Diagnosiversary

Yup -- three years today that I was diagnosed.


And one full year since my first Rituxan treatment. It's double the fun today!


Isabel and I celebrated by going to breakfast. I had hoped we could have repeated my one year diagnosiversary celebration, when we brought the kids to school, went back to bed, and went to a noon movie, sneaking Subway sandwiches into the theater under our coats, in direct violation of posted theater rules. Alas, Isabel is chaperoning John's play practice at 1, and Peter has a basketball game at 7, so we couldn't do a celebratory lunch or dinner. Breakfast at the diner was the best we could do, and the craziest it got was that I ordered the full stack of pancakes instead of a short stack. (Though I went with blueberry pancakes so I could sneak in some antioxidants.)

My wife finds the whole idea of "celebrating" this day a little, well, sick. Getting a cancer diagnosis isn't exactly something worth celebrating, in her opinion.


I, of course, agree with her completely.


Which is why we're not celebrating the diagnosis, or anything else that happened on January 15, 2008.


We're celebrating the 1,095 days that have passed since then.


What's to celebrate? How about still being alive three years after I was diagnosed. There were days, early on, when I doubted that would be the case. Some very dark days. But those dark days are over. That's worth celebrating, too.


How about celebrating Rituxan? How many lives has Rituxan saved, or extended, or made more bearable in ten or twelve years? Pretty amazing to think about. I'll celebrate the people who came up with and perfected and tested Rituxan. Hats off.


For that matter, how about all the research that's gone on in three years? I'll bet I could name a dozen significant advances in NHL treatment that have taken place in the last three years -- some promising breakthroughs that are still in early stages, some approvals for new treatments, some clinical trials that have shown that treatments were improved. Incredible advances have taken place in just 3 years, let alone the twelve years that we call "The Rituxan Era." At this rate, some very special things are going to happen in NHL research in my lifetime -- and they will make it a long lifetime. Worth celebrating? Damn straight it is.


And all this celebrating doesn't even consider my own personal and professional successes, and Isabel's, too, and the great things that have happened to our kids. It's been a good three years, all things considered. We're happy, and, for a cancer patient, I'm pretty healthy.


So today is a day for celebrating.

I ordered a side of corned beef hash along with my tall stack of pancakes.


Because I could.