Hi All,
I hope everything is well with you, your families, friends, pets, and communities. Can you believe it’s been 365 days since I last wrote you? No news is truly good news compared to the frequent updates happening at the end of 2020. Today is the 3 year anniversary of the start of my radiation and chemo treatments. I am honoring the start of that period of my life, and happy to report that on the cancer front today, I still show no evidence of disease based on checkups/scopes with my ENT and absence of any physical symptoms (sore throat, hoarseness, difficulty swallowing, etc.). My new oncologist at the UNM Cancer Center is great, and wants to expose me to less radiation via scans so we’re just in a surveillance mode of physical symptoms. After this Fall, I’ll probably only need to see my docs once a year for followups. All positive, and light years from where I was 3 years ago!
Since my last update, lots has happened for Rachel and me. We adopted a new dog in February…about a year old at the time. We named him Archie and he’s a love, though mischievous like all puppies! He’s integrating well with our original troupe, though Buddy (our almost 11 year old beagle) is not so sure at times. We bought a cute house in Northeast Albuquerque and enjoying settling in and making it ours. We have the best neighbors and feel very blessed to be homeowners again. And I’ve been riding…a lot. The strike in Hollywood has meant no movie work for me this year so I’ve had time to step up my cycling game and completed a challenging 100 mile course climbing over 5000ft in the “Santa Fe Century”, and tackled a ride from Albuquerque to Santa Fe and back covering 125 miles and almost 8000 ft of climbing (both personal firsts). I definitely caught the bug and love, love, love getting out on my bike.
In fact, this weekend I am doing the 50 mile “Lobo Cancer Challenge” race to support the UNM Cancer Center on Saturday, and hopping back on my bike Sunday for the 100 mile “Tour of the Rio Grande”! Kinda like my mini-Tour de France to see what back to back long rides feel like. I’m contemplating a trip with Rachel to Europe next year for an organized bike tour in either France or Spain, and possibly a Pacific Coast ride from the top of America to the bottom or even a transcontinental effort - though the latter are ways down the line.
I think I keep pushing myself on the bike to test the boundaries of what I can do. As exhausting (and painful) as it can be at times, I remember what I was going through 3 years ago between the surgeries, chemo, and radiation - and by comparison, whatever discomfort I’m feeling, it pales to where I was at rock bottom. That lived experience propels me forward, knowing I can do hard things. I am resilient enough to try anything.
Until next time, and with love and gratitude,
Brad
P.S. If you know someone who gets diagnosed with throat cancer and is about to embark on treatment or struggling in the midst of it or during recovery and needs support or has questions, please reach out to me and I can pass along my contact information to you to give to them. I am available to share my experience - things that worked, things that didn’t - and maybe be able to lessen for them what is by its very nature a heavy burden.
