#661: Cancer Chronicles 10 – The “Firepower” of Positivity

Only good news today. Mrs. LeBrain just met with Dr. Sugimoto, for what is likely to be the very last time. “Dr. Sugi” inspected her incision and is very happy not only with how it’s looking, but how well Jen has managed since her surgery almost two months ago. She’s been out and about every day for the last few weeks, sometimes even by herself. She’s getting stronger. Personally I think she’s stronger now than she was before the surgery.

“Dr. Sugi” says we don’t have to come to London anymore.  He is satisfied that Jen has kicked cancer’s ass.  No more trips to London, and sadly, no more Dr. Sugimoto.  It’s been an emotional time and we’ve grown very attached to him.  It’s weird to say, but we will all miss him.

The drive down to London was a piece of cake. Rush’s A Farewell to Kings was the soundtrack. I don’t know how it’s possible but she fell asleep during “Cygnus X-1”. For the trip home, I chose All The World’s A Stage. She was blown away by Peart’s legendary drum solo.

Remaining positive in the face of adversity is not easy, But Jen has managed to do it. She gets up each day and kicks ass, and looks forward to doing it again the next day. We still struggle knowing we cannot have kids, but being alive and healthy is so much more important than that. It really is. Her positive attitude through this has been inspiring. I hope readers have gained that much from her.

We had one errand to run on the way home.  As you hopefully already know, March 9 is the release date of Judas Priest’s brand new Firepower album!  I ran in and out of the mall in less than five minutes — I am the man!  The deluxe edition of Firepower is in my happy hands.  Rock journalist Mitch Lafon says it’s already his #1 album of 2018.  Time to put Firepower to the test!

49 comments

  8. AWESOME NEWS JEN! Real Glad to hear this great news!
    Firepower sounds like a decent listen but album of the year already? Dunno about that…

    Once again Jen…..super happy for ya!

    Deke

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        10. Can’t explain why but haven’t had Sneap’s production hit quite this hard and well since his first Blaze albums particularly that of Silicon Messiah. While he’s done great work across the boards, not until Firepower have I had that mind blown by sound kinda deal \m/

          Right place right time, band songs overall package I guess!? :)

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    1. Hey Jamie! Stay tuned, it’s going up Tuesday. Hope you like it. It is always more difficult to review something brand new but I think you’ll appreciate my take on it.

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      1. Cool! I will definitely be tuning in. However, I won’t be buying the new CD yet. I gave up buying CDs and records for Lent. But I know what I’m getting for Easter. 😀

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        1. Hey that sounds good to me. That’s a hard thing to give up, so I wish you all the best for the Lent commitment!

          When I was a kid, getting a new tape or CD for Easter was a tradition. If the year was 1988 instead of 2018 I’d probably be getting this too.

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  12. Spectacular! Great work Jen & Mike!
    I can’t cheer for a Leaf win tonight (sorry they’re playing the Pens :) ) but here’s to a solid game, ideally ending in OT!

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  13. Listening to Firepower now as I read this. Good vibes all over! So glad the pendulum is swinging toward the up side for you guys right now. Last few months have been tough!

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  17. Five-and-one-half weeks since my operation for prostate cancer. My strategy to wait as long as possible (more than seven years) but not longer seems to have worked. Most men get prostate cancer. Only a small minority of cases needs to be treated. However, the absolute numbers are so large that it is the third most common cancer-related death in men (varies somewhat from country to country). Almost all of these cases are preventable. Instead of being happy that a simple blood test—for the PSA level—can indicate cancer with high probability (of course no treatment should be done before a—relatively harmless—biopsy), most men don’t bother with it. If it does have to be treated, waiting until you or your physician notices anything usually means waiting too long.

    One often hears that PSA testing is ineffective. This is complete bullshit. This “fake news” usually comes from a US study which concluded that PSA testing didn’t reduce the mortality rate. There are two problems with this study. First, it was retracted because people in the control group also had PSA tests. Second, mortality is not the only issue (but it is easy to quantify, which is why many studies concentrate on it). There is a huge difference if the cancer is caught early and you continue to lead a more-or-less normal life after treatment, or if you are impotent and incontinent for several decades before you die. Take your pick.

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