Hey, man that’s too bad. The father of my good friend just died from cancer and colitis(?) 3 days ago; it’s just not cool. But I know where he is right now 
Good luck, and keep in mind that God has a purpose in this. He doesn’t screw-up or “accidentally” do something wrong. Hey, think about it.
Praying for you too!!
~~Stu_Flowers
Thanks timmeh, I’m glad I have an expert giving me their opinion on this case, especially an expert in oncology (you must have studied pretty hard;)). If I even need anything, I’ll be sure to PM you about any questions about the treatment as soon as they come up. And yes, thank God (pick one) for only giving me Hodgkin’s as opposed to something much worse. That alone keeps my chin up all day.
I’d like to see you go the extra mile.
Yeah I’m trying to stay positive about the whole thing. Every time I think about it, FadieZ goes into sarcastic humour mode and I look at all the advantages I’ll be getting out of this (e.g. More women, less trouble wiping ass (we middle-easterners are hairy), less school, etc.) I’ll take your advice and keep myself occupied, might find a hobby or something. Hey wait, I already have one…Blender =)
So now I can say that Blender cured me from cancer and thus I shall contribute to the foundation. Funny how shit works out:p
I hope your friend the best, liver cancer does suck but if he’s young he’ll get out of it, no worries. Like I said before, cancer isn’t like it used to be. In many cases it’s more like an inconvenience than a life-threatening disease.
Unfortunately, I don’t think pets would be a good idea since my immune system would backfire eventually and I wouldn’t want to make this thing take longer than it already is.
Oh yeah, chinese food rules. =)
And Stu_Flowers, truly motivating. Give your friend my condolences. Again, thank God (pick one again) I didn’t get something worse than I have…
So I don’t know if I mentioned this before, but my first session’s on Thursday. If they let me take pics in the hospital I’ll post 'em here for you guys. Until then, I’m trying to get as much work done as possible before I get the life sapped out of me.
Wish me luck, I’m nervous!
-FadieZ
Well, actually I meant THE God of the Universe, Jesus Christ. You don’t have to agree with me but that’s what I was referring to…
~~Stu_Flowers
So I had a bone marrow biopsy yesterday and I think there’s only one word to describe my experience: AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHH!!! (Don’t start hunting me down, grammar police) That was the single-most-painful thing I ever felt in all my years of existence. Picture someone shoving a pencil into your funny bone, then screwing it in to make sure it stays in place. The thing about BMB’s is that there is no freaking way to freeze your bone (liquid nitrogen doesn’t count) so I basically had to endure someone drilling a hole into my bone, extracting its core and then chopping off a piece of my hip bone before complimenting me for not screaming. What? I was supposed to scream? Why didn’t you say so? You know what, since I’ve been in the hospital so freaking much this past month, I’m gonna tell you what the doctors really mean when they give you their pain preview.
You won’t feel a thing. (You might feel a pinch)
You might feel a pinch. (This is actually gonna hurt a little)
This might hurt a little. ( This is going to hurt like hell)
Try to keep still. (Don’t forget to breathe)
Honesty is a virtue, guys, remember that if you’re going into medicine.
Anyway, after the biopsy, my doc tells me the infection in my feet (I had two ingrown toenails which hurt like f*ck) is kinda risky for chemo, so instead of having it today she postponed the first session to next Thursday. Then she refers me to a surgeon who proceeds to cut half my toenail off on both feet, and guess what. He puts a freaking band-aid on it. So now my shoes are ruined, soaking in blood, whilst I walk around with two giant balls of cotton bandages for toes. Yummy. On top of that, I’ve got a piece of my hip missing, so taking all that into consideration, I don’t have to tell you what it looks like when I walk.
Sitting sucks, Standing sucks, Sleeping sucks, and I’m addicted to painkillers.
–
Wow, all that ranting felt good.
Anyhoo, waiting for the first round of poison to be injected into my veins, I’ll keep you guys posted.
P.S. I’d have taken pics yesterday but they woulda been kinda gory so I said forget it:p
I haven’t seen this before… What horrible news FadieZ… 
The only advice I can give you is, if at all possible,
to try to keep yourself busy with something, anything at all… If anything, thinking about this stuff is liable to make you feel worse
than everything else. This is probably going to be hard at times, there is probably no way to avoid that things will get
very ‘uncomfortable’ unfortunately…
While I never had to go through anything serious as this, I have been going through some health problems myself the last decade or so.
But it really helped me to keep myself occupied as much as possible, which of course the last couple of years has been programming
for blender and yafray, nothing better to keep your head really busy 
And of course, with something like this where it is inevitable to reflect on life, yours and others around you,
producing blender art, or anything else creative, making music, writing, or anything like that, could well be very beneficial to you.
