This is it!

This is it ! ……… For now. Final report from the front lines at Hope Lodge.

It’s been two months of continuous radiation here at Dana Farber in Boston and I just have one last day to go.

Challenging? Somewhat, but I just put the blinders on and soldiered on.

The ever evolving lessons on the human condition were the theme here for me. A panorama of fragile souls wrapped in a blanket of what life used to be. At least that’s what I saw.

There were common threads that ran through us all here at Hope Lodge. We all have cancer for one.

Many I spoke with felt abandoned by some, and surprised at the support from others. Some friends and family just vanished in some unexplained vacuum while others had a surrogate speak for them. Yet out of all of this many developed a deep empathy and compassion they hadn’t experienced before coming here. Most of us here have heard the comment from outsiders, “ We’re all getting closer to the cliff “, as if to say they understand our plight. They really don’t have a clue, because we’re the ones on the frontline, the challengers of mortality or the astronauts of hope.

So many here at Hope Lodge have mixed feelings when it comes time to going home, when their treatment is over.

They feel safe here in the comfort of others that understand, but we all eventually must go home and face the next chapter. For me I’m excited like I haven’t been in a while. I’m graduating and time to move on, although my immediate plans are to give back something that I’ve learned from all this, for I am an alumni and will never forget my friends here and the Doctors, nurses, integrative practitioners and especially the great people I saw every one of those days, the people working “ Red “ ( my machine ). They made those days and months so much easier.

Kristina and I are excited about ADK Hike For Hope which seems to be taking on a life of its own.

So please keep checking in here.

PEACE

Dr. Paul Nguyen and Dan

These beautiful  hard working young ladies were the angels that made my daily treatments so much easier. Always with a smile and positive energy, they were the techs that ran “Red“ the Varian Linear Accelerator. 

Had to post the silly but meaningful vid of me “Banging the Gong“ on my last day.