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She's back

Posted on 15. Mar, 2005 by nando in Español

Fionna is finally back. Almost in shape. It took me about three days to feel comfortable with the software I've installed and setting up my stuff. It's been a painfully long process. It has gotten in the way of doing work, but now I think I can finally do both.

On a different note, I have started taking some of the pills I was given to control the nausea. It's not terrible, but I do feel some of it... a pill or two a day intead of every six hours as directed, but it also says as directed for nausea...

Chemotherapy 1A

Posted on 11. Mar, 2005 by nando in Español

I just came back from the chemo. It went pretty well. I'm not sick, nauseaus, throwing up or anything like it. Maybe a little tired, but that could well be related to having much sleep last night and getting up early today.

I got to DFCI, and the doctor told me my heart and lung exams were very good. 69% in the former and over 100% in the latter. Excellent pulmonary capacity for an ex-smoker. She then gave me my nausea medicine prescription and left me in the hands of Larry Traiman, the nurse in charge.

He gave a pill coctail for the nausea and chatted me up for about an hour, waiting for those to take effect. Then he set an IV line, gave me some saline and started with the really nasty stuff.

  • 4:00, Bliomicine, 21 unit. A hanging bag like saline. No pain or anything. I felt a little cold in the IV area. 4:05, done.
  • 4:07, Vinblastine, 12.9 mg. with a syringe. Larry pushed it in. Didn't feel a thing. Done at 4:12.
  • 4:13, Adriamicine, 54 mg. A red liquid. Larry pushed it with syringes. Didn't feel a thing. 4:19, done.
  • 4:20, DTIC, in a bag next to the saline. It started hurting as it went in, and Larry put up another bag of saline to dilute it some more. It was good again. I read (did homework) and watched some TV (not Oprah, Lydia). 5:35, done.

    • Then Larry answered some of my questions, went over the presciption and repeated precautions like calling the doctor if I ger a fever or bleeding, etc.

    Belinda picked me up and brought me back home to Conant hall. She was great. Thanks Belinda.

    In short, I'm tired but feeling fine.

    Quimio hoy - Chemo today

    Posted on 10. Mar, 2005 by nando in Español

    Estoy en clase ahora, pero saldré de clase a comer algo y luego al hospital. Estoy tranquilo, pero un poco ansioso. No nervioso, no preocupado, ansioso. Quiero saber esto cómo va a ser esto. ¡Tengo mucho trabajo y no me puedo dar el lujo de estar enfermo! Estos meses que vienen tengo demasiadas cosas que hacer y tener en mente que no puedo estar enfermo.
    Deséenme suerte.

    =================================================

    I'm in Ilona's Program Evaluation class now, listening to the Boston Public Health Comission lady talk about their asthma huge program... I'll go get a beaf quesadilla in Felipe's after class and then take the shuttle to the medical area for my first chemo session. I'm not (yet) freaking out or worried, I'm just anxious. I wanna know what this will be like... I can't afford being sick or wasting time being sick... I have too much homework, reading, etc... I need to do so much in the coming months... I just can't waste time.
    Just wish me luck!

    Saved!!

    Posted on 08. Mar, 2005 by nando in Español

    So, this morning I remembered Jasmine had recently bought her new super cool iBook G4, and started wondering if she still had her old laptop. It turned out she did. And she agreed to lend it to me until mine is functional again. So, now I have a computer to work on and won't be spending my days in the computer lab in Gutman.

    Jasmine... you're great!!! Thanks!!! You saved my life here!

    DO NOT play with partitioning

    Posted on 08. Mar, 2005 by nando in Español

    :mad:
    Curse Partition Magic, curse it... I hope it goes to the hell of software :twisted: ... and worse yet, I'll probably keep using it! :oops:

    Yesterday night I decided I needed more space in one my hard drive partitions and proceeded to resize them without backing up anything. Midway there was an error!!! And my computer wouldn't boot... I just got a blue screen after the Microsoft Windows logo and nothing, back to boot, and blue and back to boot. I tried to outsmart it and installed a new Linux partition to try and get my data out of there... it kind'a worked, except the loader couldn't read the Windows damaged partitions and didn't work, so I just had to boot from the CD and tell to boot my installed system... and then Linux couldn't mount my Windows partitions... Anyway, that just made things worse.

