response 227 of 475:

Feb 12 01:09 UTC 2004

I will try to arrange a private viewing of her setup some time soon, maybe
after the winery tour.  What is the best few days to see what is happening
wiht your batch, Scott?

We took a look at the AMD 5x86 she traded us (to be recycled) and it turns
out to be a 5k86, which means a Pentium I /socket 7.  For some reason the
PR166 cpu in there was set to 100MHz in CMOS and was running at 1/5 the proper
speed.  We now have it up to proper speed (less than half what we traded her)
and might use this board (in a much smaller case) for another purpose.

I was supposed to try flashing the BIOS of the CMOS that won't hold any
settings but I found a flash BIOS download for the DFI motherboard 586IPVG
and we have the plain 586IPV.  Nothing to lose but time, I suppose.

response 229 of 475:

Feb 12 03:40 UTC 2004

My current batch is basically just sitting in a big glass carboy bubbling.
The fun part was brewing, since I do all-grain brewing instead of extract.

response 231 of 475:

Feb 12 15:38 UTC 2004

Re 230 - how?  
Scott, let us know what days/times are convenient for you for a brewery tour.
She is free on weekends.

response 233 of 475:

Feb 12 18:07 UTC 2004

re225:  Yup.

response 235 of 475:

Feb 15 15:49 UTC 2004

My most interesting recent side effect is that I seem to have more freckles
on my face than before.  Jim asks if it is age spots, but I think those appear
more on hands and I don't have more freckles there.

The miscellaneous little aches and pains continue to occur once in a while.
My left hand aches but less often.  Sometimes it aches where the spleen biopsy
was.  My leg muscles are still sore but that might be because I am not gaining
weight, in fact I might be losing again.  I am getting rather tired of forcing
myself to eat things that taste bad.  I have been forcing myself to eat since
at least last July, maybe June.  I probably have not gained weight since
December or so.  This should improve soon.

The laryngitis is about the best it has been but I still need to yell to be
heard between rooms or if the radio is on.  Recently I have been having a sore
windpipe - don't know if this is from the pharyngitis, or from a worn-out
lining, or what.  It is more frequent than before.  Feels like a heart attack
might feel (not that I have had one) but centralized.  

Two days ago what is left of the longer hairs on my head started to come out
again when I pull.  The hair on my legs is still not coming out.  

I had a bad dream about Tuesday's PET scan.  They have me scheduled for an
8:45 ENT appointment and at 9:00 I am supposed to be at Radiology drinking
32 oz of barium sulfate suspension.  I have special permission to pick it up
at 8:30 and drink it at the ENT office (assumine I am not seeing the doctor
at 9 instead of 8:45) and then go to Radiology at 10:00 for a radioactive
glucose injection (my last IV ever, I hope - the next 10 years of CAT scans
should be without IVs).  I dreamed I was late to everything.  That is usually
Jim's dream - being late to all his classes, or lost.  It is hard to race
around between doctor's offices when you can only walk slowly.  Better than
a wheelchair.  I hope the scan goes well.  Jim has a class at 1:00 and might
have to take me along.

He thinks he has fixed a motherboard that keeps changing its mind about the
speed of the cpu in it by giving it more voltage from a different power
supply.  We are ready to put together some new computers as soon as I get lynx
compiled.  The latest attempt complained that I did not have gpm mouse.  I
was using some ncurses that was compiled to need it.  Time to try another one.
Or give up and let it have a mouse (which will make the program larger).

response 237 of 475:

Feb 15 18:50 UTC 2004

Backtalk is a bit slower than usual today.  But it's always a bit slow.
 Hopefully when the new machine is set up it'll be snappier.

response 239 of 475:

Feb 16 01:44 UTC 2004

I guess the 30 sec wait to read anything was a lot faster than the 2 months
it took me to get a lynx that would work with backtalk.

