Author: Matt

Born 9/11 Registered Architect, State of Texas Star Trek is the best

Chemo Daze, part trois…

I have already had deaux other posts about chemo.  This is another.

One oddball ailment caused by chemo is dry skin, well….dry everything.  Dry skin, dry tongue, dry nasal passages, dry eyes,….you get the idea.  I have also lost all feeling in fingertips because of this.  My skin, at my fingertips, has contracted enough that my fingertips have fallen asleep.  This has been ongoing for about four months now.  The only feeling is pins and needles.  I have also mentioned my hairloss.  Well, I am almost officially Lord Voldermort.  My eyebrows are almost completely gone.  What is left is very blond.  I did not know that my dad’s nickname for me, ‘Snake’, would be profetic.  I have had gastrointestinal issues as well.  I’ll just stop on the first syllable, gas.  ’nuff said there.  My tastes have changed as well.  I have very definate food cravings during treatment.  Those cravings change as treatment progresses.

Powderpuff Derby Time

Today was Crisana’s first Powderpuff derby.  Think of it as Cub Scouts Pinewood Derby, but for dads girls.  I first learned about this in January and took a whole 1.5 seconds to have the final design.  What would be better for a little girl than a Hello Kitty roller skate?  The idea took off.  It all started on this dining room table workbench.

The place dreams are made.
The place dreams are made.

I started with the standard approved BSA Pinewood derby kit:

I drew a sideview picture of a short shoe on the wood.  I then used a coping saw, wood chisel, and a drum sander to shape the wood.

Topview
Topview
Sideview
Sideview

I then painted it pink, painted the inside black, added the wheels, and Crisana helped add the Hello Kitty stickers.  These are the final results:

The car did not fare as well as I would have liked in the races, it did win best design!  Here is the proud winner!

and the proud Dad!

WHS Payoff

About 14 months back I built a server for the household.  I had fun spec’ing the parts and building it.  I wish I could paid real money doing that.  The OS for the server was (still is) Microsoft Windows Home Server.  One of the big selling points of the OS is the ability to back up all the PCs on the network.  So, for the past 14 months backups have been made.  One hard drive on hte server died in November and has been replaced.  It was under warranty.  The server and OS cost about $800 or so.

Debily’s laptop caught a malware virus earlier this week and properly ground to a halt.  I installed the WHS boot CD, and in about an hour completely restored her computer from the backups.  Is that worth $800?  Probably not.  Is it worth it the next time?  You betcha!  Restore was so easy and painless.   have not had a hard drive fail in any PC yet, but I know the fix for it is very easy.  I do know that ole RC has had to restore four separate PCs from his.  Thanks WHS.  You worked like a champ.

Chemo Daze, part deaux

I have already given my spiel of the various and sundry side effects I have with chemo.  I will not re-hash that, but will update.  Insomnia is still horrific.  I am now taking two separate pills to help me sleep.  They sort of work.  I still turn red, just not as bright.  I have lost my hair, even the stubble.  I grow real fine ‘milk mustache’ type hair that I buzz off every week or so.  My head is very smooth.  I have also lost hair in places that I was told I would not lose hair!  My eyebrows and eyelashes are thinner.  I have lost hair on my arms, legs, knuckles (yes, I did have hairy knuckles), hands, and other regions of my anatomy as well.  I really did not think hair loss would this traumatic!  Even the cat is laughing at how much I shed!

Multiple chemo trips does take its’ toll.  I am very tired, don’t have much energy, but I can’t sleep.  So, I piddle around the house and get a little done, catch up on some stuff, and may get larger tasks done later in  the week and generally post run-on sentences.  Debbi claims I am irritable and cranky, but I still think that is just her.  😀

Where have all the good posts gone?

Am I just apathetic.  Do I just not care?  I’m not sure.  I just have not been in a posting mood of late.  That is a shame as I do have lots to say.  We are starting to get EOBs from insurance for my chemo treatments in December.  I guess they take awhile to process.  Well, I can certainly understand why insurance balked at the rituxan.  I would even understand if a doctor, rather than an accountant, balked at it.  One dose (500ml) is $12,495.  That is somewhere in the neighborhood of $90,000/gallon.  How would you like to fill up your car with that?  Now insurance did approve the drug, and I am receiving the drug.  I just can understand, just a little bit, as to why they did a double take the first time.  The total bill for each round of chemo is about $16,000.  Add in all rounds of chemo, multiple CT scans, PT scans, the medi-port….this cancer will cost insurance about what I paid for my first house.  As much as I hate insurance at times, it is a good thing.  I think the system is broken and needs to be fixed, but it is a good thing.

