December 13, 2014

2015 "Thank God We are Alive Tour"

This year in January Mark and I (Mom) will take a trip to Vietnam with Friendly Planet. I will meet Mark in Thailand,  spend a few days with him, and then we will fly to Ho Chi Min City (Saigon). Our tour starts in the south of Thailand and moves up the country flying to other cities and ends in Hanoi the capital of Vietnam. There we will see Ha Long Bay where some of the James Bond scenes were filmed. Hopefully we will both be well enough to start the tour and continue through until our return. I am having eye surgery and eyelid surgery before we leave and Mark is having difficulty with Gout and with his legs. Mark will be on his 10th anniversary of his stage IV diagnosis although not free of cancer for 10 years since he had an unrelated kidney tumor removed several years after diagnosis. I am about 21 months out from breaking my leg and ankle climbing in the mountains of Turkey and 18 months out from a heart attack. Is it any wonder that we have an annual Thank God We are Alive tour?

My apologies for not posting more often and encouraging people who are just learning of a stage IV diagnosis or going through chemo and radiation and wondering if all the side effects are worth it. Well I for one am glad Mark went through all the treatment and lived now 10 years instead of 3 months or less and I definitely know his is glad too. I thank all the people who contributed big or small to Mark's being able to still be around.