Late last night I received an answer, which to be honest I was surprised at, since I assumed Joe was receiving multiple e-mails from friends and supporters and that he probably would not have time to respond any time soon, if at all.
However it was actually a very informative and blunt assessment of his condition and what he is doing to stay healthy for as long as he can.
My intent in sending the e-mail was simply to contact my old friend and provide support. I had no intention of sharing the contents of any response with all of you, except perhaps to let you know he was doing well.
However Joe suggested that I DO share the contents with you, except for some more personally exchanges, so I will.
Here is a portion of Joe's response:
Fortunately, I feel really good right now. I might even write a piece called "How Prostate Cancer Saved My Life (Before It Killed Me.)"
I no longer eat red meat, or even skin-on chicken. No dairy (milk, eggs, butter, cheese) except a few ounces of fat-free, unsweetened yogurt into which I mix my Fiber One and raspberries or blueberries in the morning. No bread, no rice, no pasta, no sugar. In other words, none of the foods I've loved and grown fat on over 70 years.
Instead, it's fish (salmon, salmon, and more salmon), greens (broccoli, kale, mustard greens, etc.) some fruit (blueberries, raspberries, pomegranate seeds) tons of tomatoes, especially cooked, because cooking releases ten times more lycopene, an occasional handful of walnuts or almonds, lots of garlic, smidgens of olive oil, and for spices, turmeric, ginger, oregano and cayenne pepper. Oh, and green tea and rooibus tea. Lots of both.
Red wine is allowed, praise the Lord!
I work with a trainer at a gym for an hour three days a week. The other four, and sometimes even on those three, I spend forty-five minutes to an hour on a treadmill in our basement, and I push both the incline and the speed to the point where I stumble off it, panting and sweating and yelling upstairs to Nancy that she'd better call 911.
Nancy, of course, is Joe's wife. A very lovely woman that I met once at the house in Wasilla, and a person that Joe is very lucky to have by his side. She will definitely take good care of him.
As you can tell Joe is not one to sugar coat things and goes on to offer his usual no frills assessment of his condition. He is upbeat but still remains firmly reality based.
Before you ask, yes I did send him some of the links that all of you provided, and I am sure he is very appreciative of your concern.
Joe does have some projects in the works that sound very interesting, so yes he still plans on producing more amazing literature for all of us to enjoy.
Personally I plan on buying everything he produces from now on. (Of course I would have done that even without the cancer.)
If I receive anymore updates, and Joe gives his permission, I will gladly share them with you. But for right now I guess the best thing we can do is to keep a positive thought and follow Joe's example by make our own healthy choices as well.
Because as Joe says, "In a battle between mortality and an individual, mortality always wins."
Yes it does but it should always know that it is in for a hell of a fight first.
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