Life, Cancer, Etc.
Life, Cancer, Etc.
Life after Lymphoma with Tom Fitzgerald
Our neighbor, Tom Fitzgerald, was diagnosed with lymphoma 17 years ago. Today, he tells us about what that was like and what life's been like since. We're so glad he's healthy and that he and his wife live in our neighborhood.
NOTE: I am not a medical professional. Everyone on the "Life, Cancer, Etc." podcast is sharing their own experiences, not giving medical advice.
PC: Tom Fitzgerald
Keywords: lymphoma, cancer diagnosis, lymphoma diagnosis, life after lymphoma, Oregon, Ford Mustang
You can also find some episodes on our YouTube channel: https://www.youtube.com/c/LifeCancerEtc
I'm Heidi Bragg. Well, so it's taken me a little bit to get this next video posted. Part of it was just life's been very, very full and I've been traveling as well. Part of it is my self-consciousness about coming home from a hike, putting my hair in a clip and just doing an interview. And I had never done one before with someone in the same room that was on video. And so I will... try to put in a little more effort and clean up a little bit beforehand. But I'm really grateful for Tom sharing his story because it's just neat to hear somebody who 17 years ago overcame non-Hodgkin's lymphoma and is living a really full and happy and good life now. So take a listen. So today I'm here with my neighbor, Tom Fitzgerald. and Tom and his wife Libby are just good people. This is how we knew. The day we moved in, they offered us ribs.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, did they?
SPEAKER_01:Yes, you did. And unfortunately, we were headed to the coast for a family reunion, so we couldn't take advantage of their kind offer, but that was how we knew we had great neighbors. Oh, very cool. Yeah. So first of all, Tom's going to tell us a little bit about himself, and then we'll talk about his experiences with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma.
SPEAKER_00:Okay, well, a native Oregonian. I was born in Coos Bay, Oregon and spent the first three to three and a half years there. Then the family moved to Portland. So I went to parochial schools in Portland. until the middle of my junior year, in which time we moved to Eugene, Oregon, which I wasn't a fan of moving to Eugene.
SPEAKER_01:Wait, I didn't even know you went to part of school here. Okay, so you've been here a while.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, I've been, yeah. But I came to Eugene and finished high school middle of my junior year. And then went on to, you know, other endeavors. Finished school, went to trade school, and then I went to work for the phone company in those days. I worked there for 42 years and so in that time I moved over to Central Oregon for 10 years and then they transferred me back to Eugene, the company did, and retired from Eugene. in my hobbies, I've always had a passion for vehicles. And in fact, I was a mechanic when I first started out for our company. And then I became a fleet manager and had responsibility for the state of Oregon for the fleet for the phone company, which is 2,300 vehicles in the day. It's like today, The phone company is nothing anymore. It's an internet company and they're not very big. But in the day, no one had cell phones and it was a big company. Yes, they had to be
SPEAKER_01:able to drive all over, yeah.
SPEAKER_00:It was a big company. So things have changed. And so the story of me and my about with cancer, it all started here in Eugene. I was working for the company at the time.
SPEAKER_01:So, oh, this is before you retired then?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was before I retired. Yeah, yeah. So it all transpired while I was working. And it was very, very busy back in those days. This is, you know, I... You know, who knows, you know, I didn't know I had cancer, you know, no one knows you have cancer right off the bat, but.
SPEAKER_01:So what'd you think? Did you just feel tired or what happened?
