Chondrosarcoma – ah shit, bob's sick

Where did Spring go? Seems to have gone from 30 degrees to 90 degrees within a week … and no relief in sight. Feels like we’re already deep into summer temperatures and it’s just starting. Spring consisted of 2 weeks of heavy rain, snow melt and flooding, and now it’s as hot as can be.

I remember spring actually being a season, like when I was a kid. Where it lasted for five or six weeks, flowers bloomed, and grasses went from winter browns to a lovely spring green and oh yes, those beautiful, gentle spring rains … but no more. Times are a changin’ … and it’s a damn good thing there’s no global warming … can you imagine?!

I’ve been feeling reasonably well, you know the routine, good days and bad days and that’s to be expected. I do find the hot weather equally as bothersome as the extreme cold of winter. It tends to drain my energy at an uncontrollable rate … it’s difficult to explain. Draining might be the word, but then again … just the simple act of getting older, is draining in itself.

Dealing with cancer on a day to day basis does have it’s challenges, and just like everyday life, we have to rise above them and push forward and onward. No different then anyone or anything else that you wish to move above.

This past weekend, to my total surprise, I heard Alberic playing a tune on his guitar that I hadn’t practiced with him or taught him. I listened, and recognized the melody but couldn’t bring the name of the song to mind. He saw me listening and asked if I knew the tune. I replied yes, but that I couldn’t remember the name. He played several riffs again, I listened again.

You know how it is when you know what something is, and just can’t remember exactly what it is you knew. Yet another sign of getting older? … gee, could it be?

After listening again I finally asked what the name of the song was. My twelve year old Alberic casually replied “it’s ‘The Drunken Sailor’ Dad, ever hear it?”. At first I thought to myself “why the hell is a twelve year old playing songs about drunken sailors” … and then I started to think about the tunes I played when I was learning to play and realized that it (The Drunken Sailor) wasn’t really that bad. I played lot’s of old crazy songs when I was young, and to be honest … I still do!

The Drunken Sailor is a traditional sea shanty … a folk song, and like most old folks songs there are dozens, if not hundreds of verses. I mean that’s what makes it a folk song … folks adding their own lyrics and passing it down. Hey, someday I’ll write about folk songs … it’s a great topic.

I smiled and acknowledged his skill at playing it, asked him to show me the chord structure … in which he immediately got up and walked over to the keyboard (even though he was playing guitar), and proceeded to explain the chords and structure to the song.

Then we sang a few verses:
Chorus:
What’ll we do with a drunken sailor,
What’ll we do with a drunken sailor,
What’ll we do with a drunken sailor,
Earl-aye in the morning?

Put him in the long boat till he’s sober,
Put him in the long boat till he’s sober,
Put him in the long boat till he’s sober,
Earl-aye in the morning?

Shave his belly with a rusty razor,
Shave his belly with a rusty razor,
Shave his belly with a rusty razor,
Earl-aye in the morning?

Put him in bed with the captain’s daughter,
Put him in bed with the captain’s daughter,
Put him in bed with the captain’s daughter,
Earl-aye in the morning?

Hmmm … I think he’s getting a real handle on this music stuff … amazing how fast kids can learn. Keyboard, drums and guitars, our house is starting to look like a music store! …. but you know, that’s just fine with me

Remember Gomer Pyle USMC? Well … I had my own surprise today. The story really begins a few days ago … well, maybe last Thursday or Friday when I started having some issues with my right eye. The issue was that I seemed to occasional loss vision in it … and I mean loss of vision. Either total blackness or total white light in my right eye.

Well, to make a long story short … I went off to see my primary care doctor Monday to ask about it. Once again my doc ordered the right tests for me and by the end of the day I knew I was in for a big one. Yep, tomorrow morning (Feb. 23, 2011) I go in for at least carotid artery surgery and who’s knows … could be a major bypass situation.

Gee whiz … and I thought things were just beginning to calm down a bit from the chondrosarcoma. Here we go again… nothing like a little excitement in life.

Hey, over the next few days … you can call or email Sher and help calm her down .

If all goes well …. I’ll see you all in a few days.

To learn more, Google carotid artery surgery … you’ll get the drift!

BTW … I ordering a whole new body from Amazon as soon as I get back from Dartmouth. This stuff is starting to get old .

What’s been going on in life? Well, a lot has, in fact so much that I haven’t had time to keep up with it all. What else is new?

Keeping up with things in life, not only requires a constant level of energy, but a high level of concentration and both of those items have become as valuable a commodity, as just about anything could be. Oh, what I wouldn’t do for more energy.

You know those five hour energy drinks? … little tiny bottles of nasty tasting stuff that’s supposed to give you a boost through the afternoon, or give you “jump start” in the mornings? I could drink a dozen of those things right after waking up from a twelve hour sleep and go right back to bed.

My average day is actually rather simple … I’ve desperately tried to redesign my life’s days to intentionally reflect simplicity because of this energy problem, but unfortunately, I haven’t found that right combination that provides the increased desire to sleep and rest more often, and still accomplish the things in life that I need to do, in order to survive both financially and mentally.

