OK, no relapse of sarcoidosis so far — my operation was a biopsy, not a treatment, so I’ve either just gotten lucky or my body going into heavy repair mode after surgery helped drive the other into a sort of remission — but my medical adventure is not quite done yet.
Anne says that my blood is low in iron and she’s still concerned about my thyroid output, two issues that were raised in advance of the lymphoma scare earlier this year. Blood tests are monitoring how my thyroid is doing, and I’ve got two treatments that push the “cure is worse than the disease” boundary.
First, I’m taking they-might-as-well-be-black pills to raise the iron count in my blood. These are to be taken on a full stomach, as they can apparently cause a nasty stomach ache and (TMI WARNING! STOP READING NOW!) they’re also apparently destined to turn my poo black. Lovely.
Secondly, to curb the futile cough I do still get from having lymph nodes the size of sausage links pressing against my lungs — I cough and cough, but with nothing to expel, it does no good and can go on seemingly forever — I’ve been given a steroid inhaler. There’s nothing in the literature that says this might help with sarcoidosis (although heavier doses of steroids taken in pill form can combat other symptoms, but no one thinks taking steroids in big doses for up to 10 years is a smart long-term move), but it’s also in such a low dose that it can’t do any harm, even if it doesn’t ease the swelling in my trachea. But here’s the kicker: I have to take two hits of the inhaler twice a day, followed by a big glass of water, otherwise I might get a yeast infection in my mouth.
It’s a damn good thing I’m not single.
My review of Terry Pratchett’s “Monstrous Regiment ” has just gone up at Amazon.com.
“Monstrous Regiment” shouldn’t work. The mix of fantasy, humor, war novel, social commentary (especially regarding the place of women in society), tying it in to the larger overarching storylines that have developed in the Discworld novels and creating a new setting and mostly brand new cast should have been a mess.
It shouldn’t have worked, but it did.
 Borogravia is a small isolated backwater of a nation, with its only natural resources apparently being an infinitely deep well of hostility for its neighbors, flavored with the worship of a pugnacious (and increasingly strange) god and the cult of personality surrounding a ruler who has not been seen in decades and who never produced an heir.
And like all nations that can least afford a war, Borogravia is endlessly involved in them, typically as the aggressor. The nation is being steadily depopulated of men with all their limbs. Finally, Polly Perks has decided she’s had enough — her slow-witted brother has been taken off to war, and she has no idea whether he’s alive or dead, and she’s determined to find him and bring him back to the family inn. So Polly cuts her hair, disguises herself as a man (simple in a country where all women wear skirts or dresses, especially for a girl with a somewhat boyish figure) and joins the military.
Of course, it’s never quite that simple. This is war, after all, and a war that Borogravia has not just lost, but is apparently about to lose decisively, once and for all. Fortunatelly, Borogravians are both ignorant and pugnacious, and fighting for their horrible little country, because it’s THEIR horrible little country is what comes naturally. Despite overwhelming odds, including a massive coalition of foreign governments sick to the back teeth of the little country, Polly’s unit — which hides more secrets than just hers — blunders its way into history, fame and the possibility of transforming Borogravia forever.
In addition to telling a gripping adventure story of Polly’s unit roaming the wasteland that was once Borogravia, pursued by a very angry prince and his crack troops, and heading towards an impregnable castle that they have no chance to break into, let alone take, Pratchett is also making a very real examination of military life (one decidedly slanted in favor of the enlisted units, in Pratchett’s typical populist style) and, more importantly, what it means to be a woman in society and in the military. This is a lot for a little novel to be packed with, and it doesn’t always work — the Vietnam movie jokes that are tossed in are only mildly cute and probably should have been cut — and there’s probably too many interesting characters in her unit — as neat as trolls, Igors and the Discworld vampires are, we don’t need them in this novel, and certainly not both of them.
But overall, the book works, and works well, as an adventure novel, a military novel and even a novel that, in its own way, is an examination of modern female roles. In a lot of ways, its ambition helps elevate it — instead of just being a romp through the streets of Ankh-Morporkh (as fun as those may be), “Monstrous Regiment” is elevated to the level of “Small Gods” (with which it shares a bit of cosmology) and other “deeper” Discworld novels.
Strongly recommended for Discworld fans, and generally recommended for readers of military fantasy novels, including “The Black Company” and “A Song of Ice and Fire.” It’s surprising how much of a commentary “Monstrous Regiment” appears to be of those darker, more “adult” novels at times.
Go and vote for how swell a review you think it is (it really is!) as I have a pathetic need to cling to the Top 1000 Reviewers list, even as I enjoy upsetting true believers who found “Underworld” or “The Bourne Supremacy” to be great films. Yes, I have a sickness.
 As I write this, WS_FTP is deleting the old Secret Identity site. Everything worth porting over is now available from this site. To find it, click on Geek. (I’m going to be looking around for a search utility for this site, as well.)
In addition, I’ve put links to almost all of my Hesperia Star work on the site now (just trying to find a copy of the July 20, 2004 issue). You can look through them, along with lots of other articles I’ve been adding, either from the Wandering Star site or by typing them in manually, by clicking on Journalism.
Wandering Star gets closed down next, once I figure out how to make static pages using this system actually come up — I think I have to mess with CHMOD and other such nonsense, so it might take a day or three. In the meantime, I’ve been porting pieces over steadily, and trying to decide where to put my old fiction. (No clever comments, please.)
If you happen to be in Galeton, PA today, track down my friend Sarah Biddle and her guy Jason Williams and wish them all the best on their nuptials. I know I do. Congratulations, guys!
It only took five years and a fatal disease scare to get me to update the site. Kris, you can stop fussing about this now.
The blog will be my primary way to keep people updated on health issues, the cat’s health issues and all the rest of the things that periodically necessitate talking to a dozen or so people about something. (Yes, at least that many people are interested in the affairs of furry spinster Motley Sue. Go figure.)
Really opinionated stuff most likely won’t show up here, simply because it would be A Bad Thing for the people I cover in Hesperia to feel like they could see my personal biases slipping into my work at the paper. A few already do think they see it, but since I’ve done my best to be a blank slate, what they see tends to be cancelled out by what other people see, and over time, most people who care about such things have grudgingly accepted that I’m trying to be fair all around. Coming out as a staunch believer in X, Y or Z would make that a lot more precarious.
I will have opinions about other stuff, but fair warning up front, it won’t be heavy duty “Economist“-inspired discussions of world issues, but more along the lines of what I felt about the last book I read (“Monstrous Regiment” by Terry Pratchett, amazingly good) and such.
I will slowly be strip-mining and then closing the old Secret Identity and Wandering Star sites, incorporating that content into the new set-up. Where appropriate, I’ll actually be backfilling in the blog with dated entries, so don’t be surprised to see past months and years fill up with entries, much like the sarcoidosis-related mass e-mails below have appeared, months before the blog actually opened.
Oh, and if you miss the old classic LBY3.com front page, I liked it too, in all its simplicity. A stripped-down version that just points to the sites that still exist can be found here.
Talk to you soon.
|
|
|
|
