- Hi, everyone.
If you've got a minute, I'd like to bring you
up to date on my health situation.
The one-year survival rate for stage 4
pancreatic cancer patients is 18%.
I'm very happy to report I have just reached that marker.
Now I'd be lying if I said the journey had been an easy one.
There were some good days but a lot of not-so-good days.
I joked with friends that the cancer won't kill me;
the chemo treatments will.
There were moments of great pain,
days when certain bodily functions no longer functioned,
and sudden, massive attacks of great depression
that made me wonder if it really was worth fighting on.
But I brushed that aside quickly,
because that would have been a massive betrayal –
a betrayal of my wife and soulmate, Jean,
who has given her all to help me survive.
It would have been a betrayal of other cancer patients
who have looked to me as an inspiration,
and a cheerleader of sorts, of the value of living and hope,
and it would certainly have been a betrayal
of my faith in God and the millions of prayers
that have been said on my behalf.
You know, my oncologist tried to cheer me up the other day.
He said, "Alex, even though the two-year survival rate
"is only 7%," he was certain that one year from now,
the two of us would be sitting in his office
celebrating my second anniversary of survival.
And you know something, if I, no,
if we – because so many of us are involved in this
same situation – if we take it just one day at a time,
with a positive attitude, anything is possible.
I'll keep you posted.