This is my journey, on my terms, and I embrace it.
My name is Tom N.. I am a healthy 64-year-old male who was diagnosed with cancer on December 21, 2022. The liver cancer I have is called neuroendocrine or NET. This cancer usually starts somewhere in your body before finding a nice resting place to grow. My body chose the liver. The doctors believe my cancer originated in the pancreas, though I do not have pancreatic cancer, and was not the result of excessive alcohol or any bad eating habits. My primary oncologist said if there is one cancer to get…this is it. But let me be clear, nothing in my life prepared me for a cancer diagnosis. I have been an avid marathon runner, weightlifter, and participant in team sports my entire life. I was happy, healthy, and excited about a post-retirement life filled with travel and adventure. I was excited about the challenges and successes our children would bring to us and being a papa to our grandchildren. Cancer, appeared initially, to alter that path. But I have refused to let cancer define me. I will not let it alter my plans, I refuse to enable it to curb my enthusiasm for life, and I certainly will not let it define me.
I have been extremely fortunate, call it lucky, to have been accepted into an exciting Cancer Trial led by Dr. Gregory Sibley. He speaks with passion and excitement and his enthusiasm for this trial, and all cancer treatments, is infectious. He gives me confidence and hope that my journey will be a successful one.
In the last 22 months I have found others navigating their own cancer journeys. Many with a type of cancer far worse than my predicament, and to share a tale of woe or spend one minute thinking “why me” is disrespectful to them, and a minute wasted from focusing on my objective – to beat cancer and live life to its fullest.
I am fortunate to have a loving, tender, supportive wife, a wonderful group of doctor’s, nurses, medical technicians, and support staff, four children, brothers and a sister, and many friends who ask me about my journey. But I do not dwell on my cancer as there are many more important things to discuss and accomplish. I have not had one depressing day in my life; I have not since I have been diagnosed, and I will not in the future. I focus on being positive and offering support to others who ask for it.
This is my journey, on my terms, and I embrace it.
