Welcome To My World!

Or at least what was once my world.

This web site documents the six months I spent fighting cancer. Inside, you'll see what it was like for me to have surgery on my spine, learn to walk again, get chemo injected into my chest, and get zapped with sweet, sweet radiation.

This site was created for those wonderful people in my life who wanted to watch my progress each week, and for those who just think scars are coooool. During my treatment, I updated the site weekly, posting pictures and contributing a journal entry. I also have several special sections linked on this front page. In many ways, I invented blogs, but that's neither here nor there. To get you oriented, I've included a brief summary of the days before diagnosis. Once you've read that, feel free to either read the web site week-by-week, or bounce around, choosing topics at random. Have fun!

If you don't know my story, you may want to start with the backstory. If you're intimately familiar with my story, read the backstory. I just wrote it.

The Original Front Page Of This Web Site

On Wednesday, November 7, 2001, Matt Rhodes was admitted to Cottage Hospital in Santa Barbara, CA where he was diagnosed with stage four Hodgkin's Lymphoma (HL).

This is a brief overview of what has happened since then:

• He had surgery Thursday (11/8/01) to remove one growth from his spine, which had to be done immediately because Matt was unable to walk. The surgery went well and his walking is improving daily.
• They confirmed it was HL on Friday (11/9/01).
• He had surgery Friday (11/9/01) to insert a catheter into a large vein near his shoulder, and he began chemotherapy Saturday night (11/10/01). So far so good.
• Many months later, Matt has completed his treatment and is a roving cancer survivor.

Matt experienced 12 weeks of intense chemotherapy, and towards the end underwent 8 weeks of radiation treatments (over 3 months). His treatments are now complete and his scans are clean.