In other hospital news....

[thewayne]

...an old friend just got out. He’s been having problems with rectal bleeding for several weeks now, WHY HE HASN’T FRICKIN’ GONE TO THE HOSPITAL SOONER I DON’T KNOW! Anyway, it got really bad early last week and he finally went in, it’s been found that he has colon cancer. They’re going to start working on him in about 10 days, I really hope things work out well. They haven’t removed the tumor yet, much less started radiation or chemo. I don’t think they’ve biopsied yet to determine whether or not it’s malignant. One problem standing in the way is that Jim is a bariatric case, and that makes everything dealing with surgery, recovery, and extended treatment more difficult. Fortunately he’s, for want of a better term, low-level bariatric, he doesn’t require special transportation to get to treatment and such. Also fortunately, he’s sufficiently American Indian that he can get treated at the Indian Hospital either inexpensively or free as he has zero health insurance.

Jim is one of those “friend for more than 20 years/Ex-Buffalo” guys. He’s a good GM, I’ve played Champions, Star Wars, Dead Lands, D&D, 7th Sea; Mercenaries, Spies, and Private Eyes; Call of Cthulhu, a home-brew or two, I think Runequest, probably Tunnels & Trolls, seems like either Espionage or Danger International, Fantasy Hero, and probably many more RPG systems that I can’t think of off-hand. Overall, he’s definitely a superior GM and I’ve had countless fun evenings at his place rolling dice and acting through my teeth, after all, playing a role-playing game is acting: you’re playing a role.

There’s no doubt that I’ve played in more sessions run by Jim than any other Phoenix GM. You’d probably have to total up all the missions that I’ve played under all the other GMs that I’ve played under and I think Jim would still come out on top. Some sessions are less than great, some campaigns have been less than great, but he’s produced some good stuff over the years. Though I have great memories of incidents in other campaigns, I still have the most stories from Jim’s.

So here’s to hoping Jim has a quick and full recovery.

Comments

[apostate-96.livejournal.com]

Y'know, I can understand (at least to an extent) not wanting to go to the doc for that. After all, I doubt I'd be all that comfortable telling someone that my ass is leaking...

In all seriousness, though, I hope he comes out OK with it.

[cardigirl.livejournal.com]

I heard about this from Bear and sincerely hope Jim beats this one hard and fast. Though we've never been chums, he's still "one of us." FWIW, I understand colon cancer tends to be a slow-acting cancer and, even if he didn't go to the hospital as soon as he should have (I would have!), let's hope it isn't so far advanced it can't be shot down.

And thank god for that Native American blood. It's just this sort of thing that makes me go white with fear for myself without health insurance.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

Yeah, I know what you mean. I was so thankful that I stayed healthy while I was without insurance.

The problem with colon cancer is if it starts metastasizing (sp?). That's what probably did in Russet's father was it eventually produced two brain tumors.

Did you hear about Barry "Mr. Movie" Bard? Pancreatic cancer. He's completed radiation and chemo, no news when I saw him about 3 weeks ago whether it had gone into remission.


It really sucks losing friends and acquaintances. I lost three film club members in 2003/2004.

[thewayne.livejournal.com]

It's a tough thing to admit, granted, but if it lasts for more than a day and it's bright red arterial blood, it's a bad problem. It should become a "take your pride and shove it" and see the doctor. It's guaranteed they've seen worse and they're the ones trained to help you.

[apostate-96.livejournal.com]

I agree with you completely. I just also acknowledge that it can be hard to be that rational having something that disturbing happen. Having held off on admittedly less serious stuff, I know I'd struggle in that kind of situation, despite knowing intellectually how important it'd be.