So what happened to me in 2018……

In Mid 2018 around June, I sold Daisy Mae – an authentic Chinese Junk rigged sailboat and signed the papers and headed back home from Hampton, VA. A week later I saw my doctor for the nagging abdominal pain that was lingering from past few months. She decided I should have a CAT scan done. The scan revealed I had TCC (Transitional Cell Carcinoma) – a rare, aggressive, invasive high grade cancer.

At least couple of biopsies had to be performed under general anesthesia to really track down the offending cancer cells. I had the surgery at last on Thanksgiving day 2018 and the pathologist later confirmed that the cancer was very aggressive and made a hole to escape and spread elsewhere while we were waiting for the robot time for the surgery.

So now I also had to have chemo which I started before Christmas and finally finished beginning of April 2019. Now I am scheduled for lots of testing and scans to make sure the cancer does not return.

Happy to report that testing has been going well and have now graduated to having tests every 6 months from 3 months before.

I was very much looking forward to learning some sailing in 2018 which got pushed into 2019. Have been able to sail with local club on their FS (Flying Scots) and making some progress there.

I will some day revisit rigging Serafina (my sailboat, a Westerly Warwick) to Chinese Junk Sails. Oh by the way, I did not pay much attention to Serafina in 2018 and we had heavy rains. I was told by previous owner that the deck had no leaks when I bought her. But proven otherwise, lots of water was bailed out and now she has been drying for few months and she looks very dry.