Lighter fare

I found this picture earlier today with President Obama playing with his niece and thought it was too cute not to pass along.

I heard on the news today that some idiot put a poll on their Facebook account asking whether President Obama should be assasinated or not. I spoke with the site administrator this morning who acknowledged he had been contacted by the Secret Service and while he would not tell me what they discussed he did tell me he has access to the posters personal information. The thing that bothers me here is the total lack of respect. For the record, I hated most of President Bush's policies and I was rather vocal about that however I never wanted him dead. When that Iraqi threw his shoe at him I thought that you just can't get away with that type of behavior. Not because of the man but because regardless of my personal opinion he was still President of the United States. The same thing applies to heckling the President in the middle of a speech.

Here's few more pictures and I ask you, how could you want to hurt this?

Feeling better

I have to say that each day that goes by I seem to be getting my energy back and since radiation is over I've really gotten a break from all the doctors. I will be having an MRI done this Friday to see if I have anymore tumors in my pelvis and abdomen region. From every thing I've read, this would be a more common site for them to develop than the neck which is where mine was discovered. I also have several follow up visits next week. The one month visit to the oncologist. I expect this one to be kind of rough because I've lost so much weight. I'm not sure what to do as I'm doing my best but still can't seem to force myself to eat what doesn't taste or smell good. The other two are follow ups with my endocrinologist and ENT specialist. The one I'm really nervous about is the ENT. He's the one that told me I'd have to wait to see after the radiation whether they could do the surgery to improve my voice. Dr. Gerald Berke at UCLA is my doctor and he is the top ranked specialist in the nation on voice disorders so if he says he can't help then I don't know what I'm going to do! I know this seems a little melodramatic but if you could hear me you would understand. I'm just going to HOPE that a collagen injection is still possible. As for the endocrinologist, the last time I visited him he indicated there was something wrong with my calcium levels and that they might have to "move me up" whatever that means. Hypercalcemia is a tumor marker or a sign there are problems with parathyroid glands. I'm wondering if it could be caused by the radiation treatment injuring the parathyroids. This is enough health problems for now, as always thanks for taking the time to read.

2 1/2 Weeks Post Radiation

It's been two and a half weeks since the end of radiation and I'm getting my energy back. I feel much much better. The only problem I'm still having is the lack of taste buds and saliva. Someone on a support board told me if it doesn't come back soon I'll just get used to it.

I had my second opinion today at Cedar's Sinai today. Yes I managed to get there without getting lost this time! The doctor I saw is a specialist in Neuroendocrine Tumors and one of the few in the country that really specializes in what I have. The plan is to get a full body scan to make sure there is no more of these guys hiding and to have genetic testing. The doctor feels there is an 80% chance of it being genetic. I'm crossing my fingers that the insurance company won't give me a hard time on covering this. I've been told that they may not approve it because I don't have a family history of the disease. My argument is that since I was adopted how can they say I don't have a family history. No one knows..........

Now that radiation has ended I have fewer appointments and so I'll probably be posting less often. TTFN!

Monday Ramblings

I'm taking a day off from my usual health diary to talk about an interesting debate I had with a co-worker on the state of public education. In California each School District is funded based on the property values of the neighborhood. This means that in wealthy areas students get the best books and facilities and teachers. It also means there are poor schools where students are sharing books that are twenty years old in classrooms that are falling apart. I suggested that instead of basing school funding off the property values of each neighborhood that funding should be equitable statewide and based on the number of students each school has. That way there would be no inherent discrimination. My co-worker told me that is "socialism" and she did not feel she should have to pay to make sure all kids are given the same opportunities at an education. Her attitudes was kind of like "Why should we have to pay for them?" This from someone who has no children and already pays for the rich kids in Westlake Village! I guess my frustration with this is that there seems to be an attitude that poor people are responsible for their own circumstances so they deserve what they have. When we are talking about education though it seems most people would realize that children have no control over where they live rich or poor so why should there be a disparity in the education they receive. It's not like I'm suggesting we raise taxes, just make sure that the taxes that are collected are spread around more equally. So this is where I ask for your opinion. Is the current system fair? (Yes I know life is not fair) Is my suggestion socialism? Is my co-worker right? What's your opinion?

