“That's cause everyone here is just more than contented to be living and dying in three quarter time”
Nautical Wheelers, A1A, Jimmy Buffett
“Well now, if I ever live to be an old man, I’m gonna sail down to Martinique.
I’m gonna buy me a sweat stained Bogart suit and an African parakeet”
Migration, A1A, Jimmy Buffett
I have stage 3 melanoma and I am currently clinically free of disease (none detectable). In simple terms cancer developed in the melanin in skin cells in a mole on my back and later some spread to my lymph system, causing a tumor under my left arm. The mole and a margin of skin around it were removed by surgery in August 2008. The tumor was removed, along with all of the lymph nodes under my left arm in October 2010. I have never felt sick or been ill for one single day due to the melanoma (it did take about six weeks to recover from each surgery, but it was not really very bad). I am receiving a clinical trial vaccine that is supposed to help my body fight off any melanoma cells that try to grow. The most likely cause for my melanoma was some bad sunburns on my back as a teenager. Microscopic melanoma cells are not detectable. To find melanoma there has to be a biopsy done on a mole, tumor, or lymph node. A swollen lymph node may be an indication of a tumor. If the melanoma goes to stage 4, it means a tumor has formed in an organ outside of the skin or lymph system, most commonly in the lung, liver, and brain. These tumors can be detected by X-rays or CT scans. It is very unlikely to have symptoms until the tumor grows large. For an extended period of time I will have a CT scan every three months to look for small tumors. Best news each time is for no tumors to show up, but if they do it is much better to treat them while small and no symptoms are apparent. Depending on the location and size, treatment could be surgery, radiation, chemo, or some combination.
Since it is unlikely that I will discover a tumor due to feeling bad or having other symptoms, I basically will live knowing I am free of disease three months at a time. So in addition to trying to make the best of each day that I have, I will also try to enjoy life as much as possible three months at a time. I will enjoy every minute with my wonderful wife. I will enjoy the time with my children and the rest of my family and friends. I guess I have already lived to be an old man since that is what my daughter and son call me. So where is my Bogart suit and parakeet? And the sail boat big enough to sail to Martinique? (the Sunfish with a hole in the side is all I have now and it ain’t gonna make it into the ocean). I guess I will let Fury in Key West and Gemini in Maui provide the sail boats and crews (and Penny can be my parakeet).
So far now I will be more than contented to be living three months at a time…..
Some of Jimmy’s words to live by for 2011 (The Year of I Am Still Here):
“Roll with the punches, make the best of whatever comes your way”
“Breathe in, breathe out, move on”
“Oh yesterdays are over my shoulder, so I can’t look back for too long,there’s just too much see waiting in front of me, and I know that I just can’t go wrong with these Changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes, nothing remains quite the same”
“Be good and you will be lonesome,be lonesome and you will be free, live a lie and you will live to regret it,that’s what living is to me, that’s what living is to me.”
“Some people never find it, some only pretend
“Havin' fun is just smilin' through
Those changes in latitudes, changes in attitudes”
“I wanna be the last man standing
Bring me the hot sauce, bring me a beer
Gonna be the last man standing
But where do we go from here?”
“Yes, I am a pirate two hundred years too late.
The cannons don't thunder there's nothin' to plunder
I'm an over forty victim of fate
Arriving too late, arriving too late.”
“I’ve got a Caribbean soul I can barely control and some Texas hidden here in my heart”
