Cleared for Takeoff... almost.

The new year is off with a bang! I had a great time with the kids being home for a few weeks. I managed to dodge COVID and the Flu... despite one lucky kid coming home with both. They just lived in their room for ten days. I won't name names, but it wasn't Billy or Lily.

Once everyone was cleared, lots of games were played, (my solo dominance in Trivial Pursuit continues), my poker game is still solid, and I suck at Clue, and awesome food was consumed. Major "Mike-Made" Italian fest for Christmas Eve, and Prime Rib for Christmas Day. The house has been "De-Christmas'd." And now we're returning to "normal."

Work is NUTS. We're T-minus 7 days until the Major Kick-off event goes live in both Las Vegas and Dublin, and things are moving along... but there's still LOTS of work to do to get it across the finish line.

I'm still really bummed out that I can't participate in person, but "dems the rules." Taking it slow is a bit of a challenge right now, with so much to do, but I promised myself I'd dial it back to just "Crazy" instead of "NUTSO", in two weeks. No, really, I will! No REALLY!

Speaking of rules, month 2 of "Maintenance" started on Jan 9th. As a reminder, each cycle is 28 days in length and includes one trip to the cancer center for immunotherapy and bone fortifying meds (thru IV) on day one, twenty-one days of home oral chemo (Revlimid), 7 days of reprieve... and then "We go again."

I had a follow-up round of X-rays done on both arms... and they are healed up nicely. No signs of lesions, no fractures (yay), and overall bone density looks good! I have noticed a bit of limited range of motion and some stiffness in my lower back, so we're doing another PET CT to rule out lesions. More on that in Feb once the imaging is done.

As I continue to re-enter the world, the most exciting news is as of March, I'm green lit to travel again! And because my Oncologist knows me all too well, when I got the green light, I also got the look that basically said... "take it easy, Red Rider, you're not a Road Warrior again... just yet."

But for those of you that know me really well... I was hearing Kenny Loggins singing "Danger Zone" as F-14 Tomcats were taking off and landing on aircraft carriers.

Overall, gang, my mindset is good. Excited by the slow but steady progress, and I will keep pushing... A friend of my posted a question on Facebook asking, "What's your word for 2024"... mine is very simple.

A focus on achieving...

As always, thanks for reading. I'll be back with more news once I have it!