So good to be back!
First off, words cannot express my gratitude for the countless phone calls, emails, and cards from you all concerning my illness and recovery. Your expressions of happiness at my return reflect my own feelings on the same subject. I love my job–I don’t think of it as a “job”– and I love sharing the world’s greatest music with the world’s greatest listeners.
By way of an update, I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma back in November of last year. It is a type of blood cancer that leeches the calcium from your bones, which, in my case, resulted in several compression fractures in my lower back. Well, after several months of treatments, including chemo and other drugs, my Myeloma went into remission, and I then began the long process to get a bone marrow transplant at Johns Hopkins hospital. That is what kept me off work for so long. Following the transplant, I had virtually no immune system, and could go nowhere but the hospital and home for the next 3 and a half months. My wife and son were magnificent caregivers, and in time, I started to return to health. It was a slow and arduous process, and we need not go into details, but after a while, I started feeling normal (whatever that means) again, and was able to return to work. My last set of tests (blood labs and bone marrow biopsy) showed me to be cancer free and I am now embarking on a 2 year maintenance program with my original oncologist at St. Agnes hospital. I must say all of the doctors and the nurses–especially the nurses (they do all the heavy lifting, when you get down to it) were fabulous, both at St. Agnes and at Johns Hopkins.
So now I am back to work, and very happy to be here. Not only does it mark a milestone in my recovery and return to normalcy (again–whatever that means), but because I love what I do at WBJC, and have no plans of going anywhere. They’ll have to drag me out of here kicking and screaming!
Again, thank you so much for all your well wishes, your prayers, your cards, emails, phone calls, etc. It is gratifying and humbling, and just increases my desire to continue to do what I do and improve my on air presentation as much as possible. Again and again, thank you so much.
