"How's radiation" seems to be the question of the week. To which the flippant answer is "It's three minutes of high powered toxicity attacking your DNA" but that answrs a different question and anyway I'm not one for flippancy. I don't even like dolphins.
So - radiation is surprisingly timely (they run EARLY). It's surprisingly informal (I've already given up on the changing room in favor of stripping in the equipment room) and it's unbelievably quick (I can be in and out of that place in the time it takes Rachel Ray to whip up a merengue - I know this because the TV in reception is switched to the food network
Side effects will build up as the radiation takes hold and should include irritate sunburned skin, a sore throat, lack of saliva (there go my few remaining teeth) and possible nausea.
The secondary cancers are something that tend to come much later. Well, later.
Administration is simple. Check in with mumbles the male receptionist, settle into your book, get startled by Creeping Moses - the nurse who makes no sound until she coughs "Mr Walls?" into your ear. Up onto the table, head in the mold they made of you, on with the laser guide, a little time being slid from position 'A' to position "A.0" and then everyone leaves, the giant phone receiver hums, the stars on the ceiling glow a little brighter and you're ready for the 15 minute walk back to the subway station (that takes in what we've dubbed 'the Cancer Cafe'; a coffee shop full of worried looking parents and their bald children)
And that's it. Easy, easy, so far very easy.
It'll get harder.
Wednesday, June 07, 2006
Tuesday, June 06, 2006
Quick planning vent
Most of the planners I work with either want to be the client (‘I wanna be the brand manager on this’) or want to hide behind the voice of a third and fourth parties (‘research says that consumers don’t want to hear that’). And both attitudes drive me mental.
So here, for those who care, are the six things that I’d demand of a department were anyone brave enough to hand one over to me.
1) Planners should be experts in advertising
They should know how it works, be able to map and model it, to diagram it and they should be perceptive enough to abandon all of those things when they see magic rather than logic
2) Planners should know what people care about
And know what they could be made to care about – and what they’re going to care about next
3) Planners should be Babelfish
Able to talk to anyone, knowledgably and at the other person’s level – and then be able to translate what they learned when they talk to the next person. There’s no point in having an idea if you can’t express it
4) Planners should have a point of view
Their own point of view, not a 3rd party point of view or a cocktail party point of view. Planners shouldn’t be afraid to start sentences with “I think…” or “I believe”
5) Planners should be masters of the hook up
They should be clued into popular culture, they should know what’s happening, who’s making it happen and how to rope those people in to help.
6) Planners should make a difference to the work
They should be judged on the quality of the work not the cleverness of the plan. A planner whose thoughts live only in powerpoint is a planner that’s adding nothing.
Okay – so it’s all very simple, obvious stuff. But simple and obvious is what’s missing from most planning departments.
So here, for those who care, are the six things that I’d demand of a department were anyone brave enough to hand one over to me.
1) Planners should be experts in advertising
They should know how it works, be able to map and model it, to diagram it and they should be perceptive enough to abandon all of those things when they see magic rather than logic
2) Planners should know what people care about
And know what they could be made to care about – and what they’re going to care about next
3) Planners should be Babelfish
Able to talk to anyone, knowledgably and at the other person’s level – and then be able to translate what they learned when they talk to the next person. There’s no point in having an idea if you can’t express it
4) Planners should have a point of view
Their own point of view, not a 3rd party point of view or a cocktail party point of view. Planners shouldn’t be afraid to start sentences with “I think…” or “I believe”
5) Planners should be masters of the hook up
They should be clued into popular culture, they should know what’s happening, who’s making it happen and how to rope those people in to help.
6) Planners should make a difference to the work
They should be judged on the quality of the work not the cleverness of the plan. A planner whose thoughts live only in powerpoint is a planner that’s adding nothing.
Okay – so it’s all very simple, obvious stuff. But simple and obvious is what’s missing from most planning departments.
Ali's birthday
after yesterday's self indulgent post I thought that I owed you a picture of the birthday girl.
I do like this new camera
I do like this new camera
Monday, June 05, 2006
Happy Birthday - again!
Another evening another birthday party – this time not too far from the house in a tiny restaurant blighted only by the dead rat on the sidewalk directly outside.
