Wednesday, July 2, 2008

I feel good, Thank you, Dentist, Cats, Perfect Practice Makes Perfect, Yoga, Yoda, What is it like?, Pana Jungla, Iron Man, Incredible Hulk

Aloha!

I feel good! Thank you for reaching out and writing and calling me. I used the energy to cure some more cancer and clean up those dead glioblastoma multiforme cells lingering around between my ears. I use the energy to help my normal, “non cancerous”, cells healthy from the chemo therapy.

I went to the Dentist this week and my teeth are clean and healthy. Chewing food is important and after all, mastication is one of the first steps in the digestive process. I just love chewing good food.

I met with Dr. Monticelli my most excellent, Willamette Valley Cancer Center oncologist. My blood work is good and I can now hang out with cats and not be at serious risk of taxoplasmosa.

As is my way, I told Dr. Monticelli about my starting to teach yoga. I could not leave it like that. I associated teaching yoga as a practice with some similarities to the practice of medicine. Practice does not make perfect. Practice makes permanent. Perfect practice makes perfect. Actually that is a way simplified version of practice that I use to teach at a level people with over 20 years of formal education plus continuing education can grasp.

Yoda said, “You must unlearn what you have learned.” As you can clearly see, highly educated people may have a bit of unlearning to do from time to time. I am not making any inferences towards Dr. Monticelli who I respect and love dearly. I just throw the tidbit out there so we can have compassion for the very least of us and for all of us no matter what their education or socioeconomic status may be.

What is it like to have an emergency craniotomy? As I recall it was kind of fun but I do not remember much the week before Thanksgiving 2007. I found my Panamanian Jungle Survival Certificate, Pana Jungla, yesterday in a box of memorabilia. I have more memories of Pana Jungla 25 years ago than I do of the week before Thanksgiving last year. I do not recommend either experience for the non prepared practitioner. The hardest part for me as a brain surgery patient was recovering in the hospital but I had wonderful care from Sacred Heart Medical Center and my family and friends that I was able to tap into. It is kind of a drag trying to sleep with your torso elevated at something like a 45 degree angle. Vomitting is kind of gross too. I do not remember the morphine doing much except for dulling the bone pain in my skull.

Both “Iron Man” and the “Incredible Hulk” are fun movies and more entertaining than I expected. I recommend them if you like Robert Downey Jr. and Edward Norton. The supporting actors are wonderful in the films as well. Great effects and a better than expected story. The movies may be too violent for some.

Be well,
Jack Burton

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