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Will miracles never cease?
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 5:06 pm
by Matt Monson
In last week I have seen both VRG and Ciper post. If I see Morgie post I am going to start praying because it will be the end of days...
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 10:44 pm
by ciper
Haha thanks.
I would have posted before but I just completely lost interest. After being screwed for my Turbo Legacy (see thread in community forum) and going through so much chemo and a divorce I didn't feel like doing anything fun.
Now the cancer has stopped growing (as far as I can tell) and I want to continue my original quest to turbo my wagon. Funds are pretty tight since I have no worked for the past 1.5 years and the medical expenses nearly killed me. Luckily I kept paying for the insurance because for example my total bill for only 2 months earlier this year was nearly 300k$!!
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:11 pm
by TheSubaruJunkie
Im still waiting for THAWA to come back. But yes, its good to see Ciper in good spirits and a suprise to see VRG posting as well.
Posted: Thu Dec 06, 2007 11:26 pm
by ciper
I think Thawa is back...
BTW TheSubaruJunkie did we ever meet?
Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 12:34 am
by Subtle
High Ciper

Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 5:01 am
by Kelly
Ya, good to see you guys back on here. Lots of new folks, but still lots of old guys too. Nonetheless, your kinda originals, and we all can apreceate some good solid knowlage.

Posted: Fri Dec 07, 2007 7:45 am
by TheSubaruJunkie
No ciper, i dont believe we ever have. Scottzg, Ryan, Thawa & I used to come down to the bay area and tried getting you in, but you were busy all the time.
its cool, im sure now we'll have a chance to meet. I havent seen THAWA in years and he even lives a few miles from me. Havent even seen his car (either the Leggy or the SVX) on the streets.
Posted: Sat Dec 08, 2007 6:09 pm
by Matt Monson
Ciper,
It's good to see you back and hear that you are on the mend. There were rumours of your cancer but nobody really had any sort of solid information on it. I am glad you are still with us (on this earth) as well as back on the board.
If there are any parts I can donate to the cause let me know. If I have spares that you need to make it happen, they are yours for the cost of shipping. I would love to help make your dream come true...
Posted: Sun Dec 09, 2007 5:15 am
by ciper
Thank you
I had surgery in 2005 and 2006, then chemo in late 2006 and mid 2007. For a while it didnt look good since it had spread so much. At one point I had a tumor that was 2x3x5 inches.
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:13 am
by NICO
^^ nice to see you back ciper. i am glad your ok, i have seen alot in my 29years of my close ants uncles have cancer an its not a good thing.
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 4:00 pm
by Matt Monson
I know that Nico bugs some people, but didn't know that he was actually related to ants...

Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 5:51 pm
by evolutionmovement
That extra pair of arms makes it easy to rebuild all those blown engines.
Posted: Wed Dec 12, 2007 10:51 pm
by NICO
lol lol,
i am glad ciper is ok....... even thow i cant explian it well.
Posted: Thu Dec 13, 2007 12:31 am
by Matt Monson
NICO I WRX U wrote:lol lol,
i am glad ciper is ok....... even thow i cant explian it well.
Oh Nico,
We love you even if your English isn't so good. It was a joke.
An ant is a bug (bugs was a pun).
Your aunt is married to your uncle.
I was just giving you a hard time...
Posted: Sat Dec 15, 2007 1:49 am
by ciper
The way to test for cancer is pretty much crap. The only universal test is to wait a while for it to grow then do a PET scan and see if it shows up. I find out in the next couple weeks if it grew back or not.
If I wasn't so lazy to type I'd have quite the story to tell you all. Maybe some day. Feel free to ask questions if you like.
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 2:32 am
by farfrumwork
wow Ciper!!
I help develop electrosurgical instruments (think long thick needles that deliver RF or Microwave enegery into tissue in order to kill it) that are used to ablate tumors so I see lots of data and info on tumors of various natures - but 3x3x5 INCHES is insane. Normally we discuss treatment of tumors more like 3-5cm in diameter, so maybe 2Inches...
Good luck man! And on top of that, Great job coming this far through treatments. I look forward to seeing you around here for a while now
-Chad
Posted: Sun Dec 16, 2007 2:54 am
by ciper
Yeah it was very big. When they looked at my CT films it looked to only be about 2 inches diameter. Then they started moving up threw layers and it got longer and longer and wider. Originally they considered using radiation and possibly chemo on top of it but once they saw the size they knew radiation wouldnt work. The tumor was so thick it would take extremely high exposures to have an effect, which would have screwed up the surrounding organs and possibly cause bone cancer!
It actually got a little larger after it was measured but I have no scan to tell how much. It grew until it had pinched off a ureter. In other words the same effect as a large kidney stone.
- There are no words to describe the pain your kidney can cause you. The doctor said that women preferred child birth over it. I have a very high tolerance to pain and yet I was thrashing, white, sweating and delirious. They even gave me some form of strong opiate based pain reliever and I could still feel it! Eventually I had to have a stint put in to keep it from destroying my right kidney.
The tumor was growing in the middle of my body. I was essentially ripping me apart from the inside as it swelled.
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 6:13 pm
by farfrumwork
wow - again.
I know this is MORE than a reality for you, but it gives me new inspiration for the work I do everyday knowing that there are PEOPLE out there who can benefit from the things we make. (it's a coporate environment, so I need to connect it to people, NOT profits for shareholders)
I hope you continue to improve and thrive.
Now go wrench on a car!
-Chad
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:24 pm
by Matt Monson
Hello:
I am getting a cat scan in the next couple of days. I had a seizure on Satruday night. Scary shit. They think it is most likely stress related, but want to rule out the possibility of a tumour by going through all of the proper tests...
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 8:44 pm
by ciper
If you see anything strange push your doctor to push the insurance to pay for a PET scan if you can. Usually the insurance won't cover it even if you call them and they say they will. I almost got screwed that way.
Were you watching any flashing lights at the time? Christmas lights perhaps?
Good thing you reminded me. I need to reschedule my PET scan. One lasting side effect of the Chemo was the inability to form new memories sometimes. If you have seen the movie memento then you can understand how you can still learn to do things and dont forget how to do old tasks but remembering situations doesnt work. Mine isnt that bad but it still sucks
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:40 pm
by farfrumwork
Take care Matt. That is some scary shit for sure.
Hopefully it is stress, and you can turn it down a notch and be well. Not that stress is always as easy to control as a it sounds... I wake up every Monday morning around 4:30 due to latent stress I have about work (and that's minor stress, really)
And with Ins - Call before anything is done and confirm the policy (copay/80%/etc..) then get the NAME of the person you are speaking with - Ins companies live to screw their policy holders! I have issues with $5-900 bills when bringing my son in to urgent care.... can't imagine a $300k bill like Ciper
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:45 pm
by Fkyx
Matt -- Hopefully all is well. That is a frightening event, and I'm glad you're doing something about it.
Posted: Mon Dec 17, 2007 11:57 pm
by Matt Monson
Thanks for the kind thoughts folks. I have to confess I am pretty freaked out about it all. I reallly dismissed it over the weekend, but when I called the doctor this morning is when it hit home. I really hope that nothing wrong with me, but the only way to find out is to go see someone who knows better than I do.
I have had some history with insurance as well. When I rolled my car and nearly died, they tried to saddle me with more than $6,000 in bills for things that were done to me without my consent and when I wasn't concious. Insurance claimed the doctor was doing things that weren't required to keep me alive. Of course, that was true, but how is that my problem? We rely on doctors to be our experts and advocates and if this backwoods hack of a doctor is doing unneccesary procedures on my body, you can be sure as hell I am not going to pay the guy. Eventually, the doctor and the insurance company agreed to write off most of it with the doctor seeing something like $2500 of the total...
Posted: Tue Dec 18, 2007 12:49 am
by evolutionmovement
It's so hard to find a good doctor. I've been to several to figure out what causes my occasional dizzy spells, but since they're glorified mechanics that only seem to know what they see everyday, they kept focusing on it being a possible heart issue. This in spite of the fact that they ruled it out three times (and I could've told them it wasn't that anyway). The other possibility of it being an inner ear issue they don't seem to want to do anything about (probably because they don't have much of a clue and they're aren't any drugs they can sell me to fix it).
It took my mother's house burning down a couple weeks ago for her to finally find a decent doctor to look into her chronic respiratory problem her previous doctors she had seen dismissed as COPD and gave her some worthless pills (after, all why do your job and diagnose something when you can play golf?). But I guess he DID do his job - the overpaid pharmaceutical salesman sold her some drugs. I see why Rambo preferred treating his own wounds with gunpowder.
Sorry about the doctor rant - it doesn't take me much to get started. On anything.
I hope it's something benign that they can figure out and treat. A friend of mine used to get seizures once in a while as a kid from stress (supposedly, but I believe it - he was a real nervous kid), but from what I heard about him years later, he just kind of stopped getting them sometime in his teens and he was fine.
Posted: Wed Dec 19, 2007 5:12 pm
by Matt Monson
So,
They don't think my incident in neurological. They are doing a few more tests manana, but they think it was just a fainting spell. If it happens again, they will look further into it. My dad has something really similar happen in 1978 and it turned out to be nothing. However, in his instance they did do a spinal tap and it didn't seal properly and really fucked him up for a couple of weeks. He was bedridden because every time he got vertical it was like a metal band around his brain. I don't want that shit if I can avoid it...