I came down with a cold over the weekend. That has derailed further comment in response to thoughts by harri3tspy and smed about the nature and future of the record album (or the CD). Hopefully, I shall get back to those thoughts once I am more recovered (if anyone is still interested).
I got worse health news from my parents over the weekend. A form of the cancer that threatened my Mom's kidney three and a half years ago is back. It is now lurking in the lining of her bladder. Bladder cancer has a very high (> 95 percent) survivability rate at five years with early detection, or so we have been told. That is the good news. The bad news is that my Mom is not free of cancer.
The treatment for her condition seems a little odd. A bacterial culture similar to the one that causes tuberculosis will be injected to my Mom's bladder. This will trigger an immune response that will attack the cancer cells. My Mom has been told that this is a highly effective technique -- and perfectly legitimate. It is not "eye of newt". I am glad that it is not chemotherapy or radiation, though the immune response may produce flu-like symptoms for 24-48 hours.
In even worse news, an aunt of mine on my Dad's side appears to be hovering near death. A smoker for much of her life, she had a stroke last week. The stroke triggered trauma in her already weak body that allowed pneumonia to take hold. Faced with that threat, her organs appear to be shutting down. She may yet rally (she has more than once before), but things do not look good. If she dies in the next week, my Dad might have to go to the funeral alone -- unless I (and possibly Mrs. Geek) choose to attend. Mrs. Geek is very interested in meeting my relations in the Land Of The Confederacy... and this would be a way to meet them. This would also possess a certain symmetry because I met many of Mrs. Geek's relations at her Nana's funeral in June of 2002.
So the news last week was not good... let's hope the news in the coming weeks is better.
said drgeek
on 2007-01-23 at 8:59 p.m.
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The Wayback Machine - To Infinity And Beyond
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