I am done with radiation and the initial chemotherapy!!! I hit the midpoint of treatment with the side effects I told you about before, but while some have intensified (i.e. my skin looks very sun burned, and I’m oh so tired all the time), I don’t smell like poop anymore, I’m regaining some of my balance, and just like over the last 20 years, I am again getting better looking every day!

The two words in the greeting above mean so much more and have taken on such a richer tone and deeper meaning in the last three months. I know many of you have experienced tragedy and you know what I’m talking about already (hell, we’ve experienced a lot of tragedy together through the years). I wax emotional, not from a need to remind y’all of tragedy, but to let you all know that without your prayers, e-mails, calls, visits, positive thoughts and reinforcement, well, I would still be here, because I’m “Strong like Bull”, I just wouldn’t be here doing so well, nor would I feel so positive about my future while a terrorist sits in the middle of my noggin’. Thank you all so much.

This e-mail has some more pics for you. “Hook ‘em Horns”!! And thanks to Mr. Greg and Mr. Charlie, my primary Radiation Techs. See I told you Jason Alexander came up to the Ward along with Nikki and Mike, and that he is shorter than my sissy…makes you reevaluate the entire Seinfeld cast…I always though Jerry was very tall; apparently not.

I’ve started thinking of my Astrocytoma as a terrorist and the most fitting one is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, the ugliest, hairiest, gotta-be-smelliest terrorist that we’ve caught (you know the fat, hairy, t-shirted, A-hole I’m talking about; see appropriate picture), so I have nicknamed it KSM2. And you know what? The US Army, Navy and Air Force are kicking KSM2’s arse! (USMC rocks too; Semper Fi; I’m just not working with any Devil Dogs right now, although I spent the day with a great one this weekend, and his sweet family).

Which leads me to the latest silver lining that I’ve noticed: somehow I’d forgotten how many truly extraordinary people are in and have been in my life. I know and have had the privilege of knowing an enormous amount of wonderful people in my relatively short lifetime. Somewhere along the line I’d lost track of that. Thank you all for reminding me.

Due to many requests, I finally was able to get some pictures of the KSM2. This is from one week after surgery, and the bright white areas are the tumor although a lot of it is edema or swelling (I believe the proper medical term is “angry brain”). It is a pretty big ‘un; can you believe that Advil and gin were hacking the pain for so long? They actually weren’t. You can see the small chunk they cut out best on the Vertical shot…it is the really bright, nearly solid tube looking shape near the centerline of my brain…that is blood products and cerebral fluid…they couldn’t take more without paralyzing me; that is what the radiation and chemo are for.

If I didn’t make it clear in a previous update, another reason the Murrays are blessed is that originally no one, including me, was looking for something in my brain (my seizure in the desert was masked by a low potassium condition, and I thought my 18 months of progressively worsening headaches were all hurricane stress, sinuses, or married w/ 2 kids induced). DUH!

Over the last 5 years I’ve been seeing progressive atrophy of my right arm triceps and forearm; I’m right handed but my left arm is 1.5 inches bigger than my right! I started complaining to the flight docs about it in Okinawa, but didn’t get very far until this spring, when I insisted on a referral since I’d had the left arm seizure and needed my right arm to work. A good flight doc paid attention, sent me to orthopedics, then physical therapists, who suspected spinal damage. I then went to a very thorough neurologist who listened closely to my symptoms (headaches/left side numbness) and decided to order a brain MRI along with the spinal MRI. That is how this tumor was found…not even looking for it.

The spinal MRI showed no damage, but the right arm issue is even more important now since I have so much left side weakness from the surgery. Thankfully, the orthopedics and neurology folks here have taken a great interest in my right arm and have started tracking down the cause. The most joyous moment was the nerve conduction test, where they shock you with low voltage and measure how fast it travels to different locations to test your nerves. The shocks aren’t too bad; bee-sting/ant-bite pain, but after 150 of them (I was keeping count which made the Doc laugh) I was just a little irritable…especially ‘cause there was no insect to kill, and smacking at a doctor holding a small cattle prod isn’t a good idea.

I head home on Wednesday, and am so looking forward to being with my sweet family. I’ll be getting large doses of chemo monthly for the next year, with checkups quarterly here at WRAMC and over at NIH, and we’ll be hoping to see shrinkage of the tumor over the next year. I’ll keep y’all in the loop, I promise.

In every update I think I’ve talked about our young wounded men and women. If you get a chance, checkout the Wounded Warrior Project link below. The stories are very inspiring and enlightening. Our soldiers need support after they’ve sacrificed so much for our country, and these people are supporting them. You can also see which companies and celebrities have stepped up and in turn reward them for their loyalty to our soldiers.

http://www.woundedwarriorproject.org

All my love,
Dan