I have two decent tickets for each game and they are free to a good household.  The Friday game is certain . . . the other two if needed.  All are on the aisle and around 20 rows back.  Contact me at the e-mail address in my profile.

I don't know why I'm mentioning it here in this context, but I appreciate all of your concerns about my health issues starting in May and you deserve an update.  The healing goes well, though for a year the skin graft on my back will feel like an alien eagle has landed.  The lymph node excision under my right arm will send shots of pain to the hand for several more months.  Neither of those is a big deal.  I take a single pain pill on some days, but on most days none at all.  I'm in better shape this season than the Giants, though I've just begun my school year.

I'm currently debating whether to accept the recommendation of the oncologist to start a regimen of chemotherapy next month.  I've no tumor and no sign of metastasis, but there is a slight statistical reduction of recurrence if one takes a shot of interferon every day for a month and regularly for six months.

The problem, of course, is that most of the time this makes a person sick with "flu-like symptoms."  And I'm having trouble finding statistics that actually make it all seem worth that.  I doubt I could do my job with flu-like symptoms. Clouding the issue is the fact I've felt pretty damned good in the last month, much better than most of the summer.  My three surgical sites are healing well, and I have adequate energy for regular work and play.  It's a good feeling.

Interferon is pretty old school shit.  It's not the hard core chemo that some face, and I don't want to be a wuss about this.  But I'm having trouble finding the numbers that would justify six months of sickness against a spread of the melanoma that seems to have been caught and arrested, according to the scans and tests.  When they say "recurrence reduced by 25%," they seem to mean that instead of 5/100 it is 4/100.

Well, yeah, if you are that one then it's worth it.  But it's a big price to pay for a small chance.  And there is no such thing as a control group because no case is like any other.

I don't know what to do.  I see the oncologist again on Thursday.  He has already made his recommendation.  Yes, I've solicited a second opinion from the onc I consulted at UCSF.  In the end, the choice is mine.