November 29, 2007: A lump in the road

Sooo… Stacey got her scan reports back, and there is what TFDB has called “a small recurrence”. Which means, a small lump in the area where the other lump was. Given the treatment history, TFDB recommends going with a mastectomy: she said she tends to be over cautious, which we appreciate very much.

So that’s pretty rotten.

Also rotten is the second recommendation, that being to remove Stacey’s ovaries. Why? Because the next drug regimen TFDB wants to go with is quite effective, but for whatever reason you have to be in menopause to use it. That could be accomplished chemically, but given the fact that Stacey’s cancer is hormone receptive, it makes sense to start from a guaranteed zero.

Cool.

Dredging up some good news, if Stacey does have to do chemo with this one, it will be a kind that doesn’t make her hair fall out. Also, Stacey said she gave herself a couple of hours to freak out, and then (she said) she got back on the train and feels very confident and optimistic about all this.  So, so do I.  And so shall you all. Because this is Stacey, after all.

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November 19, 2007: Stacey on the Writer’s Strike

From Stacey:

I love TV. I probably love it entirely too much, but I grew up with it and it has treated me well. I feel no need to watch less tv. In fact, with the wonder that is TiVo I can watch even more now than I could before, with fewer commercials. Oh, man, I love TiVo.
 
TV has kept me company in the middle of the night while I nursed babies. It made me laugh when I was feeling my worst during chemo. It has enabled me to get regular fixes of Doctor Who (thanks, Sci-Fi, BBCA, and NH public television!) I’ve even discovered books that my teenager will read. Really! Sure, there’s a lot of crap on the airwaves, but, if you know where to look, there are a ton of quality shows, too.
 
It is because of this love that I fully support the writer’s strike. Did you know that of the 12,000+ members of the WGA (Writers Guild of America) fully half of them don’t make enough money each year (30K) to qualify for health benefits through the Guild? The big 6 media companies are making scads of money from new media, but they are unwilling to pay the writers anything from these new revenue streams. Ever watch a show online? The media companies made money from those ads you were forced to watch. The writers made NOTHING.
 
If you’re interested in learning more, check out these links:
WGA site: http://www.wga.org
Unofficial blog maintained by strike captains: http://unitedhollywood.blogspot.com/
Blog maintained by Late Show with David Letterman writers: http://www.lateshowwritersonstrike.com/
Blogs by former www.televisionwithoutpity.com writers, now working in LA:
http://www.pamie.com/
http://www.plaintivewail.com/
Breaking news about the “infotainment industry” (ugh, really?): http://www.deadlinehollywooddaily.com/
 
Am I going through withdrawal because I haven’t seen any new The Daily Show or Colbert Report shows for almost two weeks? You betcha! Will I be even worse off next week when there are no longer any new episodes of The Office? Oh, my, yes, and it will only get worse. But I’m not complaining, because I believe in what they’re doing for their own members, and for the precedent they’re setting for other unions who will be going through the same process next year and down the line.
 
So, to support their efforts I have stopped watching any online programming. This isn’t as easy as it sounds because even with a dual tuner TiVo sometimes the schedule is too busy to record everything I’d like to watch, so I’m missing shows already. Once the new shows have been shown and the networks start giving us repeats, I won’t be watching. Oh, and I signed the petition that you can find at the United Hollywood site.
 
If you’re a fan of TV, a fan of unions, or just against corporate greed wherever it’s found, I humbly request that you take some time to learn about the issues and support the WGA in any way you see fit.
 
Oh, topic? I have a scan next week (11/19). Crossing my fingers…

November 19, 2007

Well clearly I have been in some sort of fugue state because three months have slipped by and I haven’t even finished the # Day story (as a few of you were attentive enough to point out to me, O so kindly, as in: “Finish the flippin’ story already!)

 But NO! Ha HA! Because I have something more important to post today, a note from Stacey about… well, it’s important, so I’ll give it its own post.