"No Progress" Can be a Good Thing

Pretty much everything about Monday's doctor's appointment was uneventful, thank God. Upon review of last week's MRI, I got the "no progression noted" that I hope to hear time and time again going forward. This is certainly not meant to indicate that I'm cured or that the cancer has been otherwise eliminated. In fact, brain tumors of this sort are known to have vile little microscopic "fingers" snaking through the brain like the arms of an ugly little octopus. They're in there, and the goal is to regularly monitor my brain for an early catch of any attempted coup-de-tat. Most literature that I've found points to a pretty high rate of recurrence, but if caught early the options for removal can be relatively non-invasive, at least as compared to my initial surgery. So we'll just wait and see, with MRIs roughly every three months in the near future. This should then "taper" to MRIs about every six months after some point in time demarcating my passing the early stages when recurrence is a likelier prospect.

So I'm just sitting here in a Starbucks in downtown Philly on an almost 100 degree day, finishing a Frappuccino while completing my 3-credit independent study, considering next semester's class schedule, and looking forward to tomorrow's five-year anniversary of when I married the most amazing woman in the world. Wow, five years. Between now and our next five year anniversary, I intend to live life much more deliberately and with a greater attention to those in need. Life was never about what I achieve for myself, and it never should have been. But leaving a positive and transformative impact in the people who need me and what I can offer will indeed be a legacy to be proud of. It is 100% guaranteed that we'll all die sooner or later, and I definitely consider myself blessed to have had this wake-up call before it's my turn to go.