Finishing up Jay's View 68 - Tree time 2009 - 12 Days of Christmas
I'm finishing up my Christmas video for 2009 - Getting the family Christmas tree and a pretty wild compilation of "The Cousins" (Our Grandchildren) singing the Twelve Days of Christmas. I should have it ready to be on MVTV at 8PM tonight - Jay's View 68
6:15 ferry Cancelled due to wind and cold, but the 7:30 is braving it
The new boat, the Island Home, doesn't seem to be able to run in this weather, but the M/V Martha's Vineyard is slogging its way through the wind and waves as I type. So much for progress.
On the ferry headed off to Boston
Going up to Mass General to see my cancer doc. I have had swollen lymph nodes in the right side of my groin for a while now. Since most of the cancer in my prostate was in the right side it seemed logical to me that the swelling might be due to the spread prostate cancer. I wrote my surgeon about it. He called me back and said that he doubted that the swelling was due to spread prostate cancer because when prostate cancer spreads to the lymph nodes it goes to lymph nodes deep in the abdomen and not to those in the groin. He wondered if it might be a hernia, but thought that I should see Dr. Smith in any case. So here I go. I had a PSA test last week and the result was 0.92 which is up from 0.67 last June and 0.50 in September of 2008. I plugged those numbers into doubling rate caculator I found on the web. Plugging in the data we get the result:
The best fit to the doubling time is 1.45 years.
The doubling time lies within the interval (1.27,1.69) years.
The precision of the fit is good with chi^2 per degree of freedom = 0.22.
Without treatment the psa could reach the life-threatening level of 4,000
in the year 2028 or within the interval (2025,2031).
[Graph of likely evolution of psa.]
The input data were:
On 15 September 2008 his psa was 0.50 (ng/ml).
On 6 June 2009 his psa was 0.67 (ng/ml).
On 20 December 2009 his psa was 0.92 (ng/ml).
---------------------
So if the doubling rate doesn't increase, which unfortunately it seems to be doing, I will have quite a few more years of life. And there is always the hope that with all the research being done there will be ways to deal with the cancer in the coming years.
I Woods Hole, time to catch the bus to Boston.
Playing around
I have the feeling that if I keep making these things then they will start to become something that talks back to me. If I make a whole bunch then I probably get some that I really like as well as a lot that just don't work out and aren't worth trying to fix.
The way I make this type of figure is by putting sculptor's wax over copper wire. The wax is pretty hard and stable at room temperature, but you can work it with your hands and fingers or otherwise soften it by warming it, using a hair dryer or whatever. So you can leave it and come back to it later if necessary. It doesn't create a mess like working with clay or plaster, and doesn't smell bad like modelling clay. Then the best part is that when you get it where you think you want it, the piece can be directly made into cast bronze without messing with the whole mold making and creating the wax copy. Then the bronze version can be worked until it works as a bronze. Then a mold can be made of the bronze which is just the way you want it as a bronze.
Sunny but Cold at Lucy Vincent Beach
Nothing like a Rock Slide for a little fun.
So cold that we are the only ones at the beach. Not counting the seagulls and ducks. Can you believe it?
Recess time
Nothing like going to the beach to blow off some extra energy. Marianne keeps track of the tides, because this time of year there is no beach at all at high tide. Wet feet are no fun in December.
Checking out the Wildlife
There were a couple of malard ducks on the pond and some wild eyed bikers in the woods.
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