Feeling sorry for yourself? Depressed about your life? Take a few minutes and read my blog… you’ll feel better in no time!

In the past few weeks I’ve received several emails wondering about the "non-posts" here on the blog as well as the absence of  "Tweets" on Twitter. Generally I wouldn’t share my personal adventures with the world, but, I felt that an explanation was was in order and, since I do lead an interesting life full of challenges, that I’d make the exception and share the last few weeks with you.

As many of you are aware, In 2004 I was diagnosed with cancer in my left jaw. After several months of radiation therapy and chemotherapy a decision was made to completely remove and replace the left jaw; a little radical to say the least, but at that time a wise decision.

Since 2004 I have lived a cancer free existence with minimal health issues until this past January.
In late January I developed a blockage in my digestive track. This necessitated a 3 day stay in the hospital until the issue resolved itself. Once I returned from the hospital I prepared to start back to work; unfortunately, I had suffered dehydration which lowered my blood pressure and caused me to be on bed rest for almost 3 weeks.

During my bed rest I noticed I had a slight pain in my right jaw which I assumed was "after effects" caused by the 2004 radiation treatments (a fact that I had been told by a variety of doctors).

But, as luck would have it, the evening before I planned on returning to work, (about 6 weeks ago), I fractured my right jaw. Upon further examination it was discovered that, yes, indeed, the 2004 radiation treatments had slowly killed the jaw bone on the right jaw and there is no way to repair it. But…..Luckily - NO CANCER this time around.

On March 24th will be entering UCLA Medical Center for surgery that will remove and replace the right jaw.

Unfortunately, the pain involved has been horrific while I’ve had wait for our HMO to decide which direction to take; consequently I have had massive doses of powerful pain killers. While this kills the pain it also makes me unable to navigate around a room and due to the nature of the broken jaw I cannot speak coherently so I am reduced to communicate via email, text messaging, or "I.M.".

Once the surgery is complete the healing process is quite fast, especially since I don’t have to deal with the radiation after-effects and and am able to swallow. I hope to be fully "back in business" by mid-April.

So – the next time you’re feeling blue about your "sucky life", give a few thoughts to how well you’ve actually got it and say to yourself:

"hmmmm… could be worse, I could be Chuck". 

Be well and hug those you love and let them know how much they mean to you, ’cause, let me tell you, "You just never know!"

But, what about business…?

Funny you should ask.

This whole ordeal has been pretty transparent to our clients. We have enough depth at VR Legal that a very smooth transition in responsibilities within the firm allowed fellow team members to assume duties that I may have been unable to perform.

I also need to heap a lot of credit on my trusty little BlackBerry. With the ability to "Instant Message", text message, and receive and respond to email it’s as if I’m in the office so, when needed, I "bark" orders from bed and I’m always kept in the loop on our various projects.

There, I hope you feel better now. Glad I could help out.

Be Well!

Charles Perez