Taking stock and moving forward....

Just finished up the holiday season and I have a lot to be thankful for.
In the past 2 weeks there have been several key events in my life.

December 15th Regina and I celebrated our 25th wedding anniversary.
I started out that day with a CT scan in Seattle, but then ended it with a very nice dinner with Regina and some close friends.  It is hard to believe that the time has gone by so fast.
Regina is my biggest fan and advocate, and she loves me bigger and better than anybody possibly could.  I am a better man because of her, and I am so proud of the life that we have made and the family that has come together through our time together.

25 years together...

December 17th I got CT scan results and went for my 9th round of chemotherapy.
The news continues to be good, and the disease process at this point has been "stabilized and minimized".  The amount of active disease noted by radiologists was measured to be 22mm.
This is significantly reduced from baseline and on CT scan my lymph-nodes look basically normal, this is important since the majority of the cancer growth was lymphatic.
Cancer that has spread to my pelvic bone remains stable with continued evidence of healing and no new evidence of disease progression.
My goal is to be deemed NED-"No Evidence of Disease", I am not there yet but I am close.
Treatment will continue indefinitely with chemotherapy every 3 weeks.

December 23/24 I took my daughters to the mountains for skiing/snowboarding.
Snowboarding with my family is my favorite thing in the world to do, 7 months ago when I was diagnosed I wondered if I would ever have that joy again.  Needless to say I was thrilled.

Christmas came on December 25th and it was a low key affair at the Brown house.
My mom came to visit and we spent the day enjoying everybody's company and being thankful for all the blessings that we have.  Santa was very good to the brown girls, myself.... I was just so glad to be here and enjoying life to the fullest extent that I can.

December 27-30 we traveled to Kellogg, Idaho to hit up Silver Mountain ski resort.
The entire family tore up the mountain during the days, and the girls shut down the indoor water park every night.  This was such a great family trip, really what we needed to recharge our batteries and look forward to the coming new year.

The whole Brown crew at Silver Mountain

Wouldn't be me if I wasn't pushing the edge just a little bit.

I spent New Years day back up in the mountains, this time it was just Isabella and myself with bluebird skies and amazing snow conditions.  I would say this was the most joyful day that I have had since diagnosis.  During the course of the day we got to run into some old friends and catch up as well. I am truly a blessed and fortunate man, this is a fact that I will never take for granted.

New Years Day with Isabella

#gobecauseyoucan #choosethemiracle

I am quite happy to say goodbye to 2015, and move on to 2016.
During the last 2 weeks of the year I was able to take important pieces of my life back from cancer.
Currently I am finding a good balance with my disease management. My life cycle is dictated by chemotherapy every 3 weeks, and I can predict pretty well how I am going to feel after treatment and how long it will take me to feel good enough to cram as much "life" as I can in between.
My immediate goal is to get myself to (NED)No Evidence of Disease status.
By the springtime I plan to be in a spot where I can be put back onto "full duty" status and work alongside my brothers and sisters at OFD back on the line.

I am a warrior
I am a thrivor.
I am the exception.
I choose the miracle.

Prayer requests:
Complete healing from metastatic adenocarcinoma.
Peace for myself and my family.

10th round of chemotherapy this Thursday.
Thanks for taking your time to keep up with my journey.

Big Daddy
#holdfast #choosethemiracle
#gobecauseyoucan