LIVING WITH MCL

As Roseanne Roseannadanna , often quoting an older relative would say, "It just goes to show ya...it's always something! If it's not one thing, it's another!" Well, as you know from my last post , my company and I both dodged a bullet, by not having our AS9100 audit observed by the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board , but now something else has come up which may even be more difficult to navigate. A good friends son died on Friday. It wasn't totally unexpected, as he had not been doing well for the past year or two. But that's not really the point. The point is they are having a Celebration of Life memorial for him on Wednesday, August 2, at 1 PM. That is the day of the AS9100 audit. For most poeple that wouldn't seem to be such a big deal, i.e. take a couple of hours off work, go to the memorial and be back in time to finish with the audit, but in my case it isn't quite that simple. First off, I work 78 miles (minimum 1.5 hour commute w...

For the past month, I have been dreading my companies upcoming AS9100 audit, August 1st and 2nd. I've been dreading it because not only are we being audited, but our auditor was going to be audited, at the same time, by the ANSI-ASQ National Accreditation Board (ANAB). That would have made for a very hard nosed, formal audit. Well I just got word today from our auditor, that the ANAB auditors that were coming, are needed elsewhere, and they won't be coming after all. Hallelujah!!!!! Life just got a whole lot simpler. :)

I never thought I'd be writing Part IV to the Tour d'France, but here we are, 4 days after Floyd Landis overcomes, what many would consider, an insurmountable deficit to win the Tour d'France, he fails a drug test, performed immediately after that super human effort. What more can go wrong for this venerable race? Three weeks after the two favorites, Ivan Basso and Jan Ullrich, are barred from participating in the race, simply for being associated with an unscrupulous doctor, the ultimate winner fails a drug test. And now what might have been considered one of the greatest comebacks of all time, will forever be marred by the accusation, even if Landis is ultimately exonerated, as most knowledgeable people concerned with drugs in sport believe he will be. The damage has already been done, and it is not good for the sport. :(

My wife asked me that question the other day. She was of course referring to the fact that I have Mantle Cell Lymphoma, and she has Multiple Myeloma. Had I been particularly sharp or witty, I might have come back with the reply, we’re going to die . It’s the obvious answer of course, since we’re all going to die eventually. But as is typical of me and George Castanza (Seinfeld), I only come up with the witty responses days afterwards. The point is we are all going to die eventually. It’s just that we all have a different perspective on when that's going to happen. Some of us will die unexpectedly from some sort of accident, sudden heart attack, stroke or other similar type occurrence. Others will die after the body just gives out from old age, and still others will die after a long or short battle with some chronic disease, i.e. diabetes, obesity, cancer or other untreatable disease. My wife and I are in the latter situation, and while it certainly isn’t an enviable p...

Well three week off work, as a result of our annual maintenance shut down, is over, and even though I had to come in to work a couple of days to get ready for our AS9100 audit, coming back to work after being off for so long is really difficult. If only the weather had been a little cooler, I might have enjoyed the time off. But with temperatures reaching into the high 90's°F, and humidity greater then 80%, going outside has essentially been unbearable. Even golfing is unenjoyable. The heat and humidity just seem to suck the life out of you. Yesterday, Edie and I went out around 2:30 in the afternoon to play a round, hoping to get in 18 holes. Everything was fine for about 5 holes, at which point, I could no longer swing the club. My rhythm and tempo were gone, and it was like I forgot how to play. We quit after 9 holes, got some Chinese take out, opened a bottle of wine, and sat in front of the wide screen TV, savoring the comfort of our air conditioned house. It was love...

Well, the two favorites were barred from this years race, but that sure didn't take anything away from the excitement of this years Tour. It has been, by far, the most exciting race, since Greag Lemond came from a 50 second deficit, to beat Laurent Fignon by 58 seconds in the final time trial back in '89, to win the Tour by only 8 seconds. This years Tour has seen the Yellow Jersey change hands 8 times, and just when we thought Floyd Landis rode himself out of any possibility of winning the Tour, he made a miraculous recovery on the 17th stage to recover 7 minutes and 30 seconds on the race leader. Now Landis is considered the favorite to win the Tour out right, with Saturdays 57 km time trial being still to go, before the final victory stage on Sunday. Landis stands in 3rd place, 30 seconds behind Oscar Pereiro and 18 seconds behind Carlos Sastre, but is considered the superior time trialist, and has beaten both riders in the previous time trial by over a minute Of course n...

