So I guess I should give a little more info on what's been happening than the "big C" bomb I dropped in the I Remember When thread.
It's been a busy year. I can't remember when I was last on here, so here's the year in review...
Started off in January with moving out of our house in Stevenson, and into my in-laws' place in Sandy on a "temporary basis"... while we waited for our new house near Centerville/Goldendale WA to get finished. Well, we're still in Sandy. New place is roughly 2-3 weeks from being occupancy-ready. Finally!
In late Jan/early Feb, we took a couple weeks and split to the Philippines. I flew an airplane for the first time, taking off in a Cessna 172 from the old Clark airfield and landing at Baguio. Baguio sits in the saddle of a mountaintop at roughly 5000 feet... that was an interesting first landing. Like something out of the Discovery channel. I'll try to get back in this thread later and link to pics. Anyway, had fun in the Philippines, did some flying, did a lot of relaxing by a pool on the Bataan peninsula, then headed back to the States.
This is where the doo-doo hits the fan... not quite literally, but close enough. Came home from the Philippines and I had a colonoscopy scheduled for the next week. Lesson: Guys, when the plumping doesn't work like it's supposed to, or there's any sign of blood where their shouldn't be, (or for others of you, if Jacob has been anywhere near your taint)... it's time to call your doctor and get yourself scoped. Doc comes out and they take my wife and I to a private room (that's the dead giveaway of bad news). Doc just spills it: "Well, we went in and looked around, and you have cancer."
That line on February 13th started a whirlwind that we're still in the midst of. We only knew the full extent after surgery, and it was officially Stage IIIB colo-rectal cancer (tumor + 2 lymph nodes, no metastases). First phase was targeted radiation with a linear accelerator X-ray gun (literally), plus chemo pills for 5.5 weeks. That ended in mid April. Then a couple months to recover from that onslaught before Phase II. Phase II was surgery... cut the cancer out and reroute the plumbing. I was recovering from that in July. I'm just now getting back to work, and we're starting Phase III, which is mop-up or as I call it "insurance policy" chemo. This is a drug cocktail intended to wipe out any loose cancer cells that may be floating around the lymphatic system.
Good news: It had not metastasized. Also, they're pretty sure they got all of it during surgery, which went flawlessly. If you know anyone who needs abdominal cancer surgery, go straight to Dr. Mark Whiteford at The Oregon Clinic. He's part of the Providence Portland oncology team. The man is a miracle worker with a scalpel. My incisions have healed unbelievably well.
Yeah, the follow-up chemo is starting to suck. I started it last Thursday. Makes my stomach upset and it's giving me acid reflux. The pill stuff, Xeloda, is nasty shit. You should see all the warning labels on this crap... even if you are perfectly healthy, this stuff WILL hurt you. The IV infusion drug is called Oxaliplatin, and it makes one's mouth/hands/feet like SUPER cold-sensitive. And the day after feels like a low-grade hangover pretty much all day. I get 6 cycles of this. Starts with the Oxi infusion, followed by 14 days on the Xeloda pills, then 7 days recovery. Rinse & repeat.
So yeah... other than that, also got some new rubber for the Saturn Sky and had it aligned for motorsport duty... ran it in an autocross before surgery and it did MUCH better than its first outing on those sucky stock Goodyears.
Can't remember if I'd posted this on here yet or not, but my wife and I also bought a new truck last fall (October). 2011 Silverado 2500HD with the Duramax/Allison powertrain. Man, I am loving that truck! Fire engine red, crew cab, short bed, 4x4. I had it Line-X'd and leveled shortly after getting it, and swapped the highway-biased Goodyear Wrangler SR-A's for a set of BFG All-Terrain T/As. Looks reaally nice, IMO. Next major item is a Buckstop bumper... because wifey and I are out in deer country, and I really don't want to scoop one into the radiator. Had one dart across the front of the Penske truck back in January, only missing it by 1-2 feet.
Set up a reloading bench while I was recovering from surgery... being used for .300 AAC Blackout, 7.5x55 Swiss, and soon .44 Rem Mag. Got a 300BLK barrel en route from MidwayUSA, so I'll be able to run some test loads here as soon as I have the barrel installed in my AR. I also picked up a nice shiny new S&W Model 629 Deluxe last week.
My moto upgrades have been backburned a bit, since I haven't been able to get much riding in this year. This winter and next spring I will return to building the Cagiva up into the machine I want it to be... Wilbers adjustable suspenders, starter wiring upgrade, rectifier/regulator wiring upgrade, HID low beam, engine guards, aux lights...
I've also got a bunch of work on my GTI backlogged... partly due to physical condition, but mostly due to the faact we're still in temporary housing and I really don't want to tear it apart until it's parked in my new 24'x96' shop and I get the vehicle lift installed.
So yeah... that's where duc_fan has been and what he's been up to since January-ish.
