PET Project

I got my latest PET scan today. It should have been done a month ago but my auto accident postponed everything. It’s the first scan I’ve had since my bone marrow transplant in June and will show what’s happening on the cancer front.
Nothing I hope.
PET stands for “Positron Emission Tomography.” Here’s how it works. The [...]

Flash Forward

Flash Forward is a new TV series revolving around the question of whether the future already exists. And if it does, can our choices and actions change it in any way?
The question of free will has been around a lot longer than TV.
The ranks of those who believe the future exists and can’t be [...]

Sock It To Me

It’s been four weeks since my accident and for the first time since then I put my socks on without the aid of a mechanical device.
Yesterday I saw the physical injury physician who will be in charge of my recovery treatment. She’s encouraged that I don’t have more pain and will start working with me [...]

What’s In A “Non”

Barbara Padilla, runner-up in last night’s America’s Got Talent, is a cancer survivor. Specifically, Hodgkin’s Lymphoma. Her success illustrates one side of the cancer continuum; the death of Patrick Swayze on Monday underscores the other.
Hodgkin’s Lymphoma (a.k.a. Hodgkin’s Disease) is an “eponymous” disease, meaning it’s named after the person who first described the condition. In [...]

New Tools

To the right are pictures showing how my life has changed since the accident, including some new tools I get to use:

Back Scrubber ($24.50, from the hospital)
Grabber (wish I’d invented this)
PID (Posture Improvement Device)
Sock Sleeve (easy to operate)
Shower Shell (very impractical)

I’m thankful for the things I DON’T need:

Halo
Wheelchair
Breathing Tube
Oxygen Tank
Coffin

Life happens. What we do with [...]

What’s Up, Doc?

I was supposed to be in Denver yesterday for the first follow-up visit with my bone marrow transplant doctor. Instead I saw the trauma surgeon who treated me after my auto accident. He told me to go see the orthopedic surgeon who saw me in the emergency room, which I will do tomorrow.
Today, after my [...]

Getting Physical

This is why I have a physical therapist coming by the house twice a week. Kelly Haddock is helping my body deal with the trauma of the crash and get on with the healing process. The human body is one complicated marvel of physical machinery.

It doesn’t help that my injuries are incompatible. I’m in [...]

Goodnight Prayer

Now I lay me down to sleep;
I pray the Lord my back to keep.
For I am weak without my brace
and needful of unmoving grace.
My sternum and my spine agree,
there’s very little room for me
to wander from the narrow way;
I may not stir, I must not stray.
For if I twist or turn or strain,
this causes me [...]