It's Baaaack Redux

So last Wednesday , I had my MRI check-up and that damn tumor is back. That is the bad news. the good news is that we are going to treat it with a non- invasive "Stereotactic Radiosurgery tomorrow Monday. This is an outpatient procedure using radiation to blast the tumor cells from hundreds of different angles with surgical accuracy without a cut.

So the process goes like this
1. Arrive at UW Cancer CLinic at 6am Monday 3/29..
2. get a "frame" placed on my head. 4 pins that hold it break the skin. I will wear this frame all day. Apparently this is the most painful part. they will give me a local anesthetic and valium (so I got that going for me. :)
3. with the frame on, I will get a ct scan. Dem smart docs will then go into a planning session to plan the surgery (think Really High level physics)
4. once the plan is done, they will take me into the Linear Accelerator (radiation machine)and I will receive the radiation blast. We won't know exactly how long the radiation will take until the planning is done, but 30-45 min is common. Once the surgery is done, they take off the frame and send me home! The Radiation doesn't hurt, it is about as painful as an Xray. I will be really fatigued for a couple days and have potentially have some eye puffiness late next week, but that's it. I will have a follow up MRI in a month which will hopefully show NO tumor growth and hopefully dead tumor. I go right back to my chemo schedule of every other Wednesday

So the tumor is back, which is not a huge surprise as we have always known that this thing will keep coming back. I am happy that my medical team is able to treat this with a noninvasive procedure. It is what it is and I will continue to fight this with everythng that I have!

The fight brngs me to the real reason for this post. When people find out that I am fighting Brain Cancer, they inevitably ask me how I can stay positive and smile. My answer is usually, it is what it is. Obviously, my family gives me strength as does my faith.

When I was freshman in college at Iowa State (GO CYCLONES!) I had periods of time where the life adjustment was difficult on me. I had a friend at the time who recognized what I was going through and gave me something that I still have to this day. It is a poem by an unknown author. For the past 20+ years, whenever I ran into a situation that I may have briefly considered giving up, I pull out this poem and reread it. I wanted to share it with you today. I hope you enjoy.

Don't Quit

When things go wrong as they sometimes wll;
Whe the road you're trudginig seems all uphill;
When the funds are low, and debts are high;
And you want to smile, but have to sigh;.
When care is pressing you down a bit-
Success is failure turned inside out;
The silver tint of the clouds of doubt;
And you can never tell how close you are;
t may be near when it seems afar.
So,stick to the fight when you're hardest hit-
It's when things go wrong that you must not quit.


Its a simple Poem that has helped me more times than I can count.

Never Never Quit!
Thank You SMITH Kinney!- my brother PHi Delt (My fraternity Phi Delta Theta) who Originally shared this with me in Late 1987.


Thank you all for your thoughts and prayers!

Peace Out!