I hope you get through this without too many problems, and that things will improve as soon as possible for you.
Good Luck FadieZ!
Alfredo
Stomach cancer took my favorite uncle, and another uncle of mine has prostate(?) cancer. Uncle 1 didn’t tell the family at large but looked like s***. He sprang the news one day, was dead a month later. His wife (my mother’s sister) and his 33 year old daughter was home when he woke up at night and couldn’t breath. His lungs were basically dead, and so was he a few hours later.
But he did the right thing, IMHO: He did not let the cancer crush his spirit (okay, he had a lot more spirit than most, but…), and he did not let his life be torn down by it. Uncle 2 has gone down mentally, however, and is a pale shadow of his former self. Even after it was announced that a possible vaccine for prostate cancer has been developed (yes, you read it right), that segment of the family is in a weird state.
I guess what I am trying to say is that you should under no circumstances let the whole cancer thing dominate your life, especially not since you (apparently) have good odds. See the pain as an opportunity to crack a spooky grin next time your friends complain and say “ha, a sprained ankle, that’s kid’s stuff!” in the best veteran soldier fashion Keep your spirits up and turn everything from the experience, no matter how horrible, into something positive (“yeah, one day I’ll find that Hodgins bastard and slap him silly for dumping his crap on me, you bet!”). I never had cancer (knock wood), but I still make bad jokes about having been a burn victim (second degree, 50%), and I know a rape victim doing the same. It sounds horrific, but I find that attitude gets people through a lot of horrible crap. Paramedics use it, too (found my neighbor ten days after his (pill)suicide, and happened to listen to the paramedics handling the situation)
Best of luck to you with the whole thing. And don’t forget to enjoy the pretty nurses if you get them!
@eeshlo: Yep, maybe I’ll be a more artistic guy when I get past this. Nowhere close to RobertT or anything but more than before. Looking forward to it.
@Cognis: I’m really sorry to hear about your uncle. Mine has cancer too, an incurable version of mine, mind you, yet he’s got his head up high, laughs at how I react to my cancer and just brightens the whole situation. Crazy guy. Actually, most of the time, I joke about it too (hence the easier ass-wiping comment made earlier) and gave my friends the news in a hey-guess-what-I-have-cancer-pretty-sweet-huh kind of way. I kinda laugh every time I tell people cause their reaction is just like “Bullshit” every time and when they realize I’m serious I just laugh it off.
I’m just worried 'cause 2 days ago it really got to me, I began to process that I really had cancer and that the next few months were going to suck ass. I panicked, yet my treatment hadn’t even begun. I can’t imagine how mentally weak I’ll be once it does. Hopefully I stay sane the whole time.
Then again, sometimes I have realized “oh God, I have work, and that is going to suck for the next months”, too 
I have no doubt that you are going through something far more horrible than getting up and doing something you do not want to 8 hours a day every day of the week. But promise me to put that laugh-in-the-face-of-adversity attitude into it every bit of the way 
I’ll send you a clown’s nose (red one or real one, depends on how creepy I feel like being :p)!
Things like this make the world really crap. it has upset me as it reminds me of me step-grandfather (my real gradfather died when i was very small and i dnt remember him)
He got cancer and they couldnt fix him. His was the first PC i ever used, messing about with dos games (it was years ago, it was cutting edge Pentium 90 at the time!!). One time i managed to do something pretty cool with a program, some paint thing in windows 3.1 i think and i wanted him to see it. It took him about 15 minutes to get from the front lounge to the conservatory on a stick, a distance of about 20 feet. it was a bungalow.
After that i made a decision. I was only just a teenager, but knew damn well he didnt have long left. i didnt want to see the horrible stuff at the end, so I decided I wouldnt travel the 4 hour journey every weekend to see him in hospital. I wanted to remember the healthy grandfather i loved. This is a decision i have regretted every single day since he died.
Im so glad they can do something for you, and they pretty confident of making you better. if there is an outside chance the treatment might not work, then make damn sure you see everyone around u that you care for, and make exceptions for the ones you dont - these people will need your time for themselves. I learnt this the hardway.
Sorry to get so morbid but, there is no escaping these horrible shiitty diseases that encroach on all our lives somehow, and the more advice and good will and support you get the stronger you will be at fighting it off. Knowledge IS power.
I sincerly wish all the very best in a succesful recovery. chin up lad.
LB.
So sorry to hear about this, but glad to know it’s not a more serious type of cancer. My mother is very ill with esphocal cancer (the survival rates for which are almost non-existent) and it’s just awful.
