Last weekend, while camping in the woods of East Texas, my wife and I were dubbed “The Best Geriatric Pet Parents” by her aunt.  We earned this title because of our crew of kids.  We have two dogs and two cats.  All four of them travel with us, it’s why we bought a travel trailer.  The dogs are 15 and 16.  The cats are 13 and 14.

The sixteen-year-old dog is the only one that really requires extra care at this point.  Her name is Luci and she’s about 40 lbs.  That’s down from 50 pounds in her prime.  In the last few years, she has shown her age more and more.  For a dog that had one accident inside the house as a 9-week-old puppy and never had another one until about the age of 14, she’s made up for all of that time and then some.

Back in April, we thought she had reached the end.  She had what seemed to be a seizure and was unable to walk.  After a couple of vet visits, it was determined that she had a bad ear infection that was throwing off her equilibrium.  With some ear cleaning and medicine, she was back up on her feet, though she is still quite wobbly. 

You may ask, with the advanced age, the constant accidents in the house and the struggle to walk, why don’t we just make the decision to put her down?  There is no simple answer.  One, she doesn’t show any signs of being in pain.  Two, her appetite has not dwindled at all (that’s been the gage for the previous 5 dogs and cats we’ve said goodbye to over the past decade plus).  Three, she’s showing me a will to live that I find inspiring.  She epitomizes “Fall Down 7, Get Up 8.”  She may struggle, but she doesn’t give up. Ever.

Her will to live reminds me of all the reasons that I need to win against cancer.  For one, with our four “kids” being seniors, we know what’s coming over the next few years.  We’ve known for a long time.  So there is no way I can add a 5^th loss to my wife during that period.  In general, my wife doesn’t do alone very well.  It’s my job to make sure she doesn’t face that prematurely.

On a similar note, I feel like one of the worst things in the world that can happen to a parent is losing a child.  The age doesn’t matter.  The pain won’t be any less.  My mother may be gone (and I’m grateful that she didn’t have to deal with my cancer diagnosis), but I do not desire for my dad to join that club.

Then there is the feeling that I have important things left to do.  Whether it’s through coaching, speaking or writing, I know there is more for me to accomplish.  I’ve always known it.  I’m at the point where I must be a late bloomer.  It does scare me that there is something inside my body that could prevent that, but at the same time, it’s also the thing that drives me toward my goals now.

There are some selfish things as well.  For example, I am looking forward to reading how George RR Martin feels The Game Of Thrones should end since HBO screwed that one up big time.  Plus there are more Star Wars movies in the pipeline.

In all seriousness, I know I have a lot to live for.  We’re about four months into treatment now and it’s going better than expected.  The doctors are looking at four more rounds of chemotherapy (to make twelve total) and then a few weeks of building strength to move into a major surgery in September that cuts out the areas where the cancer was active.  That will include bladder, prostate and I believe some lymph nodes.  Yes, that’s a lot of removing.  Yes, it is scary.  No, that is not how I intended to reach a weight loss goal.  But it’s all part of the process.  Our oncologist has used the word cure.  That’s a big deal since our 2^nd opinion doctor has in her notes, “They (my wife and I) had additional concerns regarding the prognosis and his stage IV disease as they were hoping he would be curable. Unfortunately, that does not appear to be the case given his stage IV metastatic cancer.”  This would be the same doctor that threw out hospice as an option.  I’d like to note that stage 4 hospice patients don’t do things like go the gym, pull travel trailers 200+ miles or mow their lawn in 90 degree heat.  And that’s just been since Monday for me.

I haven’t talked about it much, but apparently, the type of cancer cells I have are not common, are very aggressive and the prognosis has not been promising for most people.  I don’t discuss it much because that’s about the extent of what I know about it.  I don’t dive into Google searches and I don’t feel that knowing more about it will help our cause.  It’s the same reason I stay away from the news.  I feel like at this point watching the news would likely cause me to not want to keep fighting.

If you’ve been keeping up with the blogs, you already know how I feel about the power of the mind.  The longer this goes on, the more difficult I’m finding it to keep a strong mindset and positive attitude.  It’s not that anything has happened to derail those.  It’s more about staying the course when there is not much happening.  There’s a quote from Zig Ziglar, “People say that motivation doesn’t last.  Well neither does bathing, that’s why we recommend it daily.”  That’s where I’m at.  As I try to live as normally as possible, it’s easy to lose myself in other things like work and books (and naps).  But I know that I must keep this fight on the front burner.  I do that with affirmations, crafted playlists, trips to the gym and sometimes rereading my own writing.  I’m human and I must admit that I get off track from time to time.  But then I remember what is on the line and who I’m fighting for.  It’s a lot easier after that.

Some great people have got together and decided to throw a benefit to help our family.  It will take place on Sunday July 23^rd at Rowdys Dance Hall (formerly Big Texas) in Spring, TX from 12pm to around 6pm.  There will be food, live music and live and silent auctions.  There will even be some Big Texas shirts and Koozies available.  My hope is that everyone that can come does.  Not for the fundraising aspect – although it’s our hope that we raise more than needed so that we can donate the rest to help other people that are going through what we are – but because I want to see people.  I want it to be a party where people come together, share stories, laugh and have a good time.  THAT is a medicine that no pharmaceutical company will ever be able to mimic in a lab. For more information on the event, or even to help out if you can’t make it, please visit HelpChrisEvictCancer.com. You can also view and respond to the Facebook Event.  There is a form on the web page to fill out if you have auction items to donate or would like to donate your time as a volunteer or a guest artist to perform.

Overall, I cannot express how grateful we are to be surrounded by people that are willing to go the extra mile for us.  We really are lucky.