The Stage is Set

Tuesday, 3pm - the tumor meets the scalpel. Again. I'm flying home next week for a few days to lend some moral support. Dad sounded more positive today, that's good. That helps me calm down a bit. It's not so much the surgery but the complications and aftereffects that are hardest on my brother. The drugs, the therapy... it's living hell. And I'm not the one enduring it... Dad said that he saw the MRI from September. He said that the tumor was about the size of the tip of your thumb then. It has since doubled in size and looks more like a ball, or an egg. Ugh. Not such a slow-growing tumor anymore, is it? I recall that it's an "astrocytoma" - a tumor composed of an excessive growth of star-shaped cells in the brain. Bro, you're a star. Almost literally. What you are, however, is a champ - for your eternal struggle with this thing. Now the challenge is to not just get by, but to really push yourself to live at your best. Like Lance Armstrong says, Live Strong. I want you to live strong. Literally.