Prostate Cancer as a Cause for Thanksgiving

What better way to start a blog on prostate cancer than with a list of things I'm thankful for!

• I'm thankful that medical science is advanced enough that my cancer was detected in its early stages, not when it was too late to do any thing about it.
• I'm thankful that I got prostate cancer now, not 20 years ago when butchery was the only way to treat it.
• I'm thankful for the physicians at Loma Linda University Medical Center who pioneered proton beam radiation treatment of prostate and other cancers, and for proton beam therapy with its high success levels and its low incidence of negative side effects.
• I'm thankful that I have a career—teaching dramatic structure and playwriting—that can be taught temporarily from a remote location.
• I'm thankful that I have a boss that did everything in his power to make it possible for me to be off campus for 2 1/2 months. Thank you Fred!
• I'm thankful that I have colleagues who willingly, graciously, almost joyously took on extra work to cover my responsibilities in my absence. Thank you Linda, Dorothy, Bill, Jonathan, Melissa, Genevieve, Beth, John Poch, and more that I'm sure I'm forgetting right now!
• I'm thankful that I have students who not only adjusted to a different mode of learning, but also actively assisted in making my absence possible. Thank you especially Kyle and Orada!
• I'm thankful for a huge network of friends and acquaintances that have wished me well, promised to keep me in their thoughts and prayers, and repeatedly asked after my well-being. A few groups to mention in particular: My colleagues at Texas Tech, my Sunday school class and other parishioners at St. John's United Methodist, the Tuesday Night Life Drawing group, the Lubbock chapter of Bikers against Child Abuse, my FaceBook friends, and my brothers and sisters at Carpenter's Church and Family Promise. I didn't even know I had all these friends, but there they were, all the time.
• I'm thankful for the unbelievable beauty of the Southwestern terrain I crossed between West Texas and Southern California.
• I could go on and on, but I'll end with this—I'm especially thankful for a wonderful companion who has walked with me every step of this journey from the first diagnosis until now, who has put up with me when I've been stressed out, who helped me find Loma Linda, who makes me laugh, who supports and advises me, and who assures me we will whip this thing together and enjoy many happy years together in the future. Thank you, Amy! I love you!

Tomorrow: Details . . .