…and I therefore now know what our plans are. We are going to wait.

Turns out the type of tumor I have (a pilocytic astrocytoma, as the fancy-panted people refer to it) as we know is benign, and is usually found more in children. Apparently I’m a very special boy, as roughly 2 people in 100,000 are affected in the US, according to Wikipedia. The cure rate is very high, with outright removal being the most popular method, yet this is where my problem lies.

But back to that in a bit. Since I really don’t feel like copy-pasting pilocytic astrocytoma throughout this post, because it really is a mouthful, I’m going to refer to my brain bump by using the name my father came up with while we ate lunch today — Stinky Pete.

Any of you who are Pixar fans (so let’s face it, all of you, unless our relationship is about to suffer a terrible injury) might recognize that name as the antagonist from Toy Story 2, and seeing as how  Toy Story was very important to me during my years as a child, and the tumor is usually a pediatric issue, we felt that the name was perfect.

Yeah, so please just picture that guy lodged inside my head whenever you happen to think about me, because that’s what I’ve done all day.

Which brings me back to my options for treating the little booger. Remember how I mentioned how amazing the cure rate for this issue usually is? Yeah? Well, for me that’s not really an option without risking some pretty essential other things, seeing as how ol’ Stinky Pete chose to grow dead center of my brain. Or live center of my brain, if that sounds better.

So, my Stinky Pete is being just as big of an a-hole as the Pixar one was.

So, my doctor feels most comfortable with watching the little booger, via CT scans and the like, since I now have a shunt relieving the pressure on my brain by allowing the fluids (which Stinky Pete was so kind as to impede) to drain properly, or so we hope. Anyway, since my brain is kinda sorta in the way of removal, it’s the best we can do, as radiating Stinky Pete might just do what gamma radiation did to Bruce Banner and turn him into something quite a bit more dangerous and thoroughly un-benign.

For the record, I’m absolutely fine with all of this, by the way, so please refrain from any indignant-ness, as the mere thought of radiating my head was terrifying me. So this news is pretty awesome in my opinion, which really is the one that matters in this situation, if we’re going to be honest.

I’ve been given the resumed freedom to do just about whatever, with the exception of contact sports or driving, and therefore I see no reason that my studies shouldn’t continue next semester. That’s right.

I’m going back to Bonas in the spring.

Stinky Pete can suck it. I’m going to see y’all real soon.