It's Lego Time

If your name is Mason or Nolan and your mom has been using the word cyberknife lately, then this is for you.

No, I didn't build this one, but I'll bet you two could. A Lego cyberknife is definitely cool.

We think your mom is pretty cool too.

Sending smiles and prayers for your whole family,

Steve and Carla

Pomp and Circumstance

Westminster College, Class of 2012

The graduate and his awesome family

Steven Curtis Chamberlin

Bachelor of Science

Computer Science
Summa Cum Laude

On June 2, 2012 I graduated from Westminster College, Salt Lake City, Utah.

Yes, sir. I finally figured out what I wanted to be when I grew up.

I'm the one in the black gown

On the very left of the stage about to receive my diploma

Saying goodbye to one of my professors

Afterwards with my parents

And my sister

And my favorite niece and her husband

And my best friend, Mark

Not to forget the really cool bag pipes

Thank you to all who supported me along the way!

Carole's Service

Please read this post by Shents for a beautiful and touching account of Carole's service.

For Our Favorite Pencil Sharpener

Hi Ang. We are sending you calm and peaceful thoughts as you start back on chemo today.

And something else to keep in mind...

You have our prayers as well.
Much luv, Steve and Carla

A Stitch in Time

So I am going to bed shortly because I get to wake up at 4:30 tomorrow morning. That's because I will be checking into the hospital at 6:00 a.m. for a 7:20 surgery. Remember that incisional hernia I mentioned a few weeks back? It's fix it time.

Plan A is to go in laparoscopically, patch things up, examine the rest of my incision from the inside, maybe have the surgeon tattoo mine and Carla's initials on the back side of my naval and then send me home tomorrow afternoon. I am feeling bloated already.

Here's to a restful weekend.

Forwarded Update on Carole

From Carole's Facebook page:

"Update on Carole. Since being taken into hospital by ambulance early hours Thursday morning, my lovely sister Carole is loosing the flight. She will be moved from the hospital into the hospice when a bed is available where they will care for her on her final journey which I wish to be kind and peaceful for her"

From the UK Cancer Chat forum:

Hi everyone, my name is Sarah. I am Carole's little sister. Carole has given me permission to use her account and I just wanted to thank you all soooo much for all the support you have given to my sister over the last 2 years. I believe, that just by having somewhere to come and vent and also be able to support others has somehow made this illness easier to bear. Although, I can't imagine what my sister has had to go through or any of you for that case, it gave me hope that my sister had such good cyber friends and that you all take the time to pick one another up, even if its with just a few words.

No one should be alone through times of illness, worry, stress and confusion. I see there are many people on here that were not as lucky as my sis and not having the love of family or friends around them. This is something I would dread in my life and am grateful for this forum that you all can find yourself grabbing some sane moments from others that actually care online.

Anyway, I'm not great at writing, my sis to me always wrote beautifully. Those of you that read her blog may agree. She encouraged me to "blog" my way through living in Greece the last 2 years, but I was useless. Now however, I wish I did as there are many moments that I would have liked to re read as life seems to go to quickly. However, I did blog about her visit to see me in Rhodes last March so it will be lovely to have that clear memory in writing and photos.

So guys, Update on my lovely sis,

"Carole was moved into the hospice today where she can rest for her final journey. Her wish is to NOT have visitors outside of our immediate family. I'm sure you can understand that. She has no energy at all now and cannot do much for herself apart from sipping a drink. She still has much pain but I believe my sister will be at peace very soon. Anytime will be too soon for me selfishly but I want her to have her wish and die peacefully and with dignity. I sat with her yesterday for 4 hours and held her hand. She told me how much she loves me and I told her how much I love her. We have been best friends since she was expecting her baby James, 31 years ago. I was 11 years old and she was just 19. I will miss her terribly, but for now I will stay strong as it is not me that is dying. I will visit her tomorrow and will come back to update you all."

Love and peace to you all.

Sarah (lit sis) xx

Sarah and Carole in Rhodes

We love you, Carole!

You have a gift of making people feel like they are your best friend and that they are special. No one feels so alone in your love. You genuinely care for others. Thank you for your support, your friendship, and your love.

We are with you on your final journey.

All our love, thoughts and prayers,
Steve, Carla and Family

Sweet Sixteen

Each Sunday morning since Christmas I have weighed myself on our bathroom scale.

In six weeks I have lost 16 pounds.

