After only 2 nights! We even had the first radiation therapy today. Mercifully no brain swelling or other complications. Linda and Cathy came and visited me in the ICU (Linda snapped this picture within hours of the operation) after the craniotomy, wonky as I was, as did sweet friend and priest Frannie Hall-Kieschnick, who, an obvious hospital veteran, disinfected her hands before laying them on both of us and praying for healing. Night 1 in the ICU – I had to stay upright to drain brain fluids – was no great fun, and night 2, in a regular room featured hourly wake up calls for blood tests, neuro tests, IVs, pills and the usual stuff.

I am so happy to be home… still feeling a bit like Frankenstein after a run-in with a crowd of pissed-off Republicans, complete with staples in my head, a really bad haircut and pains and a headache like few I’ve ever felt. Dr. Berger was in almost as soon as I could think, and said the good news was he got a clean biopsy sample. Almost certainly a grade 3 glioma, fortunately very small, unfortunately sitting close to my left motor area. UCSF’s Radiology wizards wasted no time, and snatched me out of the ICU to fit me for a radiation mask, a device that holds your head in a very precise position while a Siemens machine very precisely targets the tumor with radiation. So now we start daily radiation therapy; chemo starts in 2 weeks, once the head is healed…

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