SPEAKER_00:Well, you know, actually I'd been, you know, we had a property, we had, you know, a couple acres and I'd be out mowing the grass on the riding mower and you're jostling around and I'd figure out I'm just kind of holding the bat and I'd feel in my insides, you know, something wiggling around in there and it kind of hurt and never thought much about it. And then one day at work, one of the engineers, a lady there, she comes up and says, did you get in a fight or something? Your eyes are black and blue. And I was, no. She's, well, there's her black and blue. And I thought, I looked at that, and there was a darkness around my eyes. So, you know, and that had that other kind of thing in my chest. So I went to the doctor, and I said, well, You know, he's checked me out. They did some blood work and all that. And then next thing I know, I get a call, and it's not the nurse, it's the doctor. It's never good. Oh, this is not good. You know, the doctor's calling me. And he says, well, just wanted to let you know, we did some testing, and you have cancer. And he told me what kind I had. He says, I've already set you up with an oncologist and have an appointment scheduled for you on X date. Probably pretty soon. It was, it was pretty soon. And so I was fortunate enough, I was hooked up here in Eugene with Willamette Cancer Center. They're great. And I had an oncologist, Jeff Sharman, a super guy. And he's pretty well known in oncology. He does a lot of research and does a lot of studies here in Eugene. And so I was fortunate to get hooked up with him. Oh, for sure. Yeah, it was really, really pretty good. So that kind of started the whole thing going. But the minute you hear that, you're thinking, I'm done. That's what went through my mind. The first thing I did is I went to church. And I sat in there and prayed for a while. And then I... and of course informed other people what was going on. And then at that point, then it starts to do all the scans and biopsies and all the things that you have to do to find out exactly what's going on. And
SPEAKER_01:that takes, I think, I was impatient, because that takes time. I'm like, no, no, I just, I want to know, what are we doing? But you've got to wait for some of that stuff.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they have to map it out and know exactly which way to go. And once they had done all that, then they sat down with me and they started talking in terms of molecular structure of all this stuff. And they were talking way above my head. But he did help by trying to put it in layman's terms a lot for me and help me with that. And that was pretty good. And then they asked me, would you be a willing participant to be in a study? And they told me, you know, what would that look like? And I said, well, yeah, why not? They'll give you more testing. They'll give you more scans and all that because you're in the study group. And I said, okay, sign me up. I'll do that. I'm happy to do it. So I did. And so at the particular time, normally... course of regimen of drugs that they give you would be somewhat different than what I got. At the time, bendamustine was fairly new for... I don't know anything about lymphoma drugs. Yeah, but rituxanab and bendamustine are the drugs they used for me. I'll tell you, that started, they said you could have a reaction. And I had a reaction and my body started shutting down. The
SPEAKER_01:first time or after
SPEAKER_00:what? First time. My first treatment.
SPEAKER_01:So what was that like?
SPEAKER_00:It was extremely scary. I couldn't breathe. I had tons of people running around me trying to do different things. And they were able to... counteract that with whatever they gave me. I don't know what they did, but the next thing I went into was cold, shivering. Never been so cold in my entire life. And they had blankets all over me, you know, hot blankets and trying to warm me up. And finally got over that and finished my treatment for the day. And I'd go in at 7.30 and I'd be done around 5.30.
SPEAKER_01:Oh, so it's an all-day infusion
SPEAKER_00:type thing. All day long, yep. And then the next day, I'd do it again. They said, well, normally you don't have a reaction like that your second day. I did. Oh, jeez. I said, no figures. I would go against the odds. But it wasn't as bad. It was bad, but not as bad. Okay. And the first one... unfortunately, my parents came. They wanted to be there with me to comfort me and so forth, which I appreciated, but I scared them to death. And I was scared to death. But anyway, so that was kind of a traumatic experience for the whole family. So anyway, the second day was better. And I'd have two days on of treatment all day long. And then I'd be not feeling too good at all for about, I think it's, I'd go in on a Thursday, Friday, and I'd have Saturday, Sunday, and I'd take Monday off of work, and then I went to work on Tuesdays.
SPEAKER_01:And you did okay?
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, it was hard.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, I'll bet.
