My Saturday

The first day of my 3 day weekend started with me getting up at 7am in the morning to working on next MASH 4077 Podcast Episode 9. Which I did and around 10am was finished with.. woo hooo. Still have to create the show notes and upload the file but the editing it all done and it turned out really good, if I do say so myself :)

Around 11:30ish Harry and I headed out to visit my Dad. Traffic was horrible and it took us a little over 2 hours to get there. While we were there visiting my family, we wanted my brother to look at Harry's truck bumper as there is a dent in it and Harry wanted to see if Mike could get it out (my brother does body work). Unfortunately he can't and the bumper needs to be replaced.

We visited with my Dad, who isn't do so well. His face has swollen up on the left side and he's not eating. He says he feels fine but he's not. He spent maybe a half hour downstairs with us before going back up stairs to sleep.. which is pretty much all he does these days. We did eat lunch with him and we had to almost force him to have a few bites.

After my Dad went up to sleep I played with my Nephew for an hour or so.. he's a ball of energy and ran me ragged. I don't know how his parents keep up with him. But I loved every minute of it and wish I could see him more often.

Around 4pm he decided to head home and arrived around 5:30pm. I wasn't feeling so hot so I took it easy the rest of the night. We watched last weeks Doctor Who and really enjoyed it. Sucks that's it's a two parter and we don't get to see the second part until 2 weeks even though it aired in the UK tonight. So I could find it online but I think I'll wait until it airs next week. We also caught up on How I Met Your Mother, we had the last 5 episodes to watch. Really like that series, it's one of the most consistently funny shows on TV. Can't wait for Season Seven.

So all in all a good day, it's hard to see my Dad so sick and I know he'll get worse with the Chemo before he hopefully gets better... but I want to spend as much time with him as I can.

Dad Update 5 - Good News???

So my Dad had an appointment with his doctors next Tuesday to find out the results of his biopsy and bone marrow test. And is suppose to start Chemo in two weeks on June 9th. Of course this drove me crazy as two weeks is way to long.. it's only been a little over a month and the cancer has gone from nothing to four huge tumors.. .

Well I just got off the phone with my Dad, and we got some encouraging yet cautious news. One of his doctors called him today and asked for him to coming to their office at 3pm. My Dad went and was told that the biopsy showed that he has Non-Hodgkin's Lymphoma and it's more aggressive then they would like (not good news). But there is some good news, we got the results of his bone marrow tests and they are negative for cancer... so it's not in his bone marrow, meaning it's not terminal. So right now it's just located in the lymph nodes in he neck and chest area. Because it's so aggressive they are starting Chemo this Wednesday.. which makes me happy.

So it's not terminal but we really can't celebrate as my Dad is in for a battle. Non-Hodgkin's is not a good cancer to get and it's even worse when it's aggressive like his. But we are hopeful.. they already removed one tumor, which the doctor said looked to be the worse and with Chemo they hope to shrink down the others.

My Dad seemed happy on the phone so that's good.. glad he's keeping a positive attitude.. that will help with the battle he's about to face.

Thanks again everyone for your continued support... hugs

Harry Potter Video - AMAZING!!!!

Born This Way!!!

A new Gallup poll came out today and a gay website did a story on it "Homosexuality: Born This Way? Only 40% of Americans Think So" You can see the original story HERE

They use the word "Only" like it's a negative thing, but I see it as a positive sign. I mean if you look at the chart below in 1978 only 13% of Americans believe you were born gay while 56% believe it was upbringing.

Now in 2011 40% believe you are born gay up 27% and 42% believe it's upbringing down by 14%. Times are changing, it may not be at lightening speed but it's moving in the right direction.

And if you look at the chart there was a pretty big gap for 15 years ('78 to '96) and then you look at the last 15 years ('96 to '11) and the gap closes and the two thoughts go back and forth... I see this as progress. 

Hi My Name is Kenny....

... and I'm a internet-holic... and a social media junkie

I don't know how or when it started but I can't be away from some sort of computer/internet for more then a few hours. I realized this last year when I went on a road trip to the pacific northwest. I went entire days without internet and when I made hotel reservations I made sure they had internet so I could re-connect when we stopped to rest. 

