It's been FAR too long since I wrote my last blog post here. Sorry about that.

If you've been following along, you'll remember that I had finished up my chemo treatments last September. Then I threw a party for myself and all my friends and supporters. That was so great! Thank you all for showing up, especially the surprise guests! It was absolutely the high point in a very dark year for me.

If you weren't able to attend, you missed The Big Reveal. When I planned the party, I scheduled it to take place after my last chemo and my initial follow-up scan. At the time, I didn't know if I'd be revealing good news or bad news. I was definitely optimistic about it, but I had to prepare myself for the other possibility. Fortunately the news was good: The tumor had shrunk to nothing (except some scar tissue) and there was no detectable cancer left in my body. What a relief to all of us! It was so great being able to announce that to all my fans.

The party itself was so great! Thank you to all who made it such a great night for me. I had a wonderful time. So many of my current, new, and old friends were there. I even met some of you for the first time! It boosted my spirits to new heights to see all the love and support that I had going for me. With friends like you in my corner, there was no way I could fail.

Since then, my life has settled down into the new normal. The cancer continues to show no signs of returning. I've had two scans (a PET and a CT), both of which showed the same thing: no detectable cancer. That will be it for body scans for a while. The risk of radiation exposure no longer justifies the possible gain I may get by detecting a tumor. I will just have to trust my body to tell me if anything is going wrong. My doctor tells me that the symptoms will be the same if it comes back, so I know what to look for. We also do regular blood tests to look for proteins that may indicate a relapse.

I don't expect to see it come back. I feel healthy and plan on keeping it that way.

Speaking of living, you may remember that we had to cancel Christine's 50th birthday present last year. I planned a three-week UK/Ireland/Iceland trip that we had to cancel so I could go through my treatments. It was disappointing, to say the least, but I promised her that if I made it through this, I would make it up to her.

I'm happy to report that I am better. I am making it up to her. We are going to Europe next month! This time, since it was no longer a surprise, Christine chose Italy as our destination. We will be spending three weeks exploring Rome, Tuscany, the Cinque Terre, Florence, and Venice. Our Italian is terrible, but we are still incredibly excited. This will be her first trip to Europe, but hopefully not the last.

Also, if you remember from last year, my first grandson, Hudson, was born. He is beautiful and brings so much joy to me and my family. He is now 10 months old and, by all accounts, is the cutest baby in the world. Nobody doesn't think that when they see him. He is just beautiful.

Christine asked me to write this for her birthday. She's been begging me to bring you all up-to-speed on our journey, since I stopped writing this blog so abruptly. I'm sorry about that. I think I just wanted to put this cancer thing in my rear view mirror and start living again.

So happy birthday, Christine! Thank you for encouraging me to write this. Thank you for sticking with me through thick and thin. You're the best and I love you! Let's go to Italy!