SPEAKER_00:So I told a couple people at work, this is pretty difficult, and my boss's superiors said, Fortunately, they liked me or whatever, and they hired two people to come in and help me. And I felt really blessed by that. I couldn't have done it without that. So they brought in a person to go out and do, part of my job was to go out and do fielding, inspections of jobs and so forth. So they hired a person to go do that. And then they hired another person who I knew from church that she was looking for a job anyway. That's awesome. And they hired her. And so it just worked out. She sang in the choir with me. And so it was really, really cool. I was able to help her. She helped me. And we got this other person on board. And it was just like heaven. It really was a blessing.
SPEAKER_01:Well, and you can't... I don't know. I feel like that about the people I worked with. I mean, some of them don't have PTO and stuff while I was in treatment. And that kind of thing, like... you can't you can't buy a job like that
SPEAKER_00:no you can't you can't it's so important to have that kind of support yeah i mean because you're dealing with a lot anyway you know it's uh as anyone knows it's it's it's difficult so um that's kind of where i was and then through the process of six months i did that and wait
SPEAKER_01:those those treatments went for six months like that
SPEAKER_00:well i had once a month Once a month for two days. So that was my deal. And so we did that. And in the meantime, you're going through, you're being scanned. Like the PET scan was the one that they'd want to do to kind of see where the activity was of the cancer in you. I had a state, let's see, my brother, when I first got cancer, he used to work for... a pharmaceutical company, a large one, and he did research. That's handy. They did cancer, and he did all the cancer drugs. So he knew a lot about it, and he says, well, you just don't want stage four. You don't want to hear stage four. And I said, okay. And so, of course, when they first diagnosed me, he said, well, you're stage four. Oh, jeez. Great. Okay. Anyway, that has the size of the mass that was in me, and it was in my chest. this mass I had. And... Where was
SPEAKER_01:it? Where in your
SPEAKER_00:chest? It was... Like around the heart? Heart, lung area, right in there. And that's what I felt. You know, it was under my lawnmower. Was that in there. It said the size of it like a grapefruit. It's like a tumor jiggling. There's a big thing in there. So, anyway... It's amazing that the drugs that I was given, as hard as it was to go through, they did the job. They did away with that huge mass. But you
SPEAKER_01:didn't have to have surgery?
SPEAKER_00:No surgery, no. The drugs did the whole thing. Yeah. The only thing they did was they went in through my stomach and blew it up to get up in there to get the biopsy. That's about all they did there. So the drugs did all the work, all the work. And as I was going through the process, I was probably in my third or fourth month, you know, and I'm kind of a person who likes to go visit other people that are up there, you know, if I feel up to it, you know. And the doctor asked me if it'd be okay if he could send some other people over to talk to me that were gonna go through this process. And I said, by all means, send them on in. I'll tell them my story, you know. And because not everyone has a reaction like I did, thank goodness. But I have been up in the center and I go in every month now for treatment for antibodies because I don't produce them like normal people do. Anyway, so I get the chance to visit and talk to other people who are going through treatments for various types of cancer. And your heart just goes out to each and every one of them. So everybody has their story. And they're all unique. But everybody shares the same fears. And we're all in that boat together. So it's kind of nice if you can lend a hand or just tell them, I know how you feel.
SPEAKER_01:That's why we do this. I mean, that's the whole point is, and people who've listened before know, I lost a sister to cancer when she was 21, brain cancer. I lost my father to cancer. Died 10 days after diagnosis. I lost my dear friend, the girl I was telling you about on here, to another brain cancer. Now my sister's got cancer. My aunt had cancer. My mom, we figured out, Kev calls her a nine-time cancer survivor because she's been the caregiver for about, or been through it with an immediate family member like nine times. And the whole point of doing these is so people don't feel so alone, they know there's hope, that it's not the immediate death sentence, that we all feel, at least everybody I know, the minute you get diagnosed, you think, I'm gone, I'm dead.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. We always hear the stories of the people that don't make it. But there's way more people that make it and have a... Wonderful life. And it's nice, like you say, to share the success stories because you don't hear enough about that.
SPEAKER_01:No.
