And I’m back, for real and regularly.

Yes it was an amazing year, and one that I’m wanting to share, especially given my failure to do so in ‘real time’ (hehe) as has been my custom.

Last you heard from me that Karen was very pregnant and due on October 12th.  Our little girl, Adia, arrived on October 6th, after we learned she was breech two days previous.  We had an abrupt welcome to parenthood as she got a ‘staph’ infection in the hospital, spent 5 days in the NICU with 20% of her skin blistering off.  She recovered, but her parents are still a little scarred I think.  And due to her breech position her hips were dislocated, which meant she wore a harness for 4 months, literally all the time (bathing and diapers were a challenge!!) and a night-time brace for three.

These are really relatively minor obstacles in hindsight but they didn’t seem that way at the time.

Today Adia is a happy, very healthy, extremely out-going, fun little girl.  She turned one on Saturday and we had a great birthday party with some of her friends… just the close ones, couldn’t include the millions of friends she makes every time we go to the grocery store.

Amazing how your definition of ‘birthday party’ changes in just a year.  A little over a year ago I’d likely be talking about an all night party with a very late sleep-in. Even in my survivorship state birthday parties were a good excuse to get out and pretend I was still in university.  Now it means being up at 6:00 am for the day and in bed by 10 that night.

Adia has certainly been the major highlight of the past year, but not the only one.  I learned just how well I can function on next to no sleep, and I found a whole other gear, between increasing demands at work and an exponential increase in demands at home the pace has picked up.

My health continues to be solid as I recommitted to the gym and continue to work to find balance.  I got back to the soccer pitch this summer, learned that I’m neither as quick nor as durable as I once was.  How much of that is related to cancer I don’t know.  There’s room for improvement on my conditioning that’s for sure.

RealTime Cancer is making great progress, but for the past year or two it doesn’t seem as ‘great’ as I’d like… perhaps much of this is related to my lack of patience but I feel we have been due to take a HUGE leap forward that just hasn’t happened yet.  It will, I know this, but I can truthfully say that for the first time in my professional life, my professional life hasn’t been as fulfilling as desired.

It is as simple as my daily activity is spent doing too much of what I don’t like, and not enough of what I love.  My belief is also, that the things I love are the things at which I excel, and conversely the things I don’t like are things I’m not very good at.  My inexperience at building an organization is certainly a major reason behind this and fortunately I do learn and am slowly working towards getting my professional life back to where I have envisioned it for so long.

Back to the personal side for a moment… if you have never read my article covering fertility and our first pregnancy on the RealTime Cancer web site and are interested to know the story I’d encourage you to check out this link (http://www.realtimecancer.org/ArticleDetails.asp?ArticleID=39).

My life is a miracle, the fact I’m here to write this… but the birth of Adia really brings that to another level.  It is something I sit with and wonder about often.

Having said that would you believe me if I told you that Karen is pregnant again!!??  Yes I would not joke, the craziness continues… I often joke with Karen that I’m going back to schools with a much different message this year, something along the lines of ‘if I can do it, anyone can… so wrap it up!’

Kidding, about the different message, but yes I continue to sit in wonder and amazement as life spirals incredibly out of control.

And on that note I’m going to shut this down, but I will be back again soon.

Always…
Live life.  Love life.

Geoff

Hey there gang, it’s been so long that I almost feel like we are starting over.

Last time you were hearing from me I was talking about young adult cancer reports, the odds of many things in my life, not the least of which was me becoming a Dad, which happened in October 2006. And let’s just say that since then things have been incredible, amazing, busy and a little sleepless at times.

I’m writing today because I’ve had this feeling that my email group/blog is something I need to get back to. The need is personal in the sense that I find great benefit from writing and expressing whatever it is that’s running through me at that time. It is also based on my desire to put out some ideas, stories and information that I think is really important for others to know.

Before I give you a short version of a recap on what I’ve been doing I wanted to ensure you are up for staying connected as I resume my commitment to this blog. This whole thing started when I was first diagnosed, it has evolved considerably but the core remains the same, its about me throwing out ideas, stories and info.

I’ll be back very soon with a more detailed update.                                                  

Always.
Live life. Love life.

Geoff