It pays to be wierd

What a difference a week makes. Last week at this time I had just had my skull opened up and a tumor taken out... and this week, I'm ready to pick up like nothing had happened.

I've had plenty of time to read and gather information on my present situation and I've learned some amazing things. That if you're a caucasian male over 50, you have basically a 2-3 in 100,000 chance of getting a tumor. Now the one I have or (had, I hope), is just a fraction of that number. In fact, a tumor in the cerebellum rarely occurs. Which is why I say it pays to be wierd. I never considered that to be an advantage, but I guess I'll stay with it.

I feel great, and although the 4 inch line of staples behind my right ear is not the best thing to see at the moment, I'm grateful for the fast action by the medical team at the Barrow's Neuroloical Instutute in Phoenix. Those people are THE BEST.

I witnessed first hand the other side of the coin. Guys with the same tumor in their cerebrum (the thinking part) and it made me realize how lucky I really was. Those people have a long and difficult recovery process, and a huge burden will be placed upon the people closest to them. I hope they get through it OK and can get their lives back on track. It won't be easy in any sense of the word.

I know I still have a long path ahead and I can't become complacent as time passes. It would become easy to do when you're feeling good and can forget about the trauma of the experience, but I need to be sure I don't. The quality of my life in the future depends on my never forgetting what just happened. I was incredibly fortunate, and with persistent awareness I can keep things this way.

It's been a wild week

Saturday thru Tuesday were bad days. Monday I couldn't keep anything down so we went to to doc on Tuesday morning. He told us to go to Barrows Neurological Institute ER as fast as we could arrange it and he would tell them I was coming. We went that afternoon and they admitted me to the ICU right away.

I had surgery the next day for the tumor and after spending the next few days there was released on Friday afternoon. The dizziness is gone, but I have a long road of radiation and Chemo therapy ahead. This tumor is somwhat of an oddity to they bacause tuomrs of this type aren't typically found in the cerebellum, but in the thinking part of the brain. This is extremely fortunate for me.

The Barrows folks are going to discuss my case and decide just what they are dealing with and how to treat it, but in the meantime I still need to focus on my life and my job and get back to normal as soon as possible. The sooner, the better.

Astrocytoma

Astrocytoma doesn't seem like a very scary word, but it should. The beauty and the curse about the internet is that there's more information than is possible (or needed) on any subject that you care to look up. Words that you didn't know existed, suddenly become part of your everyday existence, and change the way you look at your life and the people around you. That's what happened here.

A couple of weeks ago, I began to have symptoms of vertigo. I had had the flu or something like it recently and attributed my sudden equilibrium problems to an inner ear instability. My brother had suffered through this and I first assumed it was something like this. My problem was that my imbalance would last for three or four days, and it was all I could do to work my way from the bed to the couch. I had migraines and the muscles at the back of my neck ached incessantly. After four days I was able to go to work, but the vertigo never totally left me. It just subsided to a point that I felt competent to move about and not look like I was on something.

I functioned reasonably well for a few days, when I woke up one day and it was back with a vengence. I spent the next four days barely able to negotiate from one point in my house to another. I was nauseated from the vertigo so bad at times that I found it necessary to scurry on my hands and knees to the bathroom the vomit.

The doctor ordered a CT scan and called me the very same evening to inform me that I had an astrocytoma on my cerebellum, or in simple language, a tumor at the base of my brain. At this point I am waiting to see him again to come up with a plan to deal with it, but knowing it's there and the cause for all my balance problems has changed my life.

Of course I went out the the internet right away and did my research. However, not having any specifics yet raised more questions than it answered. I now know that my vertigo will not pass on its own and that surgery is the primary method with dealing with an astrocytoma. The grade of severity is as of yet unknown to me, but I'm hoping from the sketchy information the doctor gave me, that my own problem is not as bad as it could be.

At this point, I am functioning on a level that's a fraction of what it was. I've always pushed my physical abilities when I hit the gym or taught martial arts, or even working in the yard around the house. For the moment, those times are all on hold and I just do what I can without aggravating my condition. This is not the way I viewed the beginning of this year, that's for sure.

Another week gone

I started a new job on February 7. It's actually with a company I worked for before, and left to go to the job that laid me off. They were in need enough to want me back, so I took the position. It's a good thing I did, because other offers didn't come. I had a few people contact me, but they were just fishing and not actually interested in hiring me. In some cases, they were hoping I knew someone else that was looking for a job, but they weren't interested in me. That's a load of crap, but in cases like that, I don't even dignify their contact.

We've had the new Artha Gallery site up for about two and a half months now, but we seem to be drifting into obscurity. We've redone the site completely and added a lot more merchandise to broaden the appeal, but we are getting little activity. This is a puzzle and a disappointment. I'm not sure what to do about this at the moment, but it doesn't look like going with Yahoo was my best choice.

I'm glad February 2006 is history.