I just got back from SLC after some really uncomfortable medical tests involving my hip bone and some primitive looking tools. I hope to know more about what my next steps will be in dealing with my diagnosis. Tuesday will bring news as to whether or not I will be able to proceed immediately with a great new treatment called BEXXAR. They are really cautious with this stuff at the Huntsman Cancer Center where I doctor and I will have quite a bit of set up before the treatment cycle itself and some monitoring time after the cycle.
TO make the longer story shorter: I will likely be out of commission for a while. (Doctors are thinking about 2 months from initial testing through treatment and through the monitoring of the results.) I am going to seek a short term sabbatical and work on my health for a little while.
My team mate and friend Renee Gaugler works with the same processor (Kerensa Robinson) that I do so she will take on the files I have in process. SHE WILL ALSO be able to field any referrals that you may have considered giving to me over the next few months. Naturally: ANYONE on my team is well qualified and recommended as you may know from talking to me.
I will still be in touch with the pulse of the market and sharing my insights with the readers of this newsletter and those few who check back at www.chadcan.com
Funny thing happened today (I suppose at this hour it was technically yesterday!).
We were driving our 4 wheel drive SUV (with only the 2 wheel drive engaged) over the mountainous roads in the island park area at a safe speed behind another SUV similar to ours. The road was very icy but well-sanded. It is a 2 lane highway in between Idaho Falls and Island Park, Idaho.
The road kind of opened up into 3 lanes creating a passing lane on my side of the highway. I don't like to ride too close behind others but like to continue to go at a reasonable speed so I deemed it a safe place to pass. I accelerated into the newly created passing lane and the tires grabbed the sand just fine as our car began to gain some speed and catch up to the car I was going to pass. Unfortunately, before I could do anything about it the rear wheels of the vehicle spun free of the sand and the rear of the car began to catch up with the front of the car!
I was sliding sideways with no signs of slowing down. This was disconcerting enough but there was also an oncoming lightning blue colored semi-truck with what looked like a pretty full trailer. I had slid into perfect position for the semi to t-bone my GMC.
Ever have one of those moments where everything just goes quiet for a minute and there is total peace? I had one today.
I ended up keeping the car in a "powerslide" for a minute in an attempt to regain control and then the rear of the car won the race spinning me around. I turned into it and slammed into the 6 foot wall of snow that inhabits both sides of the island park highway in some places during this time of year with the rear quarter panel and bumper on the driver's side of my car. This quickly spun me around clockwise and I hit the front fender on the passenger's side of my car before completing another full rotation and a half and stopping with the front of the car perpendicular to the road. Thank goodness there were 2 lanes on my side of the road because that was about the time the semi-truck who could not have possibly slowed down much on the ice came whirring by.
I backed up the car and righted it on the road. I then put it in 4 wd and got going again on that ice that I now noticed was un-sanded in that spot. (It was almost as if they ran out of sand and then took a union required break or something. :-)
WOW. I share that with you to also share that after 11+ years of "fighting" cancer...I could have just as easily been taken from my family today in my apparent attempt to mate my GMC Yukon XL with a lightning-blue semi-truck.
Nobody knows what time means until it is running out, but unfortunately no one really knows for sure when their time is running out!
I suppose the best thing to do is to keep RUNNING out to meet what brings you your greatest sense of accomplishment and JOY. I would encourage you to "run out" and connect with that if you can on a daily basis.
So tonight: my wife and I cashed in the sky miles we have been saving for the last year or more and bought some airline tickets. We scrimped together all our "fun" money and bought tickets to a quick 3 day Bahama Cruise for us and the kids. I will very likely be completely radioactive in exactly 3 weeks and unable to spend time within 6 feet of ANYONE for a time after that. I want to spend as much time within 6 feet of my kids as reasonably possible until then. I will be leaving next Thursday.
Have a great weekend and know how much I appreciate each of you who take a moment to read these.
XOXO
Chad
