On clean ipods and another attempted glueing

Penny was intermittently doing laundry the other night while we were sitting on the couch watching tv. After she put some laundry into the dryer we heard a clunk clunk clunk like someone had thrown a set of pliers in there as well. When she went to see what it was, she laughed first then said "Dan, it looks like you may have got your wish". She walked back into the room holding my ipod complete with headphones still attached. You see, for a few weeks before that I had been complaining that my ipod (an 8GB nano) was full and could it please break soon (its 3 1/2 years old) so I could get a new one. Apparently after going for a walk the day before, I left my ipod in my pocket and forgot to remove it. So at first glance it appeared that my wish had come true. However because we are a household that doesn't give up easily (you hear that cancer?) Penny wouldn't take no for an answer. She got on the computer and googled "washed my ipod" which turned up a startling number of results (apparently I'm not the first one to pull that maneuver). One of the suggestions said don't press any buttons and immediately place the laundered ipod in question in a sealed container covered with rice. As skeptical as we were we gave it a shot. A couple of days later we dubiously opened the container to find a seemingly dead ipod. But after a short session of button pushing the screen lit up displaying the 'plug me into your computer" symbol. After plugging it in, I reformatted and charged it and since then it's worked really well. There are a few minor issues (the backlight doesn't always work and the buttons require more force than usual to work) but for the most part it's just like new. Bottom line? Don't wash your ipod. But if you do, make yourself some ipod sushi and you might just find yourself lucky (or is that unlucky?) like me.

I had my fifth glue treatment today. I'm on a first name basis with most of the doctors and nurses there so things go pretty smoothly now. They know what needs to be done and the quantity of drugs to administer. I just show up and hang out and get probed. Of course the glue didn't completely work again this time but they had more trouble forcing it through the fistula which could mean it's closing up. They are going to try again on Tuesday and then again on Thursday with the hope that having the treatments closer together might help. We'll see how that goes.

In other news, today was my last day of the chemo pills. I feel pretty good all things considered. My main side effects are fatigue, hot hands and feet (it feels like the palms of my hands and soles of my feet are sunburned) and a constant mild nausea. Overall its been quite manageable. Obviously I'm not looking forward to starting the serious chemo in 10 days.

That's all for now...