Updates & Addition

I've added a guestbook to the site! There is also a link in the index at right. I was doing other research on here, and saw the possibility. It seemed the next, perfect thing to do for the blog. Let's see who all is coming here to support Chester - c'mon, let us hear from you! Please share a few sentences of a story or impression you have of Chester. We can continue to enrich each other until Chester is back on his 'feet' and 'fingers' again.

I also updated the pictures in the Previous Update post with Marilyn's descriptions, which are worth reading.

I apologize if I can't add your pictures and Chester Lexicon entries as fast as they are coming in; I'll do my best.

More Pictures

More pictures came in today. The first is from Barbara Carrellas:

Hi Jay: Thanks for the gorgeous photos of Chester. I'm attaching my favorite. I took this one in the Whitsundays (off the Great Barrier Reef) in May 1997. Chester and I were vacationing with friends on a sailing yacht. Here he is trying to escape from the hole. Love, Barbara

The next is from Gary Koehler:

Hello Jay, Thank you so much for helping to keep us up to date on Chester. The net goes even further than the net.... to those few people I know who love Chester and are not on the net, I've called and read the blogs. The love is boundless. I found a photo of him that I really like. Enjoy! Love, Gary Koehler

And two from from Jaime D:

This was taken November 29, 2004 here at Forest Lane.

Hey Jay - Here's the pic I took of Cheeky just after his CT scan (and right before the one of him on the gurney now on the site). As you can see, his obvious delight in the placement of the electrode guides was typically Chester... He wanted to keep them permanently attached to see what kind of reactions they'd garner! xox Jaime

Wednesday Update

Spent a portion of my day with Chester. His demeanor was calm, but not very 'up' today. Hey, he had brain surgery yesterday. He does not have the use of his right leg, which he did have before the surgery. The physical and occupational therapists both told him that his brain is still swollen from surgery, and there is an expectation that he will regain the use of his body. Some of his exercises is to remind the brain about those connections, such as keeping his right arm supported which reminds the brain that the arm is there. He will also work with a speech therapist.

He had a MRI scheduled, and needed to take an ambulance to another location in order to get one. That was a big outing, which left him exhausted. The nurse mentioned that he would have been moved to a regular room, except there was not one available. He was exhausted by the time I left from all the activity this day did bring.

I'm exhausted also. Will keep you updated as the days go on.

Pictures

Marilyn sent me some pictures. I updated the previous post with one of them, and am placing the other two below.

Here is Chester in 1996. I decided to make this the 'mascot picture' in the header of the blog. From Marilyn:

This 1996 photo was taken at a party at the end of the Massage Classes, when I met him in '96. I had asked him to tell me something internally while I took the photo, and this is the result. I think it is spookily his true being. I just love the photo.

This photo was taken on Aug 26th in his massage space. The sun comes in those windows through the material (the lovely hangings that was made by a friend of his). It's a beautiful space. He would tie his arm up like you see not only to protect it, but in order to have the hand higher than his heart to keep the swelling down. It is also very, very sensitive to even light brushings from objects. Like ants on his nerves.

Here is the same photo, zoomed in a bit tighter on Chester. What first struck me when I saw this photo was the grace and efficiency he displays in the wrapping and positioning of his arm and hand.

We hope to place more photos in entries as we go. Also, as we get older photos, I will either add them to past posts (and announce they are there), or perhaps add them to a separate page.

If you have pictures of Chester, please email them to me – one or two only, please; I have a job, two cats, and a boyfriend. ;)

My love and regards to all.

The Previous Update

Hi all,

This is what we wrote earlier... my laptop would not connect me to the dashboard in order to post this... wanted a silly thing called a password, which I could not remember! Imagine that. As Jaime said, our friend was in rare spirits, just coming out of surgery and making jokes even before he was given morphine. So here is the post. I will try to keep you updated daily. I will visit him again tomorrow morning.

