Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu taught that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” in his work the Tao Te Ching. Today, I am taking the first step on my new journey. I have my first appointment with an oncologist. I have a lot to learn. But this is not unfamiliar territory. When I first tested positive for HIV (exactly 28 years ago next Friday), when I was diagnosed with PML in 2007, and when I developed pulmonary emboli in 2013, then too did I go into “learning mode.”

So it is too soon to start waxing eloquent about cancer. It’s one of those things in life that is so ubiquitous that you just kindof assume you know everything there is to know already. But that is why it is so important, for me anyway, to write – it exposes what I don’t know and invites me to learn. I’m going to let the oncologist lead the way. I’ve done a little bit of Internet sleuthing already, but I was overwhelmed by what I found, so I needed to give Gordon a big, long hug, go outside, and putter around in my garden for an hour.

But I can tell you where I am going. Not metaphorically. Literally.

I love living in the desert. Los Angeles will always be where I am from, proudly, but the Coachella Valley is where I live, where I call home now. And here in the Valley we have an amazing healthcare facility; some call it “the main campus,” some refer to it by the name of the city it is in – Rancho Mirage. But whatever you call it, US News & World Report has ranked it the 19th best hospital among approximately 415 hospitals in California, and #1 in the Riverside/San Bernardino County area, in their annual “Best Hospitals” rankings.

I am, of course, talking about Eisenhower Medical Center.

Named in honor of our nation’s 34th president – Dwight D. Eisenhower – it is not just a hospital with a couple of related professional buildings scattered around its periphery; Eisenhower is a small “city,” with walkways, benches, parks, ponds with geese and other wildlife, a complex series of roads, and street signs to get you where you need to go. Of course there is the 463-bed “main” hospital, but you will also find the Barbara Sinatra Children’s Center here and the Annenberg Center for Health Sciences. The famed Betty Ford Center for addiction recovery is also located on the Eisenhower campus. It is situated on 130 acres in the desert city of Rancho Mirage, and also has a series of outpatient satellites across the Coachella Valley, with walk-in urgent care services offered at three locations: La Quinta, Rancho Mirage, and Palm Springs. Eisenhower Medical Center is the largest hospital in the area and the Valley’s only not-for-profit hospital.

The first known mention of what we call cancer dates back to a circa 3000 BCE papyrus which describes what is thought to be a tumor removed by cauterization with a tool called “the fire drill;” the papyrus concludes “there is no treatment.” 5,000-plus years since its first written mention, cancer globally accounts for 9.6 million deaths a year according to World Health Organization statistics, and standing between patients and those deaths is the Lucy Curci Cancer Center, where they would dispute the conclusion that cancer is untreatable.

So today I begin a path of discovery (hopefully leading to recovered health) down the road in Rancho Mirage. For now I’m going to take to heart one of my own rules to live by: you have two ears and one mouth – by the numbers this means you should listen more and talk less.