I've noticed lately that I may have actually gone "over the top" as far as being obsessively compulsive. I have always had some compulsive behavior patterns, but lately I seem to be more aware of them. Hopefully that is the first sign which can lead to a cure. But do I really want to be cured? One of my first compulsions started after being diagnosed with MCL . Within about a month of diagnosis, I decided to stop taking any medications or supplements of any kind, and that includes such seemingly innocuous items as aspirin or even a multivitamin. In fact I wouldn't even put some lotion on two mosquito bites, I received the other day, to ease the itching. I chose to suffer, in the belief that it was all the vitamins and other nutritional items I took prior to being diagnosed with MCL , that led to my diagnosis. Then there is my obsessive need to drink almost two quarts of decaffeinated green tea (4 tea bags) a day. I've read that something in the green tea act...

I never thought I would be uttering those 4 words, but this hot weather has just gone on way to long. You expect this kind of weather in August and September, but not in June and July. When I went on my bike ride this morning it was already 72F at 7:30 AM, and the sun was shining. Not only that, but the humidity was very high. I actually thought I was having a hot flash or maybe even a night sweat, although I don't think you can have night sweats once you wake up. Anywaze, I was struggling just to maintain the pace of the group, and didn't think I could finish the ride, which was relatively short at 44 miles. But I struggled on, knowing I would regret it if I didn't, and fortunately, another one of those great things about California, as we got closer to the coast, near Huntington beach to be exact, we encountered a marine layer that dropped the temperature an estimated 10F to 15F. For the first time in a long while it actually felt cool, and I couldn't believe I...

Just don't go to the doctor! Here are just a couple of examples why you might think twice before seeking care. From bmj.com Healthcare group agrees $500m settlement for unnecessary surgery The second largest health provider in the United States, Tenet Healthcare, has agreed to pay nearly $500m (£270m; 390m) to settle claims that doctors did unnecessary surgery at the Redding Hospital, in Redding, California. The hospital was raided by 40 agents from the Federal Bureau of Investigation in 2002 after it received reports that doctors were performing numerous unnecessary cardiac operations How about this one from CBS News Because The Doctor Isn't Always Right It was a nagging cough that first sent Chuck Pandrea's wife Janet to her family doctor in Florida. She was then referred [to] a specialist. "He confirmed that she had non-Hodgkin's lymphoma in the very early stages. And the sooner we could start treatment, the better it would be," he says of the doctor. ...

I know it's been almost a week since my last post, but I've been playing lots of golf, riding my bike and of course watching the Tour d'France , so there just hasn't been a lot of time. Plus, as many of you who have your own blogs are no doubt aware of, it's tough maintaining the motivation to keep a blog going. Even for those who make a living blogging, it's tough, but when you have a real life, a committment to maintaining a blog, can get in the way of things. Anywaze, after my last post, some of you might think the Tour isn't worth watching. Well, I am still disappointed that Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso were kicked out of the race, but the race does seem to be shaping up into becoming an exciting tour. The sprint finishes have been truly breath taking, as they usually are, with Robbie McEwen (Australia) currently in the Green Jersey (the sprint points leader), and Tom Boonen (Belgium) in the Yellow Jersey (the race leader). But that will all change to...

Just when I was expecting one of the best tours in the last 7 years, what happens? The two favorites, Jan Ullrich and Ivan Basso, along with Francisco Mancebo, Joseba Beloki and Oscar Sevilla, a veritable who's who in the cycling world, have been suspended from their respective teams for suspicions of blood doping. It's so hard to watch the tour now. Sure, George Hincapie, Floyd Landis and a number of other top riders, who have a chance of winning, are still in the race, but when the ranks are thinned of the top two contenders, it is sure to taint any victory. All the cyclists suspended claimed their innocence (would you have expected anything else), but what is surprising is this was not a decision made by Tour officials, the International Cycling Union (UCI) or the Amateur Sports Association (ASO), but was a decision by all the participating teams as required by a code of ethics that was signed by all teams on January 1, 2005 which stated that no team would allow a rider t...