we now return to your regularly scheduled life, already in progress

My oncologist said the mass in my chest -- originally 9 cm but now 2 cm -- is calcifying, meaning it's dead and the immune system is having its way with it. The CAT scan showed no swollen lymph nodes in the abdomen or pelvis.

HOORAY.

Now I truly feel like I can move on. This was the first scan since radiation, so I was still leaving a little room for doubt in my mind that something could still be growing in there. This is proof that there isn't; let's hope it stays that way.

The doc was impressed (dare I say, surprised?) that I felt no different than before the treatment. They wrote it off to me being young. My nurse clinician said that, in time, my veins shouldn't be as problematic as they were Friday. Currently, they're still trying to repair from the chemo drugs and all the times I was poked. The veins, I mean, not the doctors.


A few more items for today's blog:

My friends and I are once again planning a trip to New York City, this time for early March. Plans include seeing the Broadway shows Avenue Q and Spamalot and catching an Islanders hockey game. I've never been to a hockey game, let alone watched one on TV, nor do I have any idea how it's played, nor am I any kind of sports fan outside of baseball, and I barely follow that either... but hey, it's New York (I'm not sure how "hey, it's New York" explains why I want to see a hockey game, but it sounded good when I typed it). Stu's a big fan, having grown up there. Actually, whether or not Stu has grown up at all is somewhat debatable among the taco gang. :D But the same could be said for most of us.

If You are for to being interested in much Enjoyment of rare and silver french Horn, please to be clicking this eBay Auction. Read the paragraph under the first image. Also note that the guy has private feedback (which generally means they have something to hide), 10% of which is negative or neutral.

Lastly, one of the recent blog trends has been to google one's name with the word needs, e.g. "bryan needs," and see what comes up. Another blogger suggested using "[name] hates" instead. I did this a few weeks ago on Kristy's blog, and now that page comes up as the first result. So in the interest of further skewing the results, here's a new list from googling, ignoring what I posted to Kristy's:

• Bryan HATES HIPPIES
• Bryan hates the bondholders.
• Bryan hates the time decay a weekend represents (oy, ain't that the truth).
• Bryan hates customers standing at the bar for any other purpose than giving him money.
• Bryan hates Woody Allen.
• Bryan hates the world and he hates his fans, but most of all he hates japan.
• BRYAN HATES SUN (you would too if you just got several lifetimes' worth of radiation therapy).
• Bryan hates himself momentarily for not taking the opportunity to loll about in the nearby video arcade during some portion of the last two hours (understandable; no sense passing up a perfectly good video arcade for a little of the old Ms. Pac-Man von).
• Bryan hates pot heads.
• Bryan hates the aquabats.
• Bryan hates mandolins.
• Bryan hates almost everything.

Try it for yourself. Just go to www.google.com and type "[your first name] hates" in quotes and see what you find. You never knew you hated so much!