Okay, the title of this post is a lame attempt at making fun of a really old song: "Who Let the Dogs Out?" so I’m only trying to make boring news not so boring. Today I went back to the neurosurgeon’s office so he could check out the progress of my healing of my last surgery for the shunt. Here’s a photo: (more…)
I was messing around on the blog today composing some thoughts together, and decided to head off to my Flickr.com account only to discover that a picture I had taken of a replica of a famous statue of Jesus Christ had worked its way to the top of my most interesting pictures. For months and months it was this one:
Which was just a lucky shot when I was on a business trip. Flickr’s algorithm (computerized method) for determining interestingness depends on a number of factors; including how many people click on the picture to view it in their browser, comment on it, etc. Part of the appeal of being involved with how people consume media is looking at overall trends, and I’m glad to see that Jesus Christ is among the popular topics in Flickr’s community of users and otherwise general web surfers when in fact there could be a whole lot of other stuff to consume.
Anyway it made for a good reason to post to the blog today. No other news or changes to report, just that I finally got to go back to church today and see the people I regularly associate with on Sunday and other days of the week given the opportunity.
I had a follow up visit with my neuro-oncologist today. She’s been the one assigned to my case since my first diagnosis and resection 5 years ago. I’ve been seeing her about every 3-4 months as needed as part of the original prognosis and treatment which was to be on observation and see what happened as a result of the first tumor resection. Being on observation was a fairly common treatment option at the time. I’ve been told that other forms of treatment such as radiation only get better with time and it’s better to do it only when it’s necessary so I don’t feel gipped in the least bit. However, since observation (as a treatment) has revealed a recurrence, the options have changed: (more…)
This isn’t a big news item, but asking rhetorically, whenever you have something done to your body, aren’t you the least bit curious how your new "enhancements" work? Shunts have been around for a while, but my neurosurgeon really likes the variety that he uses. Here’s why:
I’m back home from the hospital post-surgery for my shunt. It seems to have started doing its job: draining my head of excess fluid and reducing the pressure that was causing the head pain. I feel better in terms of the major headaches that were coming from that. But at what cost?
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Not a big news item, but in lieu of having my staples removed from my surgical incision (they’re starting to itch), the neurosurgeon declared upon seeing me that I wouldn’t be able to have them out until the fluid buildup issue has been taken care of. Apparently there’s more cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) in the resection area than needs to be there and is causing swelling on the exterior of my head. This is also likely responsible for the extra pain I’ve been experiencing.
So… (more…)
Well, I made it through once again. Knowing this time around what it would take to survive emotionally plus all of the great support from friends and family. I even had some suprize visitors in the ICU.
It’s early on the day of surgery and will probably be my last post for a few days. My parents and I have to travel to downtown Phoenix to be at the hospital by 5:30 AM….just like before. Here’s what it was like back then and how it’s different today: (more…)
Well I had hoped that this wasn’t going to ever happen, but I suppose life has once again become the teacher and I again the learner. After years of not blogging about it, my situation has turned again once to having to cope with health problems. (more…)
I was out of town in October when I got a notice that someone who was a cancer survivor was putting together a benefit concert for a little girl who needed treatment for the exact same type of cancer. This little benefit turned out to be a great experience for me and is still on my list of projects. Read on to see what my experience was like…
