THE CHALLENGE OF WALKING

 Once I was discharged from the hospital, we stayed at The Cancer Lodge , which is like a hotel/hostel for patients and their caregivers. It was decent enough , and food was included . So I started pushing myself to start goin for walks. The first few were difficult , like trying to push a huge boulder up a hill, but they started to get easier as time went on . It helps that I love summer , so my walks got to the point where I'd be moving for 4 hours sometimes, right through downtown Vancouver , through the East Hastings hell , and back . I wanted to see the mural painted for Ashtrey , and ended up walking past it several times . Ashtrey . He was a great person.

DRUGS AND HALLUCINATIONS

 Since I had to stay in the hospital an extra month , they had also decided to put me on extra meds to help with the foot healing . One of the side effects was one of these meds made me hallucinate like crazy . The nurses even said they could hear me talking and sometimes laughing when I was completely alone in my room . It seemed so real . One time I thought my kids were in the hospital at three am , so i was desperately looking for some cash in my belongings so I could give them money for a hotel ! Of course they weren't there . I would talk to people who would suddenly get up and disappear . There is much much more . Suffice it to say I've never experienced anything like that in my entire life. 

BEFORE I EVEN START

 Before I even begin with my story of illness, I need to say that the fascist state of israel's " pre-emptive " strike on Iran is nothing but an amerikkkan backed lie , the same way that killing 72,000 Palestinians and burying children under rubble is " self-defense" . Fascist lies from start to finish , but they'll get away with it because they have amerikkka's backing . Murderous scumbags .

OL' FOUR TOED JIM

 Once my foot got infected ( my immune system was beaten to shit by the chemo ) , it grew to twice it's normal size , especially the second toe , and that toe had some kinda black crusty shit on it . Three different doctors had come in to say that the thing was going to be removed , until someone called for the specialty Wound Care Nurse , who started scraping the black stuff off. It fucking hurt like crazy , so they started giving me dilaudid and even fentanyl every time she was coming around to torture me , but I am so grateful she did . She saved my toe . It was fucking excruciatingly painful , and there were months of followup , but she saved my toe when others said it had to go . It meant an extra month in the hospital .

EVERYONE TAKE THEIR TURN

 So we get there on the evening of Monday , June the 2nd , and I immediately get admitted to the leukemia ward . A nurse comes in , asks me a few questions , then asks , " Do you know what's going to be happening up here ?" , and I said , " Yeah , people are going to come in here taking turns beating the shit outta me " , and she said , " Yeah , basically " . They took me downstairs where they inserted a Hickman Line  and there it was to remain for 7 months. I felt like a fucking cyborg.

A Hickman line is a type of soft, flexible, tunneled central venous catheter inserted into a large vein in the chest (subclavian or internal jugular) to provide long-term access for chemotherapy, medication, nutrition (TPN), or blood sampling. It remains in place for extended periods, typically featuring 1-3 external lumens for simultaneous treatments. 

They didn't start on the chemo right away , but did so after a few days . I made the mistake of walking barefoot ( within my room ) , from the bed to the bathroom , and managed to get a foot infection which entered through a wound from a corn that I had removed earlier in May . That managed to screw things up for an extra month .

SURPRISE , YOU'VE GOT LEUKEMIA !

 I'm sure that my 2-6 readers know what has been happening , especially the local ones. Hell, even if you're not local, the internet is a wonderful/horrible thing .

Towards the end of May 2025, I started feeling like I was getting the flu. I thought nothing of it , after all, who's afraid of the flu ? But then I developed a giant coldsore on my face , the first one ever in my life, so I decided to go to an Urgent Care Centre . They gave me a req for blood work , which I got done, and they called me immediately the next day . Never a good sign . 

