Lessons learned and roads ahead

I can't believe it has been almost a year since my journey with GBM began. Even though brain surgery and treatment didn't change me a whole lot, living La Vida Glioma certainly has. My world is just so different than it was before diagnosis, but also better than it was immediately after and during treatment. Last week was chemo round #9, which means 3 to go! Each month gets easier and easier, if someone had been slipping me the pills I wouldn't have even suspected that I was on chemo. I even attended a conference all day every day and didn't get tired. It's a little amazing, actually. I also had a scan last week and the voicemail basically just said "no evidence of progression, all looks good, no change." Once I see the report I can further evaluate this good news, but for now I guess we'll just take the nurse's word for it. She seems pretty trustworthy.

The conference I attended was all about the metabolic therapy of the ketogenic diet. I'm so full of information about the diet right now I can barely do anything without thinking about food. I not only heard research talks with the leading researchers in the field, I also became acquainted with some great products, including premade keto friendly meals. I met a few long term brain cancer survivors on the keto diet, got advice from them, and heard about some new therapies. One major issue I have to work on is stress. Cortisol is a glucose spiker! Hopefully when I've fully recovered from last week, I will be able to write more on all that I'm learning.

A major theme in my life right now, besides food, is figuring out what I really want in my life and making it happen. So far I've figured out a handful of things that I want to do. These are not all major life events or anything, just things that I've never done that I want to do. So, for example, I really want my career where it was headed before my symptoms started. These days I have so much more energy so I'm getting a lot more done. I also want to spend more time with Jason and Aidan. This means planning family activities, trips, etc. It also means forcing Jason to accept that he has to take some time off every once in awhile. I want to visit my friend in Switzerland. Therefore, I've planned a trip for May (surprise!). I want to take Aidan to Disney one more time before he's too old to enjoy it. I want to learn to weld. I've got this one in the works, I think we've found someone to teach me in Houston. I want to add to this list every day so that I always have something to look forward to. I will do whatever I need to do to stay alive, living a quality life because tomorrow is not to be taken for granted. And probably I'll be raising some hell from time to time just for good measure. After all, no one can be zen all the time.