Update 27: Dream Big

Oh, hi there. Long time, no chat. Sorry if I caused any one any concern. I know from following fellow cancer patient blogs that when they go silent, I start to worry.  So I’ll cut to the chase, Update #27: my scans in December and March continue to hold miraculously steady. 

Of course, my scan results are just a piece of the good news. In some ways, the equally good news is that I haven’t been blogging because I’ve been pretty busy living. It’s been an exciting 6 months. 

I turned 50 (!) in October — a milestone birthday I didn’t expect to see. It coincided with the 30th anniversary of my junior year abroad, so I celebrated by reuniting with some of my roommates from that year in Jerusalem and also traveled to Jordan for the first time. Super fun. Here are a few pics from that trip. 

Me and Heather in Petra

Petra

Our campsite in Wadi Rum

Uber Black in Wadi Rum — we rode thru the pitch black desert to our campsite in this Jeep with a 25 watt light bulb for a headlight.

Me and Heather in Wadi Rum

Me and my new friend Ali.

Wadi Rum hike

Check out the free air freshener that came with our car rental in Jordan.

After that trip, I came home for a restful 48 hours (lol) and then departed for a 2 week road trip through the Southwest with Eric to celebrate our 25th (!) wedding anniversary. Seeing some of these incredible national parks has been on my wishlist for a while, and as you can see from the pics, it did not disappoint.

Goblin State Park in Utah

Arches Nat’l Park

Arches Nat’l Park

Canyonlands Nat’l Park

Monument Valley

Horseshoe Bend

Horseshoe Bend

Antelope Canyon

Antelope Canyon

Antelope Canyon

Grand Canyon

Grand Canyon

In the Fall, Eric and I also made the decision to invest in a dream property in Mendocino, one of our very favorite places on the planet. So, we’re now knee-deep in a renovation project, which is awesome, but overwhelming.

It’s cramazing (crazy amazing) that my diagnosis has clearly, in some ways, taken a back seat to a lot of other things going on in my life. Many take this to mean that I’m somehow “done,” cancer in my rearview mirror. That’s not the case.

I’m still in treatment. I’m still Stage IV. My daily routines are shaped by my treatment protocols. My children’s lives are still affected daily by growing up with a parent with a terminal diagnosis. And yet, here I am reaching all these milestones I never dreamt I’d have a chance to reach when I was diagnosed over 9 years ago. In fact, it took me years to even dare to dream of anything more than a few weeks out. How wrong that approach turned out to be. I’ve learned that while I’ll remain a cancer patient for the rest of my life, and my future is more tenuous than most, I might as well go ahead and make those plans. I can still
dream big. 

Befitting message outside the Peres Center for Peace and Innovation in Tel Aviv.