I’m late to the Stranger Things craze. But my daughter is a huge fan, and is now making her second pass through all the episodes while I’m still in season 1. There’s a sequence early on where a kid, Will, goes missing, and the mother, Joyce, is, of course, distraught. She has this very real-to-her experience of knowing Will is still alive, and that knowing comes through some hard-to-believe interactions with lamps and Christmas lights. (The show eludes any brief explanations,

My friend, Jeff, and I have known each other now for over thirty years, having met back in our college days. When my wife and I moved to Austin in 2008, Jeff was the first friend I reconnected with. Ever since, we’ve managed to keep a pretty consistent schedule of meeting up for some physical activity and/or dinner. And though our wilder days are behind us, we are still able to regularly find some good laughs.  Back in November, the news of the most recent metastasis of my co

There’s a thought I often come back to during these cancer experiences. It’s something like “I wouldn’t wish this cancer experience on anyone, but I do wish people could _________________( insert a certain gift received via cancer experience ). And I’ve also heard that from others who have taken this journey or similar journeys.  I was recently texting with my old friend, Steve Plunkett. I’ve known Steve since our middle school days of playing basketball, skating, and roaming

Hope this finds you living well. I know a lot of us are bracing for some weather to roll in. Good luck at the grocery store and with your house prep.  I went on Tuesday for my fourth infusion of the latest chemo protocol, and everything went according to plan. It seems like we’ve figured out the right dosing that allows for my various blood cell counts to recover from the previous infusion. As I’ve mentioned to some folks, it does seem like this chemo’s side effects kick in q

Written on 12-28-25 I'm ridiculously lucky to have a community around me, checking in on me and our family. They ask “how are you feeling?”, and I’m stumped. It’s a pretty simple question. Or maybe I should say it’s a short question. Because trying to answer it feels decidedly less simple.  I feel tired in that flu version of being tired. All versions of tired come with a drop in motivation, but flu-like-tired seems to annihilate all motivation in its path. Strangely, this le

Hi there. Happy new year! Hope the holidays offered you just what you were needing. Sharing along an update on the latest health stuff – always an adventure around here!  I had my first infusion of the new chemo protocol on Dec 2 nd , and it packed a pretty solid punch. I was wiped out, and it just took a while to get energy back. The first dose of a new protocol involves some figuring out, whether that’s me figuring out new side effects and their management or the oncologist

Well...as the picture suggests, I was back in for more chemo this week. Turns out this cancer was not quite done with its complications! About a month ago, I was getting my 3-month check-up. Blood work looked great and shows some good signs that my immune system is working better than before all this started. I also had a CT scan which showed that some residual nodules in my right lung had grown quite a bit in the relatively short time off chemo, suggesting a lung metastasis.

Hey! Hope this finds you and yours doing well. Sharing along an update on the health stuff - got some good news! July 14th was my last chemo, completing 12 out of 12 infusions sandwiched around the liver surgery. I got to ring the bell and celebrate that milestone with the nurses and folks in the infusion room. There was a palpable sense of joy with those folks - we were all acutely aware of the journey to that point. Pic below with the nurses. Perhaps sensing I was ready to

Hey there. Sharing along a quick update as we approach a milestone in this journey. I'm wrapping up the recovery week from chemo #11 on 6/30, and set for the final planned chemo, 12 of 12, on Monday. It's certainly been an adventure to get to this point, and we are celebrating....celebrating the fact that we made it here, celebrating that multiple things point to great progress in getting rid of the cancer, and celebrating the community effort that has made it possible. Thoug

Hi all. It was a chemo day today, and the jury is out on whether it's a good idea to try and assemble any thoughts in writing with these drugs in my system. "Chemo brain" is real! Since I last posted, I did get the results from the blood biopsy that we did through our functional/integrative medicine doctor. And it was all good news! There were a low number of tumor cells circulating in my blood, which again indicates that all the work to date has had the desired effects on th

