tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58938684022870979162024-03-05T09:46:38.739-08:00Life after being diagnosed with leukemia.Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.comBlogger42125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-33366369513363898932013-10-04T06:05:00.002-07:002013-10-04T09:05:40.586-07:00

As you may or may not know, I work for the federal government. I could make three times what I make if I got a job in the private sector, and believe me I have people clamoring to give me a job. But I believe in serving my country because it's a job that needs to be done and I'm one of the few people with the talents and training to make a difference. To me, the money is not the point: I am going

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-41518117112154624242012-05-29T00:27:00.000-07:002012-05-29T00:27:00.905-07:00

I have insomnia tonight. In fact, I'm starting to wonder if I shouldn't just go ahead and rename this my insomnia blog, since that seems to be the main thing that I use it for. In any case, I've compiled a list of the things keeping me awake tonight: My cat's snoring. It's pretty soft, and it's more of a wheeze than a snore, but it's definitely audible. Wondering if I'm physically addicted to

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-70295079332950716582012-05-11T08:01:00.001-07:002012-05-11T08:01:50.921-07:00

I am doing great. Better than I've been in half a year. Part of it, certainly, is due to the enormous burden that's been lifted from my shoulders now that I've completed my PhD. I had my doubts, honestly, that I would finish it. Over the past three years, I've questioned my mental fortitude a lot and I've questioned whether I will remain a fully-functioning human being going in to the future. My

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-3687212168320570682012-02-29T12:10:00.002-08:002012-02-29T12:11:33.471-08:00

Writing a conclusion for my thesis feels really strange. I kind of didn't really believe that it would ever be over, or maybe I just didn't believe that I would make it to this point. I'm not sure. Either way, it's definitely putting the last seven years in perspective. I think in the end, my leukemia diagnosis coinciding with winning an award for Persona was especially bad for my mental health

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-21315355623167234322012-02-24T12:22:00.001-08:002012-02-24T12:29:41.202-08:00

I'm working on my thesis right now. Rereading and editing our Persona paper, I reached the section about inherently private online social network (OSN) applications. I remember at the time thinking that sharing health information with doctors through an OSN was a weak example. Of course, that was before I got leukemia. Now that I'm much more familiar with the health care system, I feel like this

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-8489297230602291742011-10-01T03:06:00.000-07:002011-10-01T03:06:56.538-07:00

It's 4 AM and I can't sleep. That means one of two things: either my medication is making me keep crazy hours, or my head is full of serious thoughts that only a blog post can dislodge. In this case, I think it's the latter. I'm kind of in a rut right now. Ruts aren't entirely bad. A rut is stable, and that's something that can be welcome after an unpredictable cancer treatment. But obviously I

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-14156335591152011122011-06-01T05:28:00.000-07:002011-06-01T05:28:47.440-07:00

I told myself that I wouldn't post another post on this blog until I published Chimera, and that's exactly what has happened. To remind everyone, Chimera is the fantasy novel I wrote for NaNoWriMo back in November. A lot of comments and proofreading later, it's now available for purchase! I'm really excited about it, because I really enjoyed writing it and I hope that people will enjoy reading it

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-9031397060448618632010-07-09T12:17:00.000-07:002010-07-09T12:17:44.881-07:00

I don't know what's wrong with me. You'd think that with the impending uncertainty involving Ted's employment that I would be a bit more hesitant to spend my money, but it seems that the opposite is true. First, there have been the necessities.  For example, the $340 on Fang Heisenburg, our car.  This is in addition to the $1000 for the initial set of repairs and the $300 for the tune-up at

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-44840780960929243132010-07-01T13:46:00.000-07:002010-07-01T13:46:22.555-07:00

Well, the CT scan showed that the spleen is about twice the size that it should be, so at this point we're pretty sure that it's coming out.  I'm OK with it, and once I convinced Mom that I would be better for it, she seemed to be OK with it too.  I think it was the doctor telling her that there could be leukemic cells hiding in the spleen that finally convinced her that removing the

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-49346974853912627962010-06-30T12:45:00.000-07:002010-06-30T12:45:31.019-07:00

As expected, Mom worried everyone for no reason.  The bone marrow biopsy revealed that there were still no cancer cells in my bone marrow, which again is a really good sign that the leukemia is cured.  What's more, Dr. Yanovich (my primary doctor, now) felt around and he thinks my spleen is actually shrinking, that the CT scan was in some way anomalous due to the medication I received in the

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-16591684843609339442010-06-20T16:52:00.000-07:002010-06-20T16:52:22.422-07:00

I got the results from my CT scan.  My GI tract has healed; I could have told you this because my bowel movements have been nice and solid recently.  Unfortunately, the CT scan also revealed that my spleen is growing again. This could be a sign that the leukemia is coming back, so the doctor decided to do yet another bone marrow biopsy. Unfortunately, the doctor either didn't

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-1719683657790276702010-06-16T00:05:00.000-07:002010-06-16T00:05:53.820-07:00

First of all, now that I'm cancer free*, I've decided that I'm not Living With Carmichael anymore.  Hence the blog title and URL change.  100% Go For It! is my new attitude toward life and, in particular, work.  I really want to get back into work in a big way, and though physically I'm still a bit weak I think I'm finally getting in to the right mindset to get some work done. In

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-24156181194150722462010-06-11T17:10:00.000-07:002010-06-11T17:10:38.813-07:00

