There are moments in life when everything becomes divided into two parts: before and after.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For us, cancer created that line.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before the diagnosis, Sue and I were thinking about retirement, travel, our family, and the adventures we believed were waiting just around the corner. We had plans. Lots of them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then, at 59 years old, I heard words I never expected to hear:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
You have prostate cancer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And not just prostate cancer. The biopsy showed aggressive disease, including areas of Gleason 4+5=9 prostate cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Suddenly, retirement plans were replaced by appointments. Travel research became cancer research. Our conversations changed from where we wanted to go next to what treatment we should choose.<\/p>\n\n\n\n One of the strangest parts of receiving a cancer diagnosis is how quickly the rest of the world continues moving.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People are still going to work. Someone is ordering coffee. Traffic is moving. Your phone keeps buzzing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But your world has stopped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n You begin learning a new language\u2014Gleason scores, grade groups, imaging, margins, lymph nodes, treatment options. And somehow, while trying to understand all of that, you are also expected to make decisions that may affect the rest of your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n That was our first Mile Marker.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Not because we had any answers.<\/p>\n\n\n\n We didn’t.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It was the moment we realized the road we thought we were traveling had changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I also began learning something that would eventually become central to Jonesing for the Journey:<\/p>\n\n\n\n Never make an important decision based on a single piece of information.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Ask questions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Then ask another one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And when you think you understand the answer, make sure you understand what it means for you<\/em>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Looking back, I don’t think courage began when I chose a treatment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I think courage began much earlier.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It began the moment we accepted that the journey had changed\u2014and decided we were still going to move forward.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The diagnosis changed the map. It did not end the journey.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n Next Mile Marker: The Decision \u2014 Choosing a path forward when there is no perfect answer.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" The Day Everything Changed There are moments in life when everything becomes divided into two parts: before and after. For us, cancer created that line. Before the diagnosis,\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":151,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_wp_convertkit_post_meta":{"form":"-1","landing_page":"0","tag":"0","restrict_content":"0"},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[29,24,15],"class_list":["post-150","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mile-marker-journal","tag-cancer-journey","tag-our-story","tag-prostate-cancer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=150"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":157,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/150\/revisions\/157"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/151"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=150"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=150"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=150"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}