I Think I Found the Biggest Online Douchebag Ever

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LOL Fake Outrageaments

I wish Barney Frank were my Congressman. I'm all about the 1st Amendment, because only in America would we allow this nonsense. "Trying to have a conversation with you would be like arguing with a dining room table."

Frankly, I think ...the poor woman simply can't stop confusing socialism with Nazism, which is odd, because she doesn't *sound* uneducated. She only carries herself as if she were.

I really don't mind that a lot of the rabble-rousers at these town hall events are actually organized plants of various far right groups. I mean, that's the American way, and that's their 1st Amendment right to be there and speak up. That's part of the American political process and, in fact, part of what actually separates us from totalitarian parties such as the Nazis, the Taliban, the North Korean Communist Party, Ahmendinajad's party, etc. The debate is healthy. Hell, I'm a big Obama supporter and I'm hardly 100% convinced of the wisdom of all the aspects of his plan.

But if you do want to exercise your 1st Amendment rights (as I encourage you to do) in a manner that reveals your abject ignorance of the most basic truths, don't be alarmed when your bald faced stupidity is reveled in by everyone else. I mean, that's a lesson Sarah Barracuda keeps having to learn nearly every week, no?

LOL Fake Mustache On A Photoaments

Since It's Been A While....

Yes, it's been a while since I've blogged any further regarding the Good Doctor Mondo's continued recovery from her battle with pneumonia and its aftereffects. In part, this is due to a combination of a couple of factors. First, I've been updating hers and my Facebook pages daily, if not more often. And secondly, there's really very few people who read this blog, and even less who aren't already seeing the Facebook daily updates. Thirdly, I'm too lazy to blog this year generally...

BUT!

I just wanted to share the most awesome news we've had yet.

Yes, the Good Doctor Mondo is still in ICU, but she's been improving rapidly every day for the past week, to the extent that she's now spending chunks of each day virtually off the ventilator (only enough to add a small amount of pressure to her system, but she's doing the actual breathing), and writing on a whiteboard, and doing arm stretches, and such.

In fact, she's improving so much that...they're releasing her from ICU and moving her to a long term acute care hospital. The day after tomorrow. Or the day after that, at the latest.

We could not be more thrilled, she really is recovering, though she's still probably several weeks away from walking, but that will come too. She may be talking within a few days.

In some ways, I can't believe this ordeal is still going on. After all, she entered the hospital over eight weeks ago, and this is her 56th day in intensive care. But we can now truly see the light at the end of the tunnel, it's really happening. I thank each and every one of you who have send messages of well wishes and support over the past couple of months. This has been an experience I truly hope none of you have to endure.

But I'm getting my baby back, and the Good Doctor Mondo will once again be...herself.

Close, But Only Half A Cigar

Erm.

No complaint outta me, but I did have a 2.5:1 chiplead at one point during HU at 400/800.

Still, as much as a drain as my roll's taken lately, I'll take it and be happy.

Pay It Forward

I know this blog has taken on the patina of being much more about my Good Doctor's own battle with life-threatening illness, but at this point, it certainly appears that she is going to make it (recovery length be damned).

However, one of our felllow poker bloggah, the delightful LJ, is in a hell of a predicament herself. Or rather, her cousin is.

Her cousin Mitchell has been diagnosed with lymphoma, and has already had his spleen removed. Unfortunately, the chemo treatments have not had the desired effect, and here is where we all can jump in:

After meeting with a team of doctors, it was decided that my greatest chance of survival would be to start a new regiment of Chemotherapy called R-IVAC, followed by what is called a Blood Stem Cell Transplant. This new Chemotherapy is a different group of drugs with a much higher potency aimed at killing any and all remaining cancer cells. Because of the potency of these drugs, I will need to be admitted to the hospital while undergoing treatments. Each treatment will last five days with a two week recovery in between. Soon after my treatments, I will have another scan of my body to determine the success of the R-IVAC. Depending on the results, I will then need one of two types of Blood Stem Cell Transplants.

If after my next scan, there are any residual cancer cells remaining in my body, I will need what is called an Allogeneic Stem Cell Trans plant. This is where I need your help! An Allogeneic Transplant is where we try to find a donor whose DNA typing best matches mine. The hope is that the donor’s stem cells can be transplanted and start to regenerate new white blood cells that are then capable of destroying my cancer cells. Because finding a donor can be a very time consuming process, and I will need a Blood Stem Cell transplant within four weeks after my last scan, I am asking as many people as possible to get tested now to see if they are a potential match for me. This is possibly the only chance at survival I may have and here is what you can do to help:


First you need to call Lab Corp at 1-800-533-1037 and ask to speak to Sharon, Tanya, or David. Please tell them that you would like to be tested as a potential donor match for Mitchell Brown (Date of Birth: 1-5-1977). You will also need to let them know I am part of the Hackensack University Medical Center Friends and Family Account, so they know where to send the results. They may ask you a few questions and will then send you an easy to use testing kit. The kit will arrive with instructions and will require you to swab the inside of your cheek. It will also ask you some medical questions, which will help identify you as an eligible donor. You will need to follow the directions and mail the kit back to Lab Corp ASAP. When filling out the paperwork, please be sure to give Lab Corp permission to fax your results directly to: CarolAnne Carini, Transplant Coordinator at Hackensack University Medical Center. Her direct fax # is: 201-996-5691. Please understand that there is a cost associated with the kit that is typically not covered by your insurance. Lab Corp will bill you a charge of $150.00 after they receive your kit back in the mail.

