From Mark Karan:
i have been diagnosed with a cancer of the throat. it’s a tuff kind to fight. it’s a squamous cell tonsular cancer that has [metastasized] into two lymph nodes… and it’s stage four. the good news is that it’s “extremely well contained”. everything looks really good for getting thru this with hard work and a good attitude, chemo, radiation, surgery, acupuncture and any/all other healing methods that make sense… we’re a-gonna breed us a multi-headed dragon to help me thru this thing!
while i know this to be an unusual approach, i am not choosing to perceive this as a battle or a fight… or even to see it as necessarily a “bad thing”. i am trying to look at this as the eastern medicine people might. in chinese the word for “crisis” is synonymous with “opportunity”. i am trying to see this as an opportunity for growth in my life experience. to do this, i am doing my best to bless this cancer and thank it for the “wake-up call” that’s demanding of me that i make long needed changes in my diet, activity level and attitude and begin to truly care for myself… something i haven’t always done too well. having already begun some of these changes, i now feel the message has been successfully delivered and it is time for the messenger, the cancer, to move on from where it is no longer needed. that is my current mission… to move it out of my body.
i don’t believe it is time for me to leave the planet just yet, so i don’t plan to. i have faith that i’ll be around for a long while to come. any thoughts, meditations and/or prayers any of you offer are more than welcomed. meanwhile, we’re doing our best to stay up & positive. it’s not always emotionally easy and we haven’t even started the treatments yet, but i have a LOT of faith that i’ll come thru this ok… maybe better than ever. it’s likely to be a tough road for a while but i truly believe this too shall indeed pass and that “that which does not kill us makes us stronger”.
meanwhile, i will not be touring this summer. i’ll be staying home and healing, building strength thru the summer and hopefully back to touring w/ratdog again this fall.
i’d love to hear from any of you although i’m not talking a lot yet as they stole one o’ my tonsils just so’s they could give me the “good news”.
we’re doing our best to stay up & positive. it’s not always easy and we haven’t even started treatments yet, but i have a LOT of faith that i’ll come thru this ok…
MK
Lookin’ forward to seeing MK back with Ratdog! But absolutely more lookin’ forward to him beatin’ that thing that’s keepin’ him down. No one should have to deal with crap like that. Major prayers and good thoughts headed his way!
(and should he be unavailable for a Fall Tour, what about Bobby Cochran or Matt Kelly?!)
dear mark , i think you have the fight in you to beat this thing , i don’t know you ,but thru the music. keep your head up , and if theres anything i can do for you ,let me know. god bless , a face in the crowd, terry