I had my 1-month check up with one of my surgeons from MSK today and it went well! The doctors took an ultrasound and some retinal images and could see that tumor is responding how we wanted it to the radiation treatment; the tumor stopped growing and shrank from 2.7mm to 2.2mm in diameter. That's good. The goal isn't for it to disappear. It will probably go to 2.0mm in the long run. The radiation killed it and it is now turning into scar tissue and shrinking as that occurs. That means I am in the 97% of good outcomes for initial treatment and local remission which is good. The doctor also said my eye is healing "phenomenally" well and everything looks "perfect" thus far. The eye is still bright red from a burst vessel but that's OK and it is healing. My vision out of my right is still not perfect as I have a decent sized blind spot, some blurriness and some distortion. However it sounds like the blurriness and distortion may get better over the next six months, though things may get worse again in about 18 monts as the radiation has lasting effects on the retina. On the bright side though, it is absolutely amazing how well the brain is able to adaptively respond to eye trauma. My brain is actively taking the good feed from my left eye and stitching it together with the best parts of my vision from my right eye (mostly peripheral). I hardly notice the change except in certain circumstances. It goes to show how the brain can adapt, even long after childhood Ahh...yeah..so Mr. Kurzweil, I think it's going to be a lot longer before we reach the Singularity than you think. Our brains are way more bad ass computers than you can imagine until something like this actually happens to you.

Video from the 2009 walk. I just completed my first cancer walk with Sally. It was the 17th Annual Cancer Survivors' Celebration & Walk held by the Robert H. Lurie Comprehensive Cancer Center of Northwestern University. It was held in Grant Park Chicago, today June 6th, National Cancer Survivors Day. Sally commented how powerful it was to see folks of all ages and backgrounds at the event--cancer affects us all. It was a terrific event and the sun was shining making Chicago feel like the best city on earth. I also met the founders of Imerman Angels, which is a fantastic cancer support network that was founded in Chicago. I plan on becoming involved.

I just came across this Wall Street Journal article describing a patient's fights with cancer and his health insurance company. Something is broken when you have to fight your health insurance company just about as hard as a deadly disease. I think it should give you some insight as to why I'd be posting about health insurance in the middle of dealing with cancer and surgery. One way to fight cancer is to make patients lives better by not having them go through this. Powerful stuff. Article Link. Video Link.