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katakowsj  ·  743 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My mom might die  ·  

Shit. That situation sucks. That's all there is to say. I'm in the waiting room for radiation oncology at Henry Ford Hospital ,Detroit. I''m getting Radiation treatment 3of4 for arecurrent glioma. Been surviving it for over ten years now. No cure for gliomas either. We've been managing this shit for over ten years now. Not all of ithas been terrible eitherthough. I'v e had some amazing times with my kids

and family. Times that are farmore amazing as I didn't think knewthey were guaranteed. I heard a hopeful statement about situations like ours. "It doesn't always get worse."

It's true.

I No one's disease is the exact same. Only by keeping fears at bay can we get our best result. I hope you guys find yourselves feeling better soon. I also work hard to live by ," It's rarely as bad as you think it will be and rarely as good as you think. Lastly, I've learned to recognize and discard related fearful thoughts that pop into my head. Listening to your random fears will drive a person to make terrible decisions.

Also , sorry as my typing is shit. My last two surgeries f-ed up my left field of vision. navigating a keyboard by sight is super tough.

katakowsj  ·  542 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: I have important things to say about addiction

I'm getting cooseto aplacce where Iaalmost cannot fear the truth lesss

Cane only?WTF is going on with U??

Last Tuesday I learned that the chemo treatment my team if docs had me taebiweekly via infusion has done basically jacshirt. my tumocells are fill in every available gapbrain tumor being on my right sideI have lost allmovement in my left arm an also my left llef is abag of meatI am condemned to drag around. Fucking sucks being me right now

Inow walkwith wwith acane onannd a gstabiliy atrap only. FUCK. i'e lostindeppendence. This shouldn't happen to a guy that ran 6578 mileslast summer.

katakowsj  ·  769 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Teen with sensory issues, ask me anything

What sort of Sensory issues? I’m have some of my own right now. I’m working to navigate the word I with a damaged left firelight of vision that has come about as a result of surgery to remove a glioma (brain cancer) from my right temporal lobe. As a result. Typing this message accurately is manytimes more difficult than it was when I arrived t the hospital last Wednesday.

katakowsj  ·  742 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My mom might die

Thanks for asking. I'm more tired than usual after radiation. I did run 3miles last night. It was 60 degrees F in Michigan. last night. Couldn't pass that up.

I've notiiced my left field of vision is shittier. My w and I went shopping for the week tonight. I'm having more trouble walking in public places. People that cut in front of me from my left aren't noticed immediately and I'm likely to bump ibto them. That makes me fell like an idiot. I aplogized to a shopping cart I didn't see today. thinking it was a personat the time. Fucking annoying to me.

katakowsj  ·  682 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Party’s Over for Us. Where Do We Go Now?

It's wholly satisfying to review how the GOP clown car sar was like the proverbial frog in a pot. They were the one's slowly kicking up the heat, cooking theirPartieslegitimacy away slowly. Only recognizing it waay too late (Insert Nelson Muntz "ha-haw" here).

katakowsj  ·  581 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Starship flight test

Oops. Another unplanned spontaneous disassembly

An opportunity to make it safe for humans:).

Adreed. Our gov't power balances like a two-legged stool. This not new, just getting worse.

katakowsj  ·  596 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Case for Banning Children from Social Media

Since watching The Social Network and seeing Meta content creators swearing their own children off of apps created to be as addicting as humanly possible, my wife and I work to limit

our kiids use of most all social media apps. The kids need adult help and reasoning to set up clear personal boundaries on these algorithms that are designed to elicit the strongest emotional respons from s user. Parents that do not take the time to tteach boundaries and self-limitsare setting their kids up for a huge disappointment.

katakowsj  ·  627 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: USA Powerlifting to allow trans athletes to compete with women after losing suit

Transgender issues in sports is a bible- belt conversation analogous to"'them immigrants is taking my jobs from me conversation. It only exists in the heads.of those people imagining it to be a real concern. I've got better things to spend my time on folks. Piss off and go away shit birds.

oops. I do want to amend this thought t add that thhe genuine issue is that we have waaay too many shitbirds amongst us that want to crap onthe lives of transgender individuals.

katakowsj  ·  742 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My mom might die

Whoa. cat pics ? Sometimes life gives us a shit sandwich. I believe it's time to dig in and deal with the shit. Weekly , I see a psych regularly. . IIn one of our first sessions she grabbed my attention asking," What about death scares you?". I remember tresponding," Well, It's death and it sucks. Ihave shot I wanna do. "i'll miss my family. As a-recovering Catholic, I soon recognized-she was ferreting out whether or mot I was all hung up on amI headed to heaven or hell stuff I'm glaf to have visited those ideas. I've settled on death being very much like therelevance of my existence to the workd before I was born

Her question slapped me in the face, but was necessary.

Is it realistic to see a professional? I see mine weekly. It makes all the difference.

katakowsj  ·  641 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski movie recommendations

I've been thinking of watching Parasite again. I haven't seen it with my kids yet. Just watched Pulp Fiction with my 15 year old son. He said he "thoroughly enjoyed it".