Marilyn writes:

Chester before surgery

Hello my lovelies, we spent the day sitting in a wonderful spot in the Alta Bates Hospital. Chester was in rare form, keeping the staff amused while getting his CAT scan (another small glitch in the proceedings that we found out about early this morning… at 7:45 am, that we should come to the hospital at 7:30 am). So we hustled our butts to the hospital, got the scan and got prepped for surgery... All by 11:00 am! We were able to stay with Chester the whole time, up until they wheeled him away to surgery. We were told at that point that it would be a long surgery, and not to expect him out until 4 or 4:30 pm. At 4:30 we heard that he was out of surgery and in recovery, and that he would be in the ICU in about two hours. We sat waiting for the doctor to come speak to us, and finally he arrived about 5:00 pm.

Jaime writes:
The situation, he informed us, was “as expected.” Chester does have a glioblastoma that was diagnosed as particularly invasive and aggressive. Dr Tang removed as much of the tumor as he was able, and Chester will definitely be having a course of radiation and chemotherapy as follow-up to increase his chances of longevity. It is too early to tell what kind of “time-window” Cheeky might be facing, but the Doc is hopeful that – having age and general health in his favor – he can rally for at least another year. (Naturally, we all want better news and probabilities, and there’s a chance this rather dark synopsis MAY change after a second, closer look at the biopsy sample – but the prognosis is not, at this moment, particularly sunny).

On a personal note, I want to let ALL of you know that the energy pumping into this place was palpable – and more than likely enabled 4 of us to follow various levels of the procedure fairly closely (psychically). It was not an easy surgery and Cheeky is scheduled to be in ICU for at least 48 hours. (We’re waiting for him to be moved to ICU as I write)… So, dear fellow angels, though the “most serious” part has been accomplished, please don’t disengage your energetic support entirely – little bursts of “get well Chester” will facilitate his healing more than you might suspect.

Ok. You’re up to date on the Cheeky One. I’ll post a bit later once I’ve laid eyes on our boy! xox Jaime

Visualization for Chester

I received the following e-mail from Chester's friend Barbara. I thought it was something everyone must hear (or read). Here it is. Marilyn

Hello everyone,

I had the pleasure of spending the past 5 days with Chester. We has a precious time. We shared laughter, rage, tears, shock and amazement at this sudden change of everything we previously thought we knew about life, specifically, Chester's life. Through it all, Chester remains the same cheeky bugger we all know and love---maybe even more so.

Not surprisingly, one of the conversations we had was about Chester's fear of not waking up from the surgery. Chester is very very clear that he wants to survive this process and thrive thereafter. I told him not to worry. Each of us has a tether tied to him so tightly, he couldn't die if he wanted to! He loved that image. In fact he loved it so much that he would appreciate it if we would all hold that vision during surgery on Tuesday.

So, at 11:30 am Pacific time on Tuesday (that's 4:30 am Wed. in Melbourne & Sydney), please tie your own personal tether (exotic tethers welcomed) to your favorite place(s) on Chester's body (creativity welcomed) and hang on tight!!!

Chester thanks you.

Love,

Barbara

Meditation

A friend of Chester's, Bean, has organized a few people to be meditating for Chester on Tuesday during Chester's surgery. I think this is a brilliant idea. I imagine that many of us will be in solidarity with Chester, so just know that there are others out there doing the same thing. I also believe that healing energy works on many time planes, so anytime you are called to join in the group, you will be a part of it. Even if it is before of after the 11:00 /11:30 Pacific time that we will be sitting in. Hope that makes sense. See you in the nether-space.

Donations

Hello everyone,

I apologize for any confusion regarding where to send financial donations to Chester. Please wait on sending donations for now, I had the wrong information before. We are setting up an account with his bank, and donations will be able to be sent there, directly into the account. It's less paperwork that way, and they will keep track of the donors for us. We will let you know exact details as soon as we have them.

