The seven-year bitch

This past Wednesday marks seven cancer-free years for me, which, according to my oncologist, is a big deal. It’s essentially the milestone where the chances of recurrence approach zero, especially for guys like me. There are five prognostic factors that indicate your level of future risk, and each is assigned a point to assess your risk:

• Age: 1 point if you’re over 60.
• Stage: 1 point if you’re beyond stage 3
• Lymphoma location: 1 point if it’s in more than one organ outside of lymph nodes
• Ability to complete daily activities: 1 point if you need a lot of help
• Serum LDH: 1 point if it’s high.

By the newest index, I’m in the “very good” category, with no risk factors. That puts my 4-year survival rate at 95%, and that’s measured in years from initial remission. But the long and short of it is this – seven years is the benchmark I was given that I was essentially cured.

Now that’s not a word oncologists tend to use. Complete or permanent remission is most common, but it doesn’t much matter. Statistically, I’m more likely to die of something other than the cancer I had.

As we do every year, we had meatballs to celebrate another year having passed. Like I said, this was a big one.

So why does it feel like a non-event?

Statistically I'm more likely to die of something other than cancer. W celebrated 7 years past. This was a big one. Why does it feel like a non-event? Click To Tweet

It’s weird to have a disease that you’re essentially not dealing with for a long time, and then all of a sudden, just by the passage of time, you’re declared cured. It’s kinda hard to wrap your mind around it.

Don’t get me wrong, by the way. I’m grateful to be here, to have survived what could well have been tragic. Very little pleases me more, to be honest.

But so much time has passed. Annie was in elementary school. She’s a sophomore in high school now. We’ve lived in three different houses in three different towns. I’ve had three different jobs since then. We’ve closed a company, and bought a house. I’ve owned four different cars and at least five motorcycles. That time seems like a lifetime ago.

Maybe that’s the point. It’s a lifetime ago. And I’m glad to have been here to experienced it all.