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Hello All,
I received a "special" request I'd like to pass along...
Many of you are familiar with the annual Zappathon conducted by public
radio station WUSB, at Stoneybrook, New York, and with it's host (and chief
motivator) "Mr. Edison". I got an email from him yesterday outlining the
difficulties he's having with his health - bulk of that text to follow.
Bill (Mr. Edison) has requested that good, healing vibes be sent his way,
along with any "laughter-inducing, stress-reducing jokes" you might share.
We're all here trying to keep FZ's memory alive & kickin; I can't think
of too many who put forth an effort towards that end more than Bill.
If you're so moved, take a moment to send a positive thought his way. If
you'd care to email Bill a joke (please read his text first), his address is in
the text. Thanks for your time & concern.
SOFA
Some of you know this already but please bear with me as I
recap the last two weeks to the folks that haven't been told. (And big kudos to
Rosanne for spreading the word when I really didn't want to talk about it for a
while.)
On July 28 I was diagnosed with rectal cancer. Since then I've had a bunch of tests to determine the size, scope and stage of cancer we're dealing with. While we've told some people some of the aspects of this we've kept mum on a general announcement until we had a somewhat clear idea as to where exactly we stand with this and what kind of treatment options we're talking about. The preliminary results of today's 3D Ultra Sound Proctoscopy are encouraging. It looks like we have caught the ugly little cancer before it's gone too far into the rectal wall and turned itself into a free for all inside my body. What this means is that we can proceed with surgery before attempting to isolate the mass with radiation and chemo, although radiation and chemo are still viable options to help prevent this from coming back. We'll have further consultations with doctors in the next couple of days, but right now it looks like we'll be going into surgery (at Mather Hospital) on August 17th. If all goes well, I'll be there for about a week and then recuperate at home for another 4-6 weeks. Obviously we're not out of the woods yet. Surgery is always laden with risks and I was given a two page summary of all that can go wrong during the recuperation period which is scarier than anything Stephen King has written recently. But this is the first encouraging news regarding my health we've received in the last two weeks so I figured I'd share it. Lots of people have asked if I need anything at this time. There are some things. First, Rosanne and I are firm believers in the power of prayer, or collective conscious, or group think, or good vibes or whatever else name you want to give when a bunch of people tap into the great whatever. It's been the good wishes of a bunch of folks that has kept me on the up side of this and so it will continue to be, since cancer is a sneaky, tenacious little bugger as we all know. Secondly, and this ties in to the first. I need jokes. Not sentimental angelic e-cards, or those horrendous chain letters where if you don't send it to twenty people in the next ten seconds horrible things will happen to you. (Send me one of those and I will crawl to your house in my hospital gown and make sure something horrible happens to you!) Just laughter-inducing, stress-reducing jokes. Thirdly, be sure to send positive energy and tactile help to Rosanne. Lord knows she runs around and stresses enough between her job and station duties as it is. Now she has my rectum to worry about. Remember, in many ways I'll have it easy. I'll be knocked out while I'm sliced open and my innards get cut up and rearranged. Then I get to bitch about the lousy food and TV, and how much I miss my iPod and laptop and radio station for a week while I catch up on my reading as people feed me painkillers and take more interest in my bowel movements than my folks did when I was an infant. The real stress, I'm afraid, will fall on her. Try to help her with it (as much as she'll allow, anyway. She can be quite the stubborn German). We will be keeping all of you posted as things progress. But, right now, we're guardedly optimistic. And if anybody wants to take me out for rich food and/or ice cream, it's gonna hafta be very, very soon. Ok? Not Dead Yet, Bill Amutis [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Ol' Baggy Eyes) For further Z-related fun, please visit http://www.thebignote.com or http://www.killuglyradio.com , thank you. YAHOO! GROUPS LINKS
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