So much of my life is lived on the interwebs, I tweet, facebook, twitpic, instagram, flickr, formspring and blog about my daily life. When something happens to me my first thought isn't to call a friend or family member it's to log on to my blog and blog about it. My blog is connected to my facebook and twitter so all it takes is for me to blog once and it's goes to all three locations.

I'm not sure why I even do it as I don't think my life is any more exciting then your average Joe but folks seem  to enjoy following the ups and downs of my geeky life. I do find that it's a great way to keep friends and family up to date on the happens in my life. Sometime it's tough to keep everyone abreast of whats going on, on a daily bases. It's also kind of cathartic for me, it's like having diary that I share with the world.

The other thing is I'm a podcaster, social media is a huge part of my life for advertising, promoting and communicating with the listeners of the podcasts. I have blogs and show notes for episodes. I interact with listeners, run contests and share experiences all through social media.

It's crazy to think that there are a few thousand people out there in this world who know who I am just by my voice. I've had several people come up to me and ask if I'm Kenny from the Knights of the Guild podcast... it's fun yet very strange.

I'm not sure how much my life would change without the internet and social media. I can't say it would be boring or uninteresting, but I can say I wouldn't have met half of my friends from all over the world. I wouldn't have joined The Guild which really broaden my exposure to the "web-a-sphere".

Could I give up the internet and social media.. no and even if I could.. I won't. It's become such a huge part of my daily life, and I truly love.

Dad Update 4

So my Dad went in for surgery this morning (finally). They removed one of the tumors (said to be the size of a peach) and they will do a biopsy on that. They were unable to put in the catheter as they said it was too dangerous. So instead they put in a central line into his arm that will be good for six months.

Just got off the phone with my Mom and she said they are releasing him in a few hours. No one has mentioned when he's to come back or what the next step is.. I guess he will make another appointment with his main cancer doctor and will get the results of the biopsy. I hope they do that sooner then later.

My Dad also called about his bone marrow tests and they said they only have results for one of the tests but not the other. And my Dad being my Dad didn't bother to ask for the result that they do have or when they might have the other results... so we wait!!

It's very frustrating being two hours away and not being able to go there myself and demand some answers. I feel like everyone is taking their sweet time with this and there is such a lack of communication.

So as of this moment I have no idea what's happening next or what the extent of his cancer is. And once again we have to wait and see. :(

MASH Madness

Got home from work, watched some TV and had a wonderful dinner Harry had made. Around 10pm I jumped on the computer to start editing my next MASH podcast. I knew this one was going to be a bit tougher then the previous ones because Meds (one of my co-hosts) lost his audio and my other co-host Al's audio stopped recording halfway through the podcast. Luckily he realized after a few minutes and started recording again. As for Meds audio, he sent me the lines he had to say during the show, ie guest stars and such but there was no interaction. And  I remembered that I had some back up audio.

How I edit this podcast is that all three hosts record their own audio on their own computer and then send me the files. And I cut them all together and blend everything to sound like we are in the same room. But we interact over Skype and I am able to record that audio just in case. It's not the best audio and there are multiple drop outs and such but it's something. So I have to use that audio for Meds portion of the show.

Because the skype audio is all three of us talking it's taking me a lot longer to edit the podcast. In the end it will sound great with Meds audio being just a bit off.. but thank goodness for my back up audio or this would be an even harder podcast to edit.

I was exhausted around 11:30pm and decided to call it a night. I'm at minute 17 of a 30 minute show... so a little over halfway. I hope to finish the first pass tomorrow night and then I have to add audio clips from the show and do my final polish pass and it will be done. I hope to have it completely done by this weekend as it comes out on June 1st.

Dad Update 3

Just when I thought we were making progress... my Dad is still in the hospital, they were suppose to do the surgery (put in a catheter, and take a biopsy of one of the tumors) but it has been delayed because the tumors are so large that they are interfering with his throat and they are afraid of doing more damage so they have had various doctors come into his room all day to try and figure out a solution.

