Scuba Dive Gives Mark New Confidence When Mark was diagnosed with cancer and told he had three months or less to live, he sold or gave away nearly every possession he had including his scuba gear. For two years he was very sick with cancer, side effects of radiation and chemo, and believed he would never do many things again including scuba diving. When he got a chest wall tumor that was eventually radiated , he feared for some time that he had cancer invading critical chest structures and possibly the cancer would invade a major vessel and kill him. Every chest pain fueled his fear. Some days he needed a lot of reassurance that he did not need to go to the emergency room because of symptoms that worried him. When I would tell him that I was sure he did not need to go to the ER, he would say: "Mom it will be your fault if I die because you wouldn't take me to the ER ." I would respond: "I'll take the responsibility" and reassure him that he was o.k. Thank God he did not up and die and blame mom from the great beyond. He has survived to go scuba diving with his friend Alan in some islands not too far from Pattaya, Thailand. He called yesterday to tell me how excited he was to have successfully made a dive. Every step toward a normal life in spite of cancer is to be celebrated.

Go Cart Track - Another adventure was driving go carts. See picture (Mark on the left). Click on any picture to enlarge it.

Mark goes to get his CAT scan on the 18th. His sister Stephanie who lives and works in England has scheduled her check up at Bumrungrad Hospital in Bangkok on the same day. Mark and his sister will hang out together for a few days before Mark gets his CAT scan report after which she will head back to England.

Passed an anniversary date: Three years have passed since on Feb 6, 2005 Mark left a message on my answering machine: "Mom I have a bit of bad news. Please call me." I thought maybe he had been in an accident or needed bail money. The thought never crossed my mind that he would soon tell me he had been diagnosed with terminal cancer.