Too much time since the last post.

And by waiting all this time, I now have reason to post that I don't really care for. A reason tht really stinks, but I do want everyone to know about. And since those that are the closest to me want me to start journaling, I guess it would be right to let it all hang out so to speak. Near the end of Tall Stacks, my dream job of last year, I started hving swallowing problems. right away I told Kevin Budke, my doctor and friend who suggested an upper GI series, wondering if a potassium pill that I had been taking might have burned the inside of my Eshofagu (okay so I can't spell medical things). Well anyway the xrays showed that I was a heavy drinker (NOT) and the my lower Eshofagus was enlarged. Well, Kevin didn't care for that diagnosis so he immeditely ordered a specialist to go in my throat and look. On the next Thursday, down they went and to our surprise he discovers this big ol'e tumor residing in the lower third of my Eshogagus and into my stomach. It was late thrusday so we had to wait til monday for any biopsy results and sure enough when we met with Dr. Tarshis on Monday in his office, in the evening, he did tell us that it was indeed cancerous. It was a hard wekend for the kids since we chose not to wait for the results to tell them. Well now the fun part. Cindy and I had been awarded a free trip to Hawaii for the next week and it was a trip of her dreams. The doc mentioned not cancelling it too fast so we didn't. The next day he rushed me into a full CT scan so that my radiation doctor and Chemo doctor would have pictures to see and meet with us on thursday and concur that we can go to Hawaii and then get right back to to an agressive treatment plan. The next day the news got worse when they found it to be stage 4 in my lymph system as well. So now the ladies told us to enjoy Hawaii for sure, since they needed at least that week to adjust the treatment plan. The are two highly recommentded porfessionals and work well as a team and Cindy and I are very confident in their skills. So off to Hawaii we went!!