At the beginning of March, before I had a lump take residence in my neck, I ordered a new bike. A custom fit, carbon fiber bike, which is damn sexy if I must say so myself. After a few delays waiting for parts from Taiwan and the fact that I haven’t exactly been able to …
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Stories
To start, go here and read the text of Jesus Montaño’s excellent commencement address he gave at Hope this past weekend. Montaño has had a large impact on my life relative to the short amount of time I actually had class with him. Life lessons he’s taught me (whether directly or indirectly) include how to …
Tulip Time
How many different ways are there to photograph tulips? I’m getting kind of bored of shooting them. Last year during Tulip Time I just used my 50mm and opened it as wide as it goes for some nice results, but as I walked around today with my 15-85mm zoom, I wasn’t very inspired. Maybe it’s because half …
Hair Loss
My doctor told me that my hair should fall out within the next week or so, but I’m not ready. I think a lot of people with cancer struggle with body image issues, I just didn’t think that I’d be the one to be so nervous about losing my hair, especially considering the fact that …
Everything tastes like metal
Well, not all the time, but the few days after chemo it does – to the point where rinsing my mouth with salt water and baking soda is refreshing and a wonderful thing. I look forward to it. Anyway, last week was a good week. Not a whole lot to update you on. Plus, the …
Knocked around
Thursday was pretty forgettable. I had to get up early to go in for surgery again. Apparently, during the surgery to install the port in my chest on the left side, the mass in my chest has shifted things around so much that they couldn’t find the vein. So they poked around a bit to …
Losing count
At some point yesterday, while sitting in a recliner at the clinic with an IV delivering chemo drugs in my right arm, I tried counting how many needles have poked me in the past few weeks. In the previous 12 hours, I’d had blood drawn twice from spots millimeters apart on my left arm. I …
Called up to the big leagues
I’m still in pain from the bone marrow biopsy (try to avoid getting one) I just had a couple hours ago, so here’s what’s new and what I learned today, briefly. I had a fever on Friday night and Saturday. It was pretty unfun. It’s been getting noticeably harder to breathe over the past few …
PET-CT Scan
It’s been a slow week, but today was more exciting. I went into work for 2 hours this morning only because it was on my way to Grand Rapids, where I had to go to get my PET-CT scan. First, let me say that the cancer pavilion there is a beautiful building – the lobby …
(Relatively) Good News
My results are back from the biopsy – it’s Hodgkin’s lymphoma. It’s what we were hoping to hear, because I’m told it’s probably one of the most treatable cancers. I don’t really know a ton of specifics regarding exactly what classification of Hodgkin’s it is or what stage it’s at, but it’s good to finally …