Thanks, Marilyn

Update August 25, 2005 from Marilyn

Hello everyone,

I apologize for the slow start of keeping this updated. A couple of people who were going to update have not been able to get on to the right place to do so...Ah, technology. So you get my right-brained intuitive way of telling you what has happened. Chester went to see the neurological doctor (I believe that is what he is) for the final diagnosis. He believes that the tumors are the worst kind Chester could possibly have. Someone else will have to tell you what they are called. So action needs to be taken immediately. Chester will have surgery on Tuesday August 30, 2005. He will then spend one day in intensive care, and then five more days in the hospital. That is the basic outline so far. Others will fill in more details and/or more concrete explanations.

I have been receiving many requests regarding financial support for Chester. We are working on this, and will have more information soon. Since he will be having a big financial burden, anything is most welcome and gratefully accepted. The other need is for prayers/healing energy/other wuwu practices, that will have a positive effect on Chester. They have done blind studies regarding prayer and healing, and in that study, those who received the prayer (without knowing, and no one even knew each other) recovered from heart surgery much faster and with less recover time. Sorry, don't have the name of the study, or the concrete information on it, just that they found out it had a powerful effect. The less detailed, the more it worked. So think/pray/image him to health and bsti-ness.

Also, if there are people you know who may not have heard what Chester is dealing with right now, please pass on any information to them. There are some who do not have e-mail addresses, or may have changed theirs and not updated with Body Electric (from where most of the e-mails were sent). Send the blog site, or the e-mail me at: buttbreath@sbcglobal.net .

I will try to keep the blog updated daily, if I can. Definitely I will post on Tuesday. I (or we) will let you know when we have more information.

Thank you all for your love, care and concern. We are all part of that.

Good News

Chester got some really good news yesterday. The CAT Scan showed no metastases in his body, which means that the tumors in his brain are not a cancer that has moved from his body into his brain. Its all in his head! He has an appointment with a doctor today to figure out the next steps.

For those of you who do not know the full extent of what has happened to Chester, this is the story. Around May he started getting what he thought was a tick on the right side of his face. After a week or so of that, he started having a finger or two go numb. He assumed that it was due to a misalignment of his vertebrae, and consulted with his chiropractor. That helped, but kept coming back. By July, he had started having spasms in his arm. When I went with him to a doctor's appointment, that was the first time I saw one, and I realized that it was a seizure. At that time he was able to use his arm and hand. Things went downhill slowly from that point. The MRI at that time showed the three tumors. He slowly lost the use of his hand and arm (which now just hang off his shoulder), and his speech has slowly gotten more and more difficult. It seems that his brain is having a hard time telling the lips, tongue and whatever else is used to talk, how to form words. He is also starting to have difficultly reading e-mail, which also takes communication between brain and eyes. If you send e-mail, send it as large print, and double or triple space the lines. He may be able to read it himself. I have been reading some to him, so keep sending messages. The messages sent here will be read to him.

Enough for now. I will update as soon as we hear about his doctor appointment today.

Marilyn

Getting the Ball Rolling

Greetings. I am one of your humble hosts, Jay Edgar. I've known Chester for about 16 years, since the time he lived in Madison. Chester is a dear friend, mentor, and loving burr under the saddle. He helped catapult me further along my path of self-discovery all those years ago. You likely have some kind of similar relationship with him.

Marilyn stated there was a desire to get a blog going about Chester's condition, so that people would have one place to go to keep up to date, thus avoiding the need for constant repetition of the information. I will allow others to put the technical information here. I will simply start the blog with a few personal impressions.

I learned of Chester's condition last Friday evening when I got home from work. I was in the midst of cleaning and preparing dinner for a date with my new beau, Kevin. Needless to say, my jaw dropped when I read a three-line email that included the words "I have three brain tumors..." I immediately called Chester and left a message that I was thinking about him. We had a nice, two-hour conversation on Saturday. While it was difficult hearing his speech at first, it was wonderful to connect with him, and I learned that the situation was actually much more hopeful than I had originally understood. When I got his good news this afternoon, I was ecstatic. Read on, for someone else will fill you in on the details.

We hope you find this blog useful. It may even be entertaining. Please leave any comments and suggestions. Thank you.