So Roo and I went swimming at Cherry Beach again today. He's got some of the same set of pictures on his page that Phil took. As always it was refreshing and invorating — I love how full my lungs feel after a cold swim. Anyway, you should come with us. And if you're far away, get some friends together and start a local chapter — I'll gladly point yourtown.winterswim.com at you.
Seriously, the cold is much less of a big deal that you'd think.
And since a couple people have asked me where we got the hats and so on, they're from Mountain Equipment Co-Op. The next time we're (confirmed) swimming is next Tuesday and I know we're stopping by there on the way to pick up more stuff for more people — if you'd like to meet us there please do, and all you'll have to bring is a towel and something to swim in (boots are $25-$30, gloves are about $20, and the kayaking caps are $10 or something if I remember right — the only thing I strongly urge is boots/shoes).
Since YouTube compresses stuff too much, let me give you alternate links if you want an unmarred one: MP4 or WMV. Anyway, what you're seeing in the video are sectional x-rays across my leg horizontally (if I was standing), moving downward toward my feet. It starts just above my kneecap, which you'll see appearing at the top of the screen. Then you can watch my joint resolve, and then on to the lower half, where if you look at the bottom right you can see the tumor's size and shape and what it's connected to. Pretty neat!
when lights go out I will be running over your name
PS. The music is meant to be funny.
But yeah, it is kind of freaky too. But the good news is that when they did the bone density scan (which is what the picture below is — some sort of nuclear imaging — I guess the dark spots in my gut are my body pulling the isotope out of my bloodstream and into my bladder), they found no other metastases (I think that's what they're called) elsewhere in my body, which I believe means that they're quite certain there's no cancer spreading or anything like that.
I was wondering why the series of nurses and other staff I dealt with today were looking at me weird (although they were all very nice) until I got the records (which I used to make the video) — they've got me listed as “MS” (as in the female gender) in their records. Hope that doesn't get me a sex change during surgery.
I've been feeling like crap the last few days because I've been pushing myself a little (mostly just long hours) and have been in a ton of pain (most likely) becaue of it. The doctors upped my sleep medication, so even though I wake up every hour due to the discomfort, I'm able to get back to sleep fairly quickly. I suppose that's an improvement (although I'm definitely a lot “dopier”) but really there are two things right now that make me feel better: winter swimming and exercise (although if I'm really hurting I have emotional trouble with exercise, like I'm going to start crying like a baby or something when I'm having trouble… dunno why). I read this goofy craigslist post and when I got to “pretty girl who is head of the writing department” it made be think of Rachel and I went from mildly amused to lonely.
I hope I don't seem like a whiner when I write this stuff, becaue I don't really mean to, and I'm not down about it in person. Over the last couple of weeks I've met a few people with way more serious issues than me — I mean, sure I may have cancer, but I've already survived it, so now I just have a broken leg really — and I've hugely valued them being candid with me about how they've dealt with issues in their lives. Anyway, if you're one of those people I really appreciated it.
Tomorrow morning I have my CT scan (finally, and thanks to Saira for helping me out with some babysitting), and then I meet with my surgeon next week. So I guess there's something in my file that changed things from “we'll make you an appointment in the new year” back to “this guy's on an ASAP basis”. It'll be nice to finally know what we're dealing with.
Other than that, according to a poll that CBS did back in July, a third of all Americansbelieve that the US government was behind the 9/11 attacks or allowed them to happen (because we've never seen that in government history, right — The RMS Lusitania, The Reichstag, Gulf of Tonkin, Pearl Harbor, etc.). Coupled with the fact that now one in thirty two (seven million) Americans are either currently in prison (2.2 million there) or on current parole, for any old crazy crap, even like being in pain, I do wonder when America will finally revolt, even if it's just far enough for old-school liberty…
I posted some confirmed swim times, with tomorrow and next Tuesday being mini swims, but I'd really like to get lots of people out for the solstice swim on the 21st. I most want to do a midnight swim at solstice (a winter swim on the longest night of the winter), but I have to talk to the cops first and make sure we're allowed.
Anyway, I'll post times on the website, and those of you who want to come, drop a line to me, or Roo or Allana or one of the other regulars to coordinate either with me or with them (the times posted right now are the times I know I'll be there). Also, I have lots of business cards for those of you who want to take part and help promote it.
Oh, and if anyone (involved) wants to volunteer as webmaster in the future, please do feel free. I'd really like it to be someone involved though because I want the person doing it to understand why this is important. Finally, if others want to start winter swimming clubs in their own area, I'm happy to set up ottawa.winterswim.com and so on for other clubs once they're initiated since it's such a killer domain.
