Nous protègons ceux...

"dad" I say, my eyes barely open "it's Colonel Sanders" while pointing down the hallway. He looks, and at the end of the hallway, there's a portrait of an old man, the donor who paid for the wing of the hospital I'm recovering in.

My dad explains as much to me, and goes "I mean the guy *kinda* looks like him, but why would Colonel Sanders pay for a hospital wing Mississauga Ontario? I think those drugs might me messing with you"

Then the nurse comes out of the room. I go "hey, who is that picture of?"

She looks at the portrait. She looks at me. She looks at my dad. She looks at the painting. She looks at me again.

"you don't recognize the Colonel??"

Carolina Milanesi, an independent technology analyst, said Google is trying to make its cash cow business — search — richer and more personalized, and it will make shopping easier. But there is a risk that users may have fewer choices about what to click. "Right now it's: I ask a question, I get a bunch of answers and I feel that I'm in control as to which answer I take, or if I'm looking for something, which product I'm going to end up buying. That is going to be less so going forward," she said. Milanesi envisions AI-enabled search and agents proposing products to consumers — perhaps even those they have requested — but with less clarity or choice around where it's coming from. "If you're going to say: 'I want a pair of Jordans, go find them,' you're not necessarily sure what steps have been taken and whether the AI has used a source or a store that was paid for and therefore came up in the search results," she said, "or if AI actually went and did their due diligence and picked the best for me as a customer."

And here's one from Time magazine (May 20, 2026):

While Google already has “AI Mode,” the company will now power the whole search bar through its new Gemini 3.5 Flash model.  Instead of the classic list of blue links, Google Search will now also generate a custom page with an AI-generated summary of what you’re searching about, which will then trigger a conversation with AI Mode on the main page, allowing users to ask follow-up questions—similar to the kind of layout you would see when opening ChatGPT.

And a little more from Time's article on how this may affect the websites that we are trying to search for:

Hello, friends!

Tomorrow (Monday, April 20th) is Thyroid Cancer Eviction Day! *jazz hands*

This past week has been unbelievably stressful, as my mom had a heart attack last Sunday night, had to get a stent placed, and was in the hospital until Friday. After the nightmare that was my dad's surprise emergency triple-bypass surgery in 2024, we're really thankful that my mom didn't need more extensive surgery. Plus, my poor dad would NOT have handled both of his womenfolk being in the hospital at the same time very well at all. 😬

Anyway. Hopefully, I will be cancer-free after surgery, so I can focus alllllll my energy (*snort*) on all the OTHER BATSHIT BONKERS STUFF my body is doing. 🫠 I am currently in the middle of a combination trigeminal neuralgia + POTS + vertigo flare, so I'm in a lot of pain and literally scooting around the house on my butt (never been so grateful for wood floors in my whole life, lol) because walking is too risky... all of which will make pre-op and post-op suuuper interesting tomorrow. 😅

Prayers, well-wishes, and check-ins would be most welcome!

Love & Light,

I am home from the hospital.

My surgeon was able to leave some of my right thyroid lobe intact, which means I *might* not have to take synthroid for the rest of my life if what's left can pick up the slack and produce enough hormones. We'll see. He also removed some suspicious-looking lymph nodes and biopsied some nodules on the remainder of the right lobe, so we're hoping no cancer will be found there. 🤞🏻

Welp. I had my post-op appointment today to get my wound drain removed, and I found out that the pathology results were... not great. All of the lymph nodes my surgeon removed were cancerous, so I will be having a second surgery in ~6 weeks to remove the rest of my thyroid and some more lymph nodes, and then I will start radiation therapy.

My incision/surgery site is doing fine, but I'm in a lot of pain from the awkward positioning of my neck and jaw during surgery and resulting strain, and my throat and vocal cords are very angry. I'm having difficulty getting sound out when I talk, and after spending most of last year in speech therapy for a vocal cord disorder, I'm really worried that I'm going to be back to square one with my voice after these surgeries. It might sound strange, but I think I'm actually more worried about that than the cancer.

Thank you for your continued prayers and check-ins! Walking with me through the ups and downs of chronic illness life has turned into one hell of a marathon in recent years, and I'm so grateful for the people who have stuck by my side, even when it's a struggle to keep up.

Love & Light,

Mel 💛

Hello, friends!

Tomorrow (Monday, April 20th) is Thyroid Cancer Eviction Day! *jazz hands*

This past week has been unbelievably stressful, as my mom had a heart attack last Sunday night, had to get a stent placed, and was in the hospital until Friday. After the nightmare that was my dad's surprise emergency triple-bypass surgery in 2024, we're really thankful that my mom didn't need more extensive surgery. Plus, my poor dad would NOT have handled both of his womenfolk being in the hospital at the same time very well at all. 😬

Anyway. Hopefully, I will be cancer-free after surgery, so I can focus alllllll my energy (*snort*) on all the OTHER BATSHIT BONKERS STUFF my body is doing. 🫠 I am currently in the middle of a combination trigeminal neuralgia + POTS + vertigo flare, so I'm in a lot of pain and literally scooting around the house on my butt (never been so grateful for wood floors in my whole life, lol) because walking is too risky... all of which will make pre-op and post-op suuuper interesting tomorrow. 😅

Prayers, well-wishes, and check-ins would be most welcome!

Love & Light,

I am home from the hospital.

My surgeon was able to leave some of my right thyroid lobe intact, which means I *might* not have to take synthroid for the rest of my life if what's left can pick up the slack and produce enough hormones. We'll see. He also removed some suspicious-looking lymph nodes and biopsied some nodules on the remainder of the right lobe, so we're hoping no cancer will be found there. 🤞🏻