So, I haven't posted or uploading anything in a long time, very sorry. Mostly I was lazy, then my scanner stopped working and I never got a new one (I will eventually), and then a lot of other (more important) things happened. I got a new boyfriend (a friend I'd know for almost two years before we started dating), basically moved out of my parent's house, and got a job (although, I kept it for only about a month). Then, on August 19th, my boyfriend, Bradley, was diagnosed with cancer.

Because of how rapid his type of cancer spreads, he was in surgery the very next day to remove one of his tumors. The cancer that had metastasized to his brain and lungs would be treated with radiation and chemotherapy respectively. The good news (ha) was that this cancer is the number 1 most curable kind and responds very well to the regimen the doctors had appointed him, BEP (short for Bleomycin, Etoposide, and Cisplatin). Unfortunately, after just a few days, one of the tumors in his head bled causing swelling. He was in the ICU for just under two weeks. Anyway, time passed, the swelling went down, and the growths in his head were now responding to the chemo due to a "break" in the blood-brain barrier. His tumor markers, which had been 78,000 when he was first tested, had dropped to 490.

Tuesday, November 3rd, was supposed to be the second to last day of his fourth chemo treatment cycle, the following Tuesday being the last. Yesterday, I found out that the doctor had called about his latest lab results the previous Wednesday; his markers were up to 2500. Not a terrible jump, and not 78,000 for sure, but going up by even a little is not what you want.

So, now we - him, his mother, and I - are moving to Philadelphia (his dad is already there) to start the next course of action in curing him. They will be leaving this weekend and I will follow a couple of weeks later. We had been planning on moving there since all this started, but were waiting for his treatment to end, and were aiming for the weekend after Thanksgiving. Now instead of almost a month, they have mere days to pack up and leave. In short, everything has been hectic and emotionally stressfull for the past three and a half months.

However, not evenything about this has been negative; for one, I think it has brought me closer to Bradley. I now know with certainty that I would do anything for him and I hope to spend the rest of my life next to him.
Second, it has forced me to get off my lazy ass and do things that I should have done a long time ago (learn to drive and get my GED). I have also been working on several different painting and drawings that will be on display (in a local coffee house, nothing special) in July. Even though he's going through some really rough stuff, Bradley still pays attention to the things I'm doing and is still very supportive of me focusing on my art. He's amazing.

Well, that's what's happening with me and hopefully, when things settle back down, I'll get a new scanner and be able to upload new paintings/drawings.


_Shi-chan_