I’ll be praying that it’s treated successfully and you’re able to make a speedy recovery!
damn, sounds really really painfull. but good luck and i hope you can pull through it all fine (if a little sore perhaps)
Not really much more one can say, it is something so out of your control that I can only wish you the best.
Doug
Thanks for your comments, guys. I’m especially sorry to hear about your mom, BB, but if you’re talking esophageal cancer, the survival rates have gone up drastically in the past few years, so cheer up.
Well today was pretty interesting. They told me that there was a chance my fertility would be “damaged” after the chemo, so I had to go to the “bank” and “give” them a “sample” for “safekeeping”. I’ve got to say that was the most I laughed in a while. They gave me a private room with mello lamps for atmosphere, a couch, a TV and a coffee table covered in dirty magazines. I took a few pictures of the room with on my cell phone but for some reason my Nokia PC suite backfired on me. Anyway, that’s the first time they asked me to do a test that didn’t hurt (au contraire). Needless to say it took me a while to stop laughing so I could give it to them.
In other news, I had a final checkup today and it looks like a green light for the chemotherapy (which I like to pronounce as tchemmo-the-rapy). From what I’ve heard it’ll take me a couple of hours, so I’ll be bringing my camera, some DVD’s and possibly my Wii (Yeah I got a freaking Wii). Again, pics will be posted so stay tuned.
Yours in chemo
-FadieZ
They gave me a private room with mello lamps for atmosphere, a couch, a TV and a coffee table covered in dirty magazines.
How barbaric. You should demand a live woman.:evilgrin:
And just for curiosities sake, were the magazines Canadian porn mags? Is there such a thing?
Well from what I’ve seen canadian chicks are pretty hot. Montreal’s like the Europe of North America so I’m not complaining.
Actually, there was one porn mag (american) and the rest were Vogue, Cosmo and other girly stuff with girly perfumes and girly fake fur. Wasn’t much of a help if you ask me.
sorry to hear that… well, anyway, i wish you the best!
they have a localized radiation treatment these days that you might want to look into. basically they plant a radioactive ‘seed’ in the vicinity of the cancer, and the side effects are pretty minimal compared to other types of treatments. my brother had it done recently on some type of glandular tumor he had, and it worked out well for him.
Being from Europe, I offer to purchase and mail a Danish (not pastry… pervert…) porn mag. We were the first to legalize porn, and we haven’t stopped since (I heard Blockbuster stopped carrying porn in every country except ours? You poor souls :D), so if you need a boost in case of a refill (ick!), I’ll look around the kiosk for a little helper
Had my first round today, and I have to say it was a lot easier than I thought it would be. Anyway, here’s a quick recap:
Went to the hospital to have a quick blood test before the chemo session. For some reason everyone on the two top floors know my name, probably because of my uncle. So I went to the top floor where chemo takes place. Everyone there seemed very young, healthy and happy. It was weird because I really expected old depressed people to be swarming around that floor.
So yeah they gave me a great chair next to the window, first class, and soon enough my nurse, Veronique, came to talk to me. She explained everything that would be going on; side effects, medication, stuff I should be careful about, stuff I should expect, etc. When asked about the length of treatment she said 8 to 12 sessions (4 to 6 months) so that’s longer than I expected. Anyway, after talking to me for about 20-25 minutes, she finally placed the catheter in my left arm. hurts more than a blood test, but not that much. First I got a round of anti-nausea, then some apofroxedameshebangenomolitis ( some kind of red stuff that makes you pee red) and then came the evil poison chemicals, and don’t even ask me how to spell them (I’m sure some smartass will ask me anyway). All in all it took about 3 hours. Time went by quickly, I had a chat with a nurse I know from church, and my dad and I played Scrabble the rest of the day.
Yes, I did take a couple of pictures. As promised, here they are.
There’s me chillin’ in da clinic. Werd.
That’s Veronique to my right, she’s filling out a form for me about genetics or something.
(From left to right: My mom, my uncle (the one with cancer), a bottle of water, myself & Veronique) My dad was taking the picture.
Well, I coulda sworn my dad took more pictures of that. I’m sure he’s got some on his cell phone so I’ll ask him later on.
Don’t really feel anything yet, just had some Greek food though and I feel sick, but it probably wasn’t the chemo.
I’ll keep you guys posted as much as I can. Stay tuned for more…
…Tales from the FadieZ…
Prayers for you!!! Get Well Soon!!!
Do any of you know how to prevent nausea in chemo? Looks like the medication they gave me didn’t work, I got sick this morning. I’m gonna need a home remedy.