Has it been 3 Months? -- Radiation is Over!!! -- Treatment is Over

Hello All,
Hope everyone is doing well. I can't believe it has been three months since my last blog. Sorry I haven't posted in a while. A lot has been going on since my last posting.

First, let me get the news out of the way. Treatment is OVER. My last radiation treatment ended less than a month ago. From mid June to mid July I had to go into the hospital five times a week to get zapped. The daily process took in total only 20 minutes, but the initial set up process took about 2 hours. The initial process consisted of the technicians creating a cast of my head and the top of my chest, marking my body with semi-permanent marker for alignment, and taking a low dosage scan to ensure that I was positioned correctly. The idea behind this setup is to ensure that I am positioned in the same exact spot on the table. This is extremely important so that they are treating the same spot instead of a "general" area. So every day when I went in, they would strap me to a table with the cast that they made of my head and the top of my chest, line up the markings on my body with the cast and then they would administer the radiation to my chest from the front and then from the back. The total time I was in the office was around twenty minutes. Overall the the treatment was not that taxing on me physically. I think I pulled through it very well. The only side effect was that I was a bit tired at the end of the twenty treatments, but since then I'm back to normal. From a weight perspective I am now back at 86kg or 190lbs. At the end of my chemo I was weighing in at 170lbs. When my brother Steven saw me during his visit, he said that I looked a bit too thin. Thanks to Steven and Billy's visit, I gained some weight back.

Other news. As I mentioned above, my brother Steven and cousin Billy visited me during the months of May and June. It was great seeing them and spending a lot of time with them. When Steven came it, we spent a week together here in Melbourne. Then we took off to Sydney, met Billy, spent time together in Sydney, and then Steven took off back to the states. Billy and I then stayed in Sydney for a couple of days and then headed to Melbourne where he stayed for a week. The trip that those guys made over here meant the world to me and it was at a perfect time when I was coming out of my chemo treatments and before my radiation treatments. Furthermore, as fathers and husbands themselves, it meant even more that Rachel (Steven's wife) and Kristi (Billy's wife) were so strong in letting the guys leave for such a long time. From experience, I know that it is very hard on the mama while the papa is gone for such a long time. Thank you Kristi and Rachel, I appreciate it so much.

Amy, Olivia and I also had another visitor which was Bonnie. Bonnie is my mother in law and is such a wonderful woman. During Bonnie's one month visit she helped both Amy and I with Olivia and gave me the opportunity to take off for 5 days by myself up to Byron Bay for a music festival. Bonnie stayed with Amy to help with Olivia. It was fantastic seeing Bonnie spend so much time with Olivia and Amy and I enjoyed spending time with Bonnie as well. Between Bonnie and Amy many craft projects were completed and Olivia had a wonderful playmate to match.

Life right now is really good. I feel like the experience I have been through has helped me to grow as a person. Everything is positive and throughout the entire experience I did what I needed to do for myself to get through this. Am I doing everything such as eating a strict diet and meditating everyday? No. The program that I went through has helped me to keep those very important lifestyle changes in my mind and I do practice them as much as I can. I think the important thing is to keep working at achieving a balance in life and just being in a spot that you enjoy your life and the people you love.

I'll keep updating this blog every couple of months.

Goodbye for now.

Brian