6.16.06, The Straight Story

OK, certain completely wild over-statements, not even over-statements, just crazy falsehoods have come to my attention regarding "my condition," and it seems necessary to set the story straight & remind some readers what the original purpose of the blog is. Family members in particular, this is for you.

The real story is that I'm fine, you know, given the larger circumstances. There have been no dramatic changes, no setbacks, no surprises or emergencies, etc. I even feel better than the last few days, don't know if I'd say 7 on the Franky Scale but I do feel better than yesterday, which was probably a low 6. I posted that online, though, you should trust what I put up here; I'm not going to complain constantly ever but I will let you know honestly how things are.

Our family. We all know that the family is not the best at accurately conveying information to each other, and that with a handful to a dozen people involved that's even harder. It's like a game of Telephone gone wild. But that's one reason I started doing the blog, so you could each check in without me calling every individual, and you could see "Oh, some nausea today, too bad," or "Ah, less nausea, new pain meds, that's good," or whatever; and so there is one source of information. Still baffles me how one phone conversation can result in so many fictions. I know people worry, I realize it must be hard to be far away and rely on the blog, but "Whatta ya gonna do?"

Funny, I had to send an email kind of like this, but much more professional in tone of course, to a graduate student last week, just to remind the student that telling other students or faculty "I heard X & Y are happening next year because Prof. Jones is...." Rumors. Not good policy; I thought everyone knew this kind of thing.

Too bad I don't carry as much authority with my family as I do with grad students. Life would be easier. So please don't worry so much, maybe read more carefully instead. :-)