Kathy,

My wife has already been amazing. She's thrown herself into making this as good as it can be. She bought me a recliner to sleep in on the bad days and is having my artist daughter rig up a "crown" to go with what I'm calling my "caner trhone" -- it really is an ugly ****ing chair. She's telling all of the worst jokes (which I actually enjoy -- I refuse to be cowed into being "sensitive" about this) and she's doing more reading and research than I am to prepare us for the treatments. With the HPV diagnosis, she jumped on board with what a friend of mine is calling "the coolest cancer your can get if you have to have cancer" and telling everyone that it means I'm incredibly accomplished at certain things, and I now have the diagnosis to prove it. Hope that's not too crass for the forum -- it just makes me laugh every time she says it.

As you can guess, I'm not exactly reserved, not exactly appropriate and most certainly not above taking cheap shots at myself of this stupid disease. We have done some crying and worrying and yelling at the gods of fate about the unfairness of it all, but we're going to do everything we can to maintain the best possible attitude for as long as possible, and she's going to be the best help I can have doing so.

I'll ask if she wants to check in. Meanwhile, I appreciate your kind words and advice. With luck, we'll learn not to worry and just fight the fight once we get started.

Thank you!!

The Hellion