than “dying from” cancer, an important distinction in that it is both psychologically sound and factual, something I’ll write more about in future posts.

Here are the basics: I am a 67-year-old gay white male who has been diagnosed with renal cell carcinoma, a return some 17 years later of the earlier bout of renal cancer to which I lost my left kidney. Five years before that, about 22 years ago, I had an unrelated head-and-neck squamous cell carcinoma with an unknown primary, which was treated with radiation therapy. Five years post-radiation I was declared cancer-free, and a couple of months later I had a suspected heart attack. I say “suspected” because it turned out that I hadn’t had a heart attack. However, during the extensive examination at that time, the kidney tumor was discovered and surgical removal followed. Five years later, yet again, I was once more cancer-free. That lasted until April 2015, when I was diagnosed with metastasized renal cancer emanating from the site of my removed kidney.

Currently I am in the early weeks of targeted therapy using the Pfizer drug called Sutent (50 mg.). I take a capsule daily—in my case for two weeks, then a week off, and repeat. I’m in the first week of the first repeat. Early days. At this point the side effects have been fairly mild, primarily mouth soreness and elevated blood pressure. As I am treated for high blood pressure anyway, it has meant an uptick in my BP meds. I deal with the mouth soreness using a commercial dry-mouth mouthwash and a simple baking soda-and-water mouthwash as well as choosing soft foods when I’m most sore.

Setting the stage would be incomplete without mentioning our family dynamic. I have been with my partner, soon to be husband, for 15 years. Previously we were both married: My wife died 24 years ago; my partner and his wife divorced some 22 years ago. We have six adult children, four of whom are married, and seven grandchildren with an eighth on the way. All of the children but one live within an hour’s driving distance. We are active in our church and the broader community of the university town in which we have both lived since 1993. We also have a number of friends across the United States and abroad, many in Germany. I include this information because it is important to have a support system, and mine is extensive.

In my early career I taught art, English, and journalism in the public schools before moving into a central administrative position after 16 years in the classroom. Twenty-two years ago I transitioned into education publishing, directing the book publishing division of a major professional association in education for 13 years. Throughout my career I have always written: books, articles, and so on. Writers write. And so that’s what I’m doing now as I launch this blog journal.