SPEAKER_00:Well,
SPEAKER_01:and I think, and even a dear friend of mine talked, she's like a sister, everything but biologically, talked about the loss of their son over seven years of struggling with neuroblastoma. For those of you who want to look it up, it's the third episode we ever did. And it's with Tay Gibson. And talking about how they handled it, even though the outcome wasn't what they had wanted,
SPEAKER_00:the
SPEAKER_01:way they handled it and the way they did it and the way they have other kids too, the way they went through that as a family, I just admire them so much I can't even tell you. I do think it's interesting though, I don't know about you, but when I got diagnosed, all these people came out of the woodwork going, you know what, I had cancer. That I never would have guessed.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I had it 15 years ago and I'm doing fine. Or, yeah, my mom went through that back in the, you know, 80s. She's great. And hearing people tell you that there's hope, for me at least, made all the difference.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. Yeah. Yeah, that is big. I only had one other family member told me they had lung cancer.
SPEAKER_01:That you never
SPEAKER_00:knew? Never knew. He never told anybody in the family about it. And he had treatment and everything. Never smoked a day in his life. And they took care of it. He hasn't had a problem since. But thank goodness. Yeah. But yeah, it is interesting. I don't think he would ever have shared that, I guess. Unless I had my thing.
SPEAKER_01:Right, and I love that people are willing to do that, even with things they've played very close to the vest. So a couple questions. How long ago was this?
SPEAKER_00:Oh, geez, mine was about 17 years ago now. See, I love
SPEAKER_01:that.
SPEAKER_00:It's been good. I get checked regularly. There's nothing there. I have no precursor to cancer. They've done a blood test on that. There's no markers, I guess. They've done all of that. It's good. Let's keep on going. The doctor told me, the only days you're going to pass away, but it's not going to be from this. He told me that right off the bat. Not
SPEAKER_01:bumping to be cracked.
SPEAKER_00:That's pretty awesome.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, and also, where was Libby in all this?
SPEAKER_00:Libby and I came together after that.
SPEAKER_01:Okay.
SPEAKER_00:And we—I was already out of the—I think I was all done with everything by the time we met. And so yeah, I was. I was cured. You know, there is always a chance.
SPEAKER_01:I know, so it's weird to say that word, right?
SPEAKER_00:There is a chance that it could come back, okay? But since my treatment, they have so much more... So much work's been done, and there are new ways of treating it. In fact, he told me that if it came back in the future, they could... not only treat it, but cure it. He didn't mention the word cure, and I thought, oh, that's quite a strong statement. That's amazing. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:I always tell people, we just have to live until they get the next treatment, right? You don't have to worry about this forever. You just have to live long enough and get as healthy as you can so that that next treatment's available when you need
SPEAKER_00:it. These immunotherapies that they're doing are just absolutely amazing. I was like, whoa, this is Crazy, just crazy. So I think there's a lot of hope for a lot of people out there right now. And it's just like every day something new is coming up.
SPEAKER_01:I totally agree with that. Okay, so our next question is things you wish you'd known ahead of time. Is there anything you haven't talked about?
