So 2016 is off to a stormy start for me (more on that in a minute) which means that I really haven’t focused on prostate cancer all that much this month. However, there was one article that caught my interest and one that I want to read more about.

The BMJ (formerly the British Medical Journal) published an article on 6 January 2016 titled: Why cancer screening has never been shown to “save lives”—and what we can do about it. Obviously, for those of us walking down this path, that title grabs our attention.

Because the BMJ requires registration to read the full article, here are links to a summary, the BMJ site, and an Infographic that you may want to check out. I’ll go back and read it in more detail when the dust settles after my stormy start to 2016.

My rotten start to 2016 actually began late in 2015 when roots took over the sewer line coming out of my guest bathroom in my house and shut down anything flowing out of the house on New Year’s Eve. The plumbers returned on Saturday, 2 January to clear the line again, and on Monday, 4 January, they were breaking through the concrete slab in my house to get to the offending roots.

Two days and $4,200 USD later, the roots were gone, the hole was back-filled, and it all was concreted over. Of course, now I have to replace the tile, vanity, and sink, so I decided it was time for a refresh of the entire bathroom (another $6K–$8K, potentially).

You may recall that I flew to Chicago in the middle of all of this chaos to visit my sister and brother-in-law and their family. I returned to work on Thursday, 14 January and around 2 p.m. on Friday, I get a call from the Human Resources manager, “Could you please come up to my office?”

I entered the office and there was the HR manager, my boss, and her boss. “This doesn’t bode well,” I thought to myself. Sure enough, my position at the museum was eliminated in a cost-savings move, effective immediately. Bummer.  But, hey, at least I’ll have time to focus on the bathroom remodel now, right?

Not so fast…

On Saturday, 30 January, I thought I better get a job search in gear, so that evening, I came across a position which was exactly what I was doing before—volunteer coordinator—at for an organization less than half a mile from my old employer. I sent my resume off on Sunday; got an email  on Monday requesting an interview; had the interview on Wednesday; and was offered the job on Friday. I accepted and started the job this week. Oh. and it pays more, which will help with all the repairs.

See, there is a silver lining in every storm cloud!