Good crowd of people. Bosnian film makers, jewelry artists, a great guy who’d tried and failed to dye his own hair and Ali – our ‘friend in New York’ who has been great at coming out to Williamsburg throughout this whole cancer malarkey (she’s also possessed of great wit with great tits to match)
Eclectic menu as well as eclectic company – our table had everything from Spiced African Chicken through to an Elvis Sandwich (fried bread, peanut butter, fried banana – not alas battered bits of The King)
It feels weird not only to be out and about again but to be amongst interesting people. More than anything I’ve missed character and cultural currency. The chance to talk issues of the day (Dutch soldiers and their failure to do their job in Bosnia; Angelina Jolie, caesarian and herpes) with people who have something to say. Sure YouTube is fun, but there’s only so much adolescent nihilism that a man should have to stomach.
Radiation treatment? So far so good. Fast, painless, efficient. Switzerland then. And like Switzerland the nasty underbelly will reveal itself at a later date.
Enough of this inane rambling. Have to put together a proper proposal for ‘Last Shot’ ahead of pitching the idea to some ‘TV execs’ and have some ideas for how Progressive Insurance could actually BE progressive in more of their products (not that anyone has asked me for the latter, but hey you call yourself Progressive and you open yourself up to suggestions)
BTW if the people responsible for the tacked on ending of ‘The Break-up’ do the all too thinkable and follow it with ‘The Make-Up’ I will do a Ronnie Biggs and up sticks to Brazil.
Good crowd of people. Bosnian film makers, jewelry artists, a great guy who’d tried and failed to dye his own hair and Ali – our ‘friend in New York’ who has been great at coming out to Williamsburg throughout this whole cancer malarkey (she’s also possessed of great wit with great tits to match)
Eclectic menu as well as eclectic company – our table had everything from Spiced African Chicken through to an Elvis Sandwich (fried bread, peanut butter, fried banana – not alas battered bits of The King)
It feels weird not only to be out and about again but to be amongst interesting people. More than anything I’ve missed character and cultural currency. The chance to talk issues of the day (Dutch soldiers and their failure to do their job in Bosnia; Angelina Jolie, caesarian and herpes) with people who have something to say. Sure YouTube is fun, but there’s only so much adolescent nihilism that a man should have to stomach.
Radiation treatment? So far so good. Fast, painless, efficient. Switzerland then. And like Switzerland the nasty underbelly will reveal itself at a later date.
Enough of this inane rambling. Have to put together a proper proposal for ‘Last Shot’ ahead of pitching the idea to some ‘TV execs’ and have some ideas for how Progressive Insurance could actually BE progressive in more of their products (not that anyone has asked me for the latter, but hey you call yourself Progressive and you open yourself up to suggestions)
BTW if the people responsible for the tacked on ending of ‘The Break-up’ do the all too thinkable and follow it with ‘The Make-Up’ I will do a Ronnie Biggs and up sticks to Brazil.
In the words of Frankie Goes To Hollywood
"Hit me with your lazer beam"
Yup; it seems that years as a miserable pleader have finally paid off... the hospital has agreed to treat me today.
It will mean much sitting around, much bad karma (as I pray for a cancellation - c'mon granny don't wake up) and too much time in a hospital 'gown' but I will get tested today and I will get zapped.
Treatment I think will be like that scene in Dr. No (was it Dr. No?) as the laser heads up between his open legs and towards his crotch
"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No Mr Bond, I expect you to die."
Hurrah!
Yup; it seems that years as a miserable pleader have finally paid off... the hospital has agreed to treat me today.
It will mean much sitting around, much bad karma (as I pray for a cancellation - c'mon granny don't wake up) and too much time in a hospital 'gown' but I will get tested today and I will get zapped.
Treatment I think will be like that scene in Dr. No (was it Dr. No?) as the laser heads up between his open legs and towards his crotch
"Do you expect me to talk?"
"No Mr Bond, I expect you to die."
Hurrah!
Sunday, June 04, 2006
Cool new features
My new camera has some very cool new features, so when I saw these women having a red themed picnic it seemed rude not to try one of them out.
Have a call in to the doctor's office tomorrow at 9.30 (I'll try to hold off until 9.45) and then a 'final test' appointment at 3pm.
Hoping that they'll buy off on one of my two options
1) Finish the treatment in June
2) Start the treatment in mid-July
But kinda resigned to that not happening - just not going to voice missing my vacation as a viable option.
We'll see if they bite - here's hoping that they do
Have a call in to the doctor's office tomorrow at 9.30 (I'll try to hold off until 9.45) and then a 'final test' appointment at 3pm.
Hoping that they'll buy off on one of my two options
1) Finish the treatment in June
2) Start the treatment in mid-July
But kinda resigned to that not happening - just not going to voice missing my vacation as a viable option.