SPEAKER_00:You know, I think that my doctor had recommended me go into a group of cancer patients. that have been through cancer and they, it's kind of a support group and I did go to that and a lot of, there was a doctor there and they had a presentation that they did and they have, you know, little meal or something after that. And everybody just sat around and visited and everything. And I thought that was a pretty nice thing to do. And that was while I was going through treatment. It was nice that they asked you to do that. And so I think that's a good thing. But anyway, that's about all I can think of. I can't think of anything you can... I don't know what I would do differently. I mean... Well, it worked. I worked, and I didn't have the... I have a passion for hunting and fishing and hiking and things like that, and I didn't have energy for any of those things. It probably took me, after treatment, a good four months probably to get some energy. To feel like
SPEAKER_01:your energy.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And I think that's something that I... I think I knew up here, but I didn't know down here, that it was going to take time to come back, and that coming back for me, because of the surgeries and stuff, isn't exactly the same. It can still be good, you can still do lots of things, but being more patient, Kev says you need to be kinder with yourself and your body than you think you need to be.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, yeah. Yeah, I would... You don't want to push yourself. Take a day at a time and, you know, be thankful for whatever... you're able to achieve. So just an inch more or whatever it might be, I consider that to be positive. That's a good thing. I don't think I had much of an appetite back in those days either. I just didn't care about eating that much. I didn't lose a ton of weight. I lost some weight, but not that much. But you still have to kind of focus on Yep, got to do that.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, you got to get those calories in. Yeah, right. That was more of how I was too, and I did. When we were in Florida, I had like a medical marijuana tincture. I'd never smoked pot, it turns out. THC gives me horrible vertigo. Oh, right. So I was using it during chemo and radiation to help keep the nausea down. So I had to get something that was mostly CBD with a little bit of THC, and that helped a ton. So I didn't feel sick, I just didn't want to eat.
SPEAKER_00:Oh, okay. Same
SPEAKER_01:sort of thing, like just no appetite.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, they gave me some pills for the nausea thing. Like Zofran and
SPEAKER_01:Finnegan,
SPEAKER_00:yeah. I don't know what it was.
SPEAKER_01:That didn't do it. Didn't do
SPEAKER_00:it for you? Not as much.
SPEAKER_01:It helped a little. Let's see. What have you learned so far from this experience? You've talked about some of it.
SPEAKER_00:Well, I'll tell you one thing. It's always interesting when you're going through the... Everybody knows how stressful it is and how you don't feel so good. Lots of people come out of the woodwork that want to bring you dinners and do things for you. Yeah. And you think, oh... You don't think about it until something like that happens, and then there's people coming out of woodwork to try and help. That's pretty cool. You don't think about that kind of thing. Did you
SPEAKER_01:let them?
SPEAKER_00:I did,
SPEAKER_01:yeah. Okay, good.
SPEAKER_00:I did, yeah, yeah. And I appreciate that. That was really nice. That was really nice. So, yeah, in my family, you know, I remember my brothers all saying, hey, let's all do a weekend deal together, which we did, and it was a lot of fun. And I wasn't able to do a lot of things with them. Couldn't go golfing or go hiking with them or any of those things. But we still shared some good time together, so it was a lot of fun.
SPEAKER_01:I think, and I think sometimes... We get hesitant when that stuff's happening to go do anything. I did. I felt like, you know, I just need to kind of stay close to home, whatever. But when I would go and get away for a little bit, it just gave me a little bit more perspective and a little breathing room.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah. One thing I was going to mention that when this first came on with me, you go through some mental things. And I was at a stage where I was just feeling sorry for myself. And... And I think, well, this isn't any good. I'm not good for anybody, including myself. But it's easy trap. And I had to break out of that and say, forget it. I'm not going that route. But that's an easy place to go to. And so I had to get out of that. And it made me a better person, I think, for doing that.
SPEAKER_01:How'd you do it? How'd you get out of it?
SPEAKER_00:Just knowing that I was doing that. I could tell I was. And I thought, well, that's no good because you're kind of a downer all the time and that's not a good place to be. You need to be more on the positive side and positive thinking and let everybody know. you are going to be positive and you're going to get past all this and rather be the other way.
SPEAKER_01:I think that I, for me, the positive attitude and the positive attitude about the people around me, because mine was, I think I told you this, like a 5% chance of survival. So you're kind of like, it's a shot in the dark, right? But we had this little book and every time somebody brought a meal or a card or a, um, You know, like my massage therapist came and brought me Pad Thai, which I liked,
SPEAKER_00:and a
SPEAKER_01:free massage certificate. You know, anytime somebody did that, we wrote it in the Good Things book. Oh, good. And it was just kind of a way of focusing on... I'm not saying be Pollyanna and don't deal with it. I think you have to do that. And I think that depression is part of it. But I didn't want to live there. You know what I mean? I wanted to travel through that. And so writing down all those good things just helped keep me mentally where I wanted to be. And... Kev said when I got diagnosed, I've mentioned this before, we need a therapist. We need to establish with a therapist right now. So whether it's me or you or the kids or whatever, we've got somebody we know that we can go to and talk about as things come up. And we did. And we went like once as a whole family, well, at least the family that was still at home. Sometimes I'd go, sometimes he'd go, sometimes the kids would go. But Sharon was an excellent resource through that process because it's like tools for your toolbox. I've never had this kind of cancer before, right?
