2000 - No. 4
   Because of my ME/CFS I can’t exercise, so I have little strength.  Therefore, I didn’t think I would ever bowl (10 pin in NZ) again.  Just can’t loft a 16 lb ball and the lighter balls’ holes are too small for my fingers.  Agreed to go to new lanes in Pukekohe where there were light balls that I could use.

 First game I used a 13 pounder and lost to four other bowlers in our group of nine.  When I tried a 12lb ball for the second game, I leapt from 103 to 188, topping all comers.

 Nao*, who entertained us with animated dances of joy upon rolling a strike, managed to keep it close to the final frame with a 176.   He wants a rematch so he can beat me.   But at $8 per line we aren’t going to rush back out.

*Naotake = Renee’s fellow.

click Nao to see photos

     About a year ago Gail got noise in her right ear and then lost hearing. Righted itself, but returned in March so off to doctor who arranged a hearing test – just normal.  Then a specialist who put her onto several medications to cover all possibilities and she had an MRI. That showed a tumor so off to another specialist who was quite eager to operate.  Specialist almost had her convinced to operate this December so she could have the summer off to recoup. His scalpel method is to cut into the head and remove tumor – a six hour operation, followed by a week in hospital and then 6 weeks to get back on her feet, with a lot of nausea and pain. Plus she would lose hearing and probably half of her facial muscles. As fate would have it I happened to have Renee’s TV in my room (because she was living at Brundell’s house while he was off to South Africa) and I happened to turn on the ABC news at midnight (pure luck) and there was an item about a new technology, CyberKnife, for the exact tumor that Gail has.  You walk in sit down and 15 minutes later you walk out. Small chance of losing 100% hearing and even smaller chance of destroying facial nerves. So thanks to the internet we have tracked down hospitals in the US that have or well have it within the next year. And more recently we have found a hospital in NZ that has a similar technology, not as advanced.  So now we have to decide when and where and if we can afford it. To get technical she has what used to be called an acoustic neuroma, but now known as a Vesitibular Schwannoma. A benign slow growing tumor.  The non-scalpel procedure is called stereotactic and the gizmo currently in use is called a Gamma Knife and it sends small amounts of radiation from about 200 angles all hitting the target and thereby minimizing damage to the good cells surround the tumor. Only problem is accuracy as they go by an MRI and X-rays to aim.  That’s why the head has the braces screwed into it, so there is no movement. But the one I saw on TV uses guided missile technology. The MRI info is fed into a computer and then during the operation there is a live MRI picture, so that means if the patients moves, the computer adjust the rays accordingly, therefore no brace needs to be screwed into the head. And because of more powerful computers there are twice as many rays (about 400) and that means each individual ray is half the strength of the Gamma Knife and therefore less damaging to surrounding tissue.  An operation is probably one year away. But she will have an MRI about the middle of next year and we’ll see how fast it is growing.  It is 11mm now and when it gets to 25mm it must come out.
Look,
What They've Done!		 Malley
Muses		 $
The new owners of our Papakura house have removed every tree, bush and plant save one kauri tree. That’s over 300 of them, just so they can build 2 more houses. Gone is the 100 year old walnut, the over-laden citrus, feijoa and apple trees. The beautiful rhododendrons and camellias. The silk tree. The majestic Hall’s totara. I often wonder why petrol stations in this country bother to post prices on the street. Each company sells at exactly the same cost. If one (usually BP) raises the price by 4¢, the other three follow within 24 hours.  Competition is non-existent. They all get petrol from the same storage tanks and make no claims that their own brand has better additives, because there is no difference. Stop press!!! Two after I wrote the above Shell has decided it wants have the most share of the market and we are having a price war with prices falling almost hourly. Exciting stuff.
click on picture to see the damage
    JNM Productions