Copy of our email sent to family and friends. Written June 25, 2016;
June 26, 2016
Marty and I just returned from our amazing travel expedition
with National Geographic to the Arctic close to the North Pole. I am
excited to tell you a little about our trip, but also have a personal message
to share with you, so please read to the end of this email.
Our adventure on the ice class expedition ship, The Explorer,
was appropriately named: The Land of the Polar
Bears. How fortunate we were to see many awesome bears – some
close up - some in the distance – sometimes 1 or 2 but on a rare
sighting, we saw a mother bear with her three cubs. (Very
unusual to have 3!)
...And now we have returned home to another less exciting journey
we are about to begin. In mid-April, I
was diagnosed with a very rare type of uterine cancer – a neuroendocrine
carcinoma. (This is a new cancer, unrelated to my breast cancer of 23 years
ago.) I felt terrific and had no symptoms at all, so
this was quite a shock. What followed was a complete hysterectomy on May 4th. Hopefully, the surgeon was able to get all
the cancer with this procedure. This very aggressive cancer is extremely rare
in the uterus. The result is that there is no definitive way of treating
it. What they will do is treat it the
way they would if it had shown up in other more common places such as the lungs
or cervix. (In other words, treatment
for this condition is what I refer to as a “crap shoot.”) The prognosis is
unknown. Marty has been by my side the
entire time. As most of you know, he
began a long-planned retirement (after 48+ years with Morgan Stanley) which was perfect timing for what was to come
next.
How are we coping? So
far, reasonably okay. “Reasonably”
because all this came as a shock to us as much as it is a surprise to you. As you know, we love to travel. We are maintaining our plans at the end of
August to be in Jerusalem (a big celebration for Marty’s cousins’ 90th
and 80th birthdays and their 60th anniversary.) From there we will travel to Spain where our
nephew Aaron (Marty’s late sister’s son) will be married to Veronica in Bilbao
on September 16th.
Now for some brief details: Treatment will consist of radiation
and concomitant chemo. My first chemo session is Monday, June 27th. (You can check our blog for more specific
information.) We are preparing ourselves
for what lies ahead, hoping that this detour in our lives will go quickly with
good results. I’ve set aside the month
of July to focus on all of this. I am
determined to fight it as much as is humanly possible. But life is often not in
our own hands, so I will just continue to live life to the fullest when I am
able. Each day will be a gift.
Some of you may wonder why we didn’t share this information
with you sooner. The answer is three-fold:
* With all the happy celebrations and special travels that
awaited us, we did not want any focus on my health issues. We made a decision to keep our lives as
“normal” as possible until treatment began. We continued our travels to New York, Boston
and DC and then on to our arctic adventure.
This was a good way to distract us and keep our lives as “normal” as
possible until we began this detour.
* There were a lot of unknowns, hence it made sense to wait
until we had a clearer picture of what was ahead of us.
* And lastly, while I am very appreciative of the support I
have always gotten from family and friends, I was trying to avoid dealing with
numerous phone calls and emails which take up time and energy while continually
repeating the same information to different people. Marty and I gave this a lot of thought, and
decided the best way to communicate this to all of you, was to do it at the
same time, with the same information, so
that nothing got “lost in translation”.
Hence, this email.
We will take advantage of 21st century technology
and post occasional updates on a blog we have set up for this purpose. If you have any interest in being kept
informed, that will be the best way to do so.
You can access the blog in the following way:
If you would like to reach out directly to us or have
questions, we have set up a special email account for this. Please use this address to communicate with
us if it is related to Judy’s health :
So, my dear friends and family, my message to you is to hug
your loved ones, live each day to the fullest, take time to smell the roses, do
the things you’ve put off for “later”, and enjoy the gift of life. Do not take anything for granted.
In the meantime, we are thinking positively and will go down
this path knowing we have a lot of support and love holding us up.
I am one very lucky person to have all of you in my life. And I plan to continue to smell those roses
and live life to the fullest as long as I am able.
Carpe diem!
~Judy~
(with Marty by my side)