After Lab Corp receives your kit and processes your information, they will then forward the results directly to my team of doctors at Hackensack University Medical Center (with your consent). Lab Corp will NOT disseminate your information to anyone else such as a national registry.

More information can be found on Mitchell's blog.

Sometimes, even when your own family is facing crisis, events hit home that illustrate that even when you do have it bad, there's always someone else facing at least a big, or bigger, hill to climb. Good luck, Mitchell.

A Better Evening

Just an update from earlier...the doctors inserted a new trach a few hours ago, and the Good Doctor Mondo's been stable and reasonably comfortable this evening. In fact, if there's no further signs of trach complications, they expect to begin pushing her back towards further progress tomorrow.

I think that's how you spell relief.

Essentially, as potentially (and very nearly) catastrophic as this morning was, it should ultimately just become another bump in the road. I fucking crater sized pothole bump, but one which, once passed, is truly in the past. Hopefully, we can begin moving forward again in the morning.

As she's been sedated and asleep and stable this evening, I have sat here and played some poker, to some success. I played an $11 sat into Bodog's $215 5k guarantee and took it down. Took the $T instead of entering, since that doubled my Bodog roll. But I'm actually likely to put about $165 of that into one of their $100k guarantees soon. Why? Bad Bankroll Management, to be sure, but I've never played the $100k, and in the end, I'd still be playing it for $11. Actually, $22, because I was in two of the sats. Sadly, I went out 3rd or 4th in the other sat, and came really close to winning two of the $215 seats. Oh well. Seriously, I am untiltable in poker anymore, given the far far more important things in life.

Thanks for your continued well wishes, I know the Good Doctor is gaining strength through them.

Well, Crap

Dammit.

I should probably just stop posting, because every time something good happens, it's followed up by something....not good.

Today's "something" was nearly fatal. "Something" happened (nobody's really been able to figure out the cause) which led to a blockage in the Good Doctor Mondo's trach, and she went into VTAC. I don't know what the acronym actually stands for (aside from likely Ventricular Arrythmia something something), but it means a potentially fatal arrythmia. Essentially, with her awake and moving around the last couple of days, something happened that caused her trach tube to be obstructed from getting air where it needs to go.

The doctors had to perform CPR on the Good Doctor, and during the process, she developed a pneumothorax, a small hole in the side of one of her lungs, because of a combination of the chest compression they had to give her, with the already weakened state of her lungs and chest wall muscles.

She has stabilized, and her oxygen numbers are actually pretty good right now. However, she's in a very fragile state, and she's been put back under sedation. Needless to say, any plans of moving her to a rehab facility are indefinitely on hold, and she's likely to be in ICU for several more weeks. It feels as if we're almost back to step one (though not really, because she's pretty much beaten the pneumonia itself).

With all that said, I *do* believe we've made it past this crisis. But now the healing has to begin again.

I can't help but think I shouldn't be putting this out on teh interwebz, but so few people actually see this blog, and I needed to write it *somewhere*. It didn't seem right to Facebook it. But I need the release...we almost lost her this morning, and I'm still kinda freaking out about it.

So yesterday, I went back to work. Today? I'm back to pull a 24 here at the hospital, but I'm going to try to go back to work tomorrow morning because...well, because I have to. But let's get her through today first.

If she's resting comfortably this evening, I may donk a bit to relieve some stress, as she's really too fragile for me to disturb, or wake up, or even to touch right now.

Some Long Awaited Great News

Finally!!!

It's been a pretty whirlwind last couple of days in Mondoland...as of Sunday, the fine doctors removed all of the Good Doctor's sedation, and my darling wife has been awake and alert, and can mouth words. She's still on a ventilator and cannot speak, and she will likely be in ICU for at least another week or two, but ALL signs point to an eventual and full recovery.

Wow.

The last six weeks have alternately felt like an eternity, and an instant. But we're getting there, we're getting there, we're getting there.

So I don't even mind the horrific beat I took deep in the Sunday 1/4 Million the other day. After getting past about 28500 runners, but with a short stack, I overshoved QQ over a standard raise from EP. Flopped a set of queens, and lost runner runner Broadway to the donk who called my overshove with...you guessed it, the mighty A5. That was probably one time where I could have flat called and shoved the flop, but I didn't want to have to potentially fold to an A-high flop and leave about 4 BBs, so IGH around 290th. Ugh. Thought I'd have a major poker brag post coming, but it's not to be.

2nd bad beat...thought I could work from home tomorrow, and thus spend more time at the hospital. That's not going to happen.

But no matter -- all I keep returning back to is...ALL signs point to an eventual and full recovery.

And the Beat Goes On

Seems like forever since my last post, but it's really only been about ten days. There's not really a whole lot going on, other than my continuing to sit by the Good Doctor Mondo's side in intensive care. Yeah, we're still there, it's been what, almost six weeks now, it seems.

The news is good, in many respects. The pneumonia which brought her here in the first place is largely cleared out. That's the great news. However, her long battle with the pneumonia has left behind extremely savaged, scarred and damaged lungs, and she's having a most difficult time trying to recover from the damage left behind. At times, her O2 needs drop a bit, only for her to require increases later. While her sedation needs are overall lower, they've had to restore some of what they previously took off.

The road remains endless, it seems.

My road to poker oblivion is much shorter, and the less said about that, the better. No bad beat stories today, and I have no other stories to tell. Since time eternal, fish find it fit to call good size raises to the river with nothing but 3rd pair, in the face of heavy PF and flop action. I could go broke playing with such bad players, including the one who knocked me out of a big field $3r just before $$$...who had only ever cashed in ONE tournament ever. Once again, I've lost over half my overall online roll. Except this time, it's only take me a week to do so.