September 19, 2001|

Take my Biopsy, Please!

I am happy to say that my biopsy went off without a hitch yesterday. The doctors got the needed nodes and I am still alive with the teeniest of pain. Yesterday after the biopsy, though, I was a useless heap of covers and pillows. I felt so absolutely gross and groggy, that I slept the rest of the day and night, getting up only to use the little boy’s room and take my medication. In the meanwhile, because I was staying at friend’s apartment(Jen’s), life pumped on, as guests (John and Laura Jane, Jenny, Court, Esther, etc) poured through, discussing life after the WTC tragedy and catching up on old times. So maybe I wasn’t completely asleep. I still was majorly groggy.

See, personally, I can deal with pain. (I hope I don’t jinx myself with that last statement!) It’s the feeling sick, brain-dead and groggy deal that I have problems with. Pain is temporary and manageable once I get my mind under control. But when I am the latter, I am can’t get my brain under control, so I feel useless and horrible. I am just praying that the next round of ABVD/MOPP chemo is less brain-messin’. Thankfully, I am back on steriods, which should eleviate any major physical problems with the chemo. The steriods also give me the energy of a two-year old on a Pepsi high, and also the bladder of one. It’s like I need Pampers or something. Hopefully you won’t be going on any long road trips with me:)

The Article

Yeah, I made The Youngstown Vindicator again last Saturday. They even used some of web logs! Scary! I better start spell and grammar checking! They also said I was still in the Youngstown Connection:) Doh! Otherwise the article was great, detailing my experiences in NYC during the WTC tragedy. I will post the article later on in the week. Big congrats to Diane Murphy for the great job!

My Schedule

If you could tell, I am back in Youngstown. I drove back this morning, still a little groggy, but plenty fine to navigate my way through the *empty* streets, parkways and expressways of New York City. Everything was empty! It is heartbreaking to see the City this way. Paralyzed like a pup stung by two fat wasp on the paw. The city (and nation) may never be the same.

But I regress. It looks like I have to go back to Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center to do my next three sets of chemotherapy treatments. Driving, flying, hovercraft, scooter, however. Before Dr. Moskowitz’s hands me off to a doctor in Ohio, he wants to insure the nodes are shrinking again. On top of that, we just can’t do a BMT now (but one in the future is just about guaranteed it appears). The BMT wouldn’t work, my cancer is too advanced. We need to knock it down first with these chemo treatments. So I will be residing in Youngstown, with a few day trips back to NYC for the next four weeks or so.

Thank you for your continued prayers. I STILL keep getting cards and prayer e-mails all the time. It is unreal. Unreal. In the next few weeks I am going to update my e-mail and site, so look for changes and new emails. Remember to use hte art@artcanning.com email address as the art.canning@gs.com address is no longer accessible. Thank you again, look for another report in a week.