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Carded by Google
After writing the other day about how I’m getting older, it would seem I had it all wrong. I’m Benjamin Button-ing before my very eyes! It started innocently enough. Google frightens me. That said, I do use it, first and foremost as a search tool that dramatically speeds up my research into the various things…
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Golden Years
In a few months, I will turn 60. 60 !! It is already weighing on me. I breezed through the other life milestones without giving their significance much thought because my mind was elsewhere. At 40 I was too busy having the mid-life crisis that landed me in a wheelchair to have a proper mid-life…
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A plug for Matt
Modern life is nothing less than amazing. Take a look around the room you’re sat in right now. You are surrounded by more technology than accompanied Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins to the moon! I think that is remarkable. But one thing that is undeniable is these wonderous things which make our lives…
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I did it!
I completed radiation treatment (radiotherapy) for lung cancer (adenocarcinoma) last Monday. This is treatment room A (above) in the radiation oncology department (called Bighorn) at the Lucy Curci Cancer Center in Rancho Mirage, California. I underwent a two-week course of Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy, or SBRT, delivered daily with one day off to rest between doses. …
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Let’s just skip this month in the future
I am not one given over to superstition. I do not believe in karma – there is no mechanism beyond mere wishful thinking to mete out the rewards and punishments based on the rights and wrongs; moreover, whether something is “right” and deserving of a reward or “wrong” and deserving of a punishment is a…
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We have a plan
Yesterday marked one month since my cancer diagnosis. In that time, I have had multiple consultations with doctors, quite a few tests, and I have been reading everything I can find on cancer and its treatment. When I was diagnosed with PML, I took quite a different approach; PML is a rare disease, so there…
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How I spent my summer, so far
When I was diagnosed with PML my first question was “what is PML?” And by that I mean beyond what the initialism stands for (Progressive Multifocal Leukoencephalopathy). I’d never heard of it; most people haven’t, although I do hear it more and more these days in those laundry lists of potential side effects that get…
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Today is my annHIVersary
To tell you this story, I first must introduce you to Paul and Martin. For much of the 90s, Paul was my wingman. Along with Martin, we were the “three amigos” of the LA gay scene. The three of us met in the seminary as undergraduates when we were all Conventual Franciscans studying philosophy. Paul…
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A journey of a thousand miles
Chinese philosopher Lao Tzu taught that “a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step” in his work the Tao Te Ching. Today, I am taking the first step on my new journey. I have my first appointment with an oncologist. I have a lot to learn. But this is not unfamiliar territory.…
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Act II, Scene III
I have called everything in my life since AIDS tried to kill me in 2006 my “second act.” And now, I’m beginning to see how Act II has passed through several “scenes.” Scene I was retiring from Technicolor and moving to my house in the Mountain Gate neighborhood of Palm Springs. Scene II was realizing…
Your mileage may vary.