Well, no one said a stem cell transplant would be easy.  For a long while, I was tolerating the effects of graft-versus-host disease, an important part of the healing process because it comes along with the graft-versus-tumor effect that will guarantee that my cancer does not return.  A recent bone marrow biopsy revealed no cancer in my stem cells, and a very small amount in my blood

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com5tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-24346105775286191322010-03-03T12:07:00.001-08:002010-03-03T12:07:57.560-08:00

I've been neglecting my poor blog for way too long at this point. The reason for that is that I spent a lot of time in the hospital, even during the one month that I was supposed to be at home recovering.  It's not unexpected to have to come in during that time, but I had to go in three times, and each time took nearly a week. The first time I mentioned in my last post. The second time was

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com4tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-55093455025389885182010-01-16T10:05:00.000-08:002010-01-16T10:05:43.770-08:00

It's been a little while since I've written, because I've been too busy enjoying life outside of the hospital. My chances of surviving the bone marrow transplant are good -- we think 70% -- but it's not a sure thing, so I've decided that I should just enjoy myself with the time I have until the transplant. And I have been enjoying it, just being at home with Ted, relaxing, watching TV, playing

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-89599384818174691102009-12-26T08:23:00.000-08:002009-12-26T08:23:36.799-08:00

I've been in the hospital since the 11th, I think, and it's the 26th now. For the most part, my treatment hasn't been much of a problem.  Except for a few days where I couldn't get my eyes to focus enough to even watch TV, things have been moving along quickly.  I suspect that a season of 30 Rock and three seasons of Battlestar Galactica have had something to do with that.  I've

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-78936831604887357182009-12-14T07:00:00.000-08:002009-12-14T07:00:42.860-08:00

I rarely write such in depth posts, especially to the people I met on the CML board on the LLS web site, but I figured that since it was pretty in depth and it summarized a lot of the stuff I've been thinking about that I might as well include it here as well. Enjoy! =============================== Things are going very well.  My treatment seems to be working as the doctors plan, with few

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-77293244577723523962009-12-12T14:54:00.000-08:002009-12-12T14:54:23.251-08:00

Wow, a lot of stuff happened pretty quickly.  I'm kind of loopy at the moment thanks to some Benadryl, but I'm going to try to write a quick post to summarize the past few days. Thursday I came in to the UMGCC for a regular checkup to make sure my blood was responding correctly to the Gleevec.  It turns out that it wasn't.  The doctor noticed that my white blood cells were more

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-77411740349301119462009-12-01T19:44:00.000-08:002009-12-01T19:44:58.153-08:00

Lately I've been having side effects.  Some are just physical, so they're not too bad. However, others are mental, and they're beginning to worry me.  I'll explain. The physical side effects pretty much started on Sunday when, after a bit of dehydration caused by the disruption of Thanksgiving, I got gout again. It wasn't quite as bad as last time, but it was in the other foot.  I

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-41671124571120800532009-11-27T17:16:00.000-08:002009-11-27T17:16:55.312-08:00

I thought about mentioning how much I dislike a few of the members of my extended family in my last entry, but it sounded a little harsh in my head so I ended up deleting it.  Then Thanksgiving happened. I was going to say that they're racist bigots, and now I can share very specific examples from this trip.  Keep in mind, in particular, that this was Ted's first time meeting these

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-69844502787157391762009-11-24T18:11:00.000-08:002009-11-24T18:11:13.921-08:00

Thanksgiving is just two days away, and I've got a lot to be thankful for.  For instance, compared to last year, I've got my health!  I've had another wonderful year with Ted and I have a loving, caring family.  I've grown closer to my labmates and advisors, which I'm going to mark in the win column.  I've been incredibly (I would almost go so far as to say "unbelievably")

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-41868715120496228502009-11-17T16:58:00.000-08:002009-11-17T16:58:35.049-08:00

Today, I almost thought I got my bill for my hospital stay over two months ago. It turns out that it's not a bill though, and just a statement of what I'm being charged. After about a 90% reduction thanks to insurance, I'm left with exactly $2561.28 in expenses. I'm not going to lie; it is a lot of money. Fortunately, I've always made sure that I kept some money in savings, so I will be able

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-31805599057422215862009-11-10T13:44:00.000-08:002009-11-10T13:44:00.584-08:00

Just a quick update on some stuff. I'm currently feeling a bit crappy, due to a combination of retaining water, muscle (especially back) aches, and an odd bruise that I need to ask the doctor about. I think I might need to get a new chair for work that will help my back feel better. Today, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar came out as a fellow CaMeL... though it sounds like he caught things really early and

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-40872598342568770192009-11-07T07:18:00.000-08:002009-11-07T07:21:55.487-08:00

Sorry for the delay between posts, but I'm engrossed in a video game at the moment. Demon's Souls is a very addictive game, and I initially thought I would dislike it due to the difficulty. It turns out, though, that the difficulty is deceptive, since the game is very hard in the beginning and gets much easier as you get a handle of things. I still have quite a bit to do to get the platinum

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5893868402287097916.post-11315401565183487132009-10-25T14:40:00.001-07:002009-10-25T14:40:24.845-07:00

HotNets and New York I'm on the Bolt Bus, waiting to leave New York now. I have about a 4 hour trip ahead of me, so I figure that this is the perfect time to write my entry. HotNets went pretty well. I was much less nervous about this talk than I was about my SIGCOMM talk, but I think that's understandable since the SIGCOMM one was far more important. I think the talk went reasonably well, and

Anonymoushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/08543405617412588249noreply@blogger.com2