Pole Position

I needed a couple of items from Costco, so yesturday I volanteered to go.  Debbi added a couple of other items onto the list.  No biggie.  The next time I volanteer to go to Costco on Saturday, please shoot me.  OMG!  Downtown Cairo, which I have seen many times, is more orderly and less congested than Costco.  I have now witnessed ‘cart rage.’  No where else can you see three people rounding a corner, with the person in the outside lane jockying for postion.  NASCAR has nothing on these people.  The best part is that these three people, rounding the corner at full speed, are running into seven other carts.  No one bothers to move their cart out of the way anymore.  It is SUCH a bother.  I’ll just leave itn the middle of the freakin’ aisle and let people go around me.  People can’t go around you because the EMTs are performing CPR on a 2-year old that was run over by three different carts.  Are the $18 swim suits really that important?  The food samples, sure!  But the swim suits?  Of course the EMTs really are doing nothing to do because they need parental approval, and the parents are three aisle down and have no clue where their child is.  I quickly figured out that racing down the aisles behind the freezers is the way to go.  Three checkout lines seems to be about the average too, so checkout only took 45 minutes or so.  I cound’t figure out if I was at Costco or Dick’s Last Resort!  GIMME YOUR CARD!!!  WE TAKE AMERICAN EXPRESS ONLY, NOT MASTERCARD OR VISA.  WELL, VISA CHECK CARDS ARE OKAY!!!  YES, THESE 45 PEIRCINGS ARE REAL!!   Such friendly service.  I like Costo, just not on Saturdays.

Indescribable

I have had writer’s block, or apathy.  I have not had anything witty or pithy to write about.  Well, I do now…

Indescribable.  That is a good word for tonight.  We had a night of worship tonight, and boy was it worship.  This is all connected to the Genesis study we are doing at church.  Part of tonight’s worship was a video from evangelistic Louis Giglio.  The video focused on astronomy, galaxies, nebulae and stuff like that.  One of the galaxies is called the Whirlpool Galaxy.  It is almost completely normal (perpendicular) to us, so we get a good view of it.  The Hubble has taken many amazing photos of it.  Scientists then pointed the Hubble at the black hole center of the Whirlpool Galaxy.  The photo that came back is called the ‘X-Structure of the Whirlpool Galaxy.”  Really?  Is that what you call it?  That’s not what I call it.  I’ll let you decide what to call it:

I have a passion for space, space flight, space craft, space invaders, and other things space.  I have never seen that photo until tonight.  I am surprised I have missed it.  From the indescribable structure of a living cell to a black hole that is measured in light years.  There is a God, and I am not it.  I leave you with another picture from the Hubble.  This one is called the Hubble Ultra Deep Field.  (I have seen this one and already knew of it.  I am just sharing.)  This is an ultra long exposure picture that took about six months to take.  Scientist focused on a dark part of sky for this picture.  The field of view is the equivalent of a piece of paper 1/32″ square three feet away, or 1/13,000,000 of the night sky.  They estimate there are about 10,000 galaxies in this picture of empty, dark night sky.  There are no foreground stars from the Milky Way in this picture, so everything you see is a galaxy.

Yes, there is a God, and I am not it.

Would you like a barium shake with that?

Uhhhh…no…thanks…..I’ll pass.  I made the trek down to UT Southwestern Aston Center today for a CT Scan.  The last one required a barium shake for it.  This one did not!  Yeah!  I found out that the barium is only for abdomen scans.  This scan was for neck and chest only.  They accessed the PowerPort to install the contrast.  I am getting pretty used to that.  I should get results right before my next chemo treatment on Monday.

It has been a while….

So what gets me out of writer’s slump for the past three weeks?  New Years?  My son’s birthday?  A cure for cancer?  Nope, none of it.  Star Trek of course.

Ricardo Montalban, James T. Kirk’s finest foe has passed on.  He will always be Khan to me.  The megalomaniac who stole the Enterprise and then almost destroyed it 15 years later.  Kirk never had an adversary as worthy as Khan.

I leave with this wonderful quote from Khan:

To the last, I will grapple with thee…from Hell’s heart, I stab at thee! For hate’s sake, I spit my last breath at thee!