Today we had a day on the town - walked to a lecture on campus, and then hung
around waiting for a 7 pm concert at St. Thomas.  The front doors were locked.
We walked all the way around and found a note on the BACK door telling people
to go to teh front door and that the concert was not at 7, it was at 4.  I
wonder how many people froze at the front door around 7 pm wondering why it
was locked.  We were early.  

response 241 of 475:

Feb 16 16:31 UTC 2004

I presume some vandal was at work yesterday at grex, causing the delays.

The Nuclear Medicine department phoned just now telling me where to show up
tomorrow at 9.  They have their insurance person do the calls.  She thinks
I only have to drink 1 or 2 cups of a 'smoothie', not barium sulfate.  I am
sure it is barium sulfate since I discussed this with someone else there, who
said not to eat or drink anything after 5 am.  The insurance person said not
to eat anything after 6 am but it was okay to drink water.  At the last CAT
scan I went 12 hours or so without drinking anything because we were busy
after the scan, and they did not say I could drink water before it.  This PET
scan is only $3,909 and I have to promise to pay if the insurance won't
because some insurances consider it experimental.  I think mine pays, she said
PPOM was good.  
        So I can eat breakfast if I want to get up before 5 am, and I can drink
water otherwise.  I will take breakfast along to eat at noon since I am
probably going to have to go to Jim's class with him at 1 unless I feel up
to walking back about 3 miles on my own.
        The insurance person thinks are their smoothies are cold but maybe they
can warm one up for me.  If I get there at 8 it will have an hour to warm up
while I am waiting for the 8:45 ENT appointment.  Or we can stick it under
some hot water in a sink.   24.5 hours from now this should be over with
except for a few days wait for the results (during which I will try to get
some sleep instead of worrying).

        Yesterday evening I was able to eat a grapefruit - a bit more sour than
I recall but not unbearable like the last piece of tangerine that I tried a
couple of weeks ago.  

        It is so nice to be at home 3 weeks after the last infusion, rather
than waiting around the cancer center to be jabbed 3 times.  And to know that
my sense of taste is likely to get better starting now instead of worse.
I still only ate half my oatmeal yesterday, will try to do better today.

response 243 of 475:

Feb 17 02:38 UTC 2004

Jim offered to wake me tomorrow around 7:30 so we can leave for the hospital
and chase down my 'smoothie' before going to ENT.  He thinks he needs an hour
before that to make sure the car starts and has air in the leaky tire.  What
a perfect home health aide I have.  He was going to make me breakfast but I
am not allowed to eat any.  I hope the smoothie is not banana flavored because
if it is I am going to another dept to get one that tastes less permanently.
I wish it were possible to obtain unflavored drugs.

response 245 of 475:

Feb 17 23:23 UTC 2004

I know you have all been eager to hear the news:  WCC's black history month
menu for tomorrow (Harlem Renaissance theme) includes fried chicken,
barbecued spare ribs, and sweet and sour pork, and some sort of vegetable(s)
but they did not remember what.  We ate lunch at the Artists' Gallery (their
name for the restaurant) before Jim's class.  They had two soups (we got
potato/vegetable), several salads (some with meat) and about five entrees
including arborio rice with 'roasted' vegetables.  Cloth napkins, 2 forks,
2 spoons, 1 knife, bread plate, white tablecloth, two little rolls wrapped
in a napkin.  $4.95 for the entree and $1.65 soup = $7.00 total.  The place
was nearly empty.

I skipped breakfast because I slept past 5 am.  Took a few swallows of water
(it is okay for PET but not CAT scan to drink some water) at 6:30, Jim put
some air in the leaky tire and charged the battery, and we got to nuclear
medicine around 7:45 (go left at the Pepsi machine, continue past the Coke
machine.....) to pick up my specially unrefrigerated berry flavored (if you
are imaginative) 'smoothie'.  

Signed in half hour early for ENT and refused to let the doctor put an
endoscope down my nose or a mirror down my throat so he listened to me cough
(sounds okay) and hold one note for 22 sec (I don't have weak vocal cords).
I suggested my laryngitis was drug-induced and explained how it got worse
every 3 weeks and I don't need to come back unless it gets worse again.

