Lamest Cancer Survivor, Ever

The path report came back, and all the margins were clear. They did find a pre-cancerous lesion in the scar tissue, but they took enough skin to be sure it won't spread any time soon. The skin graft surgery is scheduled for Wednesday of next week, which is sweet, because that means I can stop watering the plastic covering over the hole in my foot every two hours.

On that note, I was kinda curious about the covering and learned a little bit more about it on the glorious internet. From the FDA (italics mine):

What is it? INTEGRA® Dermal Regeneration Template is a device to treat the skin of people with severe burns. FDA has recently expanded the approved use of this device. I INTEGRA® may now be used to treat the often disabling scars that result from severe burns.

INTEGRA® has two layers. The bottom layer (dermal) is made of a fibrous protein material (collagen) from cows and a substance made from shark cartilage. The top layer (epidermal) is made of silicone

How does it work? When INTEGRA® is placed on a wound where the burned skin or scarred tissue has been removed, it allows blood vessels and other cells to grow a new layer of skin while the collagen is absorbed into the body. The silicone layer helps close the wound and prevent fluid loss. After approximately 14 to 21 days, the silicone layer is removed, and a very thin graft of the patient's own skin (autograft) is applied to the wound area.

So basically I'm now part shark. And I'm cool with that. What I'm not cool with is why my doctor wouldn't tell that to me, a 23 year old male, outright. Why should I have to dig around on the internet before I can tell people I'm some kind of shark mutant? I mean, I've only wanted to be able to say that ever since I was six years old...

Channel Frederator

Among the things my macbook can't do is watch adultswim cartoons on the Fix. See, when I follow that link, I get this:

Whoa, whoa there buddy. Where do you think you're going?

Not with that Mac you're not. The Fix, she don't like Macs.
But we're sweet talking her. Wining and dining her.
Sending appropriately casual yet suggestive IM's. Things will change.

Until then, here's a weekly mini-Fix.
Those chumps with PCs have to sift through all the other crap to find this gem.

While I appreciate their sensitivity to my needs, the mini-Fix does not do the job. Lucky for me, I think I have found a replacement. Meet Channel Frederator. They're the folks who brought you Dexter's Lab, Powerpuff Girls, etc. Now they've got a weekly webcast of user-submitted animated shorts, complete with snarky bumps between episodes. The fact that it is user-submitted means the occasional short can disappoint, but the huge variety of styles and ideas is more often rewarding than annoying. Plus, each week they let the viewers vote on which shorts they liked most, so they can improve their selections in the future.

What I like most of this is that submitting doesn't require agreeing to a verbose license agreement or forfeiting your rights to your work. I'm no lawyer, but the "fine print" seems clear and concise enough for me to understand it:

By submitting this form you agree that this cartoon is your work, you have permission from everyone who worked on the cartoon to submit it, you have composed all the music yourself or have permission to use it, the whole cartoon is original, and you're over 18 years old or have a parent's permission to submit this cartoon. You will retain complete ownership of your work and we will not use your film in any other way without your expressed permission.

Because we want to pack as many cartoons as we can into each episode, Channel Frederator may have to edit or delete your film's credits if we feel they go on way too long. Don't worry, we'll still list them on our Website.

It's a lot of fun, and definitely worth checking out the next time you have 15 minutes.

Musicovery

Musicovery is a really cool website that lets you shuffle songs you don't even own by mood. You can use it like a regular internet radio station, or you can fast forward through the playlist (as indicated by the grey line), or you can select any number of parameters to play the exact music you're in the mood for. These parameters include tempo, mood, genre, popularity and decade. You can include a combination of these to create quite a nice mix without even thinking about it. Perfect for when you're bored of your own music, but don't want to be subject to the whims of some radio DJ or sit fast forwarding through your own collection on shuffle until something acceptable comes up. Getting a CD quality stream costs a little over 2 bucks a month, which seems pretty reasonable. That said, I'm pretty content with the free 32kbs stream.

LCFE IV

IV... I had one of those this morning.

The surgery went well. The doctor didn't see any immediate sign of a tumor and the lymph node looked normal, which is pretty amazing. We still have to wait on the path report to be sure they got all the cancer cells. But all in all, the best possible news.

I'm still kinda groggy from the anesthesia, and on a heavy dose of painkiller, so I'm going to wait to post more until later.

LCFE III

Not much new information, but I told people I'd post. The oncologists on the tumor board were amazed that the tests were negative and suggested I buy a lottery ticket. There was some debate about the benefits of taking a lymph node. The surgeon thinks it would be a good prognostic tool, and I'd feel better with the peace of mind. Surgery goes forward this Wednesday as planned.

Refurb Madness!

I did it. I finally took the plunge. I bought a mac.

One by one, my fears and hesitations eroded until all that was stopping me was the price tag. Then I found the refurbished laptops on Apple's website. They're almost affordable by even Dell standards. It doesn't have the exact specs I wanted, but it's still a nice piece of iCandy. The FedEx tracker says it gets here on the 15th.

Also, I got a call from the Chicago Peace Corps office, and they can't schedule the second interview until Michigan Tech gives me a thumbs up or down. I'm getting really good at waiting for stuff to happen. Mr. Rogers would be proud.

Lamest Cancer Fight Ever, Part Deux

So the plan is to go on with, well... the plan. They're still going to take a big ol' slab of skin, a lymph node and maybe a tendon or two. They'll look at all of it really carefully and . I'll deal with the 'if not' if 'if not' happens. Regardless, I'll probably go into a short period of hiding while the skin graft takes.


Dude, it's sixty degrees outside.