A starting point for the journal.
This dated journal begins on September 28, 2026. The first six-month chapter runs through March 28, 2027, with space for the progress, setbacks and lessons that come with rebuilding everyday life.
This opening entry sets out the plan. Future entries will share personal updates as I write them.
Read the story so far ↓My story
Before cancer, I was around 180 pounds and living a normal life. Then in late 2021, I was diagnosed with stage IV Mantle Cell Lymphoma. What followed changed nearly everything.
The part people don't always see
Treatment was only one part of it. I spent an enormous amount of time in the hospital and dealt with complications that piled on top of the cancer itself: severe infections, pneumonia, fluid around my lungs, heart problems, kidney failure, liver problems, malnutrition, and months where simply getting out of bed was a major event.
At my lowest point I was about 78 pounds. I was severely malnourished and fighting just to stay alive. There were stretches where survival itself was the goal, not fitness, appearance, productivity, or anything else that used to feel important.
Surviving wasn't the finish line
I eventually made it through that period and reached remission, but recovery didn't magically put everything back where it was. My body had been through years of treatment, hospitalization, surgeries, medications, inactivity, and massive weight changes.
Going from being dangerously underweight to recovering brought a completely different challenge. I gained the weight back, then more than I wanted. Energy, strength, sleep, swelling, medications and everyday health became their own complicated system to understand.
Living After Cancer
The first chapter of this journal covers September 28, 2026 through March 28, 2027. I want to document what recovery looks like honestly: the everyday work, the setbacks and the progress along the way.
I'll be tracking the metrics that matter to me, the changes I make, what works, what doesn't, the good days, the setbacks, and the things I learn along the way. Some of it will be numbers. Some of it will simply be life.
I also share my experience with other cancer survivors, and I hope putting this journey in the open can be useful to someone who reached remission and then found themselves asking the same question I did: what now?
Why put it on DadCanMakeIT?
Because rebuilding is still building. I spend a lot of my life solving problems with software, electronics, radio, fabrication and data. This time, the project is me.
DadCanMakeIT has always been about curiosity, persistence, figuring things out, and making something better than what you started with. Living after cancer belongs here for exactly the same reason.
If you'd like to help, thank you.
Sharing the story is already support. If you'd also like to contribute directly to the costs that come with rebuilding, creating, and documenting this journey, you can use either option below.
No pressure, no expectation. I'm grateful you're here.
This page describes my personal experience and is not medical advice. Health decisions should be made with your own healthcare team.