Hi there. Been a while since I've posted an update, so sharing along the latest! It's now been seven weeks since the surgery to remove a chunk of my liver (and my gallbladder got taken as collateral damage...too tucked up in there with the liver not to go). The healing from the surgery went really well, all things considered. I've been able to resume a lot of walking and getting in some yoga too to try and reawaken my body. And still trying to read the tea leaves on what food

Hi all, It's been a minute since the last post from Alicia, so thought I would drop in a quick update. I'm about 2.5 weeks post-surgery now and recovering well. As Alicia mentioned, the surgery went well with no surprises. There were the expected side effects of a major surgery, with mostly just pain as the thing to manage. But, for the most part, that has dissipated in the last 4-5 days. I still have some discomfort, which is to be expected. And I get pretty fatigued a coupl

Pre-surgery Greetings from St. David's Hospital in downtown Austin! This is Alicia, Matt's sister, and though he's up and visiting he's not up to writing one of his eloquent posts quite yet. There have been so many people who have asked for an update we thought this is the best way to reach the most friends. Stacey and Matt got to the hospital bright and really early at 5:30 this morning. He went back for surgery around 7:30 and was out after about an hour and half. His recov

Hi there. Hope this finds you and yours doing well as we move into spring. We are actually in that short window of spring in Austin before the summer heat descends on us. Temps are great so getting to spend a lot of time outside...which always does me right. And we could certainly use a little rain - it's dry as hell around here. Just writing that feels like one more confirmation I'm becoming my Dad as I measure rainfall. Anyhooo.... Been a minute since a health update and de

Howdy all. It was a chemo day for me today, so I got loaded up with the usual sauce. I felt pretty good for most of last week, and again felt strong headed into today’s chemo. Good stuff. Prior to chemo, I met with the oncologist this morning, and we were able to discuss the results of my midpoint CT scan from last Thursday. In summary…GOOD NEWS! There are no new lesions/tumors anywhere in the lungs or liver, which is a good sign. The already tiny spots on the lungs were even

Hi there, I hope this finds you and your crew doing well! It's been a bit since I shared along an update, so sharing along the latest. I was able, with that additional week of rest, to get chemo #5 on 1/27. Our house got hit with the same virus/flu/Covid whatever that seems to be making the rounds, and I think my body just needed more time to heal up. As my oncologist pointed out...we are not just treating cancer, we are treating my body. Looking back on the last two weeks, C

Hi there. Just a quick update to pass along! I was scheduled to have chemo on Monday, after postponing it before due to a respiratory/viral infection that was lingering. Well, as it turned out, my body needed a bit more time to heal. My neutrophil (a type of white blood cell) count was too low to proceed with chemo without putting too much stress on my system. So we have postponed again to Monday of next week. I'm working to not think too much about it and just roll with thin

Hello all, Happy New Year to you and your crew, and hope this finds you each doing well. Just a quick update... We elected to postpone today's chemo until next Monday based on a lingering respiratory infection. This all started up before Christmas as either the flu or Covid, and then settled in as a respiratory infection. I went ahead with chemo on New Year's Eve while in the middle of that, and it really knocked me down pretty good. So we decided to move the chemo back so I

Hi all, Hard to believe it's almost the end of the year already. Christmas in a few days? Geez. So far, we have knocked out 3 chemo sessions, and definitely a team effort. We have also moved more fully into the functional medicine work too, which is certainly involved. While the oncology is meant to slow, stop, and ultimately eliminate the cancer cells, our functional medicine work is designed to improve the capacity of my body to heal itself at a cellular level. (That's the

Hope you and your families enjoyed a great Thanksgiving day! In spending a little bit more time on Facebook recently, I've enjoyed seeing all the pics from your various dinners. One more chemo down! Assuming the plan of 6 months of chemo, that has me somewhere around 1/6th of the way. I'll take it. Overall, this one just felt much more manageable. I was exhausted in every way in the rush leading up to the first chemo, so it was better to go into this second one more rested ph