Today (1/17) was my last cancer treatment.

The therapists (Wayne, Jesse, Lorri F., Arlene and Lorri C.) at the Florence Wheeler Cancer Center gave me a silver graduation pin that looks like a flame and says, "Hope."

The sun was out when I left the center and I felt uplifted.

I also felt my very sore throat after 39 radiation treatments to my neck and three chemo treatments to my veins. It was four months I wouldn't wish on anyone.

It will take at least two or three months to return me to the state I was at the end of August when physician's assistant Kevin Nelson felt the side of my neck and said, "Oh, oh."

Before I even knew what I had, I began blogging about my condition in hopes it would demystify the cancer experience.

Well, I demystified it all right — every barf, diarrhea, constipated, nauseated, fatigued, sore throat, dry mouth, blister tongue, mucus mouth, stomach tube, needle poking, can't sleep, can't eat  and raw coughing moments.

Dr. Anthony Ciarolla (chemo) and Dr. Dean Davis (radiation) and their wonderful staffs held my hand and answered all my questions through the ordeal.  My wife, Mary, literally kept me alive with her care.

While I was knocked down more than I've ever been knocked down in my life, I would recover from the treatments enough to write about it.  The one thing was the treatment was working.

Ciarolla got giddy when when he saw how much the meatball-sized tumor shrank with the chemo, and Davis pronounced on my Jan. 3 birthday that his radiation treatments zapped away any sign of the cancer. They don't believe it's ever coming back.

I shared the good and the bad, not really knowing how bad it was going to be. I joked about the misery (in the belief humor allows you to wrap your mind around life's difficulties). And it's worth noting throat cancer is one of the more difficult types of treatments. Other cancers have far less bad side effects.

My extended family and friends — some of whom I had not heard from in years — as well my church and blogging friends offered prayers and support. People I don't even know sent me cards.

One caught me pleasantly by surprise. It was from Dr. Ravi Patel, head of the wonderful Comprehensive Blood and Cancer Center on Truxtun Ave. It was called, "Upbeat Cancer Coverage."

Because it expressed the thoughts of many I've heard from, he said I could reprint it here:

Hello Steve,
 
Thanks for sharing your experiences during treatment with others
This creates a lot of encouragement for patients who are undergoing cancer therapy.
These kinds of stories with all of its humor always bring out the positive side of cancer.
In spite of all that you are going through, your ability to continue writing your articles, is lifting the hearts and minds of many.
Please do not hesitate to call me if I can in any way make your journey through cancer easy. (I am an oncologist in town).
The great work your physicians have done and your attitude is going to cure you.
 Wishing you a very healthy and cancer free New Year and life.
 Ravi Patel.

It illustrates that Bakersfield is a very caring town. It's one of the reasons I've stayed here  nearly 30 years and more than six times longer than any other place I've lived in my life.

I still have a way to go. My throat and mouth are battered and sore. I'll let you know when they get better.

But right now I am better.

I played 18 holes of golf on Sunday (the first since Dec. 2) and plan to play a couple rounds this weekend. I feel that kind of fun and exercise is therapeutic.

The doctors didn't even have to prescribe it.


 

I am reading with great interest the story about the arrest of six Lake Isabella-area men on various charges including being members of the Vagos motorcycle gang.

At least a few of them live in the Happy Haven Trailer Park where one resident describes them as good neighbors.

I don't pretend to know the facts of this case. We'll let the courts sort that out.

But it brings up fond memories of my dealings with two motorcycle clubs — the notorious Hells Angels, including its leader, Ralph "Sonny" Barger, and the Knights Motorcycle Club of Oildale.

The Knights have a 35-year-history in Bakersfield, mostly at its current location near Wright and Norris avenues, but they also had a club for about 10 years around 1990 near Rosedale Highway and Verdugo Lane.

Rumors about the Knights abounded. They were supposed to be a tough, crime-infested gang. But the facts never much supported that.

Oh, it is true. A few of their members got busted for drugs over the years. One of their former presidents, Floyd "Pig" Keys, was in a third trial in 1993 convicted of killing his girlfriend, Debra Ward. He swore his innocence until the end.

