This time last year...

...I was celebrating still being alive despite having stage IV metastatic melanoma in both lungs

...I was still recovering from my 2nd lung surgery just 3.5 months earlier

...I was still recalling the breath-taking cycles (literally!) of high-dose immunotherapy the previous summer

...I was recalling an absent friend whose leukemia took his life the previous summer

...I was wondering whether I was on the tail end of my journey through the hell that is cancer...and hoping that I was near the end

...I was looking toward one more lung surgery

Now a year has passed:

--I'm feeling great! (well, for an old guy...*smile*)

--Incredibly, I have been sent home three times in a row from M.D. Anderson with no additional surgery required

--My next visit is in February

--I've just purchased some new running shoes & plan to put them to good use this year. (note: "running" here needs to be broadly defined...)

I'm currently pondering my goals for the year...and feeling like the luckiest man on the face of the earth.

Most grateful,
bb