LIVING WITH MCL

Just got back from the Dermatologist to have the stitches removed from my Basal Cell Carcinoma surgery , and all the cancer was removed. That's certainly good news as I was not looking forward to going through that again. I'm still not free of all bandaging, like I hoped, as the doctor glued 3 steri-strips over the wound. I'm just supposed to resume my normal routine (shower as if they weren't there), and eventually they'll fall off in about a week. At least the steri-strips are flesh colored, so they don't stand out as much as the other bandages did. There was even more good news this week, as Edie's Freelights have stopped their upward trend. It looks like the Vorinostat is doing it's job on Edie's myeloma . After only two weeks on the drug, Edie's Free Lightchains, have fallen about 10%. It's not a huge number, but at least it's heading in a better direction. So with all that, and seemingly continued stability on the MCL front, I'm...

If you're one of the 27% of Americans defined as having had a serious illness, medical condition, injury, or disability requiring a lot of medical care, or who had been hospitalized overnight in the past 12 months, you probably don't think very highly of it. In a  poll conducted by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, NPR, and Harvard School of Public Health , of those 27% of Americans ...... more than 40 percent say that the cost of their medical care over the last 12 months has caused a “very serious” (20%) or “somewhat serious” (23%) problem for their or their family’s finances. ............One in six sick Americans say that there was a time in the past 12 months when they could not get the medical care they needed (17%). Among the sick Americans who could not receive care, 52 percent report that it was because they could not afford the needed care, and 24 percent say it was because their insurers would not pay for it . Lastly, about one in ten sick Americans (11%) report bei...

CANCELLED SURGERIES COSTING HOSPITALS MILLIONS From Anesthesiology News : Between patient no-shows and cancellations on the day of surgery, hospitals are losing millions in revenue each year, researchers have found....... Astonishing isn't it! I might have even been appalled if I weren't so disgusted. Nowhere in the article is there any discussion of the possible harm to patients due to missed surgeries. Nowhere is there any discussion of why patients may have cancelled, e.g. cost to the patient in terms of missed work and/or lost wages. Based on this article it would appear the only ones suffering here and risking harm are the health care providers. For me, this article simply further highlight how inadequate our health care system is, and how distorted our value system has become in this country, when lost "opportunity costs" (profit) is what's on the mind of health care providers the most. But then again, a fee-for-service, for-profit health care system was nev...

So far, this has been a lousy year. It started out with a cold in January, putting me out of commission for 10 days, followed by another cold in April, putting me out for another 10 days, and as if that wasn't enough, I needed (a slightly more than expected) minor surgery this past week which has now left me with a fear of excess exposure to the sun. On top of all that my mind has just been awash with so many other things as well, e.g. my wife , my spleen, health care, politics, etc. I can't seem to keep anything straight in my mind. My thoughts are all a jumble, and I have difficulty articulating them, even during conversations on things I'm passionate about. Then I spend all my time afterwards fretting over what I should have, but didn't say at the time. I thought retiring would be a lot more relaxing. No more dealing with the daily routine of work, and all the hassles that went along with it. Instead, I could just do whatever I wanted, whenever I chose to do it. But...

The operation to remove my basel cell carcinoma  went well. I was taken in right on time at 10 AM, and I was out by 10:50 AM. There wasn't any pain, as the doctor numbed things up pretty good, but hearing all the cutting an snipping of whatever he was cutting out, and smelling the singing of the skin, as the doctor cauterized some of the veins, made things a little unnerving.  Still, it's hard to believe that was the easiest part of the entire ordeal. The most uncomfortable part was the bandaging of the wound. Not only did I look like something out of a horror picture, receiving a few strange looks in the hallway as I exited the hospital, it was extremely uncomfortable. It was supposed to stay on for 24 hours, but that didn't happen. I took the extra [unnecessary IMO] bandaging off shortly after getting home. Even worse though was the pain afterwards as the lidocaine wore off. The pain, and the headache caused by it, was more than I could endure. I eventually resorted to t...

Hopefully a basal cell carcinoma can't either. My dermatologist called Friday evening, and informed me the [small] growth on my forehead (that he biopsied two weeks ago) was a basal cell carcinoma , and since he had a cancellation on his schedule, he could squeeze me in Monday morning to have it removed. The operation seems simple enough. It's outpatient surgery, using a local anesthetic, and I can go home immediately after it's finished. The only issue being I can't exert myself at all for the rest of the day. Normally that wouldn't be so bad, except Monday is my bowling day, but I think my health is just a little more important, and there'll be plenty more days to bowl. Plus I'd have to wait another 6 weeks if I didn't do it this Monday, and I'm not willing to do that. One other thing was the doctor informed me I shouldn't drink any alcohol, as that can sometimes cause excessive bleeding. I only wish he'd told me that before I opened a good...

Glenn Sabin , a reported 21 year Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL) survivor, who, other than having had a splenectomy soon after diagnosis, has not received any conventional chemotherapy treatment. This is even after ......experiencing the full force and effect of his leukemia [in 2003]. A low grade fever and night sweats persisted for months. Glenn’s hematocrit dipped to 22 as severe hemolytic anemia set in....... Believable? Well yeah, sorta, kinda, maybe. Certainly surviving 21 years with CLL is believable (even without treatment). There's lots of evidence of that. Even surviving a splenectomy for that long is believable, despite the fact after a splenectomy, not only do the other organs take over the functions of the spleen, they typically also take over the leukemia/lymphoma. I just have a problem with everything else. I especially have a problem with after having a full blown attack of CLL, i.e. low hematocrit, night sweats etc. he was able to obtain a complete remission wit...