PORTLAND — The week of his Dec. 5 inauguration, Michael Brennan began experiencing painful stomach cramps.

Maybe it’s nerves, Brennan thought. Maybe it’s excitement.

But on Dec. 15, with the cramps still there, Brennan’s wife convinced him to see a doctor. The doctor delivered bad news: Brennan, the city’s first popularly elected mayor since 1923, had cancer.

“I was shocked and devastated,” Brennan said. “I’ve never smoked, never drank, I exercise, I eat relatively well. I tried to go through every potential cause and they weren’t there.”

The following day, Brennan underwent a CT scan with inconclusive results. Doctors still couldn’t determine what type of cancer he had.

On Dec. 23, he had a colonoscopy, which located the tumor in his small intestine. But seven days after the diagnosis, Brennan still didn’t know anything about his short- and long-term fate.

On Dec. 24, Brennan had surgery at Maine Medical Center to remove the tumor. After studying a tissue sample, doctors determined his tumor was carcinoid, an extremely slow-moving and benign cancer, he said.

The diagnosis brought relief. As long as Brennan gets monthly shots, his doctors said, the cancer likely won’t spread. It won’t be eradicated either — chemotherapy and radiation have little effect on carcinoid tumors — but he should be able to live with the cancer with no symptoms.

“Sometimes, people live with carcinoid tumors for 10, 15 years and don’t even know it,” Brennan said. “It’s one of the best types of cancer you can get, if you’re going to get cancer.”

The initial diagnosis caught his friends, family and colleagues off-guard. City Councilor Ed Suslovic, a friend who runs with Brennan, said Brennan had received a clean bill of health from his doctor in August after his annual physical exam.

“He’s very disapproving whenever I show up at City Hall with doughnuts,” Suslovic joked.

But all in all, Brennan’s friends and family expressed optimism. His wife, Joan, said Brennan was only in bad spirits because he couldn’t do his typical 4-mile run.

Brennan’s feeling physical side effects, he said, but mostly from the surgery, not the cancer. He gained 10 pounds in the hospital from fluids, and rapidly lost it again, which has affected his energy.

He’s gone on 1-mile walks with his wife, but hopes to resume his 4-mile runs next month. And he hopes to return to a light works schedule this week at City Hall, and a full-time schedule in the not-too-distant future.

He said his personal tale appears to have a happy ending, but shows the need for all Mainers to have access to affordable health insurance like he does.

“I was able to see a general practitioner, an oncologist and have surgery in less than two weeks,” he said. “Not everybody would be so lucky. That’s a major concern for me.”

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