LIVING WITH MCL

Jane over at A Patients Perspective , wrote about her day yesterday, so I've been inspired to write about mine, which was equally "one of those days". I started out going for a pretty hard 40 mile bike ride into the hills of Whittier. I left a little earlier than normal, to avoid the heat, but even then, by the time I got to the top of Turnbull Canyon it was still plenty warm. I only brought one big water bottle, and managed to make it back without any significant problem, but it would have been nice to have an extra bottle. I'll plan better next time. Still it was a good ride If I had stopped with that, and just stayed home and rested, things probably would have been fine, but I had made arrangements to go golfing at 2 PM with some friends, so that was not to be. Well, let me tell you, it was freakin' hot at 2 PM, and I ended up shooting one of the worst rounds of my life. I'm going to assume I was worn out from the bike ride. I could have also been a l...

I recently posted to A Patients Perspective concerning the effects of taking vitamins and supplements . I believe it may have contributed to my lymphoma and my wife's myeloma. Of course I can't be sure, but there is more and more evidence suggesting it is. Dr Rob Lamberts over at the Medical Blog Network sheds some additional light on the subject, casting a somewhat suspicious eye towards the supplement industry . Now this article on MSNBC may be supporting my belief, by suggesting it's not the antioxidant benefit of vitamins, but the phytochemicals in natural foods, that provide the real cancer fighting benefit. Phytochemicals seem to slow tumor growth, but key is in variety of foods By Karen Collins, R.D. .....Research does show that berries are among the fruits highest in antioxidant content and that they are excellent sources of several phytochemicals that seem to help block cancer development. However, other fruits and vegetables provide different nutrients and p...

Some mornings are just more fun filled (frustrating) than others. This morning our manager of outside processing comes over to me, and brings a note from a vendor requesting clarification on some instructions I had given on an order. That's really not unusual, except in this case, the instructions were meant for the manager of outside processing to perform prior to sending to the vendor. It's obvious he didn't read my instructions, and simply copied (CTRL-C) the entire section of the planning document, and pasted (CTRL-V) those instructions into the purchase order that he sent to the vendor. Then a little later I get a certification to review from a vendor who did some work for us. What is suprising in this case is, this is not the first time this vendor has performed this work for us. Of course you wouldn't know that after reviewing the certification. Some of the information that is required to be put on the certification is a little confusing, so I have refined ...

Becky says I'm evolving , but I think I've always been a sensitive guy. This morning though seemed to have struck an extra nerve or two. The morning started out as most mornings do. I dragged myself out of bed at around 4:30 AM, went down stairs to have breakfast, and then headed off to work. The one difference being I decided to park at Leo Carillo State Beach, and ride my bike in the remaining 17 miles. It was actually a perfect morning for a ride. It was overcast, not cold, and only a slight head wind, which turned into a tail wind when I was about 4 miles from work. (I just hope that doesn't bode poorly for the return trip this afternoon.) Anywaze what caught my attention this morning was the sight of two dead seagulls lying on the side of the road, and a third seagull standing there as if it was lost. That third seagull didn't even move when I got within about 2 feet of him, which is highly unusual. That sight just haunted me for the remainder of the ride, an...

Ever since I was diagnosed with MCL, it seems that every occurrance in my life takes on some significant meaning. I've always been somewhat superstitious to the point I never liked Fridays that fall on the 13th, I never carried around $13 or 13 cents in my pocket, wouldn't walk under a ladder, and I always turned around if I saw a black cat cross my path. I can remember one day, before my diagnosis, a black cat crossed my path on a day that I was going scuba diving with a friend at Catalina, and for what ever reason, I didn't turn around. We ended up going to the back side of Catalina, which isn't always accessible because of the winds and waves, but that day was a good day. At the end of the second dive, as we were surfacing, my weight belt (I stopped using a weight belt after that) got tangled in some kelp, and I stopped ascending when I was about 30 feet below the surface. I didn't panic 'too much', but I couldn't seem to get easily untangled. ...

