I'm Doug Muder. Deb Bodeau is my wife. We're in our 50s and have been married since 1984. We're the kind of couple who finish each other's sentences and give a significant amount of thought each day to the question of how to make each other happy.
Deb was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1996. It was a harrowing experience, with nine months of really intense treatment. I thought she would die; she thought she would live. I was happy to be wrong.
In 2003 she had a completely different cancer. Even the surgeon had trouble figuring out what kind of tumor it was, and I was once again pretty sure she was dying until a few days later when the pathologist identified it as a gastro-intestinal stromal tumor (GIST) that would respond to the new miracle drug Gleevec.
Return to normal. Eight years go by.
Last week the semi-annual CT scan found something in her liver. We're having it biopsied the day after tomorrow.
For the earlier cancers, I sent news via email to our friends and relatives, and collected my emails on a web page. They make a compelling story. I sometimes get email from strangers who are dealing with their own (or their spouse's) health problems.
I'm still sending the emails, but it seems obvious now that these belong on a blog rather than a 1990s-style web page.
The update that's missing from the web page is from last fall -- I didn't write one. I had stopped worrying about the semi-annual CT scans and assumed everyone else had too. This time, I wasn't happy to be wrong.
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