Cancer didn’t just change our medical plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
It changed our life plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Before diagnosis, Sue and I imagined retirement unfolding very differently.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Travel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Adventure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Time together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A long-awaited anniversary trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The freedom to finally enjoy some of the things we had worked toward for decades.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Then cancer entered the picture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Plans were canceled.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Timelines changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Priorities shifted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
For a while, it was easy to think about what cancer had taken.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
And some of those losses are real.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pretending otherwise doesn’t make them disappear.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But somewhere along the way, we began asking a different question:<\/p>\n\n\n\n
What is still possible?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n That question changed something.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The retirement dream wasn’t necessarily gone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe it was being rewritten.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The adventure wasn’t over.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Maybe the road had simply changed.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve learned that adapting is not the same thing as surrendering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Sometimes adapting is one of the strongest things you can do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It means acknowledging reality without allowing reality to define every part of your life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n There are still things we want to do.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Places we want to see.<\/p>\n\n\n\n People we want to spend time with.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Stories we want to tell.<\/p>\n\n\n\n And yes, there are still medical appointments, blood tests and uncertainties woven into those plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Every few months, PSA testing can feel like someone presses pause on the future while you wait for a number.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I’ve described it as learning to live in 90-day chapters<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But I don’t want those 90 days to become merely waiting rooms between blood tests.<\/p>\n\n\n\n I want them to contain life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Dinner with family.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A sunset.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A conversation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A road trip.<\/p>\n\n\n\n A laugh with Sue.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Something that has absolutely nothing to do with cancer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Because the goal cannot simply be surviving long enough for the next test.<\/p>\n\n\n\n The goal has to include living between them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Cancer changed our plans.<\/p>\n\n\n\n It didn’t get to steal our purpose.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n And so, the journey shifted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n But the adventure continues.<\/p>\n\n\n\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Adapting, Adjusting and Moving Forward Cancer didn’t just change our medical plans. It changed our life plans. Before diagnosis, Sue and I imagined retirement unfolding very differently. Travel.\u2026<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":169,"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":[2,8,6],"tags":[29,24,15,19],"class_list":["post-168","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-mile-marker-journal","category-hope-stories","category-treatment-and-recovery","tag-cancer-journey","tag-our-story","tag-prostate-cancer","tag-surgery-recovery"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168","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=168"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":170,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/168\/revisions\/170"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/169"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=168"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=168"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/jonesingforthejourney.com\/journal\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=168"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}