Well I just got off the phone with my him and it looks like the surgery is once again scheduled for 8am tomorrow. They aren't going to put a catheter in because it's suppose to go on the right side but the tumor are too large and there isn't enough room for the catheter. So they will try and do Chemo first and shirk the tumors and then try and get a catheter in at a later date.

So that is where we stand, tomorrow they will do the surgery/biopsy (hopefully), and we are also suppose to find out if the cancer has spread to his bone marrow. Please continue to keep sending happy thoughts and good vibe our way.. I'll keep you all posted.

Thanks for your continued support... hugs

Podcast Fun

Podcasting may be work, but it's fun work and it's a great way to distract me from the "real" world. Tonight I wanted to get at least one of my podcasts done before the weekend. I choose to work on Knights of the Guild episode 31 because it's the second half of a joint podcast between Knights of the Guild and Tech Barbarians. It was pretty much a straight forward edit. I just removed the dead air or stuff that was just chatter between us. I started around 10pm (I worked on the bulk of it during my lunch the past few days) so all I had to do was assemble everything and do my final polish pass. I got done around 11:30pm and did my show notes and uploaded the file to podbean. Now we wait for May 29th when it will be released.

Next I have to edit my next episode of MASH 4077. This one is going to be tricky because one of the host (Meds) had some technical difficulties and lost his recording for this episode. Luckily I record the entire show with Pamela so I still have his audio mixed with all of our audio and it doesn't sound the best but it's something to work with. I hope to get his done by the weekend.. well I have to get it done by the weekend as it's due to be released on June 1st.

Dad Update 2

Okay on my way home from work I got a call from my Mom and she informed me that my Dad got a bed in a the hospital and my brother is taking him there now. They plan to do the surgery tomorrow AM. I'm happy they are moving quickly, I know my mom and I talked about going down there and lighting some fire under the doctors asses. So they will be putting in the catheter port to administer the chemo and also do a biopsy of the masses. Dad said they actually might try and remove the masses as well, but I'm not sure about that.

So a little good news.. they seem to finally be taking this seriously and hopefully start the chemo and fight this cancer.

Thank you all for your kind words, love and support.. you all mean the world to me.

Dad Update

Hey Everyone,

Just got off the phone with my Dad. He was suppose to go in and have one of the lumps biopsy but when he got there two of the three doctors said the lump was too big and too close to his throat for them to do a biopsy. If his throat would to have closed they are not equipped to resuscitate him. So they have to this in a hospital so once again it has been delayed. They are planning on doing it tomorrow or the next day. This cancer is so aggressive that I'm afraid the more we wait.. even just a few days the more chances that it's not going to be treatable.

I talked to my Mom today and she had me in tears as my Dad is putting up a good front saying that he is fine and feels okay... but he told her a few days ago that he is scared, that he was hoping to be around for his second grandchild's birth. He is also not feeling so hot.. he says he's fine but you can tell from just being around him. He's not in great shape, and the longer we wait to do anything the less chance I feel he has to surviving this.

But we will find out on Wednesday if it's spread to his bone marrow. Until then I can just hold my breath and hope for the best.

Visiting My Dad

Today I went to visit my Dad. It's been about three weeks or so since I saw him last and this is the first time I'm seeing him since we found out he had cancer. Harry joined me as it was even longer since he visited the family. We picked up some Chinese food from our favorite place in town and then took it over to his place.

When I saw him he pretty much looked the same, kind of like a bull frog from the infection in his neck. But then he pulled down his shirt and you can see the tumors, my heart dropped. They weren't there three weeks ago and now there are three and they are huge, partially sticking out of his chest. He says he is feeling okay but he looks like he is getting sick.

We hung out for a few hours and took him to the store to get some groceries. He is going in for his biopsy tomorrow and he is hoping they are going to remove the tumors. We will find out Wednesday the status of the cancer and if it's treatable or terminal. Trying to keep a positive outlook but those tumor looked horrible and grew so fast. But will know for sure some Wednesday.. please keep happy thoughts for my dad.. Thanks.