Also wanna watch Carl Sagan's Contact with my son anddaughter They're both primed to discuss how& when if science and religion are able to able to coexist.

Rural areaswithout health care will have people rhat will suffer greatly. Akin to Inner citty communities. aathe Drug War stole the male role models by inprisoning th. Now we are ensuringt. more willsuffer thogh subpar, or nonexistent health care. Sorrrywwe. don't care enough

Because it appears we just don't

katakowsj  ·  747 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Sad Saga of the Ford Bigfoot Cruiser, The Forgotten '80s Monster Truck Tribute

I remember learning what weed smelled like as my Mom Dad , brother and me likely got a contact buzz while Bigfoot and USA1 battled for supremacy as they ripped around the Pontiac SilverDome.

katakowsj  ·  1084 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My Brain Tumour, Something’s Leaking?

Lil, you may want, at some point, to reach out to the Hermelin Brain Tumor center at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. I’m a month and three days away from celebrating a year without a brain surgery. I’ve had two. The first on 4/19/2012 and the last on 1/8/2021. Pushed to pick a favorite, I’ll go with number two. Number Two being a stereotactic ablation and needle biopsy of cancerous brain cells. I was home the day after and having minimal physical pain. Surgery number one was craniotomy, right side of my skull cut away and tumor cells were suctioned out physically, rather than heated up and destroyed. This surgery was terribly painful and I made good use of my morphine drip.

I’d you can, please research out to my most recent surgeon, Dr Ian Lee at Henry Ford Hospital. I’ve experienced that stereotactic ablation surgery is much safer and precise. Turns out that physically removing diseased cells has a dramatically higher likelihood of damaging nearby capillaries and causing patient stroke. In ablative surgeries, blood in capillaries acts as a heat sink, sparing the capillaries themselves from damage, reducing chance of stroke. This then allows for surgeries that otherwise would be deemed too risky.

To feel fully recovered took months this last time, but with patience, some physical therapy and support of loved ones I’m feeling great.

Please keep us Hubskiers updated.

Thoughts, prayers and well wishes to you daily. :)

katakowsj  ·  574 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Florida Man asks you to stop laughing at Florida

I hink I can empathize some, being a teacher in Michigan. We provided the world with Betsy DeVos and her continually lament her working to obliterate good public education. for all as she seems tto also desire some Jim Crow version of education making us into ultra- coservative right wing 1It's sad. It's scary. Sometimes we gotta laugh at how f-ed ip it is.Sorry Florida. Thereare people that need to answer for their egoist folly thnat makes is laugh at you so much. You make us uncomfortable with the ignorant things you say and do.

katakowsj  ·  576 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Automakers are starting to admit that drivers hate touchscreens. Buttons are back!

'Bout friggin, time why add unecessary distractioncs distractions? My life is full of them

Touchscreens are analagous to Ford20 Years ago agotelling us," Check out our "advanced changing dash board funtion labels! " what is currently your A/Cbutton may be your seat heater in ten minutes! Consumers would nave called it bullshit nonsense on the spot.A waste of time an energy to drive my vehicle. Piss off with your horrible displays. We need a dashboard oriented Steve Jobs to simplify this B. S.

katakowsj  ·  1100 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: My Brain Tumour

Holy cow. That’ s a pretty sucky thing to deal with. I hope you’re happy with your medical care. I’v been surviving a relatively nasty astrocytoma since April of 2012. I’ve been exclusively at Henry Ford Hospital Detroit, MI for all of my care. The people there are amazingly practiced and at the top of their field, bar none. My brother, mk, used to work on the Neuroscience Research floor at Henry Ford and connected me with some amazing doctors. Being 15 months older than mk, I sometimes joke to friends that as I was an ass at times to him growing up, he may have brought some tumor home and gave it to me in a brownie or something,. The reality is that @Mk’s@help has allowed me to manage a pretty nasty disease and to keeep living as a husband, father of two wonderful kids , and also remain cognizant enough to be a teacher of the hormonally-impaired (middle school math teacher). Your attitude is amazing. I have a mind to share your story,and even your video,with my middle schoolers on Monday. We wrapped up “Growth Mindset Friday” at 3PM today and hearing your story and hopeful approach can set many of them in to see that graphing linear equations is relatively a tiny challenge.

Please keep Hubski updated to your health status. You may want to do a search for my primary doctor, he’s a very Canadian, (kind and polite) guy at the top of his field. Second to none.

katakowsj  ·  764 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Teen with sensory issues, ask me anything

Yeah.Just plain sucks. in a holding pattern now. Henry Forord Hispital teamis going to review the biopsy and provide me some sort if plan of attack moving forward from here. My head is weighed down by the fear they come up with nothingtoo helpful.