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:So what do you do?
SPEAKER_00:Right.
SPEAKER_01:And how do you talk to your kids?
SPEAKER_00:That's a good suggestion. Yeah. I didn't do that, but it would have been good.
SPEAKER_01:I'm just a good man.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:And the other thing is, you're like... Tom's like not a sit-around kind of guy. He's always out in the yard. He's restoring. What year is that Mustang?
SPEAKER_00:A 66 Mustang. But
SPEAKER_01:what kind of an engine are you putting in it?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I put in a Coyote engine. So this is an old car with all modern technology. So everything inside of it that makes it fun is all modern. So it's kind of nice. It's kind of nice. I got old and new together. It's
SPEAKER_01:fast, I bet.
SPEAKER_00:It's been something I've always wanted. to do, and I've always worked on cars, loved cars, but I've never actually done restoration work, so now I work in a hot rod shop doing some of that work on other people's cars, so that's kind of fun.
SPEAKER_01:That's
SPEAKER_00:awesome. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01:Yeah, he's not a sitter-rounder, and so it's neat to see him and know that, yeah, he still has to go get antibodies and whatever else, but he's back to living, 17 years you said, right? Yep. 17 years later, living a really full life, and his wife Libby's awesome, and they go camping all the time, they've got great kids, it's pretty awesome. What else am I going to ask you? Any other tips and tricks that you learned?
SPEAKER_00:No, I think that I was always involved in my church and I continued that. I think I even continued singing in the choir during all of that too. That's awesome. That was good, yeah. No matter what you believe in, it's just nice to have that kind of piece of your life. And I had the family support, tons of family support. They're always calling you, checking on you, and how you doing, how you feeling, that kind of good stuff. And that feels good to know that your friends and family, they all care about you. It's not just day one, there's all the way through, they were there. So that's nice.
SPEAKER_01:I was thinking about the church community piece, and that was huge for me too. Because not only my faith in God, you guys know, I've mentioned that before, not only my faith in God, but the fact that it created this instant sense of community. And we had people in the neighborhood too, and people at my husband's work, and people from my work, and that was fantastic. But it was also wonderful to have the people in the church praying for me. I've had people, totally different belief systems, or no belief system at all, but knowing that they were praying for me, or lighting a candle, or doing a guided meditation on my behalf, it's like,
SPEAKER_00:That's pretty special. Yeah, you feel that. It feels real good, yeah. Yeah, so I was happy I had my support from my work. My employer was super supportive, my family's supportive, and your church community, and your neighbors, and it was just, all the way around, I could have been more blessed, so... And it came out on the right end of things, so that's a wonderful thing, too. You know, sometimes I go in every month for my infusion, you know, and they're from 7.30 to 1, and I'm like, geez, what a bummer, but it's not a big thing, really. I can't compare myself to other folks who aren't as fortunate, and I just thank God that, you know, where I'm at. It's a good spot, so.
SPEAKER_01:People always say thank God when they hear the story, and I'm like, oh, I do, daily. Every day, as a guy told me at the grocery store, every day above ground is a good day.
SPEAKER_00:Yeah, that's right. That's right. You got that right.
SPEAKER_01:Okay, so the last two things are fun things. So bucket list items. Besides this Mustang, what are some other bucket list things that you want to do?
