Hello again everyone!
Sorry for not having updated this whole blog thing in the past while. I've had to dedicate some of my time to faking my way through some University classes in the aims of receiving a piece of paper from them that says I'm smart or something. University is a good time. You have to pay a lot of money and there is no parking, but if you show up at least half of the time and do some of the stuff right, you have a better chance of getting a job (or so they tell me).
So yes, back to the most important thing I can talk about in my own blog… ME! I'm still doing as fantastic as ever. No more crazy break-downs since that last scary weekend. I don't recall exactly what I wrote about that one. I spoke to my oncologist since. He said my "craziness" could have merely been the result of a seizure, which could have been caused by low Dilantin levels (which is one of the pills I'm on). He seemed to indicate my delusional state (where I thought I was a higher conscious being who could travel through time (forward only… and not at will) and that I had a mere 5-minutes to live and all that fun) would actually not be considered out of the ordinary for someone in my situation (as a result of the seizure). They looked at the follow up CT scans and figured that the small amount of blood they saw on (in?) my brain was probably NOT a new bleed and thus nothing to worry about. I have since watched the news and found out what happened to me. I was slipped a drug without my knowledge. It is a drug called "Charlie Sheen". Read up on both our cases… I think you'll find our cases are surprisingly similar (minus the millions of dollars on the line).
About my current dilemma. I am on blood thinners. This is because when I was in the hospital I had a blood clot, which they figure started in my leg, and then travelled to my lung. They put me on blood thinners to get rid of the clot. Blood clots in the lung (or other places in the body) = "bad". Please refer to a doctor or someone smarter than I for all of this stuff, but from my understanding, if I had a serious blood clot enter my lung or head I could instantly die. Boom. Done. Game over. So being on the blood thinners helps prevent that from happening.
At the same time, I have a brian tumour. I don't like it. It causes changes to my blood somehow which does two bad things:
1) It makes blood clots more likely to occur in me
2) It makes blood clots less likely to dissolve (go away) in me
The way it was explained to me, regular (non-brain tumour people) can get little blood cots all of the time. They are small and since normal people's bodies can dissolve these clots, they're no big deal. For me? Big deal. Thus, blood thinners.
Meanwhile, brain tumours create their own blood vessels to sustain themselves, which are rather fragile. Putting me on blood thinners makes it more likely that these blood vessels will burst (or break? or leak?) which is bad. So it is one of those wonderful paradoxes where I'm both "Damned if I do" and "Damned if I don't" [take blood thinners]. The doctors believe the lesser of the two evils to be being on the blood thinners, as if I develop a bleed in my brain it might just be looked after by my body naturally with no harm. The whole "dropping dead from a clot" thing is more "instantaneous".
But enough "serious" talk. How am I doing otherwise? TOTALLY AWESOME! I'm 100% aside from the fact I have a mass of cells growing inside my head that I can't stop or get out of there. I still have had NO HEADACHES! NO NAUSEA! And NO other major OR minor side effects from anything in the past while. Like I said, one crazy weekend of a seizure and some delusional thoughts, but otherwise I'm doing super (thanks for asking)!
I have my MRI scheduled for March 8th @ 7pm… because there is nothing quite like a late night brain scan? So they'll stick my head in a machine that will make some noises and life will be good. I'm going to assume I won't have the results that night… and even if I did I don't think I'd get around to writing a blog update that night, so don't bother checking for an 8pm blog update on the 8th. When I do get results I shall pass them along (of course)!
I'm assuming you are all bored right now… so I'll continue to write about the minute details of my life based upon the false assumption you care to read about them.
