A year and a half after the “Big Surgery”, I gave conference papers in Leeds (in July) and in Birmingham (in August), with several weeks of research at the Bodleian Library in Oxford bridging the weeks between the two conferences. On my last day in Leeds, and throughout my first week in Oxford, I had some pretty intense pain in my chest. This, I found out later, was my transverse colon and greater omentum forcing their way up through my esophageal hiatus.… And in October of 2020, history repeated itself.…
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I’m sorry to leave you all wondering about last month’s surgery! It’s now been exactly four weeks, and that’s an inexcusably long time to keep you in suspense.
tl;dr: I’m fine.…
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The good news — and we need to remember that it’s very good news! — is that (on more-or-less the second anniversary of the big surgery) I just had my fifth follow-up CT-scan and there is no sign of any return of the cancer. Hooray! …
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Karen just reminded me that I should let you all know that I had my six-month follow-up check-up at the end of June, and that there was no sign of any cancer. (I didn’t send an update then, because they were concerned about elevated bilirubin levels — but it looks now as if these are due to a completely benign condition called Gilbert’s Syndrome — so that’s all right!) It’ll be another 4½ years before they’ll give me the “all clear,” but for this particular cancer, the first year is by far the most likely time for any recurrence. So this is really good news! …
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Hi, everyone! Just a quick update to let you know that I’m still here. Life is nearly back to normal (although I look out the mid-April windows at ice and snow and a gray sky that hasn’t broken in more than a week and I wonder!).…
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