Since the MRI went on the lightboard, I have been on sick leave from my employer JDS Uniphase, a company filled with great people that I will be back to soon. With a high-speed internet connection at home, I've kept up on emails as much as possible, and spent considerable time researching.

 

Marina's company, Red Clover Networks (also a telecom company), has been similarly supportive, providing her a means of working from home, and insisting that they are handling well while she continues bullish after my care.

 

When we're not going for testing, or pulling opinions out of doctors, I'm still itching to get out and exercise (this is also a side effect of the prescription Decadron). Doctors opinions on this are mixed- tumors can bleed (in fact, there's reason to believe the big one did hemorage a bit- no one is certain when), but maintaining a quality of life is important, too. One prominent radiation-oncologist asked Marina point blank why I was pulling out of the adventure race? Simply put, now when I exercise, I just stay below the aerobic threshold.  

 

The other instant change was diet, which has gotten much better (it was good before- it's easy to eat well in California), but fats are almost gone, and little excesses are cut way back. There's quite a bit of good information out there on it (and some complete tripe, too)- email me if you want more info.