Friday, July 11, 2008

Hey Guys, Sorry About the Sushi...

In addition to the work, work, work, I've had to deal with my favorite show that I've ever worked on getting moved out of state and putting me back looking for a job this fall, and the upcoming Yes-Virginia-there-really-is-another-strike SAG-fiasco...

And then this spring my Dad had a bit of skin cancer they thought they'd caught in time spread to a saliva duct (gland?), with all the concomitant surgery and radiation. They caught it all, and early. But the surgery left him with some lingering facial nerve damage, and the radiation he's finishing up this week may leave him with permanent hearing loss on one side (waiting to hear on that...). So things Chez Panda have been up-and-down. Which hasn't left me in the mood to write much here, because dropping off the face of the planet just to pop up and whine once every three months seems a bit, well, rude.

All that to say, hey - we actually had some fun for once! Look, fish!


(click for bigger-er)



And sea turtles!


(you should really click this one... it looks much better bigger)

Those shots are some from the Hawaii/Maui trip. We took a boat ride out to Molokini, and I rented a still camera from the boat. LB rented a video camera from them, but the video needs to be converted before I can share it here. But it's not bad (way better than my stills, anyway) considering it was our first time snorkeling AND first time trying to film fish underwater while we were floating one way, and they were swimming the other.

I think they call it "having fun". Huh. It may actually catch on.

2 Comments:

At 5:52 PM, July 11, 2008, Blogger Romance said...

Sorry to hear about your dad and hope he heals up well. My aunt had a saliva duct/gland cancer and after some initial facial paralysis/numbnes she has good mobility back in her face... Fingers crossed for your dad on having good outcomes...

Pretty photos... glad you got a vacation..

 
At 8:43 PM, July 11, 2008, Blogger panda said...

He's down to the last two days of his radiation and (fingers crossed) is only having mild symptoms rather than the rather painful picture they painted.

Part of the reason for his more-severe-than-expected facial weakness was that the tumor ended up wrapping itself around and in the fork of a major nerve that travels up to the eye and down the face. So they had to take off more of the nerve than they originally planned in order to clean things up.

He's doing well, though the loss of one side of his million watt smile left him a a bit depressed. He's such a people person, he can't stand not being able to smile at everyone properly!

Still, prognosis is good, and the doctors say he can consider himself cancer free. So I'm 90% one big puddle of relief.

Thanks for the crossed fingers!

 

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