Living With Cancer

October 30, two days removed from the diagnosis, was a good day. Tracy and I had been undecided about whether or not to take a second day off. But late in the evening, we decided that if we weren't certain that we would be able to go back to work, that meant that we shouldn't. And so we stayed home a second day and we were really glad that we did. The "second day after" was energizing. We made a long "to-do" list and actually ran some errands outside the house. It was a gorgeous day outside. We went for a walk. It was a day when optimism crept back into our lives. Even though much was still unknown how bad the cancer was, we started to talk positively about the prospects of beating cancer... and we started to believe what we were saying.

We read a lot in those first few days. As time went on, we focused our reading to specific topics. And we stayed away from the internet, where information can vary widely from website to website. We stuck to reputable sources that we trusted.