Canuck
David Megginson
- Joined
- Mar 31, 2016
- Messages
- 7,077
- Reaction score
- 3,867
Hi, everyone. I just wanted to let you know that I'm doing well. I can walk (and even ride a bicycle) again, and I went up with an instructor in a rental Cessna 172 last year to prove (to myself and the instructor, if not Transport Canada) that my spinal injury and long rehab didn't impair my stick-and-rudder skills. It doesn't look likely that Transport Canada will restore my medical — in Canada, unfortunately, you need a class-4 medical even to fly an ultralight — but I might still give it a try kicking against the door a bit, just to make it easier for the next pilot who comes along in my situation.
New cancer medications are keeping me in excellent shape (considering my diagnosis) — these wouldn't have been available to me a few years ago, so I'm lucky. I'm back to work half-time, off the nerve-pain meds, and all my test results are staying in the green. Given how well I'm responding to treatment 2 1/2 years in, my oncology team is talking now about the chance of a very long (almost indefinite) remission.
Happy skies, everyone, and I'm eager to buy lunch for anyone who drops in to visit in Ottawa (as Orest already has).
D
p.s. If you're 50+ and have a prostate, insist on the PSA blood test every year even if your doctor says you have no risk factors and the "official" recommendation is not to. It's a myth that prostate cancer always develops slowly and most people die of old age first. About 5% of prostate cancer cases develop very quickly and often kill people in their 50s or early 60s, and that type has been skyrocketing since the global health recommendation to scale back on routine screening.
New cancer medications are keeping me in excellent shape (considering my diagnosis) — these wouldn't have been available to me a few years ago, so I'm lucky. I'm back to work half-time, off the nerve-pain meds, and all my test results are staying in the green. Given how well I'm responding to treatment 2 1/2 years in, my oncology team is talking now about the chance of a very long (almost indefinite) remission.
Happy skies, everyone, and I'm eager to buy lunch for anyone who drops in to visit in Ottawa (as Orest already has).
D
p.s. If you're 50+ and have a prostate, insist on the PSA blood test every year even if your doctor says you have no risk factors and the "official" recommendation is not to. It's a myth that prostate cancer always develops slowly and most people die of old age first. About 5% of prostate cancer cases develop very quickly and often kill people in their 50s or early 60s, and that type has been skyrocketing since the global health recommendation to scale back on routine screening.
