a Mary minute (with Corrie)

Sorry for the lack of posts but I've been busy with photos and brianpowell.info lately. Here is a clip of the girls - dancing while I work on the computer.

the Colliers

Please keep Bill Collier and his family in your thoughts and prayers; His son, Charlie, was my best friend growing up and I've kept in touch with their family over the years. He's been fighting cancer for about two years now, and they recently had to decide to put him on a respirator. Here is a link to their caringbridge site

Relay for Life team

I advise the USP student council, and one of our events this semester is a Relay for Life team (yeah, I finally joined one!). Here's a link to the team page if you want to join, and here's a link to my page if you want to donate:
http://main.acsevents.org/goto/BrianPowell

If nothing else, it would be super cool if you passed along the link to my page; post it, email it, yell it down the hallway, you know :)
If you're in town or nearby, our event is Sat. April 4th at 6pm, the Armory on campus.

Remember this!? >

Brian update

All clear! The CT and labs are still clear, after 3 years, and to quote Dr. Jones: "cured" :)
He said now we just have to watch my overall radiation exposure (from x-rays, CT scans, etc.)
Ironic that the things they use to diagnose cancer will actually cause it :(

I'll go back for a checkup in 6 months. Now, off to the dentist for the first time in ... over a year!? Yikes.

Stay tuned to the blog over Christmas for lots of fun updates ; )

Dr. Jones

Just an update from Brian: I was supposed to have a checkup around September... but you know we've been a little busy. Finally got around to setting up an appointment with a provider here, and went in today. /\ This is Dr. Jones /\
He was wearing a bow tie today too, so I guess that's his thing. Nice guy - his son may be a student in our program next year...so it would be interesting if I was his advisor! Today was just filling out all the registration forms, vitals, trying to remember my recent medical history and relay it to Dr. Jones, and scheduling a few more things (CT scan next week, follow up with Dr. in December). He noticed one of my lymph nodes was a little swollen but said it's probably nothing - and could only feel it because I was thin. Nevertheless he wants to keep an eye on it because of my history, of course. I did tell him that my nodes (in my neck) have been through a lot this year. Remember my finger? I had the same thing in my ear a few weeks ago, at the end of the conference I attended in Chicago. Urgent Care swabbed it and tests came back MRSA. Scary for a while there, but it went away with strong antibiotics. Oh, I didn't post about that? Sorry - no pics on that one! I looked like a boxer with a huge cauliflower ear or somthing and couldn't sleep on that side for about a week. Was more concerned for Carrie and Corrie, but docs said not to worry if we were careful.

Funny story about the clinic here: they made me take off my shoes and measure for height. Turns out I'm only 5'10" or 5'11". Of course their wall scale thingy is a bit off! :) They said they already have an ongoing debate about it - but I told them it was definately at least 2" off. I'm about 6'1.5" They drew blood for tumor markers and I was on my way with my Spongebob bandaid.