Thursday, September 29, 2011

He's alive! Alive!

Hello to all my long-lost friends and family! Sorry to have been so quiet all these... years? I kind of lost my ability to write during this whole ordeal. Bethany sure can write well though, right? How about a round of applause for the world's best health advocate, "volunteer" (ahem) nurse, and partner that a person could ask for.

A quick update with more details to come soon. Lots will happen in the coming months.

First, I left the hospital in mid-August and have been recuperating at home. I left the hospital underweight, depressed, and afraid that the beast was finally going to finish me off.

It took about a month to regain some strength. They starved me for two weeks and pumped me full of antibiotics and pain meds. I had no appetite for a while and was stuck in my recliner around the clock. Now at the end of September, I have regained some weight and strength, but stamina is still hard to maintain even as we approach the two month mark. I have regained my appetite, adopted a mostly vegan diet, and am doing some work from home.

The mental toll has been harder than the physical challenges, I must admit. This is a brutal disease and its goal is just to kill everything in and around the patient. It takes a lot to fight back.

Bethany will give more details on our "next steps" with the doctors and their knives and poisons. Hint: they can't really help me much, and we're just watching the tumors that reside in my belly. The official, stated goal is to keep the disease from ruining my quality of life. The unofficial goal (mine alone, it seems) is to get every bit of this hungry alien out of my body -- by any means necessary. I've got some friends in eastern medicine helping me work toward both goals.

Thank you all for your concern and support. I am a very lucky man to have such a broad support network and groups of people who truly love me. I wish I had the strength (mental and physical) to personally thank every individual who has reached out to me and my family in our dark days. I will have that strength soon.

Better everyday, love to all.
Brian