Hey guys! Happy New Year to you! I just wanted to write a little note to update you on my journey. Today was my fifth full day off of chemo since starting on December 27th. Hallelujah! I needed this break! I have had to travel to and from Rochester every week, except one (last week),…
Author: backwoodspauli
Greetings From Rochester
December 17, 2023 I am writing to you from my hospital bed at the Mayo Clinic here in Rochester, MN. It was quite the whirlwind ending up here and there are still a lot of unknowns, but I wanted to update you on the current leg of my journey. To do that, I need to…
Good News!
I just want to say thank you to everyone for the prayers and well wishes. I could feel them work and they were answered! The procedure today seemed to go about as good as it could have. Pre-procedure, there was a substantial amount of pressure built up above the narrowed portion of my superior vena…
September Update
Happy fall, y’all! Well…. almost. It sure has that fall feeling in the air, though. The cool crisp morning air that lingers on until late in the day makes me want to curl up by a fire with a cozy blanket. I can hardly believe that two seasons have gone by since my last blog…
Finding Courage
Today is Wednesday, February 8. Since my last visit to Mayo in December, I’ve been doing that ‘avoiding the conversation’ thing that I always do when I struggle to put words together. It’s partly because the hard news I hear from my doctors is not something that I want to partner with. I convince myself…
Long and Overdue
When I started this blog several months ago, I had every intention of writing and publishing several articles a month. I thought that by writing about my life and what I am going through, that I could help others while also helping myself. It turns out it is much harder than I thought it would…
Where Is Summer?
I think I must live in the coldest (populated) place on earth. Today is a “warm” 56 degrees out. I have been patiently waiting for summer weather to arrive since it started cooling off back in September 2021. We had a very, very, long winter with a new state record for snowfall. I can’t remember…
Here’s a Fun Experience from February 2020
This is a journal entry copied from my CB site from back when I was going through the first rounds of radiation. I wanted to share it again because I think about it often. I hope you enjoy it! February 19, 2020 I want to share a faith story of mine with you. It’s pretty…
Summary of Cancer Journey
Now I can start to bring you up to speed with my battle with cancer. In my last post copied from the CB site, I mentioned that I would be going back to Mayo Clinic in March for follow up scans. This is common practice for anyone dealing with cancer. I usually go every three…
Past Post Refresher
This is a post I created on my caringbridge site back in December. I am including it on here as a refresher so I can give an update on my current situation. A lot has happened since December. December 15, 2021 Journal Entry by Pauli — December 15, 2021 Hello again on the eve of another potentially big…