Kyle Banerjee's Blog

Lately, I’ve been getting a lot of questions about Keiko, so I thought I might explain what’s going on. About three months ago, fiber optic endoscopy and biopsies confirmed that she has transitional cell carcinoma. I was told that she might get a couple months of good quality life, but that her meds would eventually quit working. We were not given any hope that she’ll survive. I saw the pictures from the scope myself. I didn’t need any medical training to understand how hopeless the situation is.

The good news is that she’s still her old playful self. Some of her vision has returned (though she is still mostly blind) — we believe that is because a tumor pressuring the optic nerve has been reduced in size by her meds. She has outlived the expectations of the oncologist. To use his words, “some dogs just surprise you.”

Her prognosis is still hopeless, and we don’t know how much time she has left. Some days are better than others, but she’s starting to pass blood with more regularity and she needs significantly more rest than she used to. Having said that, she’s still a happy girl and she enjoys the same things she always has.

I’m just thankful for getting to spend the extra time with her. We’ve probably been to the beach more times in the past 3 months than we’ve been in the past 3 years. Keiko (and we) have been eating much better than normal. Even ordinary things like playing fetch, going for a walk, or even just sitting around are much more meaningful when you realize you’re on borrowed time. In reality, we’ve been on borrowed time from the very beginning and just didn’t think about it until recently. I’m glad we had a chance to make things right before it was too late.

I’ve never thought Californians are totally normal, so when I saw lots of middle aged women shouting into the air (i.e. not directing their comments towards any visible humans) during a trip to San Jose a few weeks ago, I wasn’t surprised.

It occurred to me that while most people would had regarded such behavior as nutty a few years ago, it just doesn’t carry the same stigma that it used to. Thanks to the magic of cell phones and bluetooth, you can not only talk to someone who is hundreds of miles away, you don’t even have to take your phone out of your purse or pocket to do so. The end result is that having an ordinary conversation makes you look like a raving lunatic.

I’m leery of thinking about the “good ‘ol days” but at the same time, I’m wondering what technology has done for communication. When television first came out, people were saying how it was going to spread culture and education everywhere. According to Nielsen research, the average American household has a TV on more than 7 hrs/day, and the average person spends a little over 4 1/2 hours actually watching it. This means that instead of living regular lives, people either watch actors pretending to be people who don’t even exist, or worse, they gawk at people making fools of themselves on “reality shows” that rely almost exclusively on voyeuristic appeal.

Email was also supposed to improve communication and cultural understanding. The practical effect is that there are millions of people who can’t spell, express thoughts coherently, or conduct a normal conversation so they send email to people sitting 10 feet away. I can barely read all the crazy texting jargon that’s worked its way into our language.

Theoretically, cell phones are a very useful device, but they seem to have conditioned us to prefer talking to machines rather than people who are with us. And with bluetooth, we’re now yelling into empty air.

I can’t wait for the next killer technological application…..