We used to go out to dinner a lot. Well that is if you consider once or twice a week a lot, but over the past year though, that has changed. One reason for the change was my aunt coming to live with us. She doesn't eat much, and it's hard for me to justify spending $25+ on a meal for her, which she barely touches. The second reason was building the barbecue in the back yard . It was something my wife always wanted, and it's a work of art. How can we justify not utilizing it as often as possible? Thirdly, we like to drink wine, and any more, it ends up costing $8 or $9 just for a glass of mediocre wine, and a lot more if you buy a bottle. And if you bring your own bottle, the restaurant charges you $15 or more for corkage, on top of what you paid for the wine. But now I can add one more reason not to go out so much, and it's just that the quality of food, and the overall experience has deteriorated so much. Saturday night we went to a new French restaurant in town ...

I had to go into work today (I normally have Wednesday's off) to cover for our sales manager, who had two customers visiting at the same time. I had to entertain one of the customers who wanted to watch some parts being forged, and expose a summer intern to exactly what is involved in the manufacturing of the products they produce. For those unfamiliar with what I do, I work for a small aerospace manufacturing firm which produces forgings used primarily in jet engines and for aircraft structural parts. We manufacture the parts using large hammers, which for lack of a better description, think of as a process similar to a blacksmith making horse shoes. We just do it on a much grander scale, with our largest hammer rated at 50,000 pounds. It's dirty, noisy, and it is a lot of hard work for the guys who do the actual production of the parts. Fortunately I only have to tell them what temperatures they have to heat the material to, in order to obtain the desired mechanical prop...

Ok, some of you who know me are probably saying, here he goes again, talking about fatigue. And yes, I have written previously on this subject , but since I have been getting a little off topic lately, and I recently came in contact with an old business associate, who claimed he was suffering from fatigue, I thought it appropriate to rehash my feelings again. The business associate I referred to, had recently suffered an attack of shingles. I was surprised because that is a condition very common among lymphoma and leukemia patients, and those with compromised immune systems. It is especially common among those who have undergone some sort of chemotherapy, and he didn't have any of that. He had always been a very strong and competitive cyclist, an since he was in the later stages of recovery, I asked him if he had been riding his bike lately. He indicated that he was unable, due to fatigue. We ended up talking about fatigue a little, even reminiscing over chronic fatigue syndrom...

Last Saturday was a beautiful day. I woke up at my usual time, around 6 AM, it was 67F (20C for you foreigners), and beautifully clear. It was going to be a great day, or so I thought. The old gang decided to get together again for a bike ride. It had been a long time since we had all ridden together. Only Garry, Amy and I had been riding consistently, while Naomi and Jim pretty much stopped riding, and Rene, who is in the best shape of all of us, only teaches spinning classes. He's single, and loves the attention of all the women. Anywaze, we went down the coast about 20 miles into Newport Beach, then turned around and stopped for coffee and donuts at the coffee shop in Seal Beach. It just started out being a perfect day, and from the perspective of most people in the world it probably was just that, a perfect day, except............... Living on the coast in southern California (SoCal), you get used to the early morning fog (we call it the marine layer) and the cooler temp...

For all the golfers out there.

We went to our usual Thursday night wine tasting at the Gas Lamp restaurant in Long Beach last night, and the wine rep who usually hosts the tasting brought cupcakes for everyone. I didn't know it, but there is a shop in Belmont Shore in Long Beach, that specializes in cup cakes. That's all they make. So of course I had to have one of the chocolate ones, and it was very good. But when Chris (the wine rep) told me the price, I was stunned. $2.75 each! And these weren't anything special. They were just like the cup cakes I grew up on. He bought a dozen, and it was only $29. What a bargain! Now I'll agree that it was a very good cupcake, but $2.75 for just ONE, seemed a little over the top for me. And who said inflation was dead?