The Dog Days Are Over

It's time to add another song to my cancer-killing soundtrack, and this one is especially meaningful for me now that surgery is over, my scans are cleared, my body is healing, and I can see my new and improved normally-scheduled life at the end of the tunnel.

This Florence + the Machine song repeats the line "The dog days are over" throughout the song, and this joyful statement has become my post-surgery mantra. Yes, I still need to fully heal these incision wounds, work my way back up to physical fitness, and blast through five more rounds of chemo, but consider what I've got under my belt. A portacath placed in my chest. Eight rounds of chemotherapy. Endless bloodwork and CT scans. Lots of barium drinks. Two surgeries totaling 14 hours, resulting in a resected colon and small intestine, a complete hysterectomy, removal of my gall bladder and spleen and peritoneum and xyphoid process. And total annihilation of Stage IV colon cancer. 

I've learned all the lessons that this cancer had to teach me: about how to eat, exercise, meditate, de-stress, relax, and live healthily in super-HDTV. I've met incredible people along the way: Ramos, Lenz, Sugarbaker, Mary Ellen, Judy Worsley, Howard, and Coach K, to name a few. I've strengthened my relationships with family and friends and colleagues. 

And, incredibly...amazingly...I'm cancer-free. 

The dog days -- the days of physical struggle and medical uncertainty -- are over. And life couldn't feel more fresh and new, glittering with opportunity and shining with beauty.