Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Hi, guys. I am back home again. The tumor in my cerebellum has been cut and the cup of liquid that was causing all the problems has been removed. All symptoms immediately disappeared and all I am left with is complete loss of balance while my brain resettles. The lack of balance is not a real problem, as I have been doing a lot of yoga over the years, but it seems best to everyone (including me) to recuperate slowly , since the restructuring of the brain has to be as evenly as possible. I also have to wait to next thursday to hear if the tumor itself was indeed benign as we all now expect and presume. The doctor doing the asessment is away for a conference this weekend, so I may either get a phone-call next thursday or have to wait to monday to meet with him. Or they'll forget to notify me at all, which in my experience isn't unknown in the medical world.

Contrary to the information in the previous post, the new series of S1ngle will probably start in February next year, but the link I provided to the end of the second season is still a favorite. I will keep you posted of all developments and try to throw in a pretty picture every now and then. And let's hope it's what it seems right now, a blip in the story of my life; the year I turned fifty and didn't die.

By the way, I am really enjoying Bill Willingham's ew Fables novel Peter and Max.

17 comments:

Daniel C. Parmenter said...

Glad to have you still with us, and glad to hear that you were able to get decent care.

MangMade said...

Very glad to have you back. I recently received my copy of Alter Ego 86 and have enjoyed your outstanding article on the Mad comic imitators. Upon receipt I came here and was taken aback by your last post. Happy to see you've returned so that I may say "Well done and looking forward to more."

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Ad-hater: and all due to our wonderfull social health care system here in Holland. What you guys over there don't seem to see is that collective health care is not socialism, it's practical statistics... invented by the Dutch mathematician Johan de Witt, by he way. Who after that became the perfect prime minister of the Dutch free government whose social melting pot model was exported by the Dutch to Manhattan and became the idiological basis of the your great country, before the British Founding Fathers came over and took the credit for starting it all (as beauifuly described in Russell Shorto's The Island at the Center of the World, The Epic Story of Dutch Manhattan and the Forgotten Colony That Shaped America ISBN 0-385-50349-0 (New York, Doubleday, 2004).

HEH said...

That's great news! Here's hoping the future is just as bright!

Daniel [oeconomist.com] said...

Ger—

Glad to have you back.

Paul C.Tumey said...

Hi Ger. I am very glad to hear you are doing better. Sending light and four-color joy your way!- Paul Tumey

Chuck Wells said...

Best of wishes on your recovery.

None said...

Glad to hear your back. Now rest and recover.

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Not out of the woods yet. Althoug the recovery is going very well (as you can see, the typing is going better as well), I still have to get to hear that it indeed was a benign tumor and that wont happen until monday.

Ger Apeldoorn said...

Add the h.

Angeline B. Adams said...

Good to see you on your feet this quickly!

Good luck awaiting the results, and with further recovery!

joe ackerman said...

all the very best, matey. you get well soon.

Mike Lynch said...

Stacy and I wish you a safe and strong recovery, Ger!

p spector said...

Under the circumstances I take this as good news. Welcome back.

Daniel C. Parmenter said...

Thanks for the book recommendation Ger! I'll definitely check it out.

I will mention by the way that in my state of Massachusetts we've recently managed to extend health insurance coverage to 97% of our residents. Part of the motivation for our state's reform was actually to save money, since many uncovered people were going to emergency rooms for routine care ultimately resulting in greater costs to the public.

Massachusetts was also one of the first states to allow gay marriage and by recent public vote, we even (sort of) decriminalized marijuana last year. So I suppose we are following the Dutch lead in some ways! I could also mention that I ride a bike everywhere, but that is one area where we remain behind you.

Ger Apeldoorn said...

When we were trying to restructure Europe a couple of years ago (and citizens had to vote for a new 'constitution') I bemoaned the poor state of the way we did that by pointing to the was the US was handling it's differences between national and state matters. I think the way the US is put together is great. One big constitution and every state has the right to fill out stuff their own way. On a tour of the US twenty years ago, I was impressed by the fact that Montana was able to have their own lower tax for books, since they wanted to promote reading and education. Your samples prove that the same system is still in place. States can have different needs and posibillities. If Denver wants to outlaw gays, let them even if you don't agree. JUst don't go there. If you want to influence their law, do it by making it economicly unfeasable for them to uphold it, not by trying to argue them into a pition they don't want. The new new Europe is being designed along the lines of equality. Soon Spain will be forced to abandon bull fights, because new generations can't bear the fact that some people don't agree with them. Yet another sample of the intollerance of the baby boomers and feminist, who want to whole world to think the same, not realizing that they have been paving the way for the oppressive world capitalism we are now burdened with.

Sorry to get all political on your asses.

Daniel [oeconomist.com] said...

The problem with letting “Denver≵ outlaw homosexuality is that Denver isn't an agreement; it's a place, where the anti-homosexual population has no prior right to intrude on the lives of homosexuals.

The very same is in fact true of state control of health care — those who want some sort of communal control or provision have a every right to to form an agreement amongst themselves for such things, but they need to leave every else alone, even if those people are their next-door neighbors.

And, Ger, if we were just talking about statistics, then unregulated, private provision of insurance would produce results that pleased pretty much everyone.

BTW, whenever anyone speaks or writes of “capitalism”, I want them to define the term, as there doesn't seem to be a lot of agreement (even across different editions of the same dictionary) as to what the Hell that word means.