Cancer Journal - Wednesday June 19th - Coming Out


I sent an email to the Earley side of the family on Saturday and called my dad and Tam on Friday. I also told Dustin on Friday. Everyone’s responses are as expected, very supportive. I also sent a few select emails to a small group of friends. Today, I “came out” on Facebook. I posted this message:

“Barely into my 50s and my body is playing tricks on me. On Thursday, I got blisters on my feet from simply a brisk but short walk with my wife at lunch time. On Friday, I found out I have colon cancer. And on Sunday, I strained my groin muscle while playing kickball with the kids.”

I wasn’t sure if I was going to do this or not but I decided that it was the best way to share this news with other people that are important to me even if it also means going out to a much larger audience. I’ll admit that I’ve been a little taken aback by the volume of responses. Lots of support, even from people who I thought were really just passively connected to me.

Tomorrow, I’m meeting with the surgeon who was recommended to me by the doctor. He was surprisingly insistent that we meet tomorrow rather than waiting until I get the cat scan results. I hope that’s just someone being proactively interested in my well-being rather than a sign of some urgency that he feels is there based on details from the colonoscopy that I don’t know.


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