Joan Kerns Road Less Traveled

03/25/2018   Welcome to my CaringBridge website.   I am using it to keep family and friends updated in one place.  As always, I appreciate your support and words of hope and encouragement.  The past two years have been  the longest in my life to date, with a few  physical ups but mostly downs.  Mentally, many months are  virtually a blur from rapid growth cancer cells to chemo brain .  Both found me in bed staring into space, sleeping, and overall just zoning out of reality as much a possible while biding my time for a hopefully favorable outcome.  


My journey started with an ulcer and then bronchitis on top of that.  Next, Alien I was discovered in my ascending colon  which, post surgery, was found to be stage I (NOT perforating the colon wall).  I opted not to have chemo and instead  to try the nutrition route.  Seven months later and just as I was preparing to feel normal again, Alien II (extremely aggressive) became apparent in my transverse colon.  So much for ridding the cancer cells with nutrition.  This time it was stage II cancer with perforation.  Another surgery and four and a half months of chemo later, as reported by a nurse via CT scan, I have one enlarged lymph node and a small spot on one lung.  


I see the oncologist Tuesday the 27th to get the official results and am hoping it is all good.....forever.  But, we know cancer and reality and I will not be foolish enough to think there isn't a chance it will drop by sometime in the future.   Facing your mortality head on is quite the event.  Someday maybe I will be able to put it into words.  In the meantime, I look for employment, signed up at the gym, and am phasing back into a plant-based diet.  Smiling is on the agenda each day for as many hours as I am able to muster and keeping friends and family close has turned into a necessity.