Notes from the Cafe Fiasco

Numbers and Scans

Being essentially symptom-free, I don't share many of the aspects of what we might call "The Cancer Experience" as many of my brothers and sisters in CancerWorld, but there is one thing that we all share: our reliance on and ambivalence to numbers and scans. Numbers and scans are the coin of this particular realm and are indications of whether you're going to live a while longer or not.

As it turns out, this quarter's number is good for me. My PSA is 3.5 (down a tenth of a point from three months ago) and this is good news. This means that things are level for the moment - I've battled cancer to a standstill for another three months.

For the first time, my urologist is using words like "indolent" in relation to my cancer. Each individual type of cancer also comes in many forms, from indolent to aggressive, and you definitely want to be as far down toward the indolent end of the scale as you can be. After almost a year of hard work, it's beginning to look like we caught the disease just before it was going to explode into a system-wide problem and I've cooled it out for now. The situation can still turn bad at any point, but the longer I get PSA numbers around 3.5 the less likely it is that this is going to happen.

The next step is a MRI to confirm what the numbers are telling us. Scans confirm numbers. Numbers lead to scans. Back and forth. The Ying and Yang of modern treatment of cancer.

More after the scan.

Boston Now Now Was

I don't have any copy for this headline about the shutting down of Boston Now, but I do like the headline.

Review: Shine a Light

Stones still have it. Go see it.

Opening Day 2008 - Fenway

I certainly didn't expect that the season opening ceremonies to be the highlight of the day. But it was wonderful to see Johnny Pesky raise the championship banner in centerfield and then be kissed and hugged by Manny Rameriez after he had finished the task.

And it was a profile in courage to see Bill Buckner walk out to throw the ceremonial first pitch in front of 35,000 people for whom he had become a symbol of failure over the past 21 years. The crowd responded with an uncharacteristic New England generosity and a major wound in Boston sports history suddenly just melted away. All was forgiven. Another religious moment in the high temple of baseball.

This is not something that you see every day, or every opening day for that matter. Daisuke was impressive and the Sox won handily, but it was almost beside the point.

Finally

Can it be? Are the Red Sox finally playing in our time zone? Have our barnstorming boys finally come back?