Not that the whole Internet really goes to this blog, I thought I should denote why there is a massive lag in updates.

I can give a lot of excuses, but to be frank I was diagnose with cancer May 1, 2008.  Before that I had a bout with what I thought was a simple rash/allegic reaction to something.  Well it was not a rash, it was really petechia in an early form.

What is the type of cancer?  It is a form of lymphoma called “mantle cell lymphoma”.  A type of cancer that usually comes to people with an age >= 50.  It is not a form of cancer this is caused from some external/environmental effect.  This cancer is a result of some translocation damage to a gene during development.  Unfortunately there is not much knowledge in the cause, but the treatment is very successful.  For me and my young age (as I am in my thirties), I should respond well to the treatment and outcome.  There is not much knowledge about success rate beyond 10 to 15 years as the majority of the people having this cancer are usually older.  I hope my results will help build more data for the younger population.

Where am I in my treatment (process)?  I am nearing an autologous stem cell (which comes form the bone marrow) transplant, but I am in the beginning process.

Will I document my treatment? I am not sure sure I will actually blog my treatment on this blog.  I have thought about starting another blog just for this topic, but I am wrestling with do I want such a personal life changing event to be blogged?

Do I think I will get cured? As with any cancer, you need to be in remission for over a number of years (4 to 5) before it can really be declared as a cure.  My doctors feel that I should have positive results to get me in the remission stage.  These doctors do want me to be “cured” but time will reveal the outcome.

Why did I post this?  I don’t know.  I was more conflicted in that I have not posted for a few months and I wanted to at least to show the lag as I hope to be able to go back to my regular posts of trivial matters and events in my life.