But officers of the club once invited me to their Rosedale facility to describe their real purpose — riding American-made motorcycles and partying. They had a nice set up for that.

And today I called another officer, a man who would identify himself only as Brutus, but said he's been a member for 27 years. He said the club's purpose remains the same and in addition the club is one of the sponsors of the Oildale Toy Run, and the club quietly provides turkeys and other presents for needy families at Christmas.

He said any member caught over the years doing anything illegal did so outside the club and on their own.

I have no evidence to counter what Brutus is saying.

But the Hells Angels — that's a different story. One of my most memorable stories I ever covered was the 1973 Oakland murder trial of Sonny Barger and four others for the shooting death, and subsequent house fire that burned the body, of a Cuban drug dealer.

The drug dealer violated the 11th Commandment — thou shalt not give the Hell's Angels bad dope. He tried to make up for it but as he was laying on a couch passed out, Sonny walked up to him, pulled out a strange-looking gun and shot him to death, a former Hells Angel testified.

In one of my stories for the Contra Costa Times a typo appeared that say Sonny "pulled out a strange-looking gut."

Sonny didn't threaten to harm me over the typo. There was something else.

All of the defendants were acquitted. Sonny testified he was making love to his girlfriend, Sharon — who was a beauty queen from Livermore — at the time the drug dealer was killed. To solidify his truthfulness, Sonny testified he sold drugs for a living. (He was, oddly enough, convicted of selling drugs in his very next trial).

During that trial I went to Sonny's house to visit Sharon. I believe I am the only reporter ever to have been inside his house. I wrote a story about it. Sonny, from the jail center,  called my roommate at out Pleasanton apartment and threatened to harm me and ordered me never to talk to Sharon or go to his house again.

I loved covering that murder trial. The defendants all wore $500 suits. To this day, I've never worn a $500 suit. Their girlfriends were flawlessly beautiful. Their friends would make snide remarks about reporters in the elevators. What fun.

Sonny is now in Phoenix. He had throat cancer in 1983 (another thing we have in common) and lost his vocal cords. He operated a motorcycle shop in Phoenix, but it closed when I went to try to visit him a few years ago.

I have never passed a chance to chat with Hells Angels when I see them in a courthouse or out on the road. Generally, they are not very friendly.

Not like the Knights members, including Floyd "Pig" Keys," who have always been friendly and chatty.

On my birthday, I got this phone message from Dr. Dean Davis about a recent CAT scan to check on how my throat cancer was doing.

Saying he reviewed the scan very carefully, he said, "At this point in time, I am not able to identify any residual cancer."

So after four months of chemotherapy and radiation that knocked me down and made me more sick and fatigued than I have ever been in my life, those little neck pictures showed none of the cancer tumor is left.

Your prayers and good wishes paid off.

That doesn't mean I'm done. I have nine more radiation treatments to handle any microscopic leftovers and to try to make sure the cancer will never return. By Jan. 17, I should be done with the treatment.

Then it will take a couple months or more to fully recover.

It's worth noting that throat cancer is one of the more difficult treatments there is for bad side effects. Dr. Davis has said my throat looks like a war zone. My mouth and throat are sore most of the time.

But my wife's extraordinary care and your support have meant the world to me.

Time moved so slowly through the worst of my suffering. You and my extended family played a huge part in helping me get through it all.

I'm not done. I expect more pain and discomfort in the next two weeks.

But it has been nine days since I had any treatment and I have much more strength than I've had in weeks. Watching TV for as little as a half hour would wipe me out. Last night I watched a full-length movie for the first time in months.

This break has shown me I will get better. I'll keep you updated.

I'm still eating through a stomach tube (six cans of Ensure a day) and I am looking forward to eating the old fashioned way.

I've lost my taste buds in this treatment. It will take weeks or more to get them back.

My throat will have to heal enough so I can swallow food.

So I'll endure whatever comes up until I'm back to my old self.

What I've been given in the last months is nothing short of my life back.

It seems worth more now.

Bless you all. And especially my wife, Mary. As a cancer survivor herself, her care has done the most to make me one too.