Fight Cancer, Get Cool Book. (Plus Zach Update)

[dr_pretentious]

The magnificently multi-talented Phil Rossi--author, podcaster, and giant on the D.C. music scene--is devoting all the proceeds for the next six weeks from Crescent, his biggest book, to cancer research. Why? Two reasons: Phil is a great guy, and Zach is his best friend. Details on the book, information about the cancer charity, and one of my favorite photos of Zach with the girls, can be found here.

I listened to Crescent in its first published incarnation, as a podcast, and it lives up to its blurbs:

Crescent is the ultimate sci-fi / horror mashup. It's a wicked blend of the claustrophobia seen in Ridley Scott's Alien, and the viral demonology of Carpenter's Prince Of Darkness with the hard-drinkin' bad attitude of Battlestar Galactica added for good measure. The future has never been so frightening. Phil Rossi brings it. --J.C. Hutchins, author of Personal Effects: Dark Art and 7th Son: Descent

Phil Rossi has crafted a space station tale with sex, horror, and vibrant attention to tech and human detail. Evocatively served, highly recommended. ---Paul Levinson, author of The Plot to Save Socrates

If you read this blog a lot, you know horror's not normally my thing, but I will just add that Crescent is good stuff, and you should read it.

The short version of the Zach report is that there's a new plan that doesn't require the Big Scary Surgery. We all like this plan better. It requires a lot more chemo and some quite significant surgeries, but at each step, Zach's odds of making it to the next step will be much higher than his odds of surviving the Big Scary Surgery were.

Thursday morning the new plan goes into action. Dr. Bigwig is trying a new chemo regimen, one that we can hope will be more unpleasant for the tumor than for Zach, but my goodness, the side effects Zach's been told to expect are awful. It's going to be a hard, hard time, and the request has gone out for prayer support. If that's a thing you do, Thursday morning would be a great time to do it.

Comments

[vgnwtch.livejournal.com]

Will do.

I'm glad to hear that Zach's options are getting further from the Most Extremely Scary end of the spectrum.

[laradionne.livejournal.com]

I'll continue to send lots of love and reiki.

Zack might also want to consider Chinese Medicine to help with those side effects, it's very good at that sort of thing. If you want any help with tracking down resources or practitioners, give me a holler.

[dr-pretentious.livejournal.com]

Actually, his treatment plan at NIH has included weekly acupuncture sessions, and I think during some of the more intense periods of chemo, more than weekly. He's said it makes a tremendous difference and is something he looks forward to every week. The folks at NIH are really into combining the more evidence-supported complementary and alternative therapies into their standard of care. If I'm ever an endangered medical anomaly again, I just hope I'm interesting to a researcher at NIH.

[laradionne.livejournal.com]

I suspected he might, but my memory has tended to be a bit sketchy this past year so I figured I'd mention it "just in case".

[sabrinamari.livejournal.com]

Alright. I will do it!

[kistha.livejournal.com]

Will keep on, keepin' on. Love and support to you all.

[karenjunker.livejournal.com]

You all have our prayers, as always.

Done.

[amushink.livejournal.com]

K-ching. Good luck Zach.