LIVING WITH MCL

Here it was, almost 72 hours since my last nose bleed. That's the longest I've gone without one since they started almost two weeks ago. I was really feeling great, and since I hadn't experienced a nose bleed when I was outside before, I decided to go for a bike ride this morning. I don't normally ride on Friday's, but I wanted to see if I had gotten rid of the terrible clicking I've been experiencing on my Specialized bike. Plus I had just received my Garmin 305 warranty replacement, so I wanted to make sure I had set it up properly. But the gods were not with me this morning. About a mile and half down the road, I could feel the blood start to run from my nose. Fortunately I've been carrying kleenex with me [just in case], so I pulled over, sat down on the curb, and applied pressure until the bleeding stopped. I don't think I've ever felt so disappointed in my entire life, as I turned around and headed back home. BTW, thanks to my oncologist, I do...

And I haven't even had any chemo yet. I can't even begin to imagine what might happen if I ever do start treatment. Anyways, I was texting a friend earlier, who we go out to dinner with on occasion, to see when our next plans were. He texted back that we had tentatively set up August 29th for dinner, at either AOC or Campanile in Los Angeles. I immediately texted him back, We did? 8/29 is like Friday! He immediately texted back wondering what happened to the rest of July. What was I thinking? 8/29 isn't Friday. It might be a Friday (I haven't checked the calendar), but it's definitely not this Friday. And July 29th, which is what I was actually thinking at the time, isn't Friday either. It's tomorrow. Well that sure was a senior moment, if I'd never encountered one before. I just hope it doesn't have anything to do with these nose bleeds I've been having, and which don't seem to be going away. (I had another episode at work this AM.) I cont...

When I got up this morning, I felt like sh@#&! I was just plain tired, made even more so, knowing my latest blood work had me with a hemoglobin of 11.5 g/dl. I was also concerned about the two nose bleeds I had on Sunday and Monday , and wondering if I was going to be able to ride my bike at all this morning. I couldn't even back out of riding [which at the time I wanted to], as I committed to do Turnbull Canyon , with a friend. So I made the best of it, put on a happy face, and headed out at 7 AM to meet Ed. From the very moment, I left the house, I felt I was going to have problems. My speedometer was only registering about 16 mph, which was really discouraging as I felt like I was doing 18 or 19 mph, but I persevered anyways. There's no way I was going to ever admit anything was wrong. So we meet up, and headed for the Whittier foothills. I did my best to keep up with Ed, hoping only that I wouldn't get another nose bleed, and would not fall too far behind on the hil...

Last night I got a nose bleed. It wasn't very serious, nor did it last very long, but in 2001, I ended up in the emergency room, because I couldn't stop a nose bleed, which resulted after a sneeze. So the fear of that happening again is always in the back of my mind. The doctors attributed it to the low humidity, and the fact I took three aspirin (that was before my diagnosis) the night before, because of a bad headache. But while the nose bleed in 2001 occurred after an episode of sneezing, last nights nose bleed was not the result of any trauma. I was just sitting down to dinner, when suddenly, my nose started bleeding. Still, I wasn't overly concerned because of the brevity of the occurrance, but when I got another nose bleed this morning, again without any trauma, I became a little alarmed. So I immediately emailed my oncologist to ask if she would add some coagulation tests to my monthly blood work, which coincidentally was due today. (Platelet count alone is not an in...

What does it say about the state of manufacturing in the US, when the requirements for identifying parts are more onerous then are the requirements for producing those parts? For most parts, identification is a simple task. The most common method being simple ink stamping, like stamping a piece of paper with a notary stamp, but for the new F35 (Joint Strike Fighter) aircraft it's anything but simple. The identification of parts for the F35 aircraft can only be performed by suppliers specifically approved by the prime contractor (Lockheed), and requires laser etching the identification on a plate which is attached to the part. LASER ETCHING! Why in the world is that necessary? What's wrong with rubber stamping? So anyways, I decide fine, we'll send the parts out to be identified. It's not a big problem for us. All we have to do is tell the approved supplier what information to laser etch, and we're done. But them I'm told the first part has to be identified diffe...

One of the most difficult things about having a terminal illness, even when it may be in remission or slow progressing, is never knowing when it may take an unexpected and/or unwanted turn for the worse.  At the very least it makes planning for vacations difficult. Of course, as I realized this past week, planning for vacations can be a problem even if you don't have a terminal illness, because anyone [even healthy people get sick you know] can pick up a virus any time, and even if you do have a terminal illness you can get sick from things totally unrelated to your particular disease. Plus there reasons, other than illness, that can arise, resulting in the cancellation of a planned trip as well. As it turns out, in January of this year, Edie and I were planning a trip to France this month. We were going to leave on the 10th of July, and return on the 28th, spending the last 3 days in Paris, and watch the end of the Tour de France on the Champs Elysees. I even booked hotel reservat...

It's been 5 days with this cold/flu, and I don't appear to be improving much, if any. And what's even worse, with the exception of my fiasco on Wednesday , that means I haven't been on the bike in 6 days. Lately my days have consisted of waking up at 2:30 AM, with a completely stuffed nose, which for some reason, quickly changes to a much clearer, but runny nose, accompanied by fits of sneezing. This lasts until about 5 PM, when for some reason the runny nose subsides, and the sneezing stops. Oh, and I shouldn't forget the minor head ache and slight cough, that comes and goes through out the day. So I end up going to bed at 8 PM, only to start all over again 2:30 the next morning. And while I know I've had worse times, and likely been more bummed, that doesn't make things any easier. At least the Tour d'France is on, so I have something to occupy my time for part of the morning, but I'm still not a happy camper. I'd much rather be riding my bike...

I haven't been feeling too good the last couple of days (plus my knee was hurting on Sunday), so I haven't ridden my bike since last Saturday, but I promised to deliver some samples of titanium to an ex collegue who needed it for a presentation he was giving at Cal State Long Beach. So I decided I would take a short ride on my bike down to his hotel this morning (about 4 miles away) to deliver the samples. The ride down was fine, but as I entered the lobby of the hotel, and reached into my back pocket to retrieve the samples, I must have leaned back slightly causing my feet to slip out from under me on the tile floor, sending me sailing in the air, and flat on my tail bone. OUCH! As embarrassing and painful as that was, I still managed to jump up, and proceed to the front desk, to drop off the samples, but I was not feeling very good. Fortunately I don't think I broke my tail bone or anything else, as I probably wouldn't have been able to ride home, but that didn't ...