It’s Wednesday, twenty days after The News.
Today was a “day off”. No lab visits, no scans, no consultations, no rushing around trying to make sure things will go on if I’m incapacitated during treatment. Just a day to do some “work”, clean the house, and water the plants.
Even when a cancer diagnosis turns your life upside down, you do get the occasional “normal” day.
I could have even slept in, but of course I’m suffering from acute latrofecit insomnia (a sleep disorder caused by exposure to medical personnel).
Friends and (Former) Colleagues
One of the things about a life-changing event is how to get others in the loop. Some are afraid or ashamed to let others know. Obviously I’m not one of them. (If cancer was caused by a highly contagious virus and I got it because I attended a wild, over-crowded beach party while declining to get vaccinated I might not be so eager to talk about it. But cancer just happens.) In the back of my mind there’s a secret wish that people would find out by finding this blog. But my friends have better things to do than scour the web for news about me…and even if they did a search I’d be rather surprised if this site made it to the top of any search results.
And besides, spreading The News is a great excuse to get in touch with people I enjoy interacting with.
Overnight a colleague with a company I helped start in Taiwan, and still try to assist now and then, dropped me a line that he’d heard about my cancer diagnosis. I’d mentioned it to the CEO of the company who is a good friend. I always love hearing from them. I’m proud of my affiliation with the company, though to be honest I’ve done very little for them in recent years. And its always great to feel useful.
Then around noon yesterday I got a call from another friend and former colleague. He had some questions on ATSC 3.0 (aka “NextGen TV”) and knew I’d had my finger in that pot for the past few years. The hour spent chatting about baseband and ALP packets and the trials and tribulations involved in dealing with damaged ISOBMFF boxes and fMP4 segments delivered via OTA was invigorating. I suspect that last sentence is an incomprehensible tangle of jargon for most. It’s how I feel wading through lab and scan results 🙂. I wonder if there’ll be an opportunity for some consulting work? Sure, now isn’t exactly the ideal time. But if I’m going to be waking at ungodly hours (any time before noon is an ungodly hour), it would be nice to have something to look forward to.
After we chatted about ATSC 3.0, I relayed The News. I’ve learned to always mention that the doctors are optimistic about my prognosis. When you mention cancer people immediately jump to the assumption you’re headed to the pearly gates. I may be on a journey to the afterlife, but the likely cause will be excessive morning wakefulness rather than cancer.
We’ll be getting together for lunch sometime next week, along with another friend who makes up our small clique. In the email thread I mentioned The News, for the benefit of our third member. I didn’t want him to find out during lunch. And besides, I could point him to this site so he’d be all caught up before-hand. I should mention that in a former life I was the project lead for these two individuals. They know I expect them to come to meetings well-prepared 🙂.
It’s been a good day, and interacting with former colleagues has been uplifting. Work has always been a big part of my life, and I was fortunate to have met a lot of good people through it. Some have become valued friends. And I’m looking forward to getting together with them for lunch!