For Christmas I gave my wife 50 pounds of sugar and a 10 gallon fish tank for storing the sugar. She looked at me quizzically until I explained.

My present to her was a promise to loose 50 pounds by my 50th birthday five months away. The sugar represents the weight I have to loose and the junk food I am giving up to loose the weight.

For each pound I loose, I remove one pound of sugar from the fish tank. We can all see the sugar level going down.

So far I have given my wife 31% of her Christmas present. She is very happy about that.

I made my sweet sixteen!

Done and Dusted

I have been following four cancer blogs since just after my own diagnosis.

Fiona's blog, Onwards and Upwards, is the only one of those that was not about colorectal cancer. She was diagnosed with liver cancer.

She was also diagnosed with hepatitis and cirrhosis. Her poor liver took a triple hit.

The real conundrum is how did she get hepatitis and how did it go undiscovered and untreated for some 25 years, especially considering her consistently heathy and active lifestyle.

It took cancer to expose the hepatitis and the years of liver damage left in its wake.

Like me, Fiona is on the other side of her cancer treatment. We both go in for quarterly checkups.

Fiona also monitors her hepatitis on a regular basis. She just posted her January clinic results.

Now I am not a nurse like she is, and I don't even try to write the type of technical posts she churns out. But it doesn't take a heppy doc (her affectionate term for hepatitis doctor) to realize that she just got some pretty descent news.

So this post is for you, Fiona.

Well done, my done and dusted friend!

Dreaming of Spring

This is my friend Tony dreaming of spring.

Winter and chemotherapy

are keeping him and his bike

inside right now.

Sweet dreams, my friend. Sweet dreams!

Incisional Hernia

It turns out that about 15% of abdominal surgery patients develop incisional hernias.

So NOW they tell me!

My rectal surgeon referred me to a hernia surgeon to get mine fixed. This will be surgery number three for me. Cancer certainly leaves its mark!

I saw my rectal surgeon yesterday for my three monthly check up. He put his nifty little camera up my bum again to see how things are healing inside. Carla was with me and got to watch the whole thing on the monitor. She said my insides looked pink and healthy. I thought she was pretty lucky to be there. Not everybody gets to see this side of me. My surgeon told me that my anastomosis was almost invisible in places and that I was a great healer.

From all reports I'd have to say I'm doing a good job keeping it together. :-)) Too bad I'm not doing so well keeping it all in...

Extra! Extra!

Read All About It!

If you thought the movie was great, now you can read the book!

That's all 12 months of my cancer blog

squished into 112 pages...

...including many of your comments,

plus never before seen photographs

from our Alaska Cruise at the end of treatment!

Thanks for the inspiration, Lisa (Shents). Carla and I presented each of our children with their own copy. That was the best part of the project. We realized that my blog was the only record of my journey through cancer.

I was able to make the book completely accessible on the publisher's web site if anyone is interested in viewing it online. Just click on this image.

Like Lisa, I have made it available for sale at cost. The idea was to preserve a tough year of my life for my posterity, not to make money on a book. When we purchased the books for our children, I went to Google and searched for "blurb coupon code". That got me 20% off our order!

We hope you enjoy the book. It was a lot of fun putting it together.

Once Upon a Time

Once upon a time there lived a young man who loved his Father very much.

When the young man was diagnosed with cancer he did not ask his Father, "Why me?"

Instead, he asked his Father to "Pretty please (with sugar on top)" accompany him on the dark and scary journey that lay ahead.

And it came to pass that a very loving Heavenly Father heard the pleas of his son and granted his request.

From that very moment the tender mercies of the Lord began to pour forth upon the young cancer patient to the comfort of his soul and the blessing of he and his family.

In due course, four angelic emissaries from Cancerland emerged in his path. Their names were Carole of London, Fiona of Bollington, Angela of Kent, and Tony of Matlock.

The strength and support, the example and encouragement, the love and laughter of these four friends proved most effective in vanquishing the vicissitudes of cancer.

This is but one example of the team effort needed to fight cancer. Truly the young man was blessed in his journey.

Ever after he remembered with fondness these four fighting cancer warriors and the unbounded love of a Heavenly Father for each of His children.

May we all live happily ever after to the end of our days in the arms of our Father's love.

The End

“The Lord's tender mercies are the very personal and individualized blessings, strength, protection, assurances, guidance, loving-kindnesses, consolation, support, and spiritual gifts which we receive from and because of and through the Lord Jesus Christ.” ~David A. Bednar