Ray’s Blog

It’s time to start writing again. Man it has been a while. Just to let everyone know I’m felling pretty good save for the h1n1 I think I have at the moment, although that is almost gone by this point. I may go back and fill in some of the important highlights as I get back to writing but you should know that I am about as healthy as I can be right now. For whatever reason that’s how things have turned out. I’ll be trying to add some more regular features, work out a redesign, add a twitter account, ticking out wordpress, and anything else I can think of along the way. So for now there is no big rollout, things will just evolve when they do.

More on that later.

According to the American Cancer Society,  the five-year-out survival rate for stage 3C colon cancer is 44% based on data collected between 1991 and 2000. If I had been stage 4, the rate drops to 8%. Thank god we cought it before it went to stage 4! They say that since then, treatments have improved and so these numbers should be going up. And there’s also factors they haven’t broken out such as age, general health, and complications. So I believe my chances are much better than the 44% predicted, but it does give one pause.

After session 11 ended, I was in bed for over a week. Then, for some reason I have yet to discover, I felt better on Saturday than I have in weeks. I took out the garbage, organized the recyclables, and was able to things that I hadn’t done in a while. I had to take Anastasia to a sleep over but realized I was blocked in by my special friend. In order to get the car out, I had to remove part of an ice/snow mountain that had been plowed next to my car a few weeks before. Luckily, Ken was there to help me but I was able to use a pick-axe to chop the ice, while Ken shoveled it out of the way. I thought, man, am I going to pay for this exertion later. Meaning I would be overtaken by sleep soon. But that never happened. I have no idea why on the eleventh session I would be better than I have been - it’s supposed to get worse. But I’ll take it.

Ain’t no risk now

I normally don’t agree with any “best ever” claim, but in this case, I agree. Thank you my pencil.

Thanks to Shawn for pointing this out to me.

The Courage Campaign is trying to uphold a May 15, 2008 ruling by the California supreme court which said in part - laws directed at gays and lesbians are subject to strict judicial scrutiny and that marriage is a fundamental right under Article 1, Section 7 of the California Constitution, thereby holding unconstitutional the previously existing statutory ban on same-sex marriage embodied in two statutes, one enacted by the Legislature in 1977, and the other through the initiative process in 2000 (Proposition 22). The Court’s ruling also established that any law discriminating on the basis of sexual orientation is constitutionally suspect, making California the first state in the United States to set such a strict standard.

Man, can I live in California? Anyway, Ken Starr, Republican, is spearheading an initiative to nullify same-sex marriages that were allowed under the California Supreme Court ruling. Prop 8 passed on November 4, 2008 which essentially reversed California’s progressive stance stating in part - “Only marriage between a man and a woman is valid or recognized in California.” California’s State Constitution put the measure into immediate effect on November 5, the day after the election. I personally wouldn’t care if you married a dog; whatever makes you happy.

These are the same Christian literalists who think the Earth is only 4000 years old, or that intelligent design is a true scientific theory instead of just a way to get around excluding creationism from schools (just call it something else that ins’t specified in the law). Where is the separation of Church and state? Why do Fundamentalist Christians think everyone else should be a Christian and think and act like one? Radicals the lot of them. Who do they think they are? Fear mongers. Live and let live, PLEASE! Maybe we can go back to the strategy of the Crusaders - agree with me or I’ll kill you. Now that’s good old fashioned moral fiber.

Watch this video and try not to cry. It’s set to Fidelity by my favorite female singer/songwritter, Regina Spektor.

In the February 19 issue of Time Magazine, in the article Eat Your Greens, points out that:

• The meal plan of the average American family accounts for 2.8 tons of CO2 emitted annually, compared with 2.2 tons for driving.
• The most efficient way to shrink the carbon footprint of your menu is to eat less meat, especially beef.
• Our food travels from 1,500 to 2,500 miles on average from farm to supermarket, but that journey typically accounts for just 4% of a food’s carbon footprint.

One reason why eating less meat lowers your carbon footprint:
“Raising cattle takes a lot more energy than growing the equivalent amount of grains, fruits or vegetables: most produce requires about 2 calories of fossil-fuel energy to cultivate per 1 calorie of food energy; with beef, the ratio can be as high as 80 to 1.”

Not to mention you are killing animals just so you can fatten your pot belly.

The article doesn’t go as far as actually saying you should be a vegetarian, recommending fish and chicken in addition to all the greenery. Those don’t seem to me any better than beef as something to eat, although I will eat fish from time to time (God I hate myself). They also mention that changing your diet in this way can save more than driving a hybrid which to me is kind of a waste. I’m waiting for the all electric cars instead of investing in a hybrid now. It’s kind of half-assed. It still uses gasoline and many of the same toxic chemicals as a gasoline car would. An improvement, absolutely, but it doesn’t go far enough. Ultimately, hybrids are not the answer. For me this actually works now since my car is out of commission so I share a car with Christina and we hardly do any driving anyway. I have about a two-mile commute to work and the same to the kid’s school and Christina is working form home full-time and I’m doing about the same at this point. So to convert to a hybrid for me won’t save too much but to convert to electric will be well worth it.

It kind of reminds me of Spinal Tap’s these go to eleven although I will be topping them by going all the way to 12. I can’t make it to work anymore and I nap most every day for at least two hours. But we’re in the home stretch now with only two more weeks of treatment to go. Of course it will take some time for me to recover from the treatments and stop feeling the side-effects so my ordeal won’t actually be over, just the treatments will.

We’re not expecting any more problems. Unbelievably, no vassospasms. Although my fingertips have gone from feeling pins and needles on occasion to being completely numb. I’m hoping this is just the lack of Oxilaplatin that I’ve enjoyed since Christmas just working itself out. But these side-effects can start and stop long after treatment has ended. I just hope we stopped the Oxi in time so the numbness is not permanent.