From the current issue of Winterplay magazine, a Christmas memory or two

 

Bring Christmas on

 

The Hero M.D.  and I received the very best early Christmas present yesterday.

The post-op pathology report from my surgery in November was off-the-charts good. My margins are clear: of the 25 lymph nodes examined, none of them had a trace of cancer. There was no metastasis and no perforation. The tumour was entirely removed. The operation was an unequivocal success. I am, for all intents and purposes, currently cancer-free.

Or, in the words of my brilliant and kind oncological surgeon, Dr. Chadi, I am "macroscopically free of disease," meaning that if any cancer remains, it is undetectable to the naked eye.

No one is going to say "cured" for another four or five years, but I am as close to that now as it's humanly possible to be. In January, I will have one final operation that will allow me to fully return to unfettered public life.

It is only hitting me now, in small degrees, that the shadow on my life since Friday the 13th of May, 2022, has lifted. I am also coming to realize the degree to which I had restricted myself from thinking about any kind of assured future. That's the nature of this cancer beast.

The next four years are going to involve medical vigilance in case the cancer returns, but I'm OK with that, because I'll be living the entire time, and not taking any of it for granted.

Bring Christmas on. I'm ready for a joyous one. May yours be similarly joyous.