happy new year & update

We’ve arrived at a new year (you’re welcome, under-a-rock dwellers) and to ring in the festivities I decided to sit down, pour a glass of vino, whip out the ol’ laptop, put on my new 50th anniversary Living in the Material World album I graciously received from my parents for Christmas (I hope you all had a great holiday by the way!) and write an update since my last post was a little bit of a cliffhanger.

There was a reason for that, though. My CT scan results came in multiple days late and one of my tumor markers had skyrocketed, leading to a necessary repeat in blood draws and a couple sleepless nights. Before I go on, I will just spill the beans – I got a great report! I actually graduated to being able to do my oncology appointments every six months now, which is a massive change.

But of course it couldn’t just be a clean appointment. As mentioned above, my LDH tumor marker was much higher than normal, and that can be due to multiple factors like injuries or sickness or cancer. I’d recently been the recipient of a stray kick from Theo in the nether region so I chalk it up to that, because my next labwork was clear. My two lymph nodes were slightly larger, but it’s worth remembering that CT scans are less-than-exact in sizing. Millimeters are pretty small anyway, so it wasn’t a huge concern.

I couldn’t bring myself to get in the headspace to write about it all so soon to the holidays, though. I really just wanted to enjoy them without thinking about health stuff. And my holidays were incredible! I got to spend time with family and friends and do you know how many times cancer came up? Zero! It was so nice. I’m over two years removed from my initial diagnosis so honestly I needed a break.

This is why I don’t really talk a lot about it on socials or even this blog anymore – it’s part of me and my story and always will be, it will be here for the rest of my life whenever the other shoe drops, and the scar and absence of a body part will also be with me (or…not?). I think about it a lot but it doesn’t have to be who I am. I was so frustrated every time I would see my scar. It’s not like it’s really that visible since it’s under my belly button and a few inches long but it’s not like anyone ever really sees that area anyway. It’s just the fact it’s there at all that made me mad. It was just this week that I stopped caring about it.

But enough of that. I’m excited to be at the point where I can do oncologist appointments twice a year now! I appreciate everyone who reads this Substack, and that brings me to my resolutions. I don’t usually do resolutions but this year I’m just gonna go for it.

In 2025 I resolve to:

Read one book per month

Run consistently

Speak less and listen more

Downsize the things I don’t need and embrace people around me

Happy New Year to all of you and thank you as always for reading along and for your continued interest in my life and well-being. Here’s hoping for a beautiful 2025. Hang in there, kids.