Test tag:www.cheeseorgy.net,2009-01-02:/test//19 2009-01-02T18:44:55Z This is a test. Movable Type Pro 4.25 What if cancer could be cured? tag:www.cheeseorgy.net,2009:/test//19.5279 2009-01-02T18:44:02Z 2009-01-02T18:44:55Z What if the cure has been around for decades, but that no one (or very few people) knew about it, and for some reason they aren't talking? What if the suffering and deaths of millions of people could have been... Alston http://www.alstonadams.net/
Let's say that the government and Big Pharma were in cahoots, and that the government was in favour of suppressing this cure because Big Pharma could make lots of cash inventing "treatments" that the government could tax and get its hands on. And let's say that the money spent by the government on "treatment" of cancer was less than what they make from Big Pharma. And let's also assume that the average Canadian benefits from this money through various social programs unrelated to cancer. Would that be acceptable to you? People like to say that they want their government to do the ethical thing, but if it means cutting funding to things that they like or taxing their industry more, then it's a whole different story. Look at all the people working at polluting companies that voted against the Liberals as an example. There were hundreds of thousands of them, I'm sure. ]]> New Entry tag:www.cheeseorgy.net,2009:/test//19.5278 2009-01-02T08:57:58Z 2009-01-02T08:59:01Z I don't really feel like it yet. It'll probably happen a bit later if I feel like it again. I'll just give a cancer update here. The bad news is that I will be able to attend a New Year's... Alston http://www.alstonadams.net/
I started the new chemo on October 22. It was...all right. This time around it was only marginally better than typical. The big difference with this protocol is that it also gives you a weird sensitivity to cold. You don't necessarily feel colder, but being outside in less than 20-degree weather makes the insides of your nostrils, face and under the fingernails hurt. For five days I couldn't even go into the fridge without special gloves let alone go outside. Of course, I wouldn't necessarily want to go outside anyway since I felt like shit anyway.

In addition to the liquid chemotherapy infusion, I took some disgusting pills every day. They tasted like shit, and made any liquid I took them with taste just as bad. It was a struggle to swallow eight of them a day, especially during the first five days when my senses of taste, smell and nausea were elevated. At least the place wasn't the vomitorium it usually is. Just a little less than normal.

I was to have another treatment on November 12, but as usual, I was neutropenic. I didn't have to wait a whole week. I had to wait TWO whole weeks. Two weeks. And it all started again on November 26th. I have been working with a pivot nurse that has really been able to help me out in terms of symptoms.She determined that I had "anticipatory nausea", which basically means that part of the nausea that I have was all in my head. I would dread it beforehand and cause it to happen. For example, one of the anti-puke pills they give you is called Zofran. When I am on treatment, I can't even say that name without gagging. To combat this, I was given Ativan. (Many of you know seem to know what this is. I am curious as to why.) It seemed to help, as this treatment was the "best poison session I've had" since the surgery. I only launched about 7-8 times, although the cold sensitivity seemed to linger. ]]>
Their 93-year-old mother lives in Montreal. Ciaran wasn't the greatest about calling regularly, but Stephen was. He hadn't called that week, and the old woman probably didn't know at that time. Devastating news like that tends to end the lives of people that age. Apparently she has already started trying to gather her family around, as though she knew she were on her last legs, despite the fact that she is one of the healthiest and most independent women her age that you would expect to find.

My third and final treatment was to take place on December 17, which would have meant missing my company Christmas party, Christmas in St-Hyacinthe with Julie and her family, and something else which I cannot recall right now. But as you may have guessed, I was neutropenic yet again. Maybe you detect a pattern here. Instead of pushing it one week (which would have meant spending Christmas here in my crappy apartment, sick, and missing it with my relatives), we decided to push it to today, New Year's Eve, which was fine since I originally didn't have any plans, and wasn't looking for anything anyway. I wouldn't need to do a pre-chemo blood test, since there was NO WAY I could still have problems after 2 more weeks, right? That's another way of saying, "What's the worst that could happen?"

Well, yesterday I decided to not listen to the oncologist. I went for a blood test anyway. Last night I got a call from the doc. Not from the secretary or pivot nurse, but the actual doc himself. Sure enough, I am neutropenic again. STILL. He seems to be grasping for straws, but he thinks that my bone marrow could have been damaged by, ironically, chemotherapy. Not a huge surprise there, though. It often does as much harm as good. Sometimes cancer therapy means trading in a disease for a chronic ailment. What he wants to do is to refer me to a radiation oncologist and get treatment that way until my PET scan, which may or may not be January 26. I don't know if they were successful in setting that date; I have to call today to find out. If I were unable to get the PET in January, I risked getting a fourth treatment because the doctor didn't want to have too much between my infusion and the PET. That doesn't appear to be a problem any more.

The medical oncologist has decided to consult with the radiation oncologist that I saw in October. Oh, yeah, I saw a radiation oncologist in October, forgot to mention that. Back then he idea was to possibly do chemo and radiation at the same time, but he decided that it would be best to see what the outcome of chemo was first and make a decision at that time. Well, it appears that now is the time for radiation, but we will have to see. I am not so sure.

So, as usual, I am in the dark as to my future. I will register for a class or two just in case things go well and I can do something with my life, a least for a little while. We'll see.

Happy New Year, I suppose.]]> How to write about Africa tag:www.cheeseorgy.net,2009:/test//19.5280 2008-10-10T19:17:08Z 2009-01-02T20:17:57Z Pity them. They are so unfortunate. Every one of them. They live in the 13th century (by our reckoning, who knows if they even tell time other than by saying that it's the "rainy season" or something like that).Remember: Africans... Alston http://www.alstonadams.net/
  • Pity them. They are so unfortunate. Every one of them. They live in the 13th century (by our reckoning, who knows if they even tell time other than by saying that it's the "rainy season" or something like that).
  • Remember: Africans are as monolithic an entity as North American black people are. Once you've seen Juan, you've seen Amal.
  • Nothing good ever happens there. Nothing. Ever. Unless, of course, a white person helps them. Actually, that's pretty much what happens in North America, too, if you judge black people by most of the film industry through the 1990s and even beyond.
    • For more details, please read this great article. Here's a taste:

    Make sure you show how Africans have music and rhythm deep in their souls, and eat things no other humans eat. Do not mention rice and beef and wheat; monkey-brain is an African's cuisine of choice, along with goat, snake, worms and grubs and all manner of game meat. Make sure you show that you are able to eat such food without flinching, and describe how you learn to enjoy it -- because you care.

    Fucking liberals. Shit, did I really just say that?? ]]>     Shit tag:www.cheeseorgy.net,2008:/test//19.5281 2008-09-24T19:18:47Z 2009-01-02T20:19:22Z -This is real shit.-This is good shit right?-I mean bad shit.-Bad shit, like the shit is bad?-This is shit shit! The shit isn't worth shit! Anyone get caught on the street with this would get killed! This is real shit.... Alston http://www.alstonadams.net/ -This is real shit.
    -This is good shit right?
    -I mean bad shit.
    -Bad shit, like the shit is bad?
    -This is shit shit! The shit isn't worth shit! Anyone get caught on the street with this would get killed! This is real shit. ]]>