We'll see if they bite - here's hoping that they do
We went to a party last night
We went to a party last night; it felt very strange being able to dance (not well you understand but to jig about in a breathless making fashion) and to drink (though my tolerance level is very low these days)
Actually it just felt weird being healthy amongst normal people. Radiation might dampen that for a while but only for a while... 'tis good to be alive.
Actually it just felt weird being healthy amongst normal people. Radiation might dampen that for a while but only for a while... 'tis good to be alive.
Friday, June 02, 2006
Does my face look fat in this?
Hoping that the face is looking less swollen now that the steroids are being flushed out of my system.
Excuse the 'if Christine Keeler had been a lesbian' pose - I was trying a 'Tara Banks' 'Look Fierce (tm)'' move
Excuse the 'if Christine Keeler had been a lesbian' pose - I was trying a 'Tara Banks' 'Look Fierce (tm)'' move
News of the day
As I said the new camera is in and it has one hell of a zoom on it (optical zoom *12)
This means that nobody is 100% safe from my prying lens now and that I can - at last - have sweet revenge on the world for making sick, bald and stupid enough to book a vacation only 2 months after chemo
This means that nobody is 100% safe from my prying lens now and that I can - at last - have sweet revenge on the world for making sick, bald and stupid enough to book a vacation only 2 months after chemo
An upturn in the day?
Well my camera arrived - voyeuristic pics to follow.
And I talked to the hospital. They can do nothing until Dr Sherr is back and he's not back until Monday.
I have a final 'test' on Monday at 3pm - but no treatment.
"Not right" I wailed, I want this thing over by the end of June.
"Ah" said nice woman at the end of the phone "Leave it with me, there's nothing I can do without the Dr's approval, but let me see what I can sort out with him on Monday. It might be that we can squeeze in a treatment - though it would be a first. Or it might be that we can squeeze the number of sessions. Though that's not for me to say. Call me Monday at 9.30."
So it's another weekend of bitten nails and murmering from me. Jude might just kill me.
And I talked to the hospital. They can do nothing until Dr Sherr is back and he's not back until Monday.
I have a final 'test' on Monday at 3pm - but no treatment.
"Not right" I wailed, I want this thing over by the end of June.
"Ah" said nice woman at the end of the phone "Leave it with me, there's nothing I can do without the Dr's approval, but let me see what I can sort out with him on Monday. It might be that we can squeeze in a treatment - though it would be a first. Or it might be that we can squeeze the number of sessions. Though that's not for me to say. Call me Monday at 9.30."
So it's another weekend of bitten nails and murmering from me. Jude might just kill me.
Looks like a 'no go'
When I was at the hospital the doctor talked about a 20 day radiation treatment starting Monday June 5th
I was elated, this meant that I could go on vacation at the end of treatment as planned.
The hospital was supposed to call me yesterday with a schedule of treatment, times of day and the like.
They didn't.
I called them today and I'm not on the schedule.
And with my doctor away it doesn't look as though I'm going to be on the schedule. Losing even a day means running into the July 4th holiday and not ending treatment until July 6th. Buggering my vacation plans entirely.
To say that I'm upset would be the most massive understatement. I'm distraught.
Have an e-mail in to the doctor (he's been out for 2 days), a call into the head of radiation oncology and a heart that's leaden.
Everything crossed here, but it's looking futile.
I was elated, this meant that I could go on vacation at the end of treatment as planned.
The hospital was supposed to call me yesterday with a schedule of treatment, times of day and the like.
They didn't.
I called them today and I'm not on the schedule.
And with my doctor away it doesn't look as though I'm going to be on the schedule. Losing even a day means running into the July 4th holiday and not ending treatment until July 6th. Buggering my vacation plans entirely.
To say that I'm upset would be the most massive understatement. I'm distraught.
Have an e-mail in to the doctor (he's been out for 2 days), a call into the head of radiation oncology and a heart that's leaden.
Everything crossed here, but it's looking futile.
"Feed Me"
Woke up this morning to the not too distant hum of a blog in need of feeding. Thing is I have no real news. Hospital didn't get back to me yesterday and responded to my call with a curt "Call us tomorrow"... my camera has yet to arrive (though th eaccessories have)... work is pretty much just work and Jude and I have done little out of the ordinary all week
Here's hoping that today brings news of dates (I HAVE to start on Monday); an Amazon.com package and a fabulous party to attend.
More news when I get it on treatment
Here's hoping that today brings news of dates (I HAVE to start on Monday); an Amazon.com package and a fabulous party to attend.
More news when I get it on treatment
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