I’m so glad I found your blog.

Friday, November 20th, was one of the worst days of my life. I was told that I have rectal cancer. Last winter or spring, I can’t remember, I had noticed some blood in my poop. After procrastinating for months, I took my head out of the sand and scheduled a colonoscopy appointment. I was sitting in the recovery room after the procedure when a nurse came by and informed me that the doctor wanted to talk to me. Dr. Abrams, who was chatty and joking as I was prepped for his Roto-Rooter, was now solemnly telling me that he had found an 8cm tumour in my rectum. I remember going numb at the news. Jane, my wife, began to cry. How could this be? Just 14 months before I had my cancerous prostate removed and now I have this festering lump that could not be more than an inch or two from where my prostate used to be. A little later, I went to my local watering hole and quaffed 3 pints before ordering ribs and wings. Jane joined me there after attending to some work matters. We cried a little more as we ate our lunch. This was all now starting to crash down on me. How serious is this? How will I tell my family?

In the days that followed, I met my surgeon, the wonderful and always reassuring Dr. Marcus Burnstein, at St. Mikes. I am to have pre-adjuvant chemo/radiation followed by surgery, I was told, and I was to meet with him again in a few days to review the results of my scans. I hardly slept the night before and I was a wreck when we went into the second consult. The scans showed no metastasis to distant sites but one or two nodes were suspect. Basically, I have borderline Stage III and the good doctor, ever the optimist, said it was “curable”. I am relieved somewhat but have been going through the whole gamut of emotions and uncertainty. My journey has just begun. I know that the next few months will not be a joy ride.

My wife, Jane Bongers, is an old friend and coworker of Janet’s in the ad business. This is how I came upon your wonderful blog. I have to thank you very much, and I am sure I am not alone. I spent most of yesterday reading every post from the beginning. I’m amazed that you can muster up the energy to write all this and so well. It is informative, touching, sometimes funny and, most importantly, cathartic. I look forward to reading more entries and hopefully meeting you one day as well. We all need as much inspiration as we can find.

Cheers,

John Sleeman