One year ago today I was wheeled into an operating room and a cancerous left tonsil and 37 lymph nodes were removed from my throat and neck. That was just the beginning…

I do know two things: The world is a wonderful place and I am happy to be alive.

“Surgery has cured you. Radiation would be over-treating.

The "cavern" (dotor’s word, not mine) in my throat is filling back in well, for instance.

In all of about 20 minutes we had overcome what I had been afraid would be a major obstacle.

This is what we were hoping for - the gamble of the last-minute switch to surgery -  and it appears to have paid off.

With a cooling breeze and the warming sun both dancing across my bald head, I began to wake up and feel more and more alive.

…instead of waking up in Paris or Amsterdam, groggy from not enough sleep, bloated and gassy from airplane food, I will be waking up in a hospital bed, high on quality medications and hooked up to a whole mess of tubes.

“So, we are doing surgery then?”

Sharing with siblings, parents and friends has a fortifying effect.

A very treatable disease. But treatment sucks.

I bounced back after a couple of minutes and he finished with the syringes. Then it was time to scrape my throat. He numbed me up and took a couple of small chunks of tissue. This wasn't too bad. Much better than the needles in the neck.