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.

response 251 of 475:

Feb 18 17:46 UTC 2004

DVD on Linux is easy or hard, depending on the application.  For data DVDs
it's pretty easy, and I've got one.  For movies on DVD you need licensed
software to decrypt the DVD, and there isn't much available for Linux (it's
possible, but difficult to obtain and install the decryption).

response 253 of 475:

Feb 18 19:05 UTC 2004

Anyone is welcome to pray for me in any religion they prefer.  I appreciate
the kind thoughts and support though I am not religious myself.

We have for Win98 Realone DVD movie software but I could not find anything
that looked like the correct DVD driver for the drive.

How does one use linux to read data from a DVD?  Do I need support for it in
the kernel?  What do I need to burn CDs with linux?  (Not that important as
we can do that with DOS or even Win98.)

response 255 of 475:

Feb 19 00:57 UTC 2004

I can use DOS cdrecord, the problem was to read the DVD.  So I just put in
a DVD, mount the CD-ROM drive, and read from it?  Sounds really simple.
We don't have any DVDs to try this on yet.

Here are my PET scan results, sent by a friend who works at the hospital:


STUDY:  FDG PET TUMOR CLINICAL                                         
INDICATION FOR STUDY: LYMPHOMA.                                        
PREVIOUS STUDIES:  None.                                               


PROCEDURE:                                                             

Sixty minutes following intravenous administration of approximately 300
MBq (8 mCi) of 2-deoxy-2-[F-18]fluoro-D-glucose (FDG), sequential      
non-contrast enhanced CT and PET imaging was performed from the skull  
base through the pelvis.  Helical CT was performed with 5 mm collimation
followed immediately by positron emission tomography at multiple
overlapping bed positions (5 min per bed position).  Registered        
non-contrast CT and attenuation corrected FDG PET, and attenuation     
corrected FDG PET projection images, were reviewed for interpretation. 

FINDINGS:                                                              

The visualized portions of the intracranial contents are normal.  No   
abnormalities visualized within the neck.  No abnormal FDG activity in 
these regions.                                                         

Sub 1 cm left lower lobe nodules without corresponding FDG increased   
activity.  This corresponds to a nodule previously reported.  The      
remainder of the lungs are normal.  No pleural effusion or pleural     
thickening.  No enlarged intra-orbital or extra-thoracic lymph nodes.  
Normal pericardium.  No abnormal FDG activity.                         

There are several low attenuation lesions throughout the liver,        
corresponding with the findings described on the previous CT of several
hemangiomas.  Otherwise, the spleen, gallbladder, pancreas, adrenals,  
and kidneys, are normal.  No enlarged lymph nodes or free fluid.  No   
abnormal FDG activity.                                                 

No abnormal FDG activity in the visualized osseous structures.         

IMPRESSION:                                                            

1.  No abnormal FDG activity.                                          
2.  Several low attenuation liver lesions corresponding to previously  
described hemangiomas.                                                 
3.  Sub 1 cm left lower lobe nodule without corresponding FDG activity.
Finding described on previous exam.                                    

ken                                                                    

*** PRELIMINARY *** PRELIMINARY *** PRELIMINARY


-------
My comments:
No fluid left around my lungs.
No masses left in the spleen.
One very small lung nodule that is not cancerous.
My liver is fine - the ultrasound showed that before.
No heart damage, which sometimes can be caused by doxorubicin.

I can live a normal life for the next three months.  Maybe even get strong
enough to bike by warm weather and get myself to the doctor in May.

Jim wonders why he is feeling so worn out from yesterday.  He just went to
fall asleep in the tub after fixing the kitchen sink cartridge.  Something
that moves was stuck and he freed it up.  The rubber thing is okay.  The
printer cartridge did not need ink, just a bit of soaking.  All's well
with the world.

response 257 of 475:

Feb 19 01:46 UTC 2004

This is very good news. 

response 259 of 475:

Feb 19 04:42 UTC 2004

Someone at my linux mail group also suggested that.  How fast a CPU?
We have no DVDs to play but the library does.

First we need to see if we can simply read a DVD and copy files from it.

I have probably exceeded my daily mail limit in the last hour letting people
know my test results.  I started with three other translators who had survived
cancer and been encouraging me and I have heard back from them all already.

Thanks to all of you for encouraging me this whole time and giving me someone
to 'talk' to when I could not sleep.  Also for the stories about people
(including yourselves and relatives) who had been through worse and are okay
now.  

response 261 of 475:

Feb 19 14:26 UTC 2004

How do you enable DMA?   Anyway, all we are trying to do is copy files off
of the DVD to a hard drive, which the neighbor will bring along.  Do we need
some special driver to do this in DOS or linux?  

response 263 of 475:

Feb 19 14:58 UTC 2004

Do you know how many G the latest linux occupies on the DVD so he will bring
the right size hard drive?