    In the end I couldn'd do anything and ended up going to the Science Center walk-in clinic today, at around noon, to get some help (living in the FAS dorms gives me access to their computer services). I was there until 6pm!! When I got there, my data could still be seen if the machine was booted with a Linux CD (not my install)... After extracting 1.5 GB of data out of the 13.5 I had, (((and refusing to save more due to space restrictions on their server... I lost my legally acquired music, software, and tons of files...))) people there basically managed to get my hard drive reformated several times (just to make sure none of my data survived ;-)) and tell me I would have to call IBM and ask them to send me the recovery CDs.

    I just did and they said it could take anything from 2 to 7 days!!! 2 to 7 days with no computer!!! That's gonna be awful... awful... with all the work I have for Ilona's class!!! I'll have to live in Gutman 3rd floor now!

    Things I lost and can't really get back: my bookmarks... I just couldn't access that part of my hard drive... lots and lots of music (my own CDs I had ripped, of course ;-))

    The lessons:

    1. backup.... regularly... daily... or weekly... or so... especially if your gonna mess up with partitioning.\
    2. Buy an external hard drive and use it for backups... make images of your computer when it works and save them...

    In short... a great start for what will likely be a great week: first chemo on Thursday!

    :sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad::sad:

    Affect, teaching and David Rose

    Posted on 02. Mar, 2005 by nando in Español

    At the end of his class today (technically yesterday), David Rose made a short comment making sense of how why he was able to teach a good (very good, actually) class last week even though his father had died that day, even though he was in an emotionally difficult state. He said that emotion, affect, can make a bigger difference on strategic planning, the executive part of the brain. Emotion mostly affects the frontal part of the brain in charge of the planning, not so much the parts that actually execute the plans, such as the primary motor cortex. He explained his performance by saying that he had already planned the class since the weekend and only had to deliver. The strategic planning had already been done. That idea might explain why I have found it so hard to plan, organize my time and get homework done on time these last few weeks, even though I don't feel especially stressed, emotional, worried, etc...

    However, I would have to disagree to a point with his argument... teaching... even just the delivering of the already planned content involves making strategic planning as the lesson goes, making instructional decisions that depend not only on the previous plan, but also on an ongoing planning process that unfolds from reading students faces, body language, questions... So, in part, he WAS able to do strategic planning despite his emotional state, right? Does this make any sense...?

    Cambios: Nueva Versión / Changes: New Version

    Posted on 28. Feb, 2005 by nando in Español

    Puede que lo noten, puede que no. Todo depende de las opciones que hayan estado usando en el blog: actualicé el software (Wordpress) que uso para este blog a la nueva versión. Un poco de la funcionalidad será diferente.

    El cambio que notarán es que ahora sólo los usuarios registrados pueden hacer comentarios. Esto simplemente evite que extraños hagan comentarios, y me ahorra un poco de spam. Para ustedes simplemente significa que de ahora en adelante si quieren dejar algún comentario deben registrarse. La ventaja para ustedes es que ahora no tendrán que escribir su nombre e e-mail cada vez. Si tienen algún problema con eso, por favor no duden en escribirme.

    =========================================================

    You may or may not notice, but I updated Wordpress, the software I use for this blog to the newest version. I also added some new funtionality, such as a spell checker... only available in English.

    The major change you'll notice is that you now have to register in order to leave comments. I did this in the spirit of saving me some spam. No hassle, I hope. The good thing is that you won't have to type your name and e-mail every time. If you have any problem with the registration, please drop me a line.

    Painless! Almost...

    Posted on 24. Feb, 2005 by nando in Español

    I had my (first) PET Scan done yesterday!

    After getting a couple Dudley House sandwiches with Jasmine in the Yard, we took the T to Park street and then transferred to the green line to go to Dana-Farber. Amazingly, the E train didn't take ages to come and there were seats. The hospital wasn't a long walk from where the T dropped us off (a few blocks). We were there about half an hour early, but there were comfortable seats in the waiting area.

