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Deviation Actions
AKA adriamycin, AKA doxorubicin, AKA Cherry Kool-Aid of Death.
Turns out the first drug in ABVD--the one that has a chance of killing heart tissue and causing heart failure--looks very much like cherry Kool-Aid. Or any red-colored Kool-Aid. It'd be funnier if I weren't so worried about the side effects.
But I spent something like six hours down at the Cancer Center today, completely missing class (but my professor for that class is very understanding and has been kept in the loop from the start). First they drew my blood to establish a baseline indicator for my blood cell counts, platelet counts, and other indicators; they'll be doing this weekly. They also changed the bandages and dressing for my PICC line; another weekly ritual. After that, they administered a ton of anti-nausea drugs and then went to the ABVD.
I worried that I'd have a serious adverse reaction to any of the drugs, but so far things have been reasonably smooth sailing. I've mostly been feeling tired, with a somewhat gnawing feeling in my stomach, and like my lungs are more of a blow-up balloon than lungs (I can take a deep breath, but it doesn't feel like they want to expand TOO easily). The sailing won't be smooth for long; this dose of ABVD will be working over my body for two weeks, and I can expect to feel pretty lousy in a week or two when the NEXT infusion of ABVD happens, completing the first of six cycles. What side effects I'll develop will remain to be seen, but I am really hoping that November is the last time I'll be tearing my skin apart from itching.
I saw someone in the Cancer Center's chemo infusion rooms who may or may not be my age, may be in his teens or twenties, who sported the Naked Mole Rat look. No hair at all, no eyebrows, no body hair. That's what I get to look forward to. If only that were the only side effect of chemo ... that and fatigue, that would beat lung, heart, nerve and brain damage by a light year.
Turns out the first drug in ABVD--the one that has a chance of killing heart tissue and causing heart failure--looks very much like cherry Kool-Aid. Or any red-colored Kool-Aid. It'd be funnier if I weren't so worried about the side effects.
But I spent something like six hours down at the Cancer Center today, completely missing class (but my professor for that class is very understanding and has been kept in the loop from the start). First they drew my blood to establish a baseline indicator for my blood cell counts, platelet counts, and other indicators; they'll be doing this weekly. They also changed the bandages and dressing for my PICC line; another weekly ritual. After that, they administered a ton of anti-nausea drugs and then went to the ABVD.
I worried that I'd have a serious adverse reaction to any of the drugs, but so far things have been reasonably smooth sailing. I've mostly been feeling tired, with a somewhat gnawing feeling in my stomach, and like my lungs are more of a blow-up balloon than lungs (I can take a deep breath, but it doesn't feel like they want to expand TOO easily). The sailing won't be smooth for long; this dose of ABVD will be working over my body for two weeks, and I can expect to feel pretty lousy in a week or two when the NEXT infusion of ABVD happens, completing the first of six cycles. What side effects I'll develop will remain to be seen, but I am really hoping that November is the last time I'll be tearing my skin apart from itching.
I saw someone in the Cancer Center's chemo infusion rooms who may or may not be my age, may be in his teens or twenties, who sported the Naked Mole Rat look. No hair at all, no eyebrows, no body hair. That's what I get to look forward to. If only that were the only side effect of chemo ... that and fatigue, that would beat lung, heart, nerve and brain damage by a light year.
Biting the Bullet
Okay ... So, last journal update, I'd mentioned that I had some art I'd put in storage and was considering taking out.
Truth is, I've been having cold feet over it.
See, in 2012 I started working on an idea for an original series of sorts that would involve personified ships, after being inspired by the likes of "mecha musume" artists such as acea4 of Taiwan, who has been doing a graphic novel titled Shermanga Wars (a wordplay on "Sherman" and "Manga," I think). I've come to dub my own project "The Oakenhearted," as you can see in the teaser/preview comic that I've taken out of storage. I had uploaded that on October 21, 2014, the same day
32 and Still Kicking
... Well, for a certain value of it, at least.
I've had some really, really demanding classes this entire year, summer included. I don't really have much of a life outside of working on all the assignments that pile up; in the Spring semester I jumped at the chance to take a Game Design course that specialized in Unity. Unfortunately the professor teaching that class (who was only at this university for a semester) had very, very short deadlines for projects. Case in point: He expected student teams to present their work at Oklahoma Research Day. Other Cameron students I spoke to while at ORD told me that their departments gave them a year o
Not Quite the Comeback Kid
Been a while since my last update. I've been spending most of what free time I had this year and last year trying to get better with Adobe Illustrator. I'm hoping that with Illustrator, I'll be able to achieve some actual quality CG that is also completely resolution-independent, what with it being vector-based and all. I think I've got a long way to go, though. Some of the stuff I've done in Illustrator so far is ... really sloppy looking in terms of coloring. I'm still figuring out what tools will be best for what job: you can do some amazing things in Illustrator with just line styles, but Gradient Mesh hasn't exactly been the holy grail I
So Now I'm 31 ...
Hey guys,
It's been a long time since my last update; I didn't mean to leave you all hanging, and I'm really sorry to have worried the people who've expressed their concerns.
Life's been a roller coaster of ups and downs since the Spring 2014 semester. A lot of things have gone right, and a lot of things have gone wrong, the consequences of both which have left me little time to really pursue anything I want to do in my spare time. Going into detail about the the past half-year would make for a really long story, and some of it I'd rather not get into. I can share some of the good (and bad) though:
The good things I'll cover first. Medical
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Hello, I am nobody.
With Steam recently adding Ragnarok to their service and giving it all that promotion I decided to head back and mess around in it. I must have started playing Ragnarok maybe 8 or 9 years ago but definitely not the whole time since then. I remember stumbling on Ragnarok Wisdom so many years ago where you made awesome and hilarious comics, not to mention the beauty of watching an artist get so much better at drawing over such a long period of time. It really pains me coming back to it and finding out that this happened. I hope for the best so you can get back to a normal lifestyle.
With Steam recently adding Ragnarok to their service and giving it all that promotion I decided to head back and mess around in it. I must have started playing Ragnarok maybe 8 or 9 years ago but definitely not the whole time since then. I remember stumbling on Ragnarok Wisdom so many years ago where you made awesome and hilarious comics, not to mention the beauty of watching an artist get so much better at drawing over such a long period of time. It really pains me coming back to it and finding out that this happened. I hope for the best so you can get back to a normal lifestyle.