SPEAKER_00:You know, my wife asked me, what's your bucket list? I really don't have one. Every single day, if I don't even go anywhere, I'm okay with it. I don't see the world and all that stuff. I enjoy going camping. I Just, you know, we go to the store or something, we have a good time, knock around Costco or something, or go for a walk, whatever. So as far as, you know, destinations or whatever things I have to do, I don't have any. I enjoy, once a year, my brothers and I go on a hunting trip to my cousin's place in Montana. Is
SPEAKER_01:that the one you guys just did recently? Like August?
SPEAKER_00:In August, I go there every year to harvest wheat, but my brothers don't do that, I just do that.
SPEAKER_01:Oh,
SPEAKER_00:okay. So... we're going
SPEAKER_01:so i'm using my son's camera to film this because i haven't done one in person like this with somebody on video and i don't know how it works and it said something so we're we're starting back again just to finish the last couple of items from our interview with tom fitzgerald so we were talking about bucket list items
SPEAKER_00:and that's that's what i was kind of saying i don't have a defined bucket list i just kind of going along with what we enjoy doing which is our camping and going we are going to plan a trip in the next year or two because we have grandkids back in Louisiana. So it'd be a fun trip. I have a brother in Texas. I've never been to his home, never seen him. Where in
SPEAKER_01:Texas?
SPEAKER_00:He's in El Paso, which is way over there in the corner, almost in Mexico. So I'd like to maybe swing down and see him and then get up there and see them. We've never been to Yellowstone or Grand Canyon or any of those big touristy things and At some point, I could probably see those things. So we could incorporate that and have a nice visit with the kids. It'd be fun to be able to see their football game or soccer games or baseball, whatever they're doing. They're always doing something. So it'd be just fun to do that.
SPEAKER_01:That would be cool. And the food's so good.
SPEAKER_00:And the food is wonderful. Yeah, I love it. And I love the people. I love the way they talk and all that. It's really pretty cool.
SPEAKER_01:My grandma's family's from Louisiana.
SPEAKER_00:Oh,
SPEAKER_01:okay. And have lived there for generations. And not like so much Cajun back in the bayou, but the Acadian and speak Cajun French, they could do that. And the food is...
SPEAKER_00:Oh, yeah. They love their crawdads.
SPEAKER_01:Oh,
SPEAKER_00:yeah. Yeah. I like them, too. But, I mean, we don't do that much around here. They're pretty big.
SPEAKER_01:That'll be... Oh, yeah. Crawfish boil. That would be awesome. Okay, so the last thing is, what's your favorite place to be?
SPEAKER_00:place to be?
SPEAKER_01:Yeah. If you just could choose any place and the people you wanted with you, what would that place be and who would those people be?
SPEAKER_00:Well, I guess it'd be my wife and the kids and close friends. I don't know. I mean, I got a lot of people I like, you know, I'd be around, but mostly just Libby and I. And I'd like to be, we like the coast and I like the mountains. It's hard to pick. We go both places. We now are on this deal every year. We are at the O'Dell Lake up on the Willamette Pass here. We'll be up there every year for two weeks. And we just started doing that. And so we're looking forward to that. And we were just at the coast this past week. We're going down next week again. So... And my brother's going to meet us down there. We're going to do a little golf and so forth down in Goose Bay. So that'll be kind of fun.
SPEAKER_01:You can't beat Oregon if you want to be at mountains and the coast and skiing and desert.
SPEAKER_00:You got it all. Yeah, you really do. Anyway, that's about it.
SPEAKER_01:Well, as you can see, Tom's awesome. And I appreciate you sharing your story. Some people have a hard time with that, and I'm grateful that you've talked about it. and for somebody with lymphoma.
SPEAKER_00:Well, thank you for inviting me over. Anytime. All right. Thank you.
SPEAKER_01:It's easy to see why we love having Tom and Libby as neighbors, and it's fantastic for us to watch them doing the things they love. This week, as you go around the world, please do something nice for somebody else that lightens their burden a little bit. Thanks for joining us.