A Year Has Passed...

Today is the 15th of June, 2010. This day in 2009, my raging tumor in the left side of my brain was removed, and I was started toward recovery. I had been brought down on a medevac plane on the 10th, examined, and scheduled for surgery. I thought I had a pretty good idea what was required for repair and restoration, but I'm fairly sure now that I did not. Perhaps we never do... The doctors and nurses and the rest of the staff, along with my wife, children and many friends, have spent a tremendous amount of effort on my behalf, beginning on the 10th of June, 2009, and carrying through today -- and continuing into the future.

I've not been putting comments out the past three months, mostly because things are going very well. I don't much like talking about the issues I do have, which deal mostly with the inevitable results of continuing chemotherapy for the full regimen, while there appears to be no remaining cancer. The chemo does powerful work...more so with no cancer to attack. So the benefit is also a problem. But we've been dealing with the pains and the issues and I'm coming along pretty well. One whole bunch of better than I was just exactly a year ago, for sure!

So what's up in the future? I finish the Avastin on June 26 -- for the 26th set! The final set of Temodar starts on the 26th and goes through the 30th. Then I have MRI's every three months, with the first post-therapy one on August 23rd. All of the MRI's I've had since last September have shown no sign of cancer, so I have no reason to believe that will change. I expect it will take quite a while to fully recovery; perhaps in some respects I never will. In any event I have continued to improve in many ways; lose some ground in some others. One thing is for certain, though: I am far, far beyond my condition of a year ago. I owe much to many, and I have learned to be grateful and accept what I receive.

Thank you, all of you...those I know and those I don't.

Dennis, with Faith