In fact, the other day I said to Sher, that I thought maybe, at one time, long, long, time ago, that people might have hibernated like some animals do during winter. For the first time, I can honestly relate to this mode of living. Really! I mean, if I could pack myself away for the winter months, I’d do it.

There are several things that just seem to ‘use up’, absorb or require lot’s of energy that I just can’t (or maybe not willing to) do without. I mean, like working. None of us can get by without working. How could you? Work not only has financial reward, which helps a lot, but also the sense of accomplishment that we all need. That’s something I’m not willing to lose or reduce.

Another thing is art (for a lack of a better word), I consider art to be a major part of a balanced life. This includes everything from keeping sharp on my guitar playing, to writing, to creating 3-D computer art, and everything in between. If you think about it, your art time, is often the only time you get to “work” for yourself, sort of speak. The Labors of Love.

Click Image For a Larger View

Yet another thing is children, children require lots of time and energy to grow. Ha! sounds like I’m talking about growing a plant or something … but it’s true. It’s a never ending thing. Often I blend several of these things together, in an effort to try and accomplish two things at once … like the old saying ‘killing two birds, with one stone’. Hence to the idea of teaching Al to play guitar. While getting it out of my system, it’s also teaching him. Last week I did it again with my computer. I showed him how a computer language can render a beautiful piece of art, simply by writing a file and sending it to a rendering engine to interpret it. We designed a Star Ship for fun.

For those that understand computer art, we used the POV-Ray engine (Persistence Of Vision, Point Of View), and a simple text file to create the ship below. While it’s not finished by any means, we do have a good start to it. For those interested you can read about the scientists that designed the render engine and language, why and what it’s all about, at POVRAY.org.

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One morning this past week on my way to work, I stopped at a local convenience store to grab a quick coffee before heading in. I usually keep my money in my pocket as opposed to my wallet, but for some reason that wasn’t the situation this morning, it was in my wallet. Not being completely awake, I took my wallet out to pay for my coffee, pulled a few dollars out, and half placed it on the counter while the young female clerk worked on getting my change.

The clerk, as she was handing me the change back suddenly smiled and blurted out, “that’s what I want … one of those”, and she pointed downward towards the counter near my wallet. For a moment, or I should say, that it took a moment, for what she had said to register, and then I still didn’t know or realize exactly what she was pointing or referring too.

I politely smiled back, … and then for a moment, my eyes and mind didn’t know where or what to focus on. It was only a split second, although it felt much longer and frankly, it was beginning to feel awkward. Well not really awkward but I didn’t want to appear stupid either!

I’m sure, for anyone that’s ever worked in that type store, that days can go by that are just full of funny, odd, weird, customer situations. I’d think you’d have to have a good sense of humor to work in the average convenience store .

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This past week or two I’ve written quite a few articles for posting but haven’t had the time to put them up. It’s been such a busy end of summer season. One on the enjoyment of NetFlix and one on Digital Camera’s which I’ll probably be posting over the weekend, but I just had to post this one first.

When I got home from work today, Sher sent me a link to this article. It’s the first mention of Chondrosarcoma that I’ve seen since my own experiences with it. This is the “other” option that I had, the one I didn’t take … and I still have full confidence on my decision. I wish her the best of luck.
There are two articles, with links to the originals … I’ve cut and pasted them here because so many times the articles on news sites seems to disappear.

One of the things I find amazing is that there is absolutely no mention of Proton Therapy. It sounds like the doctors gave her a choice too: surgery or death … it makes me wonder … really wonder.

Article 1:
‘Cut-in-Half’ Mom Says She’s Doing Just FineUpdated: 2 hours 10 minutes ago
AOL News (Sept. 24, 2010) – So complete was her faith that she’d be just fine, Janis Ollson didn’t wake her children or say goodbye on the morning surgeons were scheduled to cut her in half.

“We went in and both of us were at peace. There weren’t a lot of tears shed,” she said of the day she and her husband walked into the Mayo Clinic for a never-done-before surgery that would separate her body so doctors could remove half of her pelvis, one leg, her coccyx and part of her lower spine.

Ollson, surrounded by her two children and husband, Daryl, appeared this morning on NBC’s “Today” show to talk about the ground-breaking surgery to remove a fast-growing, rare cancer that had invaded her lower body while she was pregnant with her son Leiland, 3, who was delivered by cesarean section before the operation.

The 31-year-old mother from Manitoba, Canada, wasn’t afraid. “I knew my options were either do the surgery or certain death,” she said. Her husband wasn’t always so certain.

“I was a mess. I couldn’t tell you today how I made it through,” he said, holding a squirming and sleepy-eyed Leiland.

The Ollsons have become somewhat famous after Janis agreed to appear in ads for the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

Leiland clearly wasn’t impressed with all the attention. “I want to go home, daddy,” he said, sliding to the floor during the “Today” interview. His big sister, Braxtyn, 7, rubbed her eyes and yawned.

More than three years after her surgery, Janis said she is cancer-free and feels good. At home, she zips
around in a wheelchair. An artificial leg and a prosthesis that fits around her waist allow her to walk with cane.She drives her daughter to school on an ATV.

The couple renewed their wedding vows in May, on their 10th anniversary, and Janis, leaning on Daryl in a long white gown and bolstered by a cane, was able to walk down the aisle.

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