the last day

Today was the final day of radiation.
The final day of cancer treatment.

!

Brendan was just accepted to medical school.
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Shuffle!

Brendan and I are registered to run on Sunday, April 10th 2011 in the BOA Shamrock Shuffle.
We plan on working with Team In Training, and using team Walking 'phoma Brother (if we accumulate enough people) to turn heads, raise awareness, and maybe a little bit of money for blood cancer. We should also probably change the name to Running/Racing/Jogging/Getting a cramp and walking/Shamrock Shuffling 'phoma Brother...

You can run with us! [it's only 8k - 5 miles]

...and there was much rejoicing

The largest and darkest spot on this PET scan image is Brendan's heart. The vast majority of the remaining black that is visible here, above his ticker, is cancer. This was one of the scans taken of him in July - right when he was diagnosed with The Hodge.
So there it is.
There it is.
Although all of that black mass in his chest and in his throat has gone, his body is still littered with the scars to remind him that it was all once there.
The port came out yesterday (and there was much rejoicing) in a process that Brendan described, with sparkling eyes and a huge grin, as butchering meat.
[side bar: here is what it looks like while it is in place]
What the embedded images don't show you, is that the bottom of the port has hooks - so that it stays nicely in place. The de-porting process was less of an ordeal the it's implant, and it was a "simple" in office procedure that Dr. Boffa performed with the assistance of some Lidocaine.
The hooks put up a bit of a fight. Dr. Boffa denied Brendan's request to video tape the process with his iPhone, but Brendan said he felt nothing but slight pressure throughout. Even when Dr. Boffa was chopping and pulling and tearing and roughly cutting at his chest to remove the stubborn port, Brendan said he just laughed and told Dr. Boffa he should install a mirror on the ceiling so that he could watch.
There was a lot of blood.
My brother wasn't phased.

A few stitches later, Brendan is foreign body-less and needs to restrict his heavy lifting for awhile.

He has an interview on Friday for a medical school in Colorado.
I've got one on Saturday for a school in Oregon.

Radiation happens, but it's not anywhere near the ordeal that chemotherapy was. Brendan's hair is growing back thick and fast, he looks like his old self again. He acts like his old self again, if only a little stronger and wiser. We are our old selves again - a little closer, and a lot more enamored with our hero.

The BOA Shamrock Shuffle is coming in April, and I may call on team Walking 'phoma Brother to make an appearance - Team In Training will be running, so we can either join them, be completely independent, or form a TNT satellite team. Seems like a good idea to me - it's only 8K (5 miles).

I know Brendan will run it with me.
The only thing that worries me now, is that he will leave me in his dust.