Writing Through The Fear

Today was the annual Faculty Writing Retreat at Queen’s University’s Donald Gordon Centre, where we get to set aside a large block of time for writing. I planned to work on a technical book I’ve been thinking about for a long time, but the opening talk diverted me from that idea to write this blog post. It was all about making more time for writing, any kind of writing, and the most engaging part of the talk was about overcoming a very common cause of procrastination: fear and emotional pain.

Writing Your Character's Greatest Fear

This month I’m doing a series of daily writing exercises as part of K. Tempest Bradford’s online NaNoWriMo skills class. The first was a little tough (thinking through certain fundamental aspects of my characters, including ethnicity, social class, and spirituality), the second tougher (defining the main character’s greatest want), and the third stopped me cold: what is my character’s greatest fear? So like the archetypical scholar-nerd, I decided to do some research.

Heart scan

Last May I had a lot of medical tests in preparation for my radical prostatectomy, and several of them found "anomalies" that need further tests. Yesterday (Sep 10) was a Persantine test - a multi-part scan for heart disease using radioactive dye.

May: the Month of Health Challenges

This is an update on what has happened since my last health status update a month ago. The basics: I was diagnosed with prostate cancer in early March, and had two scans that showed it hadn't spread to either bones or lymph nodes, both of which would have been Bad. May is the month in which a lot of stuff is happening.

Argumentum ad Wikipediam

Easter took place this year on April 1, resulting in several fairly obvious jokes, and as likely happens every year, somone said it's named after a "pagan goddess" (as if there were only one "pagan" religion). A Facebook friend replied that "this is often quoted, but wrong; Bede is the sole source and mistranslated something." Finally, someone quoted the first few likes of a Wikipedia article to shut up the second poster. (I oversimplify). It occurred to me this is a perfect parable for one aspect of what University education is supposed to be doing for people.

Autism Diagnosis at 60

I am autistic. Under DSM IV I'd probably be considered to have Asperger's Syndrome, but I was diagnosed under DSM V at age 60, so I have Autism Spectrum Disorder. I have thought about posting something for several years, but am only getting around to it for this April's Autism Awareness Month.

Health status update

The CT scan showed no sign of spread to the pelvic lymph nodes, but there are a couple of minor things with almost certainly no connection to prostate cancer. Surgery may be a little earlier, May instead of June (yays!), but there's no date set yet.

CT Scan

This afternoon I had a CT scan in the basement of Hotel Dieu to check whether my prostate cancer has spread to my pelvic lymph nodes. Like the bone scan, it's unlikely they'll find anything, but they wanted to verify before starting treatment.

A Firehose of Information

Yesterday Margaret and I spent nearly four hours at the Cancer Centre in the Burr Wing of Kingston General hospital, talking with both a radiation oncologist and a surgeon, regarding treatment for my prostate cancer. The bone scan last Friday showed that there was no metastasis; if today's CT scan of my lymph nodes similarly shows no problems, I'll be having surgery, likely in early June.

Bone scan

This is one of the Discovery NM/CT 670 SPECT/CT machines at Kingston General Hospital. It's a combination of a gamma ray camera (Single Photon Emission Computed Tomography) and CT scanner (also Computed Tomography, repeated because there are two parts to the machine). I had a bone scan this morning, and found the technology fascinating.

Reflections on NaNoWriMo 2017

I participated in National Novel-Writing Month (NaNoWriMo) last year and "won" at 50,808 words.  However, that's a number that needs some commentary.

Cancer Diagnosis

Yesterday I found out I have prostate cancer. This is my reflections on the diagnosis, my reactions, and my experience getting to this point.