I logged into my account to see that it was almost exactly a year ago that I last wrote an entry. I did in fact have a very successful comedy set last year. I closed out the show and it was fantastic. My set was about my fantasy cancer romance a la a Hallmark movie. Alas, technical difficulties led to me not having a video of the performance. However, I did have 3 good friends who attended and can vouch for me if ever necessary. The difficult process made it clear that, although I find myself quite entertaining, it takes a lot of effort to actually be an entertainer. I have great respect for comedians now for sure.

More recent happenings…

In my many dealings with other cancer patients and survivors, I’ve heard about how the spacing of MRIs gets longer and longer as the years go by…every 6 months to every year to maybe every 2 years. In my last doctor visits, I asked my oncologist about what my timeline looks like because I had recently become curious. Turns out I was operating under an incorrect assumption. It seems that this reduced frequency is for people who are “cancer-free” or whatever the appropriate term is. Because I still have remaining tumor in my head, unless there is some new treatment in the future, I will never be cancer-free. That means we have to keep monitoring for the rest of my life. It is good information to have. It makes sense; I just didn’t really look into it until recently.

Along a similar vein, now that I’m going on 2 years post-treatment, I thought I would meet the requirements to donate blood again. All the toxins are out of my body about a year post-chemo and I have no signs of growth. So I’m stable, though the term “no recurrence” is up for interpretation. I attempted to donate blood and, as is a somewhat common occurrence in my life, it turns out I am an anomaly. I don’t fit into the black and white and so being in the grey area is questionable. (I could make a grey matter joke here…) After consulting with other nurses and calling the head doctor for the blood donation facility, the nurse told me the doctor wanted to speak with me directly.

Dr: “So you’re saying you have a brain tumor but you’re not on any treatment and it’s stable?”

Me: “Yes.”

Dr.: “…Huh. I’ve never heard of that before. I’m gonna have to go do some research and get back to you.”

He never did. I did my duty and tried to donate blood. I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry when people’s health is at stake.

Otherwise, I guess it’s been a year because like everyone else, I’m living in 2020 and that’s much more of a crazy thing than living with wacky eyes and a wacky brain that I have gotten more and more used to. I voted yesterday and I’m happy because October is here and it’s always been my favorite month. Cheers!

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