Joan Makes Cancer Her Bitch Again...

If you missed the title I will spare you the suspense now - Joan had another good appointment at the Oncologist today!

For those of you that do not remember or have not been to this site before, Joan had not been to her cancer doctor for five months, the longest she had ever been between appointments. Since then many things have changed in our lives and both of us were silently afraid that the added stress would show up in her CT scans. Not so, not this time.

Since Joan's last appointment I was chosen for a promotion to Regional Vice President for Cracker Barrel, an absolutely amazing opportunity. Unfortunately that meant that Joan would have to quit the job she loves at Universal Studios and has loved for over 13 years. It also meant that Joan would have to sell the home that she loves and that she spent so much time creating her three time award winning landscaping. And maybe most frightening of all, she would have to find a new Oncologist. One that she loved as much as Dr. Stephanie Capone.

For those of you that do not know Joan well, you may not know that we were High School Sweethearts which, quite frankly, worked largely to my favor because Joan hates change. I just got lucky and met her in the parking lot of the old Band Room at Nordonia High School in the summer of 1979. We actually went back there together this year just after her brother Jack found her old Pom Line Captian's coat (which she will proudly tell you fits just like it did back then.) Sure, but the vinyl on it is so old that it's cracked like a Pennsylvania highway... But on to better topics.

Added stress is of course bad for cancer patients. Of the top five most stressful things that can happen to an Adult American I was forcing Joan into TWO OF THEM - moving and buying a new home. And I was heaping on tons of stress so that I could be rewarded with a big promotion.

We were able to mull over the impact of the job and all of the other changes doing some really fun things like our annual pilgramage to Cleveland for the Apple Butter Festival in Butler, Ohio. Where we were joined by Joan's sister Kathy and Sister Laura and her husband Bill as well as our Hosts Jack and Chris Donnelly. We started the weekend by Joan and Laura and I running in a half marathon where Joan beat me by over one half a mile and Laura had to hold my hand and tell me when to breathe for seven miles. But I finished long before they cleared the track. They got a picture of me running but the ladies were too fast for the photogs I guess.

As we listened to Dr. Capone read the numbers we quickly realized that the news was good. There had been no growth of Joan's cancer in those five months with the exception of one single node which had grown moderately four MM which is less than this letter I appears on most of your screens. Fantastic news. Joan texted the news to her friends at work to which her friend Richie responded - You are making Cancer your Bitch! Funny stuff Rich... Apparently the Stress had not taken much of a toll on Joan's cancer.

Good thing too because there is still a lot to do... We took a break from our many volunteer duties, like raising cash for our church's Free Clinic by dressing up like guests on Fantasy Island and talking people into writing big checks - all in character. Me - a Rocker. Joan - a Brown's fan going to the Super Bowl to see the Browns win it all. (RIP Ricardo Montalban - even you could not face her to tell her that fantasy was totally out of even Mr. Rourke's abilities.)

Anyway, we had to take a break from the fun stuff to go look for a house. Which we did and we are very close to making an offer on a home (after seeing 24 in two days). We also may have set some kind of record for selling homes. We put our home on the market on January 5th in one of the nation's worst performing markets in the country - Orlando, Florida. There were 784 homes on the market the day we put ours in the mix. only 10% of the homes were not Bank Owned, Short Sales or Forclosures. We were told it would take 120 days to sell. It sold in six. In the last seven years Joan and I have sold two homes and they were on the market for a total of nine days before offers were agreed upon.

While looking for places to live we have also peaked into where Joan would go for her follow up appointments. Our Dr. fairly glowed in her assesments of the Oncologists in the Baltimore area just one hour from where we are looking to move. So we are optomisic about that too. It seems that although we have had to deal with many, many obstacles, God has always provided an answer.

So as we get ready to face all the new stuff involved in new homes, new cities and new friends we are encouraged to know that you all continue to pray for us. We speak of you often and as always Joan loves to read the comments that you leave on this web site (they do go right to her email!). And as much as we have been blessed with this last six months or so, as many miracles as we have been witness to, who can even guess what will happen next -

Is a Browns Super Bowl really too much to ask for? We don't think so...