It is my sad duty to annouce Gary's death this morning. He fought bravely for almost 17 months and wouldn't give up until the cancer took over his body. There will be a private funeral and a memorial service at SUNY Oswego later this month. The family requests that, instead of flowers, a donation be made to the Gary Klatsky Scholarship at SUNY Oswego.

Susan Klatsky

Gary's condition March 6, 2009

As many of you know, Gary has taken an indefinite medical leave. The regrowth of cancer cells is affecting the motor control of the left side of his body. He is using a walker to aid his mobility.The vision in his left eye is also impaired. As he wrote to the SUNY Oswego family:

"One of the most difficult decisions I have made is taking a medical leave this semester. This was done for two reasons: the first was for my personal health and the second that I would not be giving the students the learning experience they came to expect in my classes."

Rhonda is also on a leave of absence, but still doing work from home. She has enlisted a health care aide as well as a physical therapist and an occupational therapist to assist Gary. He continues to receive Avastin every other week. He was scheduled to also get a chemo infusion but that has been postponed because Gary's platelet count is too low. He is at the hospital now hoping to receive both drugs today.
He loves hearing from you. Best time time to reach him is late morning to mid afternoon. He also enjoys visits. Just call in advance so there aren't too many people in one day. Short visits are best. He tends to get tired as the day goes on.

Susan Klatsky

new year

Thanks to all my family and friends for all the love and support you gave me last year that is shat kept me going I lo e you all. I had a scan yesterday Friday 1/9/09 There is some spreading of thecancer The good news is that the Avastine is still working, keeping the blood supply to that new growth from developing. There are also other drugs to try despite the news I still feelike the luckiest man who ever lived










t

end of the semester

I guess this is a sign of how well I am doing. Today is the last day of classes and I only missed two days all semester. The only real problems I had was with the course management system. I thought it would make my life easier if I put more of the class on-line. unfortunately it didn't turn out that way, in fact it was the opposite. the on-line material was more difficult for me I have learned my lesson and will resort to the more traditional methods next semester.

Gary

Scan from 11/25 My oncologist said there was no sign of regrowth or regeneration. in other words he said it was very good. he did say there were somedead cells at the vey back of my occipital lobe, the very rear part of my brain. he wasn't sure what that was from but likely an effect of the chemo. I'll see him next Friday and ask more specific questions. this time Ionly spoke to hime on the phone

fr

Year anniversary party & concert

Last Saturday was the year anniversary of my surgery. some friends wanted to have a small celebration to coincide with a concert at the Oswego Music hall of one of my favorite bands, Jim's Big Ego

This is a link to the pictures of the "event" http://picasaweb.google.com/gklatsky/SurgeryAnniversaryPartyConcert111508#

if that doesn't work try
google.com/gklatsky/ and click on the party & concert album

Oliver Sacks

Oliver Sacks is a world famous neurologist and author. The movie Awakenings was based on one of his books. His most famous book, The Man who mistook his wife for a hat is probably one of his most famous books, a collection of stories based on case studies.
A few years ago we invited him to give a presentation at Oswego. I was asked to pick him up at the airport and drive him to campus. We ended up going out for lunch and taking a lovely drive through thecentral NY countryside spending about 3 hours talking about our mutual interests in the cognitive neuroscience of vision.

Lately have been having weird experiences in my "blind spot" every once and awhile coherent complex images will appear there. Wrote to a number of "experts about this phenomenon. Dr. Sacks wa the only person to respond. Iowas thrilled just to get a response then his assistant emailed me saying Dr. Sacks wanted to meet with me to discuss my"problem"

Gary
10/23