Once Upon a Time...

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Once Upon a Time.... On this very week, 21 years ago, I stepped out of an LDS building on the corner of 22nd and Lawton in San Francisco, CA. A very handsome guy was helping a homeless woman into a car of a friend, and he hugged her goodbye. He turned around and approached me on the front steps with a huge smile and introduced himself. That is how Mark and I met. I was taken right away, I was impressed by everything about him, in the following days I learned more and was very interested in him as a person, as a friend, and well... I asked him out. This is a picture of us lovebirds back in 1992. Honestly, if I knew what lay ahead of us, I wouldn't change a thing. What an adventure we've had!!!! Most of it incredibly awesome, and some of it very challenging. In our cancer journey we've spent 3 years in the battle now, a total of 11 weeks of radiation, 20 consecutive rounds of chemotherapy, dozens of CT scans, 3 surgeries, and far too many days and nights in the hospitals. Dr. Gouw referred to Mark's battle as, "a heroic amount of treatment". We met with our doctor and treatment team yesterday. We received bad news. The ifosfomide isn't working. We will take a two week break and then begin another med, not chemo, in an attempt to slow the growth of the tumors. Mark posted this on his facebook wall last night, "BAD HEALTH NEWS: Despite numberous efforts at chemotherapy, my tumors continue to grow, making my death seem inevitable. The silver lining is that the chemotherapy seems to have greatly slowed the growth of the tumors -- they were super-fast growing at first, and I should have only had a few months to live. Instead, I've had three great years filled with love thanks to you. This is likely my last year of life, but I'll still keep trying to slow the process and hope for a miracle."