You’d be 85 this year. I often wonder what you’d think of the world if you were alive, and then I have to remind myself that “alive” was really a decade ago (prior to PPA).

I miss you, Dad.

Service Mark has been published.

Findings consistent with a left vestibular schwannoma,
unchanged in appearance since 11/06/2024.

Even though my perception of hearing continues to decline, and I’m starting to feel a few facial ticks, the tumor is unchanged in terms of visual assessment via MRI.

The symptoms are making it clear that imaging can’t tell the full story, but it’s the best outcome - since it’s benign, if I can wait to treat it for as long as possible, I can maximize the remaining hearing in my left ear and prolong the unknown treatment and recovery time.

Here’s a snapshot of an upcoming week.

I still have a LOT to learn about building my plan, but for now I’m excited for the opportunity to dial things in for my life and schedule - and to automate it where I can.

The world has shrunk, its borders frayed,
By forces I can’t bend or sway.
The tide of time, the weight of fear,
The walls close in, the paths unclear.

A silence falls where voices sang,
Connections lost, the echoes hang.
The children grow, their paths diverge,
Their laughter now a distant surge.

Eyes once bright, now look away,
The warmth of love, a fleeting stay.
And news rains down, a storm of stone,
The world turns colder, I’m left alone.

But as it shrinks, my sky unfolds,
A vastness deeper, rich, and bold.
For every door that time has sealed,
A boundless inner space revealed.

The shrinking world, a quiet plea,
To grow the universe in me.
What I can’t change, I will transcend,
And let this shrinking world extend.

— ChatGPT