Well dad moved back home with mum 3weeks ago.
Dad has had a wonderful recovery, however the brain cancer is still terminal.
We are now concentrating on making dad’s final time as comfortable and enjoyable for him as possible.
He has got back his humor and most of his personality back which is great. Mum is coping well as is Graham and myself.
I have to say, this must be the coldest winter I personally remember. It’s really cold. Typically, in Sydney this winter, we’re seeing 13deg C days. We’ve already had sleet in Sydney, and even the dogs are shivering.
Of course I’ve seen cold before, however, this winter would have to be the coldest I can remember by far.
Unfortunately it isn’t good news about Dad. His brain cancer operation, fortunately managed to get the “bulk”of the cancer out. However, at dad’s age and since the operation has left him with degraded motility, he hasn’t been given long to live.
The Dr’s have only given his 3 months to live without treatment, and upto 6 months with treatment.
The treatment is an oral “kemo” treatment together with radio theropy to his brain.
None of the family are taking this well. It’s really hard to believe, especially since only a month ago, dad seemed fine.
The cancer is a rather fast acting cancer. Unfortunately it was impossible to remove all the cancerous tissue, and so it is extremely likely that the treatment will only prolong the inevitable.
We as a family ave decided to try the treatment in the hope it works better than expected. I don’t think any of us expect miracles, however, we do need to live in hope.
Tomoko left for Japan in Wednesday 23rd July 08 for 1 month.
She arrived safely and has been having a wonderful time over there.
She misses her family and friends over there, so I think it’s important that she visits regularly.
I’m missing her and i know whe misses me. I also know she wants to see Dad who is in hospital.
On Sun the 13th July 08, we took dad to hospital.
His peripheral eyesight wasn’t very good, so he saw an eye Dr a few weeks prior. They Eye specialist determined that it wasn’t his eyes, and that perhaps he had a stroke. So, we contacted Dad’s GP. Unfortunately the GP didn’t seem to be competent, and only booked a cat scan in a few weeks.
I saw dad on the Sat (12th July), and after it was mentioned he might have had a stroke, thought I could see signs of a stroke in dad’s face and speech. It was only subtle, there is no way mum or my brother could have known or seen it. Since they thought the GP was on top of it we ignored it, and just figured the GP and the Cat scan would determine the facts.
When I saw dad on the 13th, I suggested to mum that they take dad to hospital ASAP. Fortunately Graham and Mum took Dad to St Vincents hospital that day.
Anyway, the tests at St Vincents determined that dad had infact a Malignant Cancer in his brain. He had brain cancer and it was quite “Fact acting”. Dad would only have had 3 months to act.
Dad was operated on Thursday the 24th July at St Vincents Private Hospital. He is doing well.
The cancer was pretty large, the size of a fist. Dad has lost a bit of his speech, as well his left hand side is effected. Still, better that than him dying.
He is slowly recovering. We hope his speech and movement largely recovers. Likewise, we hope the Surgeon managed to remove most of the cancer from Dad’s brain.
Dad will probably be in hospital for a good few weeks. He will also need physio therapy for approx 6 weeks to try to help his speech and mobility.
It is likely that dad will never quite be the same, however, it us, it is incredible how such a large portion of the human brain can be removed, and still cope.
I decided to post this to keep the family up to date, as well as to give those who have loved ones who are about to go through the same as what my dad just has.
Important things to get from this post are…
If you notice a change to someone you love’s Face, Arms, Speech, then act FAST. To help diagnose, remember the word F.A.S.T.
Face
Arms
Speech
Time - act fast – Get the person to Emrgency at a hospital ASAP.
Don’t wait on GP’s, it is critical to get the person checked out via a Cat Scan ASAP. It could be a stroke, or Cancer. Either can be critical.
Even if it is cancer, the person has a good chance these days. ofcourse it isn’t great news, and complications can result. However, i think it is important for all involved to stay positive.
I have a few website domains that I am not quite sure what I’m going to do with yet.
I decided to launch a new Technology Forum in Australia for Australians.
It’s desined to provide interesting information to Australians on topics such as Website development, IT and Telecommunications technology.
It’s URL is http://forum.gun4hire.com.au
Anyway, it’s a new forum, however, I hope you all find it useful as it grows.
Well, I finally decided to setup a Ham Radio Webpage. I made my first contact via PSK32 on 20M (14Mhz) last week, and I must say, it’s rejuvinated my interest in Ham Radio again.
I have been playing with Ham Radio Deluxe (HRD) lately, and i must say, what a fabulous piece of software it is. (http://www.ham-radio-deluxe.com/)
Anyway, I was in my car, with my Yaesu FT857D, laptop, HRD, home made radio interface (hamcomm type of thing) and my mobile car whip for 20M, and there it was, my first PSK contact. Laster for nearly 1 hour. Amazing. Anyway, I’m hooked again.
Anyway, my new website will be at http://www.vk2ttg.com
This morning, my wife and I were awoken by the sound of our telephone ringing at 9am on the dot. I answered it to be greeted with that tiresome “Congratulations, you have…” I hung up immediately. I am not sure if it’s simply because I get these kinda thing weekly now, or if it’s the inappropriate American accent that is always used on those kinda things (it’s unfortunate, that I now associate American accents with FRAUD here in Australia).
I then decided to get out of beg, and wandered over to my computer. What do I see but nearly 100 spam emails trying to extort money from me, trying to convince me that my penis is too small, that I need Viagra, my wife is sleeping around, I am sleeping around, I need to improve my search engine marketing… I mean it just goes on and on!!!
Now, 100 spam emails isn’t unusual for me for 1 day, usually I get more over the course of a single day.
The above doesn’t even talk about the attempted fraud I see daily on my web hosting business (fortunately I use several anti fraud systems), even the fraud and spam i get through my own various sites and blogs.
Now I know, I should expect to see more fraud/spam/rubbish than the average Joe, but I can say the average Joe also gets to see a significant amount of attempted fraud in their inbox and phone answering machine.
It seems to me that when I was growing up, I perhaps received a phone call once a year trying to Phish for details, when mum and dad would be home etc. Today, it seems that I get on average 100 attempts to phish/spam/fraud/decipher/steal from me every single day.
That’s an increase of 30000 x the fraud I see daily over 25 years!
It is no wonder that we are all so defensive, un trusting and down right cautious! And i know how to protect myself from this type of activity, what about the average Joe. My parents are a good casing point. I don’t think they receive Phishing emails today, but one day they will. Would they know it was fraud? Perhaps not.
Why aren’t the Police doing more? Surely, with Computer fraud, it can be tracked or something? I think the police aren’t interested, or incapable. This is becomming a very serious problem, not only for me, for everyone I know, yet, nothing seems to be happening in response.
Is it just me, or are others getting sick of this?????
I would love to hear your comments!
Steve
Well, Tomoko and I are about to celebrate our 2nd Wedding Anniversary (24 April). I am left with the delamar of what to do for her.
I am thinking it would be nice to take her to a nice place for dinner. Perhaps I’ll take her away for the weekend. I even tried asking her what she would like to do, but no clues there.
Time to do the romantic, guy thing. I won’t tell her, and I won’t even let on that I have remembered. It will be a surprise!!!
