Starry Wisdom

Surgery is tomorrow, Stanford Hospital, 11:10 am. But I need to get there at 6:30 AM, so they can do an MRI first, so they know how to drive around my brain properly. I’ll probably be there until Monday or Tuesday, then back in apartment and online and such.

Now my apartment has a leak. What a dumb apartment. I don’t want to deal with all this crap now!

So, as if I didn’t have enough stress, I got a letter from my insurance company saying that while the facility, Stanford Hospital, was in the network, the provider for my upcoming REMOVAL OF BRAIN LESION surgery was not in the network, and I could incur sizeable out-of-pocket expenses. Nevermind the fact that they’ve been paying for the office visits for the past month. So I call them and the guy says “oh yeah, I see your doctor right here, he’s in the network. But to finalize the resolution I had to fax them the letter. Yesterday was a day off, so I did it today. So I did it this morning, called them back, and they said it would take 2-3 days for hte fax to get into the system and go to the right person. And then they’ll call me back. Meanwhile, I get to stress about it. Reading the message boards at the angioma alliance it seems like insurance companies like to dick around with people expecting brain surgery. FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC. The high point of yesterday was dinner with at Ti Couz in SF. He was near the end of a conference trip from hell, and had a long layover at SFO on his way back to Boston. So going to Ti Couz was a natural way to spend some time.

Then I woke up today at 5:45am (I start work at 6am on Tuesdays, from home) with no hot water. I left voicemail for the landlord. I heard from him around noon, he thinks the pilot in the water heater went out. He was playing phonetag with a plumber. But as of then he had no ETA for hot water. I came home around 4PM< and still no hot water. Grumble, I feel so dirty, I really want a shower!!!!

I heard from my Neurosurgeon today (what a phrase that is, eh?). He told me that, pending next THursday’s MRI being as expected, that he’s planning surgery fro 3/1. So, knock on wood and cross fingers, it looks like I might live that old adage about March!.

I had the angiogram on Tuesday. It was a long day (thanks !!!). And I’m still recovering from it (big bruise on my right thigh, and pain and tenderness there). The angiogram itself was negative. The implication of this is no aneurysm or AVM ready to go boom, good news.

I went back to the neurosurgeon today. He said “It’s probably a cavernous malformation. But I can’t be certain because it is obscured by the clot in the MRI. It could be a low-grade/benign tumor – high grade tumors show up on contrast and this did not. So, the best thing to do is wait a few more weeks and take another MRI. The clot will have evolved and we’ll have different detail then to see what/where/what size of a thing we’re dealing with. But prepare yourself mentally for surgery in March. Expect to be taking a significant amount of time off of work. Have you parents come here…”

So I have another MRI with contrast on 3/1 and I see him again on 3/6. And then I learn my fate. But no matter what it is, he believes that removal is called for…. skull crackin’ march.

This morning on irc we were talking about Anthony Bourdain and his humongous disdain for Rachel Ray (and ours as well). And then I wondered

<nyar> you know, if f00 is around, i sort of wonder what bourdain thinks of ab (the other ab)

Referring of course, to Alton Brown.

And, lo and behold, via metafilter I found this, posted this very day:

http://blog.ruhlman.com/2007/02/guest_blogging_.html

Wow! The universe is amazing sometimes. The comments are a riot, too.

http://www.commonwealthclub.org/archive/02/02-01bourdain-audio.html is also worth listening too.

Finally, please enjoy Monorail Cat

I went up to SF to take some pics to day. You can view them here. I started off on the west side of Golden Gate Park, taking pictures of the Beach Chalet and such. I walked around the park a bit, but nothing else caught my eye… and I was a bit cold and hungry, so I go in the car and went off intending to perhaps find a place to get food.

I ended up driving through the Presidio and found a nice view of he Golden Gate Bridge, so I stopped and took some pics. I continued driving and saw a sign for the Coastal Artillery Museum which evidently is near Baker beach, but I failed to find such. Maybe next time.

I eventually found myself on Clement and went back go Green Apple books, where i got a copy of Tender to the Bone, which was recently recommended to me. I failed to figure out how to get over to the mission district, and instead headed back to San Mateo at this point.