Better, the back pain is mostly gone, but the prognosis wasn't great. I actually had/have 2 masses. The back pain was caused by testicular cancer, that mass was removed Tuesday. It was large and had to be removed through an appendectomy type incision. The mass I still have is around my stomach and will require chemotherapy, it's directly related to the testicular mass. Exactly what type of cancer they are hasn't been determined yet, but my oncologist thinks it's most likely the same type that Lance Armstrong had. I just hope this doesn't mean that not only am I going to have chemo but I'll have to train for the Tour de France! It does have a 95% success rate for a cure though.

The doctors and administrators at Umass Memorial were/are great though. I have no insurance so, looking at what I'm to be going through, they bumped my free care up to full-blown Umass Health, (which will cover all my perscriptions, labs and chemo), Social Security Disabailty Insurance, and short term Unemployment Insurance till all my paperwork kicks in!

All in all, I'm very optomistic about recovery, and really don't have the fear I had before I went in.

I guess with my upcoming off-time from work, I'll finally be able to catalog my chips before the convention. Then again it's not like I really need an excuse to sort and play with chips!

==Mike==
R-5986