A Grateful Heart: Bud Goodall is cancer-free!

I love a good reason to celebrate! Photo by shilders from stock.xchng

I was walking Goliath in the foggy (or froggy as we like to say) Sacramento evening, using my cell phone flash light app to light our path. Soon I met our new neighbor, also out walking his dog. We played the getting-to-know-you game, e.g. where'd you move from, what do you do, who's this wiggling labrador sniffing Goliath's man parts? Sadly, our neighbors' move to the block was not by choice. Like many in this day and age, they'd lost their business and then their house. For the first time in their 33-year marriage, they were renting. My new neighbor remarked how difficult and often depressing the world is right now. I didn't disagree.

Back inside my toasty house, I left a pot of Thanksgiving turkey soup simmering on the stove to check Facebook. I learned that for today at least, my neighbor was wrong. Dead wrong. The world is a marvelous place because every so often miracles happen. I am thrilled to report that Bud Goodall, prolific writer and dear professor, is cancer-free! This news falls under the "miracle" category in that just six months ago Bud was diagnosed with stage four pancreatic cancer, a veritable death sentence.

Bud explains it well in his jubilant status update:
"EXCELLENT NEWS! Not only was the all-day part of my last chemo round easy, but my CA-19 marker from the blood work came back at 32!!! Any number up to 37 means I am "cancer free!" This doesn't mean I am cured but it does mean there is no cancer activity in my body. We are soooooo thankful! And thanks to all of you for all you have given to us - the prayers, the love, the caring, the compassion, the kind words and encouragement, the poems, the songs, the friendship - together, as a family and as a community, we have triumphed in a major way that as Jan told us this morning - herself a cancer survivor and now a caregiver at Four Winds - is nothing short of a MIRACLE!"

Congratulations Bud (and family)! I hope the cancer continues to stay away!

xoxo,
shawna

P.S. To read about Bud's poignantly narrated journey through Cancerland, visit: http://www.hlgoodall.com/blog.html