    We waited for a while, then a lady came to register me and had me sign lots of papers in a tiny messy office... I have to confess I didn't even read them... I could sold my soul to the devil (signing with a blue pen instead of some bodily fluid?... I don't think so). After some more waiting, they called me into a room with a recliner chair and a TV, where the technician/nurse injected me the radioactive glucose-tracing fluid and left me there for about an hour. I watched two episodes of Dharma and Gred... reruns... ;-).

    The actual exam wasn't too long. I lay on a flat thing with my arms over my head, and was moved forward and backward through a tube-like other-thing... not as small as the MRI tube, and shorter. After some time my shoulders were hurting pretty badly from the not-so-comfortable postitions my arms were in. It wasn't terrible though... I just would have a liked one or two breaks to stretch. That would have helped, but I knew I couldn't move or I'd screw up the exam and do it all over again.

    When we were done I was taken to a waiting room with a basketfull of snacks (chips and peanuts and granola and cookies and a tea and coffee machine) to wait for the radiologist to say if it was all OK or something had to be repeated. It was all OK. I went upstairs to sign a form to get copies of the prints, which was seen as weird... "don't you want copies of the reading?" "No, I just want the prints!" On the way to that paper-signing we saw a wall display full of signed baseballs and a picture of some surely famous player whose name I can't remember. It was probably someone important, though Jasmine didn't look too impressed... Ha. I had a few bites of my sandwich ann we headed back home on the train. They said they would Fedex me copies today. It was all almost painless!!

    Next week, on Monday, I have an appointment with Dr. LaCasce at 9:00, which will make me miss my beloved accounting class... bummer..., and with Dr. Mauch at 10:00-ish. Anyone up for an early ride on the green line? Yeah, right! If so, just go to the calendar and "sign-up"!

    Long weekend, right?

    Posted on 21. Feb, 2005 by nando in Español

    It has been a slow weekend... or has it? I think I have got some things done and have done some things. I went out on Friday night and had a good time with some of my Latin American pals at Armando's place. We played "Tabú" and it made much more sense to me in Spanish. It was way easier than playing in English. Saturday I caught up with some reading (Kate's class) and did some homework (more of Kate's class). I finished that this morning and sent it around 12:30. I haven't yet started to do Ilona's... not even spoken with my group! That class IS a lot of work! Today I have been reading and slacking and reading and slacking...

    I'm starting to feel like I should get really serious with the job searching and that whole deal is starting to stress me up. Everybody in the Ed. school is talking about job searches, and everybody in general is talking about finding roommates and places to live and so on... man it's too much to think about! I feel like I don't really know where to start searching... Should I just try and not worry about it? I guess I should just start looking and stop worrying.

    Phew... enough said. Back to work. Now I have to read for Honan's, Kate's, Ilona's, David Rose's... pretty much for everything!

    BTW, I finally shaved this morning and don't look shaggy, shabby, homeless, Che Guevara, or whatever any more. It took me half an hour or more!!

    X-Rays and Blood Tests

    Posted on 18. Feb, 2005 by nando in Español

    A while ago I received e-mail from Dr. Rosenthal saying he had the results of the x-ray and the blood tests he ordered on Wednesday. The blood tests are, in his words, good. According to my other sources (to whom I forwarded the message), my liver is working well, which is important in case they treat me with chemotherapy, and there is good "Sedimentation Rate" (??) which is a good for someone with Hodgkins... whatever that means...

    The area of my chest, where my heart and more lymph nodes are, is somewhat enlarged and they recommend a CT Scan. I am getting a PET Scan, which gives better information on this, so they should be able to know some more next week. The doctor's email also reminded me that he had found the lymph nodes under my right armpit somewhat swollen. I wrote that down and then forgot to mention it here. I guess it all looks like I will be getting the fun treatment: chemotherapy, but who knows. I'll have to just wait and see.

    The appointment with Drs. Lagasce and Mauch will be either Friday 25th or Monday 28th. I'm waiting for confirmation. I'll put it up in the calendar as soon as I know. BTW, I just realized a flaw in my calendar idea: people can sign others up! I hope nobody does that. I trust you all to be big boys and girls ;-).