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My name is Mike and I've been working with wood for over 30 years. I truly love the smell of sawdust in the air. All the different species have their own special aroma.
Most of those creative years, my shop has been a portion of my garage. About 4 years ago, my wife Sue and I had a custom home built in a beautiful valley, it included my dream wood working shop. It was 20' x 24', with proper lighting and air filtration, heated and air conditioned and more importantly, it was finally spacious enough for me to actually move full pieces of lumber around in.
Well, I kept my website current and worked on such things as SEO (search engine optimization) and other things, I had no clue what they meant, tried my hand at selling a few things on Ebay and some other auction sites. Before I knew it, my hobby was becoming a full time job with commitments. I was just trying to sell enough items to have a nice supply of wood and purchase the latest and greatest toys/tools.
Starting to sound like a book? Well, you are free to go look around and come back later. I'll still be here.
In September of 2008, I had to have Prostate surgery the same day I had my Prostate surgery they removed my Gall Bladder. Two surgeons, two surgeries done at the same time. 10 days later I had to go have post operative things taken care of and my urologist told my wife and I as we were about to leave. "Oh by the way, your lab results came back from pathology, and I'm sorry to have to tell you this, but even though all your biopsies were clear prior to surgery, you do in fact have Prostate Cancer. I have you scheduled with a radiation oncologist next week to map out a treatment plan.
Well, my jaw dropped to the floor and I said. "You assured me my biopsies were clear and there were no traces of cancer." Nuf said on that conversation.
Sue and I met with my radiation oncologist, got the information needed to proceed with radiation therapy which entailed 8 weeks of 5 day a week treatments. Living 60 miles round trip to the oncology department and it being winter among some other family issues we decided to place our home in the valley, up for sale.
We thought long and hard over whether now was the time to re-locate to Oregon, where I had moved from (to marry Sue) and where all my kids (Sue's step children) and grand children live. We quickly found out that we were not going to be able to do that due to medical coverage in Oregon. We looked in town (East Wenatchee) where we had moved from 3 years earlier and found a house on Dec 23rd, made an offer on it the next day, and it was accepted within the hour. We rec'd a phone call from our banker, Christmas eve at dinner time telling us everythig was a go, we had been approved. Guess it was meant to be!
The new shop, is the third bay of our garage, it is 11'x 22', much smaller but it has turned out to be quite workable. I have arranged and re-arranged it several times, and no matter how I arrange it I still get sawdust up my nose...{grin}
We made the move in February of 2009 to our newest home. These are some of the shop pictures shortly after moving into our new home. I'll get some updated pics real soon.
I'm back now that I have a few minutes to continue the saga.
Now where was I? Oh yes, I was going to begin my radiation therapy.
Which I did, in the middle of March as I recall, and although very apprehensive, I soon found I had a very compassionate Doctor and his staff is phenomenal, a more caring group of folks you could never meet, and they were genuine in their feelings and helpfulness.
I had 8 1/2 weeks of 5 days per week of radiation and graduated, yes they actually gave me a certificate that said I completed my radiation Therapy on may 15th, 2009.
May 15th turned out to be a rather hectic day, in itself. I had my final treatment, received my diploma, and rushed home to change clothes as this was the 1st day of our local "relay for Life" event.
The staff practically pleaded with me to attend since it was my final day. I was a little reluctant but my wife and I went and we were given T'shirts that said Survivor on them and I looked pretty spiffy in my purple T-shirt.
Here are a few photos of that days events.
The first is a picture of all the gals who took such great care of me for over 8 weeks.
The second one is the "Charge Nurse" (I called her Nurse Ratchet but she was a real sweetie...) I made each of them a Bookmark with a smiley face with an attitude.
They all said I had such a good attitude, and was always smiling and keeping everyone in the waiting area feeling light hearted and at ease.
The third picture is myself along with several others getting ready to start the first lap around the stadium.
I was asked to please lead the first lap of survivors. made me have a swelled chest and a lump in my throat.
The fourth & fifth pictures are of the bookmarks I made for all the staff at Wenatchee Radiation &Oncology Center.
Click on the any of the above pictures for a larger picture!
There were about 2-3000 people in attendance, and just prior to the opening ceremonies with the color guard, the host/emcee made the following announcement. Is Michael M here? Come on up here Michael we know you are here, here we have spies.
Will everyone please give a round of applause acknowledging Michael M. Michael has this very afternoon completed his radiation Therapy for Prostate Cancer.
Their was a thunderous roar as I went forward and I was really embarrassed but I was also so very proud that I had done it. I had become the latest Cancer Survivor. At least I hoped the therapy had done it's thing.
I found out later, in September which was my first follow up visit, that my PSA score which had been at a high of 13.96 was now at 1.3. The lowest it had been in nearly 15 years.
I was indeed a Cancer Survivor. Now it's routine check ups with some blood work every 3 months for a year, & then every 6 months for 5 years.
I only use the finest of woods, as appropriate for each item I create. Including Pine, Birch, Applewood, Western Red Cedar, Myrtlewood, Oak, Baltic Birch, Chestnut, Hickory, Purple Heart and Basswood to name a few.
More to come I assure you!