They decided on gamma knife- type radiation therapy and some old-school

Chemo. I live to fight some more, I guess.

katakowsj  ·  767 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Teen with sensory issues, ask me anything

Better to focus on the positive right now. Seems as though my typing on my phone is waay better today than since surgery on 10/12. Not sure what changed, but I'll take it. One foot on front of the other is how we do these things, right?

katakowsj  ·  589 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hammer - 2 Legit 2 Quit

Poor Hammer. Had. to quit due to horrific money management. According to VH1. That's the legit story. :(.

katakowsj  ·  589 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hammer - 2 Legit 2 Quit

Good for you. Forrest Gump and his box of chocolates seem appropriate to mention.!

katakowsj  ·  631 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: What superstitions do you have?

Agreed. I’m generally of the mind that baseball needs some serious updating. Unless a person is a huge fan of The Sandlot”, “Field of Dreams, or”TheNatural, baseball is increasingly difficult to engage with.

katakowsj  ·  1096 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Libertarian Dream Town

The hubris of libertarianism is comical. “ A Libertarian Walks Into a Bear should be required to be sold bundled with the FountianHead,and other Ayn Rand works. Would save many self-absorbed libertarians much of their mid to late twenties.

katakowsj  ·  1027 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: The Texas Electric Grid Failure Was a Warm-up

Whoa, even slow motion entirely predictable disasters are bigger in Texas. You guys are commendably committed to outdoing the rest of us. Keep it up, it gets entertaining, at times.

katakowsj  ·  1707 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Hubski, have any good news stories to share, no matter how small?

I am on day 24 of my first 28 day chemotherapy cycle to knock out a now recurrent grade III glioma, brain cancer, that I was first treated for in April of 2012. I'm test driving a new therapy as participation in a trial that combines the the standard of care chemo and an additional enzyme inhibitor that targets a gene mutation in the tumor cells in my head.

The good news is that I appear to be tolerating it well. I've had three blood tests to corroborate this.

The longer I can withstand treatment, the more likely we'll see no change, or maybe some tumor reduction in my upcoming bi-monthly MRI's.

I've also been spend time with my wife and kids during this first week of covid-19 sequestration. We dug up the 1983 classic movie, "The Right Stuff" Friday evening and my 10 year old daughter and my 12 year old son were enamored by it. Likely, we'll be using space travel as a centerpiece of our home-school writing and reading for the coming week.

Bummer. I have a teacher friend, tired of US politics, now moving to Windsor. This explains why Canadian immigration told her that she and her husband must demonstrate $16k or more liquid assets before they’ll be allowed to be Canadian citizens.

katakowsj  ·  1190 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: Mysteries around obesity and the contaminant hypothesis

I've recently read "The Obesity Code", by Jason Fung and have applied and bought into much of Fung's theory of insulin resistance driving much of the world's obesity. The idea of a chemically manipulated set point and insulin resistance may not be mutually exclusive either. Pollution in our environment could also cause disruption in insulin and other hormones that regulate satiety.

I've shed 14 pounds since April by adhering to a low carb (50 or fewer grams daily) and avoiding any low- fat foods ( fat usually replaced by refined carbs) and I'm feeling great. Caveat, I'd gained nearly 20lbs. from Jan 8th to early March 2021, as I was prescribed a decent dose of the cortico-steroid Dexamethasone for several weeks. I'd had brain surgery to stereo-tactically ablate brain cancer cells. Dexamethasone, given to prevent brain swelling, disrupts the hormone insulin, My blood sugar levels became pre-diabetic, and I woke each morning with hunger that I'd never known before. I ate like crazy, craving refined carbohydrates. I now buy into the idea that in our world of food-abundance, regulating our insulin production and preventing insulin-resistance is pivotal to staying fit.

katakowsj  ·  1092 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: In Search of Gratitude

Gratitude = focus on the good things going = less time in a brain’s fight or flight mode. Generally a healthy form of living. Thanks for the posting.

I’m grateful this post reminded me of a “shut the brain down and get to sleep” strategy I’d picked up from a family friend in the past couple of years. I may need it in the upcoming month. When I’d had trouble finding sleep, “ My friend recommended to start at the top of the alphabet and recite in your head something you’re grateful for starting with A and on down the alphabet. Works wonders. I think I might make it to J or K before drifting off. Worries now postponed for the waking world.

katakowsj  ·  938 days ago  ·  link  ·    ·  parent  ·  post: A ditty from a soft-core Italian film became a Muppett melody

I teach 8th graders in Michigan. Every year our school takes 100-200 of them to Washington DC via motor coach busses. My colleague once noticed that he could spontaneously begin a sing-along at any part of the trip by grabbing the bus mic and humming the first few bar of the ma-nah- ma-na song. No matter For over 15 years now, it works without fail, the majority of kids will join in the melody.

Everyone associates the tune with the Muppets, but no one could be any more specific.

I’ amazed of the stickiness of this obscure, but at the same time, near universal piece of American culture. (Sort of like Rick Astley)

This struck me this year,as I’m recovering from an ablation surgery I had on March1, to remove cancerous brain cells. I unfortunately must skip this year’s DC trip:(.