Irradiated Beauty

Badass.

One of the glamorous workouts at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hilton.

You don't check into the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Hilton for its view.

The next few days are going to be exciting for everyone at Camp Kickass.

Tomorrow Jules gets several full-body bursts of radiation intended to make her bones a welcoming environment for our German friend and on Wednesday that friend comes to live with us.

I’m incredibly proud of Julie, as you’d expect. She has faced this cancer head on and done everything possible to ensure success. When I remember how weak, tired and in pain she was last fall, it’s nothing short of a miracle that just today she walked more than two miles. (Although it’s not a miracle because she has devoted herself entirely to this battle.) She arrives at this moment strong, optimistic, and full of life, love, and light.

We’ve both lost our share of hair in this process, but we’ve discovered a lot, too, not only about ourselves and our relationship, but also about our loved ones and friends.  

We are truly blessed, and we mean it when we tell y’all how grateful we are to get here with you.

We did lose one friend just this week. The Royal Boil connected to Julie’s neck for two days fell off mysteriously this morning. I had tried convincing her that the blister – which was probably caused by someone trapping alcohol between her skin and the bandage surrounding her second catheter – was a chrysalis, a reminder of the beautiful change in front of her, possibly a fairy nest egg, but she persisted in believing in reality and was happy to see it go.

But this is how we work this life together, building stories together, discovering beauty where we can, goofing and jiving and just being silly. This doesn’t mean we have taken this situation lightly – there is nothing more serious to us – but that there light is behind everything, and sometimes you hear it when people laugh together. I’ve seen that light so many times when I look into Julie’s eyes that I can’t help but believe in magic, wonder and our shared inner divinity.

Like the MIGHTY Godzilla (the good one from the 1970s), she will rise from tomorrow’s irradiation like a golden baddass warrior panda goddess.

We are going to try to use Facebook Live on Wednesday to share the blessing of the cells. If this doesn’t happen (we are geeks, but we’re old geeks), I’ll record the event and will share it on YouTube. Julie wrote the blessing herself and it’s a lovely piece of writing.

Thank you all for everything you’ve done!