LIVING WITH MCL

My lymphocyte count did show a significant jump to 115.9 thou/cumm (from 97.6 thou/cumm) last month. That's not great news, but I shouldn't have expected much, since it was barely 24 hours since yesterday's bike ride . Plus, like I've said before, at these levels, the accuracy is not very precise. Still the results were slightly better than back in July '08 (at 120.7 thou/cumm), and my hemoglobin and platelets were stable to slightly improved. So I am somewhat encouraged. Now I have something to look forward to next month.

I know many doctors believe that. Why else would they recommend the infusion of deadly chemicals (chemotherapy) into a patients body to cure cancer? I'm just hoping that old adage extends to extreme exercise. Now I know what I did today, a 55 mile bike ride with 3000' of climbing, might seem like a walk in the park for some, but for me it was hard. And today's ride was made even tougher, considering I haven't ridden that many miles since my hand surgery, and I haven't done any hills. I barely made it home this morning, starting to bonk about 2 miles from the house. Fortunately, the group didn't push the pace to the extreme, and I was able to sit in, making it home and quickly shoving some food in my mouth, and down my throat. Now I'm planning on taking a nap (I already took my shower), as I anticipate tomorrow's blood test, to see if the cure has set in. :)

It's been a busy week for me, and I'm pretty well toast. It started with 3 dinners out this week, 2 relatively stressful days at work, a 5 hour tour of the beach cities with Alejandro and Marcela (friend/fellow MCL'er and his wife from Argentina), and the most miles I've ridden on the bike in any week since my hand surgery. Plus, there's tomorrow's ride, into Whittier, which will consist of the first significant hills I've ridden since my hand surgery as well. But what really put me over the top, was the spirited conversation over coffee, after one of those bike rides this week. It was about US health care. [My favorite topic.] I couldn't believe it, when one of the participants stated he didn't think health care was a right. I was surprised because, one, I obviously don't feel that way, and two, I just can't believe there really are people out there with so little compassion for their fellow man. His reasoning was, he didn't think he sho

It's one of those days you just want to sit around the house and do absolutely nothing, or watch some movies you have recorded. It might even be a good day to read a book, if you were so inclined, which I am not. As you should be able to see from the view out my bedroom window, it is raining outside. The rain started last night, and hasn't let up since. I can't complain too much though, as this is the rainy season, and we do need the rain. Plus Monday's are typically my day off from exercise, so I will surprise everyone, and not complain. I just feel sorry for anyone who might be visiting from, say Argentina, like a friend of mine (fellow MCLer), who happens to be in Cambria today. He might be a little disappointed. Fortunately the rest of the week, when he will be in LA, will be nice, and the real intent of his trip was to visit his son in Tahoe, who works at one of the ski resorts, and ski, so I know he's not complaining too much either. This weather will actually

Never was a truer statement ever made! Yesterday I upgraded my WordPress software (the software that runs this blog) to the latest version 2.7.1. The developers of WordPress have made it very simple, in the last upgrade to v2.7, to do that, so with just one click of my mouse, I was easily able to accomplish that task. Everything looked good at first glance, but a few hours later I discovered that my previous post had been truncated, so if you read my blog between the hours of 11:03 AM and 9:59 PM yesterday, you did not get the full scope of my wisdom. I did manage to restore the original version, but this morning I discovered some of my theme files have been modified giving a different look to my blog. The changes are mostly superficial, and the reader may not even realize it, but from an administrative stand point and aesthetics, they are significant, and I haven't been able to figure out how to fix it just yet. Oh well, I'll work on it when I get to work this morning.  :)

I actually had every intention of going for a bike ride this morning, but I slept in till 6AM, which really doesn't give me enough time to eat, brush my teeth, get dressed, and meet the group at 7 AM at the marina.  Plus the temperature was near my limit at 41°F. I guess I should be somewhat happy the weather has been so miserable lately (it rained all last weekend, it's barely even going to reach 60°F the rest of this week, and there's more rain forecast for this weekend), since my hand is still in the [very slow] healing process, and I have a good excuse not to ride, letting it recover more. But somehow that isn't much consolation. So here I sit with nothing much better to do, than dwell on everything, and post to my blog, and explain the picture to the right. Whenever anyone used to ask me what I do for a living, I would tell them I was a metallurgist. Of course not too many people were familiar with what a metallurgist does, so to simplify the description, I would j

I went and bought Edie a new car. Yes, contrary to my previously spoken intent of never buying another car, unless I really needed one, and especially never buying a new car, I went ahead and bought one anyways. Edie's 2000 Honda Accord was in need of a $1500 to $2000 transmission overhaul, and I just couldn't justify spending that much on a 9 year old car, so I broke down and took her looking for a new car. What was so surprising was the almost hassle free experience.  Every dealer we went to was very low key, and never once tried to pressure us into buying a car. [I have to admit it was far different from past experiences, which were instrumental in my adopting the philosphy of never buying another car.] So after about a week of looking, and one day of driving perspective cars, we settled on a new

I just had a friend write, and ask why there wasn't anything on my blog about the Pittsburgh Steelers record setting 6th Super Bowl win. The truth of the matter is, despite it being the most exciting Super Bowl in ages, and my team winning (remember I was born and raised in Pittsburgh), for some reason, it just didn't mean as much to me this time. Now don't get me wrong, I was excited about the victory, I just have a few other problems, most notably my hand, that are occupying my mind more right now than worrying about posting to my blog. I think my hand is getting better, but it's still swollen, and doesn't seem to be improving fast enough for my liking. I was able to get back on the bike this weekend, riding 30 miles on Friday, and 50 miles on Saturday, and even though I didn't lose too much ability, I wasn't able to ride to my full potential because of my hand. Oh well, what can you do? Fortunately the Steelers did win, cause who knows how I'd be feel