What do you do when you suddenly find out that you have a rare cancer that is stage IV and it is not curable? It gets worse. On top of that you are told you also have a diseased gall bladder, a ‘fatty liver’, and a spleen whose blood supply is getting chocked off by the cancer, causing “varices” that put you at risk for internal bleeding.
And what if you find out that it was the exact same cancer that took Steve Jobs, a man with all the resources in the world to fight it, and you are told the odds of you living past 5 years are only 24%?
This was my life in January 2013 when I was diagnosed with Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors (PNET), which had already spread to my liver. I was in my late forties with a wife and three children, ages 11 to 18.
I made some serious mistakes in approaching treatment and learned some valuable lessions about the healthcare establishment, benficial diets, alternative ideas on health and cancer, quality of life vs. quantity of life, and new ways to approach life in general.
What am I doing now?
As they said in the movie “The Shawshank Redemption”, “Get busy living or get busy dying”. I decided to get busy living and here I am over 9 years later and thriving, living life like few do.
Despite this cancer, or maybe because of it, I am a nomad. A gypsy of sorts. I am not old enough or rich enough to retire. I have a fullfilling full-time job, but it is remote, and so we can live anywhere. And that is exactly what we have been doing for 3 years now! Cancer be damned! We started out in an RV, but now each month my wife Michele, our son Jackson and I pack up our few possessions and move from one Airbnb to the next.
I am not some adventure-junkie always looking for the next adventure high. I am an ordinary guy who would have considered himself a homebody before my cancer diagnosis.
Much has changed.
I was afraid of heights, but now I hike up mountains, walk on the edge of cliffs, and cross swinging bridges high over roaring rivers.
We had a lot of stuff, but now we live a minimalist life bringing all that we own along with us in our travels.
I was a skeptic, but now I am more open to ideas and change.
I was afraid of putting myself out there. Afraid of what people might think of me or what I had to say. But now I have published a book and have three blogs where I put myself out there.
Cancer was the focus of my life, but now this moment is my focus.
I thought the medical establishment would work in my best interests, but now I know better.
I was expected to die, but now I live life!
Disclaimer: I am not a physician nor any kind of healthcare worker. Nothing I say should be taken as medical advice. I will simply tell my story for my particular situation and hope you will get something out of it.
Links and Contact Information
Feel free to email me, Dave Staudenmaier, at dstaud@yahoo.com.
If you have a remote job and are interested in traveling with it, I may be able to help you with that.
Here is my book available at Amazon: Working on the Move: A guide for remote workers seeking adventure
and the companion web site: WorkingOnTheMove.com
Our social media sites we started so our friends could follow us as we traverse the USA are: