July 20th, 2013
Gonna be hard to pull in all the slack, so I’ll hit the
important stuff….note that I didn’t say highlights, cause that isn’t the proper
terminology.
I have been connected with a guy out in Boston who has the
same cancer, and has begun treatment about a month ago. Same stuff, little
different treatment. I encouraged him to post just like I have done, and he
did. They are treating him a bit differently, from all indications a tad more
aggressively, if that is even possible. His name is Mark Petit. His blogspot
address is
He’s battling, and working hard. He’s the first guy I have
been able to reach down and try to help up the mountain, the first guy with
this same cancer. His approach isn’t the same as mine, he just got his feeding
tube, and he is struggling. Feel free to check in with him and tell him you’re
on my team and that he can do it.
Back to me…..the end of this month will be ONE YEAR since
the end of treatment. I have been told that time will pass in such a way that
you’ll look back and wonder when you were even in treatment. I’m not there yet,
but coming up on a year is great. My radiologist told me this past week that my
recovery is in the 98th percentile of fellas with this cancer. He
doesn’t see this kind of improvement till sometimes 2 years out.
I feel good. I am back at the Club working out, sweating
hard, getting my leg stronger after that almost 5 month bout with sciatica…..that
was a bitch, and took me seriously off track. We got our vacation in June, over
to Wailea, Maui with my sister and her family along with Mary & Matt
Kircher and their family. That was a beautiful thing, I spent my birthday, June
14th, up on the top deck of Mick Fleetwood’s (Fleetwood Mac’s
drummer) restaurant watching the sun set over Lanai and listening to a cool band
with Kiki while Sammy watched a movie back at the Pioneer Inn. That might have
been the greatest exhale of my life, other than the one in March where I was
told I am currently showing NED….No Evidence of Disease. We stayed there one
night while waiting for the clan to arrive and transfer over to the nicest
house I’ve ever stayed in on a point in Wailea. Thanks to PA & Matt for winning
the OLA auction and treating us.
We also recently returned from San Diego for a long weekend,
stayed at Club Red (MY moniker for Bill Walton’s home and grounds) in Balboa
Park. BW graciously offers his home to our family at every turn. Kiki and I
stayed in the “Grateful Dead Room” (imagine that) while Sammy and his buddy
alternated between the “Bob Dylan Room” and the teepee out in the desert part
of the grounds. The garden is maintained by the same folks who tend to the San
Diego Zoo, so at any time, I’m looking for a chimp to swing from tree to tree.
He also has the world’s greatest spa, with waterfalls, rocks, caves, OH MY.
That was a great getaway. Some of you saw us in the front row behind the plate
TH night, and then we took in Lincecum’s no-hitter on Saturday night, after
enjoying a wonderful dinner with Billy Kennedy, my classmate from both SI and
SCU, an old friend and arguably the greatest heckler I have ever known. Most of
my stuff is original, but I will tell you that Billy was my greatest influence!
A couple of realities….anxiety….still get it, still cope
with it, the net net is that as I have mentioned before, my “hourglass” has
turned over and I realize I am now living the rest of my life…..the anxiety is
weird, fleeting, but understand, definitely NOT winning out. I’m eating well,
if not more slowly, I have my weight at about 180, and am reading a book we ALL
should read called “Younger Next Year,” by Chris Crowley and Henry Lodge MD.
These guys talk about what it really takes to live into your 70’s and 80’s in a
healthy, happy and fit way. It takes all the perception we have about what we
would consider exercise and turns it on its head. We are simply fooling ourselves if we think
walking on a golf course or taking the dog for a walk is doing the trick. These
guys are about heart rate and more. I can’t describe how motivational it is….or
maybe depressing, depending on how you look at it. Check it out, I urge you,
especially the fellas reading this blog.
It’s the fitness thing I missed, not to say I was fit (not
by this book’s definition) but just the getting out and getting the heart
going. I’m up to ½ a mile in the pool at the Club, and the goal there is a mile
by the fall. That’s 72 lengths, and that isn’t that easy….but it sure does beat
the alternative, which I do recall. It’s a good buzz. Coupled with more
stretching and throwing some weights around, it’s starting to come around.
Selling houses, and at this rate, I will beat last year, which
was my best year ever! So, that’s exciting. Hosting a big group at ATT Park for
Grateful Dead night on August 5th, Bill will be back up for that as
the grand host, and lots of my tour buddies will be with us.
My last blog closed with a reflection on John Bacchini, who
we lost in April…..sure as shit, I’ve got another sick classmate from SI ’75,
Jerome Williams. Jerome has been like a brother to me for many, many years, and
was one of my very TOP supporters this past year. Now, he needs y’all’s love
and prayers, as he has an aggressive prostate cancer that he has only recently
learned of…..he has a major battle on his hands, and this one has hit me square
in the gut, hard…..I love Jerome and his beautiful wife Cheryl. He is the cat
that organizes our annual trip to see Tower of Power….his folks hailed from New
Orleans where his mother sang and his father played the drums and jazz trumpet.
He is currently working on scholarship programs for African American students
in San Francisco that wish to attend SI. He is a leader, an inspiration, a
lover of life and a deep thinker. He is my brother and I pray for him every day.
Those of you who know him know what I am talking about….to those of you who don’t,
can you send some of that great juju you sent and continue to send to me, and parse
some of it over to Jerome? He needs it more than I do now. Surgery, chemo,
radiation, it’s all on its way, and he needs the love. Do it for me, and do it
for ‘Rome…..he’ll feel it, cause that’s how he is.
Thanks again, Bucko, for getting me to the keyboard, and
thanks for reading all the way through.
Signing off as TomCat,
