Category Archives: Stupid Cancer

Cancer is stupid.

Six Months at a Time

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An excerpt of this column originally appeared as a special to the Kenosha News, Sunday Mornings With Basil Willis, May 6, 2012.

Two years ago when I started writing this column I had just finished chemo, radiation and surgery, the holy trinity of cancer care. I wrote about it at the time, but since then I’ve only mentioned it once in passing. I am sick of stupid cancer. Sick of talking about it, sick of seeing too many people I know fight it or die from it, sick of paying for it and sick of living with it. But here we are.

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Obamacare – How to Explain it to a Ten Year-Old

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This is a good, simple explanation of what Obamacare is and isn’t. I am copying it from here because the original was so horribly formatted and hard to read.

What people call “Obamacare” is actually the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. However, people were calling it “Obamacare” before everyone even hammered out what it would be. It’s a term mostly used by people who don’t like the PPACA, and it’s become popularized in part because PPACA is a really long and awkward name, even when you turn it into an acronym like that.

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Cancer Changes Everything

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Just had medi-port installed. Through this port I would receive all my chemo, anti-nausea medicine and fluids. Also very convenient for blood draws. Best decision I made thoughout the process. It’s either a port or get the veins blown out in your arms.

This My Turn column originally appeared in the Kenosha News on February 19, 2010.

Writing the My Turn column has been a fantastic experience. I want to thank Steve Lund and the Kenosha News for letting me do it. The only downside of this process was having the worst picture ever taken of me published next to my words. Maybe a caricature would have been better.

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Merry Christmas. You have cancer.

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Me and Beth at Mayo (I’ll let you guess which one) on December 23rd. We had just been told I have stage 3 esophageal cancer. Odds of survival are about 30%.

This was an email I sent to friends and family on December 14, 2009.

Some of the fifty or so people getting this email know parts of the story, and some of you haven’t heard any of it. I’ve been debating on how best to let people know, and it seems email is the most efficient. I wanted to get everyone that Beth and I care about up to speed on what is happening.

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Cancer Timeline

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The complete timeline of my battle with stupid cancer.

Diagnosis

Sept 2009 – Bad acid reflux and trouble swallowing for two weeks. It was getting to the point where it would wake me up at night. Sought medical attention at Aurora Medical Center in Kenosha, Mike Jacobs, PA. Mike orders blood test.

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