Hitting 62

Another year has gone by and I’m 62.  The past year has been a rather interesting one, two rather major events from the past year.

 

 

My middle daughter got married in July 2024 and I was the officiant for the wedding that was really a fun day.  Kind of cool to both walk my daughter down the aisle and to do the wedding ceremony.  It was in Utah and other than it was really hot, it was a terrific day for the wedding.   We all had a great time and it was great to catch up with many folks I hadn’t seen for a while.   It was on the small side which made it more special.  

 

 

Then in December 2024 I was diagnosed with throat cancer, not such a fun day.  For me it was caused by the virus known as HPV (Human Papillomavirus).  It’s a cancer on the rise and fortunately highly treatable, and more importantly curable when caught early.  I was stage 1 and I have about a 95% chance it will be cured.  There is a vaccine for the virus and unfortunately for my age group it wasn’t being given to males.  Now it is and I recommend if you are under 45 make sure you get the vaccine.   

 

 

I started treatments in late December which was Chemotherapy and Radiation.  The treatments ended about 4 weeks ago.  The recovery is quite a thing.   I’m tired all the time.  I’m not sleepy so much as fatigued.  I have a dry mouth, everything tastes bad, and my throat hurts to some degree when swallowing.  Most of my muscles ache or hurt much of the day.  I can tell I’m getting better, it’s just very slow.   Some days a bit better than others. 

 

 

Over all the doctors think I’m doing well and that everything went to plan.  We won’t know for sure if it all worked for at least a few more weeks and really a few months from now with more scans and tests.  

 

 

A huge thanks to my family and friends for helping me thru this.  Without their help and assistance this would have been exponentially worse.