I went in to see the doctor , and he immediately starts drop the " L-Bomb" on me . What the fuck is this ? He could have broken it to me gently, the awkward fuck . He told me he'd refer me to a hematologist , who would then get me a bed at the Royal Jubilee Hospital , and then I'd get shipped to Vancouver . Simple as that . Infuckingcorrect . It's not 1950. They wanted me to leave on the Friday , but I wasn't just going to leave my kids like that , so I said Monday . Once I said a very tearful goodbye to my son , I went to the RJH the next day . They barely had a fucking clue , and the doc told me I should consider driving myself to Vancouver General Hospital. What the fuck is this ? I was already weak and lightheaded , and what happens if I get there and there are no beds ? Luckily , my sister was with me and knows how to navigate this maze of shit . She got them to call Vancouver , and they said to go home and wait for a call. The call came within the hour , and me and sis were on our way to Vancouver , which I thought was going to be about a month or so . Wrong again , asshole . 

THIS IS WHAT HAPPENS

 The amerikkkans and especially the fascist state of israel seem to think that there are no consequences for the genocide they're committing . Well there are, and there will be plenty more.

Shootings in D.C.:
U.S./Israeli genocide in Gaza is the source of all violence – resistance is justified

WW statement

By Workers World Party posted on May 23, 2025

When evaluating the May 21 shooting in Washington, D.C., the past 19 months of Israeli aggression throughout West Asia and especially its slaughter of the civilian population of Gaza with hundreds of thousands of people now facing starvation must be front and center. In those 19 months, despite massive opposition across the U.S. and internationally, both the Democrat and the Republican administrations continued to arm this genocide and aggressively target those who protest.

Washington, D.C., Nov. 4, 2023. WW Photo: Joe Piette

We in Workers World Party believe that organizing for collective resistance is the most effective weapon against the daily violence of imperialism. But we should never separate ourselves from those who take an action that they are driven to carry out, regardless of the personal cost to themselves. This includes the killing of two Israeli Embassy employees, allegedly by Elias Rodriguez on May 21. 

It is understandable that, like Aaron Bushnell did with his self-sacrifice over a year ago, others would be moved to take their own action in the hope of stopping these horrific U.S.-Israeli war crimes.

U.S. imperialism is a completely violent, repressive and brutal system. U.S. wars, invasions and occupations are responsible for the death of millions — in Korea, Vietnam, Central and South America, in Afghanistan, Iraq and Libya, in Yugoslavia and Ukraine in Europe and relentlessly for decades in Palestine, with the Israeli state as the willing killer. 

The intentional violence of strangulating U.S. sanctions has threatened  economic ruin to more than 40 countries, including almost all of the countries of West Asia — Palestine, Yemen, Syria, Lebanon, Iraq and Iran — and to Afghanistan and across Africa to Libya, Sudan, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Eritrea, Mali, Zimbabwe, to Cuba, Nicaragua, Venezuela and many others. 

The U.S. imperialist state also exercises this violence within its borders. The U.S. today has the world’s largest prison population, on average three police murders every day and raids and round-ups of migrants — all while criminalizing and threatening to shut down every form of public mass opposition.

U.S. imperialism is the main funder of and provides the most arms to the horrific Zionist genocide we see daily on our screens. 

You reap what you sow!

Acts of resistance, even individual acts, are inevitable and deserve support and defense, not lectures against individual violence in the midst of this genocidal, massive destruction. 

The two slain employees of the Israeli Embassy in Washington, D.C., Yaron Lischinsky and Sarah Lynn Milgrim, were official representatives of the Israeli state. They are accountable for its genocide. While the corporate media practically presented the two as lovers of peace, they were fervent defenders of the non-stop Zionist violence in Palestine. 

Lischinsky, a Christian Zionist and German citizen, enlisted in the Israel Occupation Forces. He has published tweets on X attempting to justify Israeli mass starvation, targeting of children and bombing hospitals, schools and U.N. convoys in Gaza. In other words, he cheered on the genocide.

Elias Rodriguez stated in a manifesto explaining his act of political protest, “The atrocities committed by Israelis against Palestine defy description and defy quantification.” He shouted, “Free Palestine!” at the scene. (For Rodriguez’s statement, see workers.org/2025/05/85786/)

All acts of resistance to the genocide in Gaza, a genocide exposed to the world, deserve to be defended by the movement as a whole.

Let’s focus all attention on the source of the violence — U.S. imperialism and its violent proxy force, Zionism.