[pmwiki-announce] A personal update

[Patrick R. Michaud]

I've been somewhat remiss in making the PmWiki community aware 
of my personal situation in 2008, so I figure I should catch 
things up now.

In early January 2008 after several weeks of not feeling well,
my wife Paula went into the hospital and we learned that she has
ovarian cancer.  She immediately went for surgery to have
the tumors removed, and since then she has been undergoing
recovery, chemotherapy treatments, and otherwise been on
disability leave from her work.  Obviously this has meant that 
the bulk of my attention these months has been on taking care of
her and the rest of our family, with my paid employment and
other projects taking a somewhat distant second.  As many of
you have undoubtedly noticed, this also left me with substantially
less time and energy for PmWiki.

Today we have some excellent news to share -- as of this past
week the CT scans and other tests show that Paula's cancer is
in remission.  This means we have no more chemotherapy treatments 
or medicines to deal with (big yay!), and from here on we simply
go in for examinations every few months to watch for any
recurrence (which is unfortunately quite common for ovarian
cancer).  We were hoping to be done with treatments in late spring,
but complications with the chemotherapy mix caused things to take 
several months longer than planned.  But we've finally arrived
at the desired outcome, and of course we're both relieved and
happy.

So, now that treatments are done and the kids are back in school,
I'm hoping and expecting that I'll start having time and energy
for more active participation in PmWiki again.  You'll have noticed
that I've been monitoring the lists and commenting on issues 
from time to time as best I can -- that should continue to improve.  

Mostly I've been very grateful to see that the PmWiki community
has continued to grow and prosper while I've been preoccupied,
and my sincere thanks go to all of you who have continued to keep
the community alive.

And both Paula and I are grateful to all of you for your prayers,
well wishes, and other forms of support over these many months.
They have all been a huge help to us and lifted many weights
from our shoulders.  If anyone has any questions or wants to
know more about our experience, please feel very free to ask.

Thanks again to everyone,

Pm