October 11, 2010

Long time no update

Posted in Cancer at 9:42 am by randomguyness

Hi all,

I’m not sure if anybody is still signed up to receive updates from my blog, but I thought I would post one out here just in case. I know its been a long time and the good news is that I really haven’t had much to write about…so I haven’t!

I’m pleased to report that there is no bad news to report now either. A lot has happened since my last note, and I thought I would take a moment to write about it all.

First off, in June I did indeed run in the Warrior Dash. It was a blast. Actually, it really met the tagline of “Craziest frickin’ day in your life”. My father-in-law, Jerry, and my buddy Chris and I ran it. We had a ton of fun while getting covered with mud. The best part (not) was the fire hose at the end to clean you off. Imagine 50 or so people covered with mud and huddled together trying to get clean while being shot with freezing cold water coming out at 100 mph. What’s not to love?

Here’s a picture after the event:

Flash forward to September when I had my 6 month checkup. Everything is CLEAN! I’m looking good and there is no sign of recurrence! Whoohooo! I had a CAT scan and blood workup and then met with my regular Oncologist and my Radiation Oncologist. Both of them gave me the thumbs up. I will meet with them regularly every 6 months or so for the next few years. Hopefully, the results will continue to be the same.

Since all of this started right after I ran the Chicago Marathon last year, I decided to train for one more marathon just to prove I could still do it. I was definitely a lot slower on a per mile basis, and the training was tough, but I did it. On 9/19 I ran the Fox Valley Marathon in 4:52:01. Interestingly, that time was 35 seconds faster than the first marathon (and my official slowest) back in 1999. So, I guess I can consider myself no worse for wear. I’m proud to say that was my 5th and hopefully my last marathon. I’m awfully tired of running. Now, I need to find something else to do to stay in shape.

The last piece of big news I wanted to share is that Renee is pregnant with daughter #3. Yes, that’s right I’m going to be the father of 3 girls. Ohboy…what have we done?! We are very excited and anxious to get through the next 20 weeks (she is now about 20 weeks along). The baby is due in late February.

So, that’s my update. Things are going well in general and other than being crazy busy all summer, I have nothing to complain about. Feel free to comment to let me know if anybody is still reading this. Take care.

-Joe

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