Welcome back Lance Armstrong!

Maybe unnoticed by most non-cyclists, non-triathletes or non-cancer fighters (speaking as a non-US resident), cancer survivor, 7-times Tour de France champion Lance Armstrong, who started his athletic career in triathlon, came back to his original sport in the Panama Triathlon 70.3 Ironman. He accomplished the amazing feat of finishing in second place, only 31 seconds behind the winner, Bevan Docherty.
Considering Lance's age - he is 40 - his lack of experience in triathlon (especially long ones, where balancing your effort across the race is critical) and his incredibly busy life leading one of the largest cancer fundraising organizations in the world, Livestrong, this is quite an amazing feat.
When we consider that he was only 31 seconds behind an Olympic champion that is significantly more experienced in the sport, this is simply incredible. Thank you for doing this Lance, you are a huge inspiration!
I am not sure if this was the final boost I needed to get back to triathlon but several things are conspiring in that favor, and I am trully determined to be back soon. OK, maybe not as fast as Lance, but I will be happy just finishing one. And definitely no Tour de Frances wins, but maybe as a spectator...
The first great news is that my head no longer hurts. This has not only allowed me to sleep better but also to get my first haircut since my surgery! When I run my head doesn't hurt either, although I have to admit that my doctors intimidated me into not running yet.
The second great news is that I finally move into my own house in 5 days, and will be only a few minutes from work. This means that after 8 long months my stuff is finally leaving the moving container, including my bike trainer, a gift I got from my "older brother", the person that got me into cycling and to whom I owe so much personally and professionally! I am going to start biking at home until I feel confident enough to go outside without the fear of having a seizure. With the two extra hours I get in my day simply from reducing my commute time I will have plenty of time to dedicate to my girls and to the sport I learned to love.
My last few weeks have been so amazing that I am starting to believe that Temodal is a magic drug that even improves my energy levels. Today I walked nearly 10 kilometers around the city, got a haircut, had lunch with my dad, came home to work for a few hours on my taxes and still had the energy (in fact quite a lot) to write this post.
Last week was Carnaval in Brazil and we headed to the mountains with the family. We hiked quite a bit and played a lot with the girls, who all got a little sick afterwards. Interestingly I was the only one that did not get sick in the house, which is quite surprising given that my chemo is supposed to mess with the white cells in the blood in most cases, hammering the immune system.
Once again I feel incredibly lucky, my oncologist shared that my first post-chemo blood exam showed no signs of blood changes, and that I must have an excellent blood marrow. Wonder if triathlon contributed to this. Oddly in my life things seem to always conspire in my favor, nobody ever understood what has gotten me to start waking up at 5AM to torture myself swimming, biking and running, but this might be why, I was getting prepared for my next battle.
Just as being diagnosed as soon as we moved back to be closer to our families in Brazil, this might be another sign of incredible luck. I once again feel like God is carrying me in his arms, just as in footprints in the sand (http://www.footprints-inthe-sand.com/index.php?page=Poem/Poem.php).
This week was very important to me, I exchanged a few notes with Scott Vickroy (check the Survival Stories section in this blog) and his caregiver Shelly Francis. He is doing really well, inspiring me to follow his example, and Shelly is publishing a book about her experience with Scott. To anyone who, like my wife, was frightened by the idea of what can come with a glioma, her book is certainly a welcome gift. For more details check caregiverhope.com, the book should be out very soon. These are heroes who are yet to save lots of people by delivering hope and optimism, the most important things we need in our journeys.
Finally I just wanted to reassure all of you that follow my blog that I am as well as I can be, my life is completely normal and that there is still a lot for all of us to do with our lives, except wasting our precious time doing nothing.
Wether I am doing my taxes or walking barefoot to spend energy I am as thankful as I can be for God's ability to teach me how to lead my life. Yes I can live with glioma and today I feel like a better person than I have ever been before, and as long as we always learn to appreciate everything we have, and to have the fortitude to chase the things we love, we will be happy.
To close I want to share my biggest wish: I hope God continues to give me the strength to change the things that need to be changed, the patience to deal with the things that I can't change, and the wisdom to distinguish between the two.
My glioma might fall into the "things that I can't change" category, but I will continue to fight it until it is totally gone, I owe my friends a big party to celebrate life and I am determined to make it happen.
Friends around the world, get ready for Brazil!

Might the Chemo Work!

Yesterday I got my first MRI clear enough to see what is left from my tumor. As expected I had a "contrasting" portion, leading the MRI doctor to write that the tumor is 1.2cm. A little more than I was hoping but a lot less than before my surgery. As I shared before it was leaving a bit of tumor or losing my left side movement. I haven't spoken to my doctor or onchologist yet, I have an appointment with my onchologist on Monday to discuss implications, but what I know is that my chemo is supposed to reduce this until it totally disapears, fingers crossed!
What is important is that I have been living a totally normal life, I am back to work and had a great kickstart (or I should say re-kickstart), went to my friends monthly Happy Hour (Clube do Rato!), to which a few members still resist to show up every once in a while to everyone's disappointment, and most importantly, closed a rental agreement and will finally live in my own house after nearly 9 months "camping" at my in-laws or parents. I really thank my parents and in-laws for opening their houses for a grown-up family, one more reason why I am always so positive, I have an amazing and supportive family.
On Wednesday, when I had my MRI, I ran into a few friends at the Hospital, something that is becoming a tradition, and this one was awesome. First a friend of mine that I hadn't seen since High School! He looked at me and asked "Patrick?". I recognized him immediately, he hadn't changed at all in the last 20 years, just like me :-)! He had been following my journey in a closer way than I expected, and by a huge coincidence his little brother suffered from a nervous system tumor on his hearing nerve. He removed it and is living a healthy life. As he approached me I was staring at a lady that I thought was identical to a Brazilian lady I met in Pittsburgh. She was at Pittsburgh for a lung transplant at UPMC and lived there for a while with her husband to recover from the procedure. For anyone that thinks a brain tumor is tough, watching her recover from a lung transplant gave me a new perspective. And for my amazement and delight it was her, healthy and energized, absolutely perfect from my point-of-view. And her husband, a great person with a great heart, who could not contain his emotions from seeing me. He had been following my story and witnessing in person how well I was certainly caught him by surprise. The happiness we got from each other certainly gave us a few extra years of life, and I look forward to seeing them more often. God bless the doctors that have helped us share these moments. But this is not about who has the worst condition, but about who can heal better, and I think we all tied in first place!
Life is good, looking forward to a renewed adult life with my wife and kids at our own house, as this chemo works its magic. I hope I can help people going through this enlighting but scary journey with brain tumor, and help others that can learn and get inspiration from us, as the clock is ticking for everybody and we must enjoy life at its fullest with our families and friends. We don't choose what comes at us but we choose how we react - let's always react optimisticaly, positively and leaving a smile on the faces of those we see.