My Life Changing In An Instant

If I have had a roller coaster of a day, today was it. Good news followed by bad news.

First the good news: The Big Annoucement: I am moving to Salem, Oregon's capitol next month. I have officially accepted a job with the Oregon Department of Transportation as their technology coordinator. I am both filled with excitement and nervousness for the new position, but boy am I happy! So now the cat is out of the bag! You now know what I have been up to and somewhat closed-lip about for the past several months -- it was the biggest job hunt of my life.

I will miss Joseph immensely, but I was ready for a life change, a very big life change. It has finally happened. Joseph will still be my home, and I probably will return one day, maybe not tomorrow, but definitely in the not so distant future. For all of you close to me, you knew this change was waiting in the wings. For several years I have talked about moving, and in the last couple of years you knew I was burnt out. You knew I was stressed out, you knew it was taking a toll on my health. And for those of you that know, you have shared nothing but feelings of happiness for me, and for that I thank you.

The next obvious question, what will I do with my business? It has been split off and is under new ownership effective October 1st, with the exception of the web development division which I will continue to run. I will post the official "press release" later in the week. It is very likely the new business will operate under a new name. All of my computer and video production customers will continue to have support and service as a result of this acquisition. Jay Watts and I will continue updating and maintaining websites for the existing clientèle who had a site with LB Productions. Obviously, we will run this from Portland and Salem, where the new business will continue to operate from Joseph in a new storefront.

Now, to the bad news...

Dr. Simpson from OHSU informed me of my biopsy results, they were not good. I was informed the cells captured appeared to be "crushed," which is very behavioral of lymphoma. The fear is that my lymphoma has come back. He informed me that the biopsy was not the best sample, and that a new biopsy should be taken to be sure. I will be going to OHSU on Friday at 1pm to see Dr. Simpson and have a new biopsy taken to find out officially what is going on. As you can imagine this news was a huge setback for me, but I am not losing hope -- not by a long shot. If this is indeed a return of lymphoma -- the good news is that it appears this occurrence is completely in my skin and could be treated with just radiation. Unfortunately, this news came quite as a shock to me as we all thought this was just a bad case of LyP. No matter what it turns out to be I am ready to fight it. This is nothing compared to the lymphoma I had in 1997, and should be a "cake walk" comparatively speaking. I am going to continue to run my life "business as usual" and am confident I can continue to move forward with my plans as I believe they are vital to the road of better health both physically and mentally.

Thank you all for your excitement (for my new job) and your support (for my illness), I feel good about this life change, and will continue the good fight. Thanks for helping me through this transitional, difficult, and exciting time in my life.

-LB