Memorial Celebration in Halifax

Family and friends of Iain are invited to an informal memorial celebration taking place in Halifax. The celebration will be held in the Computer Science Atrium at Dalhousie University (6050 University Avenue), on Saturday November 4th, beginning at 6pm and continuing throughout the evening. There will be a cash bar as well as sound equipment should anyone wish to say a few words or play a few songs. All proceeds from the bar as well as any donations will be given to the Canadian Cancer Society on Iain's behalf.

As always, I am thankful for the love and support everyone has shown us through the last year and a half. I hope to see you all on November 4th.

Kathryn

Is the KISS Army still recruiting?

KISS is a band I've basically ignored for most of my life. After listening to some recent downloads (live versions of "Deuce" and "Strutter" from the album Alive!), I've come to the conclusion that I'd like to get into some early KISS stuff. It's pretty easy to see why nearly every American teenager in the 1970's was nutso over these guys.

On the completely opposite end of the musical spectrum, the Method Man's 1994 album Tical is "mad dope", to use the parlance of our times. I've just recently rediscovered this gem. Now if you excuse me, I'm off to go listen to Enter The Wu-Tang (36 Chambers). R.I.P. O.D.B..

Free At Last, Free At Last

So Friday I made my escape from the hospital, and I'm home sweet home again. The transplant went well, and things are progressing nicely. I'm just glad to be home, with Kathryn and my Gamecube and my precious digital cable. I think I was going through Food Network withdrawal in there. Anyways, just wanted to let people know that I made it through the initial transplant stage and I'm doing well. More updates later.

Stem cells, give me your delicous stem cells...

So today I'm getting admitted into the hospital to get my pre-transplant chemo. The actual transplant is on August 3rd. There's not much else to say really, I'm just really anxious to get this whole thing started. For a few weeks after the transplant I'll probably be confined to my hospital room, so there probably won't be any updates on here for a while, but as soon as I'm able to I'll give everybody the scoop on how the transplant went. Wish me luck.

Long time, no blog...

I'm back! I just spent the last couple of weeks cruising around the Mediterranean in my yacht with my good friends David Carradine and William Shatner, so I didn't have any access to email. Sorry. I wanted to make some quick emails from that hotel in Monaco, but Shatner insisted on going camel racing that day. Once he gets on a kick like that, there's no changing his mind. Anywhoo, on to some quick and dirty updates:

- I am out of the hospital and fully moved into my new place with Kathryn. It's a sweet little pad. I am defintely "movin' on up", as the saying goes. A big thanks to all of you who helped us with the move. The checks are in the mail, I swear.

- Depending on my blood counts and whatnot, it looks like I'll be heading to bone marrow transplant land sometime around the end of the month.

- My prediction for the world cup: Italy 1, France 0. Take that to the bank, baby.

Back in la casa médica...

So I'm back in the hospital, undergoing Part B of my new chemo regimen. I should be back out sometime next week, just in time to not help my girlfriend and her small army of makeshift movers settle into our new apartment. I'll be helping in spirit though, I can assure you...

Things are going alright I suppose. I can expect my counts to drop pretty severely from this chemo, but that is nothing new to me. Hopefully I'll recover from it quickly so that we can get moving on the bone marrow transplant.

A quick bit of selfish griping before I get back to my deluxe suite: How does Capital Health have the gall to call today's lunch chicken salad? I'm sorry, but a few bits of mystery chicken meat drenched in mayonaisse-type product does not a salad make, says I. It's enough to make one beg for the chicken crock pot...

Gimme that sweet. sweet marrow...

So the word is in: Brendan, my fraternal twin and only sibling, is a match. Meaning that sometime in the near future, I'm going to be stealing his bone marrow for my own selfish purposes. Exciting stuff. I'm seeing my doctor(s) tomorrow, so hopefully they will have some sort of gameplan in place, and when I find out the plan, I'll let the Internet know.

A 1 in 4 chance. I should start playing the fucking lottery.