STILL IN MIAMI (FOR NOW)

Well, I did just make reservations to go to South Africa. We are leaving in the 3rd week of February and shall be there for over a month. I am psyched!! Then home again at the end of March to get a Pet Scan to see whether or not the medicine, (or poison), I am taking is actually working. Hopefully, it is. But it is quite unbelievable that I can be on a pill for over three months and not know that it is working, or that it is doing nothing at all or perhaps it is killing one of my organs. It is a crap shoot. Doctors today are all making educated guesses when they prescribe the various medicines that are available. Yes, there is a protocol to which medications are prescribed first and when and how much, but if the milligrams are tweaked, or another medicine is substituted or any variation is made, no one knows if it will work. That is why who your doctor is, is so important.

And now I find out that my doctor is retiring in May. That is May 2023, a few months away. I now have the added burden of finding a good – no, an exceptional, doctor. But I will. They are out there. But there are many doctors out there that are of little or no value. Actually they can even do harm. My doctor who I was seeing prior to finding out that I have Stage 4 Cancer did me more harm than good. He did not find the lump on my breast. How could he, he did not physically examine me at my bi-annual medical exam. Have you ever heard of a breast oncologist to not touch your breasts during an exam? Unheard of. This was shocking, because he always had done so in my previous examinations. I went back to see him again about 6 months later, because it was during Covid, (hard to find a new doctor at the time), and I thought that things would be different this time. But no, it was not. I right then and there decided to find a new doctor. But alas, a few weeks later I found the lump myself and I later found out that the cancer had spread. Is it all the doctors fault, no, was I negligent in not seeking a new doctor right away, well yes. But these things happen. Find a good doctor so it does not happen to you.

As I said, I am going to S. Africa for a month and then coming home for my Pet Scan. I have also made reservations to leave Miami 10 days later after the Pet Scan to go to Vietnam for a month. Then after Vietnam to Thailand and then to Bali each for a month. My feelings are, if my Pet Scan is clean, then I stay on the same medication, so I will go on my trip and I will return home in 3 months for another Pet Scan. If I have to change medications again, then I will go on the new medication and if I feel good I will go on my trip. Once again it will take three months to know if the new medication is working by having a Pet Scan. So why not go and enjoy myself. Why not travel and have fun.

So long as I am capable of traveling and so long as I am in no pain, I am going! I will live my life to the fullest. I will take everyday as a gift!

Life is not merely surviving!!!