I haven’t been blogging in a while. Sometimes that means there isn’t much to say. In this case, I had things to say but they weren’t mine to say.
In April of this year, my younger brother Roger, started on the path to discovering the growing lump in his leg was a large soft tissue sarcoma. After fits and starts he found a great team of doctors at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in NYC. He endured some very rough chemotherapy and then 5 weeks of radiation. On January 11th a team of surgeons will remove the tumor along with most of his quadricep muscle, they will shift nerves, blood vessels, and other muscles, and replace his femur with a metal rod.
To say he has endured all of this graciously is a huge understatement. HIs wife, Hope, has been his rock. We do what we can, mostly cheering from the sidelines as they are pretty self-sufficient. He posted on Facebook earlier this month, publicly sharing his journey:
I am not sure how we became “the cancer family” and yet here we are. On the upside, he is constantly being told how well he handles everything, how good he looks, how resilient he is (much like I was told during my stem cell transplant and recovery) – so there is that. We are tough, we are strong, we stay positive. We are surrounded by many who love us. And we hold each other close.
The photo is the three of us (my sister, myself and my brother). We pose and my brother says “Stick your tumor out!” and then after we settle down my sister says “Smile if you don’t have cancer!” Honestly, I almost peed my pants.
So we will laugh together, and cry in private. We will be strong, and be strong for each other. And our love will hold us up.
It's Always Something 