Sent: Saturday, October 30, 1999 2:11 AM
Subject: T+8, evening

If you are new, check out my web page:  http://www.goss.com/david/

I have had at least two instances of others using my email list for sending 
their own messages.  Both are good uses of email, and both are good causes.  
However, I have also had some feedback that some folks have issues with all 
my stuff adding congestion to inboxes and harddrives.  There has been one 
defection, where he asked to stop receiving all this stuff. That sort of 
bummed me out.  Understand that this wonderful technology is literally my 
lifeline, that knowing the concern for my welfare out there is genuine and 
massive is a real asset in my fight for my life.  So, in the future, if 
someone wants to send some mass mailing, please pass it by me and let me 
decide if it should go out.  This may seem a bit 'touchy' to some of you, but 
any large number of requests could only have a negative impact on me.  This 
is also the reason why I have reduced the number of individual pieces of 
email  from my end as compared to earlier in my incarceration.

Things are still exactly on track medically.  However I had two incidents 
that represent bumps in the road rather than other mountains to climb.

I received two units of whole blood yesterday.  They give me blood whenever 
my hematocrit drops below 25, and I was at 23.6 yesterday morning. Both of 
these were from my donor list, one from Vikki Kourkouliotis  at NREL and 
somebody whose signature looks like a J with a series of squiggly, slanted 
lines.  Somebody please take Vikki out for lunch on Monday, find the identity 
of the second person and give them some writing lessons, then take them to 
lunch, and please remember to print your names, as well as sign them on the 
yellow tags titled Directed Donation.  It could earn you a free lunch.

After receiving the second unit, my body temperature spiked to 101.2F.  This 
is a yellow light for the medical people, where they then take frequent 
temperatures.  If it goes above 101.5F, they start taking drastic action.  It 
turned out that the temperature soon dropped back to my normal range.  
Apparently, I had a slight allergic reaction to the second unit of blood.  I 
have dodged the infection bullet so far, and infections are one of the 
mountains that I have to climb.

This morning they gave me a new voodoo substance, immunoglobulin, maybe 
mispelled.  Like all new drugs, they keep a close eye on me to see if there 
are any significant side-effects.  Well, I was going about my business, 
actually going to the bathroom, when my whole body experience uncontollable 
shaking.  Not a pretty site.  Let me just say that the container in the 
toilet they use to collect and measure my urine output will indicate a little 
lower than my actual output, a novel type of measurement error, at least for 
me.  I got back into bed and rang for the nurse.  The voice on the other end 
asked what kind of milk shake I wanted.  Anyway, the nurse came immediately 
and said that the immunoglogulin drip rate was apparently too high, so she 
slowed it down and the tremors subsided.  I was more or less back to normal 
in about 30 minutes, except reasonably exhausted by the experience and zonked 
out by other drugs floating around in side of me.  This was during my mid-day 
time free from Robbie, the time when I go for my daytime walks.  I lay there, 
had some thoughts that maybe this was the day that I should skip the walk.  I 
realized that this, too, was just a bump in the road, dramatic, but not 
serious, and that I could very likely have future episodes of some sort where 
I felt worse and the walk would do me more good.  As such, I got into my 
running shoes, and went for my usual 12 daytime laps, albeit a little slower 
thans usual.  Just like those Marathon training days where I ran training 
runs even when I didn't feel like it.   

My hair loss has slowed down, simply because there is much less to loose.  I 
came out of the shower today with only verry thin hair on my head, but still 
with full sideburns.  I always wondered where they get their ideas for the 
aliens on all those space shows.  

People have asked how I put together my Halloween card.  I lifted the Lon 
Chaney pic from a silent film web site and took the picture of the other guy 
during my evening walks.  I hear that he works here and lives somewhere in 
the basement.  All kidding aside, I had one nurse take 3 digital pix of me, 
and melted one of these with the Phantom picture using the Paint program that 
comes with Windows, trying to make a reasonable transition bit by bit by bit.

They are about to give me some meds that will make me tired so I will cut 
this short.  I still need to do my evening laps, and my daily walking 
distance is now 4250 feet.  Not bad.

Dave