How is school going Tom? I'm glad you asked. It's going quite well! Only about two months from now and I'll have one of those pieces of paper I told you about at the beginning of this blog entry! Yep, I'll get my Bachelor of Commerce degree from the UofM which I started in September of 2002. It may have taken a while, but they don't put how long it took you on the diploma, so I think it still works out ;)
School is coming along. I'm taking four courses, which are actually surprisingly not hard for fourth year business classes. I thought this would be the hardest term of my university career, but it is turning out to be one of the easiest. The courses are still challenging intellectually, but not overwhelmingly so. The professors are all quite reasonable, understanding that most students in their last term are busy trying to secure future employment. I would never have thought that at a university level I would have a professor say "if you could get this assignment done by this week, or next if you don't have the time…"
It is still university however, and I do find I am often consumed with assignments and readings in my "paper room" (office) at the apartment. I often feel guilty, knowing that I may not have a lot of time left in this life, and question spending so many hours locked in a room reading about economic theory when I could be spending time with my lovely fiance watching a nice movie. When I debate the issue with myself, I come to the same conclusion I came to before I started this term knowing what my condition was… I need to do this. I have a competitive edge to me, and a need to finish what a started. I didn't spend 9 years writing assignments and studying for exams only to fall short of completing it all. I've also said that my wonderful fiance Nicole gives me all of the motivation I need to fight my cancer and keep living for as long as I can. While that is entirely true, any extra motivation I can use to keep me going I'm going to use. I really really want to graduate, so keeping focused on getting to my graduation date gives me even more motivation to "fight the fight". In addition, I truly enjoy school (crazy eh?) and figure if I can fill my days with what keeps me happy and my mind sharp is good by me. I like Nicole and school, and they both keep me sharp ;)
So how about life outside of school? It keeps on going as well. Nicole and I have our wedding social coming up on the 18th of March. People have been beyond generous with donating prizes to our event. That's my subtle way of plugging the social (COOL PRIZES)! Jen and Bridget (a couple of wonderful O'Learys) have been troopers (super troopers even) in selling tickets and rounding up social prizes for Nicole and I. It is truly appreciated guys! Anyways, we've still got some tickets to sell and businesses to hit up for donations, so hopefully that goes well over the next few days.
Then of course there is the wedding itself. That's coming up and going really well. We finally found a really cool ceremony venue at… Red River College of all places. We've rented out a room at the Princess location for an amazing price, and best of all the room is wonderfully suited to holding a wedding ceremony. Not only that we're going to decorate it to our liking. We've ordered invitations online and hope that they will arrive soon so we can actually send them out to our family and friends so that they reach teem before the wedding. I'm enjoying all of the planning and fun so far.
While I'm writing this blog update I'm half watching the movie 127 hours and have to admit that with all of the bad things I have going for me in my life… I'm still doing better than that guy! (and Charlie Sheen come to think of it).
What else can I bore you people with? Nicole and I bought a new microwave stand the other day. Weird how life changes when you move out of your Mom's basement at the age of 26 and find odd joys you didn't previously know of (or appreciate) upon living your new independent life. I think the new microwave stand has made not only my day, but possibly my week (and I think Nicole would agree).
Nicole's parents come back from their much needed and deserved Mexico trip on Saturday. It is also my Grandma's 83rd birthday this week. My Grandma is the best Grandma on the face of the Earth (sorry to disappoint all of you who previously believed your Grandma was the best). So this promises to be a very good week.
I'm a little bit concerned about the upcoming couple of months. On one hand I like having my time filled with many events and things to keep me busy, while on the other I still feel stressed out about things like anyone else would. I have a take-home exam due on the 8th (the same night as my MRI). Then there's all of the regular homework, plus the social planning, and the wedding planning, and life in general.
My computer battery is running down, plus my eyes are getting a bit sore from the bright screen on the MacBook while I half watch 127 hours, so I think I'm going to end this marathon blog entry now. I didn't sleep well last night, so I assume most of what I said hasn't made any sense to begin with. I'll try and rest well before my next entry to save you all some time. If you made it this far you all win an amazing prize… my admiration and respect! Maybe you can get something for it at a pawn shop or something. James Franco just drank the last of his own urine, so I must officially return to the film. CHEERS!
--
Tom
PS: Cheers Again!
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