UNC Appt. Today

 Howdy folks! I hope this post finds you all doing well. I wanted to give an update for all of my amazing friends and family standing with me, walking with me me, and following me as I battle with cancer through this season of my life. Today made 18 days out of surgery and I feel good. I am close to figuring out how to eat meal containing the right food groups that will give me the nutrition I need but in smaller quantities. I seem to do better with 5 or so smaller meals a Day than the normal 3 meals per day.

 The doctor said the incision looked great, no lifting anything heavier than a gallon of milk for the next 6 weeks. Kind of tough when you have 3 kids under 5 that want to be held, and let you pick them up and fly them through the air like super hero's and a 15 year old giant that wants to shoot hoops or wrestle me. I LOOSE THAT ONE!! That is really the toughest stuff I deal with. It may seem insignificant but I challenge any of you reading this to wake up tomorrow and tell your kids like I did " daddy has a bad boo boo and he cant pick you up for a while". That's the only thing I wanted to tell them. We decided not to mention the word cancer to our children until them had more questions. The live your life without being able to pick up your child whatever its age birth to 5 years old. I didn't realize how much time my kids spent in my arms whatever the reason for love, discipline, scared, sick, sad, etc. Everyday when I would walk thru ours door at home the kids would all stop in their tracks, look toward the door and see me, then yell out "DADDY" and they would then attempt a gang hug which usually ended up a gang tackle and it was beautiful to do everyday til we separated. Long story short, its tough not being able to hug my kids small to big. I love them all so much and they have all been awesome to me through this whole thing from the innocence of the twins not knowing a thing to the heart warming concern and love that my oldest Stone has given me. I never thought about the fact that I might need my kids to be a source of strength for me to draw on as I'm the dad that's my job, yet all of my kids have stepped into shadows of doubt, thoughts of fear and given their dad the big picture and shed light on darkness caused by the cancer. Our kids are amazing.

 I will be going to Raleigh Medical Oncology Group on Wednesday for my first appointment with the oncologist whom I will be working with to begin chemotherapy. His name is Jeremiah Boles. He is supposed to be a top notch guy and actually worked with my surgeon before moving to this other position. This will be what they call the consultation meeting which will allow him to describe to me the chemotherapy as he wishes to administer to me and the particulars involved in the therapy. Not sure of the time frame in which I start from the time of this meeting til start of chemotherapy, but I'm ready. Stay tuned! Thanks to you all for your prayers and well wishes. I have the best friends and family ever. I'm so blessed thanks to you all!!!!!!