Who knew............

Down twenty pounds and still can't taste anything. The doctor said it could take a couple of months for the taste buds to come back and that my saliva will take even longer and may not come back all the way. Funny thing happened yesterday. It was my bosses birthday so I had to get her cake and I got vanilla ice cream to go along with it. You know that saying that when you lose one sense others get stronger? Well I was eating the ice cream because it goes down okay but I had bought vanilla bean instead of plain vanilla and could actually feel the tiny vanilla beans in my mouth. I'd noticed this before when eating yogurt I could really feel the seeds from the fruit but the vanilla beans were unexpected who knew I'd be able to feel something so tiny. Weird!

I week post radiation

It's one week post radiation and I'm feeling about the same. I was warned that I would continue to "cook" for a couple of weeks so the side effects could still peak. The problem I have is eating. It's not that I can't eat or that it's painful but that I just can't seem to force myself to eat. Everything tastes like cardboard so I don't WANT to plus with the disgusting thick mucus I tend to gag on everything even water. I had been chugging ensure but after last weeks fiasco I can't even look at one. Yesterday my total intake was a bannana, mini Haagen Daz ice cream bar and about 32 ouces of water. About 350 calories! You would think it would be really easy to just to eat something but it's like a mental block where I just can't force it down. I'm really hoping I have a quick recovery because if this keeps up for a long time I'm going to be in trouble.

I found this editorial on the liberal blog Daily Kos and thought it was slightly ironic that the proverbial nice guy and face man of PBS news Bill Moyers is asking President Obama to go to the mattresses on Health Care reform. It's good to know that someone is still running a real news broadcast.

BILL MOYERS: The editors of THE ECONOMIST magazine say America's health care debate has become a touch delirious, with people accusing each other of being evil-mongers, dealers in death, and un-American.

Well, that's charitable. I would say it's more deranged than delirious, and definitely not un-American.

Those crackpots on the right praying for Obama to die and be sent to hell — they're the warp and woof of home-grown nuttiness. So is the creature from the Second Amendment who showed up at the President's rally armed to the teeth. He's certainly one of us. Red, white, and blue kooks are as American as apple pie and conspiracy theories.

Bill Maher asked me on his show last week if America is still a great nation. I should have said it's the greatest show on earth. Forget what you learned in civics about the Founding Fathers — we're the children of Barnum and Bailey, our founding con men. Their freak show was the forerunner of today's talk radio. Speaking of which: we've posted on our website an essay by the media scholar Henry Giroux. He describes the growing domination of hate radio as one of the crucial elements in a "culture of cruelty" increasingly marked by overt racism, hostility and disdain for others, coupled with a simmering threat of mob violence toward any political figure who believes health care reform is the most vital of safety nets, especially now that the central issue of life and politics is no longer about working to get ahead, but struggling simply to survive.

Aghhh............worst day.

I had possibly the most embarrassing thing happen when I visited the Speech Pathologist today. Part of the appointment is doing exercises to make sure all my swallowing mechanisms work. She makes me gargle ten times counting to ten, do ten strong swallows, and chug a lug 3 ounces of water. Today while chug a lugging, unfortunately the water didn't want to stay down. I drank it then it all came up again along with the 8 ounces of Ensure I had for lunch. I threw up all over the doctors office! The doctor was very nice about it and since she does this all the time said she's seen worse. All this while cleaning up my mess. I'm probably being silly being embarrassed by this but I can't seem to help myself. I usually don't list names here but Dr. Lisa Bolden at the UCLA Swallowing Clinic gets the prize for the best bedside manner I've ever seen.

Besides the embarrassment factor I think I'm going to have to see the doctor again this week to ask him what to do about this and also the hacking cough I've developed at night because of the thick mucus that just seems to sit in my throat.

Thanks for taking the time to read tonight. I hope I haven't grossed you out too much.