I’ve had quite a few people asking lately how I’m doing health-wise, so Laura suggested I write a post about it.

Quick recap: in the fall of 2015 I had a seizure that led to the discovery of a malignant brain tumor (oligodendroglioma). I had most of it surgically removed, and at the time my doctors decided that chemo and radiation were options best left for later.

Well, “later” came at the end of this past summer (2019). I had begun noticing some worsening coordination and cognition, so I moved up my biannual MRI by a few weeks. Sure enough, the results showed that, while slowly, the tumor was definitely regrowing.

This was difficult news. Despite living with the reality of brain cancer for four years, we had been going about life. We had a daughter who’d just turned one. As we drove away from the hospital, all I could think about was going to hug her at daycare, so we did.

Slowly, though, things started looking better. We realized that not much had actually changed; right after surgery we’d been told that patients with this type of cancer could expect to live, on average, 10 years. This news wasn’t actually adjusting that estimate downward or anything. It simply meant that I’d have to undergo further treatment now.

So, that’s what I’ve been doing for the past several months: first I did radiation, then chemotherapy (which is still ongoing). I’ll post more specifics on that soon.