Offensive Post

Well, the liberals are up in arms about people being up in arms about red starbucks cups, which is even more ridiculous than being up in arms about red starbucks cups.  They're also in a tizzy about Marco Rubio's regrettable disdain for philosophers, and are gleefully reporting the statistic that the average employed college professor who teaches philosophy makes more than the average welder.  A statistic which ignores two facts.  First, that the number of actually employed philosophers is about 0.01%, and that welders make their money under the table.  Which would make Rubio correct.   But since logic was removed from the Philosophy curriculum (being a white male patriarchal tool of oppression used to subjugate free-thinkers), the argument falls on deaf ears.

For LRK

O this world.  Sun dappled & joyous days.  Hot humid Ohio summers everything growing and green.  Kids and souls and family all crushing around, whirlwind of youth and then all grows so fast.  Where has everyone gone?  At the top of the slide, after a long climb, looking down, every sense alive, alive. Falling into God's hands.

Cancer Beard is Dead! Long Live Cancer Beard!

Well, Mother's Day 2015 rolled around, and, considering all my poor mother has been through this year, I thought I'd finally accede to her wishes.  Thus Cancer Beard was finally shaved after Lo! these many months.

Farewell Cancer Beard.  We hardly knew ye.

And thus, I offer you this retrospective of the good times that me & Cancer Beard had together:

The days before Cancer Beard.  Lonely and wistful.

A nascent Cancer Beard on "White Trash Day" at Radiation Therapy.

Cancer Beard coming home from "Cowboy Day" at RT

Me & Cancer Beard graduating from Radiation Therapy

Cancer Beard got a new look!  Was this a Van Dyke or a Goatee?

Cancer Beard hanging out with me & Aussie Steve.  The wind was blowing fit to blow a man's beard off, that day.

Cancer Beard loved sailing with me in the Dominican Republic.

Cancer Beard loved the Dominican Republic.

Cancer Beard keeping a "weather eye"

Me & Cancer Beard reading stories to the girls.

Ahoy Matey!

Me & Cancer Beard, wandering the halls of Fort Sanders

Cancer Beard seemed pleased to have a clean PET scan.

Me & Cancer Beard, dressed to kill.

I'll never forget the day Cancer Beard got to see a clean-shaven Obama drive by.

The furthest extent of Cancer Beard V2.0

Cancer Beard was knocked back in order to meet a Senator.

Official Staff Photo of me & Cancer Beard (V3.0)

Cancer Beard getting a kiss (or tongue).

I think this was the day Cancer Beard & I watched the Benghazi Hearings.

Cancer Beard was so cute napping.

Cancer Beard sure had a quirky side.

But Cancer Beard could be debonair as well.

Enjoying the finer things in life was never so easy as with Cancer Beard.

The last photo of Cancer Beard before it was gone.  Vaya con Dios, my friend.

A Colonoscopy Carol

'twas the night before colonoscopy

and all through my bowels

The prep solution was stirring

like a wildcat that prowls

... OK.  That's enough.  I'll spare you anymore.  But it was gonna be one hell of a poem!

2015 = 2014

Well, I planned to have a period of debauchery at the end of 2014, and I did.  I'm glad I had a "last hurrah," because it looks like that was all the break I was going to get.

Beginning in early December, I started to lose feeling / have tingling in my fingers and toes.  It was similar to the neuropathy that I had with chemo, but was also different.  The sensation progressed throughout December, so, after New Years', I made an appointment to see the Oncologist.  When he heard the symptoms, he scheduled me for bloodwork.  In the meantime, I started taking vitamin B12, presuming (thanks internet!) that it was a circulation problem.

When I met with the NP at the oncologist's office, I got the bad news.  My blood sugar was 350.  I had no idea how high this was, until she mentioned diabetes.  Shit.  And I had just started my 2015 clean-living program.

Follow up that wonderful day with the appointment with my GP.  After fasting, my blood sugar was 280 - still elevated.  Guess what - I've got diabetes.  Everyone thinks it's manageable.  Feeling sorry for myself at having to prick my finger for blood sugar every day, I started the course of medicine to bring my blood sugar down.  Goodbye sugar and carbs.  So much for midnight chocolate ice cream (how I missed you during chemo!).  Goodbye to bread-only lenten fasting.  Goodbye to Funyuns and Lays Stax, Hardee's biscuits and hamburgers.  No more french fries.  No more Zero bars.  No more beer.

Still adjusting to the concept of lifelong diabetic management, and still with no resolution on what was causing the numbness/tingling in my hands and feet, I began the medication and monitoring blood sugar.  Immediately the blood sugar dropped to the 100's.  So the medication is working, along with eating salads and lean meat.

Then my vision started to go.  In the space of a few days, my vision has gotten to the point where I can't read anything without reading glasses.   Calling my GP, I am informed that blurred vision is a consequence of diabetes, and doing a little research, find that various serious degenerative vision loss scenarios might be playing out.

Today I had a CT scan with barium contrast (both oral & IV) - looking for what?  Apparently to see if my pancreas is screwed up (thus explaining the lack of insulin and the elevated blood sugar).  Or something.  I have to wait until Thursday to find out.  I have to wait till next Thursday to see an eye doctor - hopefully the vision degeneration doesn't get any worse.

So, 2015 starts out with dead fingers & toes, diabetes, and rapid vision loss.  Sins of my past coming to visit me?  Too many tacos?  Or is there something more sinister going on - perhaps cancer jumped to my liver or pancreas.

Ain't life a bitch?