LIVING WITH MCL

Thank goodness it's February! It's difficult to put into words what a lousy month January was [but I'll try :)]. It started out with me getting sick for a week, followed by hurting my neck the next week, which I am only now 95% recovered (but at least it is getting better), accompanied by a number of other little things which I'll just categorize as TMI. In between all that, there was a long stretch of bitterly cold weather, for southern California that is (upper 30's), topped off with the deaths of 3 close acquaintances. Edie's brother being one of them, a wine drinking buddy, a second, and of course Dr. Terry Hamblin, who I give a great deal of thanks for all the help he provided me in dealing with my MCL. I could go on and on, listing a few other things which have made this January a particularly memorable one, from a negative standpoint, but I think I'll just leave it that, and spare you any more of my whining. It just seems the older I get, the more emp...

I'd bet if you took a survey in the US, you'd find most people are pretty happy with their current health care provider(s). Let's face it, most people aren't sick, and even when they do get sick, their own immune systems can fix most anything on its own. For most other ailments a visit to a primary care physician can easily diagnose and prescribe the necessary action to resolve the matter quickly. So why do we even try to rate health care providers? I for one have never been a fan of health care provider ratings, because it can't be done reliably. Health care is not an exact science. It is an art [of sorts], and trying to apply statistical measures to it are at best suspect. Even trying to track the things that could be measured objectively, such as in patient infection rates, readmissions, etc. can't be relied upon, because in a for-profit health care system, absent of regulation (like in the US), the incentive is to skew the data to produce positive results. ...

Just when I thought I was completely over being sick , and ready to resume my normal everyday [boring] routine, what happens? I hurt my neck. I was fine up until about 4 AM this morning, when I awoke to make the last of my usual 2 or 3 nightly [routine] pit stops, and as I was walking back to bed, all of a sudden, I felt this excruciating (only slightly exaggerated) pain in my neck. It's like I pulled a muscle, except that I didn't do anything like that. Not even close. And the pain was almost immediate. I laid back down in bed hoping the pain might subside, but no such luck. So now I'm laid up again, feeling sorry for myself, alternating ice and heat, in the hopes I will be somewhat recovered by tommorrow. I probably shouldn't be writing this post, as it's not doing my neck any good, but I thought by doing so, I could garner some well deserved sympathy. :) Oh well, time for more ice!

After a recent email, and several exchanges on a few of the message boards I frequent, I felt is was imperative of me to reiterate my stance on the use of vitamins, supplements and herbal remedies. As long time readers of my blog may already know, I am against the taking of all vitamins, supplements and herbal remedies. But I wasn't always that way. Prior to my diagnosis I truly believed the taking of Vitamin C, E, Calcium, fish oil (and a few other items) were essential for good health. Obviously that didn't work, and now I'm even of the opinion it was that belief which led to my diagnosis of MCL. That's not to say all of the hype is a complete fabrication. After all, I am a firm believer in the efficacy of EGCG , a by product of green tea. Nor am I saying maintaining proper nutrition isn't important, because it definitely is. What I am saying is, if you can't get it naturally, it's probably not worth getting. And that's a policy I adhere to religiously...

Isn't it enough my wife and I are both dying of incurable diseases? Isn't it enough I have to put up with the constant vilification of so many people, by so many other people in this country, who think they know it all? Isn't it enough weather extremes (whatever the cause) are creating havoc and misery in many places [even southern California]. Isn't it enough that in the past 3 months, 2 long time neighbors across the street decided to move, and rent out their houses, and the young couple 2 houses north of ours had to default on their mortgage and moved to New Mexico (the house is still empty), and now I just learned our next door neighbors have sold their home and are moving out as well, even as I write this post. When can I just throw up my arms, and say enough is enough! After living in the same house, in the same neighborhood for 26 years, with very few upheavals during that time, and when I finally getting to the point where both Edie and I are retired, and totall...

It seems my cold is finally running it's course [at least I hope]. On Saturday it was a sore throat, Sunday I was congested and had a constantly runny nose, and yesterday was an extreme headache and a mild cough. Today the cough as progressed a little beyond mild. (I even had to resort to taking 1 Tylenol and some Hall's throat lozenges to help ameliorate the discomfort.) But rather than dwell on my problems any more, I thought this would be a good time to update everyone on Edie's condition, especially since it's been awhile (just about a year) since I last posted anything about Edie. Since that time, Edie started on maintenance Velcade (infusions every other week). She had also been taking Biaxin on a regular basis, because her doctor told her it had shown some efficacy in treating Multiple Myeloma, but due to some side effects, she went off it to see if that would help. About that same time, her free light chains started to rise. Whether that was coincidental, a di...

I'm still sick, and Dr Hamblin died this morning . (So I guess there really isn't any difference between hospice and palliative care ). This year is definitely not starting out on a good note , and there's still 358 days left to go. The optimist in me is telling me things can't get much worse. Unfortunately, the pessimist in me doesn't believe that for a minute. GREAT BIG SIGH!!!

It's even more so when you're immune compromised, such as myself, because I can never be sure if my immune system is up to the task of fighting off the illness. Plus I can't be sure if I've just contracted the run of the mill cold, flu or whatever, or if it's the result of my MCL. I find myself spending an inordinate amount of time dwelling on how I feel, how soon I'm going to start feeling better, and constantly searching for any evidence of my MCL acting up, such as inspecting for enlarged nodes under my neck and arms. And that is exactly what I am going through right now.  I started feeling more run down than usual about midweek, but after having a cup of hot tea with lemon, I felt much better. Unfortunately, it didn't last that long, and today my throat is much sorer, I have a minor headache, and I'm just feeling generally bad. I've always managed to recover relatively quickly, without any long lasting side effects, whenever I've gotten sick ...

I just learned Dr. Hamblin ( referenced in my previous post ) is actually in palliative care, where the intent is to nurse patients back to better health through nutrition, etc. (?) rather than in hospice care, where they have given up all hope. That certainly is good news. Now, hopefully everything else will start turning for the better as well!

WOW! We're only 3 days into 2012, and already it's not looking that good. It actually started New Year's Eve, when I thought my surround sound audio receiver was malfunctioning [Dolby Digital wasn't being displayed]. It took me 3 days to figure out the problem, which turned out not to be such a problem. Still it was stressful, especially since over the holiday weekend no one was available to contact for support. Then yesterday the termite inspector came by, and said the house needs to be tented. Jeez, we just had it tented barely 16 months ago, and the termites are [supposedly] back already. I'm not about to go through another tenting. It's not the cost so much, which isn't cheap at about $2K, as much as the hassle of moving out of the house for 3 days, costing at least another $500, dealing with 2 cats, plus having to double plastic wrap all the food and wine to boot. It's just not worth the hassle. The termites can have the house! So I contacted anothe...