Hey everyone! Brian here! Sorry I've been missing in action the last 7 to 10 days, but I've been doing a lot of travelling back and forth to doctor's visits. Living in a rural area is nice and all, but that also means nothing is close by. lol I have to make a 3 hour round trip to the main hospital where ultimately the tumor I have will be removed. Anyhow, here's the latest! lol Last Thursday (July 5), I met with the plastic surgeon to consult what's going to happen on that end. I also finally found out why I need a plastic surgeon. Apparently, when he goes in to remove the tumor, there's going to be a need to do some significant reconstruction of blood vessels, nerve endings and a skin graft once the tumor is removed. So, that appointment went ok, even though it was late afternoon when I went in to see him. I didn't get home until dinner time and at that point I was bushed. So I took all of last weekend to relax. lol Monday and Tuesday this week were nothing special, just tried to enjoy the relatively nice weather we've been having in Northern New Hampshire (We've had almost no humidity this week...THANK GOD! lol). Wednesday I was off to see the radiation oncologist's team to have a CT scan done to map the tumor and the area around it so the oncologist can come up with a radiation treatment plan. Looks like I'm booked to start radiation on August 2nd. Which brings me to the hell that was yesterday lol. I had to leave my apartment at 5:45 AM to make what I thought was going to be a 7:30 AM appointment for an ultrasound on the area around the tumor. The Orthopedic Oncologist, who's overseeing everything in my case, was worried that the tumor might have already spread into the lymph nodes in that area. So I was scheduled to have an ultrasound and a needle biopsy done to double check. Well, get to the hospital with like 15 minutes to spare and I get to where I need to be when they tell me the ultrasound was scheduled for 9:15 AM. I was almost an hour and a half early! lol But I was told I needed to get some lab work taken care of so I went ahead and did that, then got some breakfast and just hung out until it was time for the ultrasound. That went off without a hitch so after that (it's around 10 AM at this point) I had an hour and a half to wait before the appointment for the biopsy (which I had to go check in for at 11:30 for a 12:30 PM appointment). When I got to where I needed to be to check in for the biopsy (I finally just decided to check in at 11 AM), I was told by the receptionist that the biopsy had been cancelled. Well, that was news to me. lol Apparently, the ultrasound department had cancelled it without telling me. So, on the upside, I got to go home early lol. I got a call from the assistant of the orthopedic oncologist this morning wondering if I had cancelled the biopsy. I had to explain to her that by the time I got there to check in for the biopsy it had already been cancelled. So, suffice it to say, there was some confusion at this point lol. She had to go back into my chart and look to see what happened. Apparently, the ultrasound techs looked at the images and determined that the lymph nodes around the tumor were fine and the cancer had not spread into them, hence the decision to cancel the biopsy. Wish somebody had told me this yesterday lol. So, I'm finally on track to begin treatment beginning on August 2nd. 5 weeks of radiation, followed by the surgery after that will probably be either in mid- or late September. I'm kinda bummed about that because that means I'm gonna miss the annual Scottish Highland Games here which takes place up here on the third weekend of September. Man, second year in a row I'm gonna miss it lol. So, that's what's going on with me and the general update lol. This weekend, once again, is going to be trying to relax and get my internal clock reset after yesterday's early start lol. How is everybody else doing? I haven't really had a chance to go back and read my notifications. Tell me how you're doing! I want to hear everything 
Your friend,
Brian
