5 years since Mark's passing (12 years post-diagnosis) and thoughts about blog data.

    It's hard to believe it's been five years since Mark died in August of 2017. Mark fought the good fight against stage 4 esophageal cancer, and he won that battle. When he was first diagnosed, he was working in a hospital in Saipan, often accompanying seriously ill patients on flights from Saipan to Hawaii and other parts of the US. Because Mark's cancer was "not survivable", he was only offered palliative care from his insurance. With the prognosis of "you'll be lucky to survive 3 months with this" came a bottle of liquid morphine, and Mark was told that was the only medicine they could offer; his cancer was terminal, inoperable, and he needed to get his affairs in order to move on to the next heavenly adventure. 

    If you've read the blog, you know that Mark moved almost immediately to Thailand, ostensibly to have a couple of months at the beach and to die. But he didn't die in three months. Or even in three years. He found doctors who treated his whole system, and who worked together to ensure that everything that could be done for him was done for him. He did chemo (specially mixed for him, since his cancer doesn't have a treatment because people don't survive it), he did radiation, he followed instructions and fought through all of the pain and sickness. He maintained friendships and loved to get mail from people. When Mark died, 12 years after the "3 month" prognosis, he died cancer free. He died of septicemia. 

    I was looking at some blog data before posting this. Mark's blog has had almost 65,000 visitors, from hundreds of countries all over the world. We haven't posted to the blog since 2019, and yet the blog had 60 visitors last week alone. There were a lot of spam comments left on the blog, and I have eradicated them, but I do hope people will leave a comment when they visit. Let us know what if you are fighting a cancer battle of your own. In the meantime, hug your people and let them know that you love them.