3rd Anniversary and continued good health! Thanks to all!

Yesterday was the 3 year anniversary of my surgery for the removal of GIST tumors...one 13 pounder and several satellite tumors. I celebrated by going out to dinner with my son and his girlfriend to The Grand Sichuan on 9th Ave and 24th street in NYC. With the exception of weight gain and some muscle issues I am in very good health. I go for my next round of cat scans on Friday and I am confident that everything will be just fine.
I wrote a few months ago that I had the opportunity to speak at Novartis for their Oncology Kick Off meeting and that I met one of their oncologists, Dr Christopher Keir who I later spoke with a week later.
Dr. Keir is the one who wrote the new labeling information for Gleevec and updated the time to be on Gleevec to three years and more if needed. This was recently in the news.
I asked Dr. Keir how long I would need to be on Gleevec, and he said that due to the rather large size of my tumor I would need to take Gleevec for a very long time. Not exactly what I wanted to hear, but I understand the reasoning. In the meantime, I am finding new solutions to deal with the side effects, and counting every day as a true blessing!
Thank you all, once again, for helping me and Chad through that incredibly difficult and scary time.
We will never be able to thank you enough!

Photos are courtesy of Novartis. To the right of me is the amazing Tricia McAleer, who is the Program Director at Life Raft Group  an organization that not only assists all of us who have GIST, but is also very much involved in the research and development for a cure. To the left is Tracy Furey, Vice President, Public Affairs and Communication at Novartis.