Drank 16 oz at 9:15, got in IV at 10:00.  She apologized that it did not go
in quite as planned (but the blood only reached the cotton not the floor this
time and it did not need redoing).  She took blood and tested my fasting
glucose to be sure I tolerate glucose (84 - this is good) then opened a heavy
metal shielded barrel of rather expensive glucose with fluorine label and
injected that and told me to stay in the lead-lined room for an hour so as
not to expose other people.  (This reminds me of teh infusion nurses wearing
plastic coveralls to keep off their skin what they injected into my veins).
Someone else explained what they would be doing - first a short CAT scan to
show where any masses were, in the same machine as the PET scan.  The CAT scan
produces radioactivity, and for the PET scan I produce radioactivity.

I was not to walk or talk before the scan since that would make my muscles
take up the radioactive glucose.  They asked if I had shoveled any snow
recently.  So I sat silently in the room until called, reading about 8'x45'
RVs with popouts (it was that or Women's Day).  

The CAT scan was a very brief one.  I had to lie on my back with arms behind
my head.  The PET scan took about 50 minutes.  I could not move the whole time
(I did scratch my nose between scans which upset the technician).  I ended
up rather sore and stiff by the end but it was nice that they took out the
IV right after the injection.  It is much worse holding your arms high over
your head with an IV in one of them for the CAT scan.

The machine decided I was 7 zones long.  They scanned from pelvis to neck to
get all my lymph nodes so it took much longer than for most people.

In the waiting room (before I became a radioactive hazard) I talked to a man
who was going to get three injections of something that made his heart beat
faster so they could measure how well it worked in order to qualify him for
a kidney transplant.  He was in a wheelchair but at home uses a walker.  He
said he used to install doors in hospitals and did those for several of his
doctors.  We talked about dialysis - my father was one of the first and it
used to take twice as long.  It is probably a lot less fun than infusion since
it is three times a week not once in three weeks (but at least does not make
your hair fall out - mine has been coming out fast for a few days now).

Another woman was getting a PET scan before breast surgery.

Jim went to class after lunch and told me to go up two flights in the Student
Center Building and wait in the library.  It had moved since he last visited
it maybe 15 years ago, to its own building.  Someone sent me through 2 tunnels
to reach it.  I sat and read near the section on Cooking, Cabinetmaking, and
Computers.  Jim found the library.

Jim said he now has a 77 average because he did not ask for extra time to let
him finish the exam.  I said he had a C+ average.  He is thinking of asking
the teacher for a C++ instead of a C+.  

We went to Kroger and bought me some juice because I need to drink a lot to
get the glucose out of me faster.  In 20 hours it will be decayed to very
little but it is better to get it out sooner.  Jim was not afraid to sit near
me in the car but I avoided people at the library.  

It is nice to have that over.  Not moving a muscle for nearly an hour while
lying on my back on a relatively hard surface with arms behind my head was
a bit like being in a 'tiger cage' but not for as long.  They tried to find
something to put under the small of my back - first it was a folded sheet,
then an IV bag (saline solution) and finally they came up with a piece of
foam.  The CAT scan people have a nice high triangular thing to put under your
knees and take some weight off your bottom that way.  

I should hear the results later this week.

The IV went into the crook of my left arm instead of my hand.  She said it
would hurt more in my hand.  It hurt more anyway but only while it was in.
My hand still hurts from 3 weeks ago.

Got to go force some more fluids now.  I hope to post some good news soon.

response 247 of 475:

Feb 17 23:49 UTC 2004

HERE< SLYNNE:  TAKE THIS GOOD RIBBON:

   0
   |
   |
   |
   |
   ^
  / \

response 249 of 475:

Feb 18 00:50 UTC 2004

Jim may want to talk to the people in LA104 (if they haven't moved).  Learning
Support Services.  They have ways and people that can help him get through
the class up to and including someone to attend the class with him to take
notes for him and going to there office to take tests (if he needs it someone
will read the questions to him and write down his answers for him).  I started
there doing note taking until there was an opening in the computer lab.  It
is a free service, he may have to have some sort of medical paper showing that
he is dyslexic.  They can tell him what he needs.