Christmas Follow-Up, Part I

My goodness -- it's been almost a week since I posted. The holidays will do that. We've been busy traveling, cleaning up the wrapping paper mess, and catching up on sleep. But mostly I'm trying to get over a bad case of "Wii Arm" brought on by repetitive motions that I'm frankly not used to. Sad but true.

(And yes, while most Wii-related injuries involve being hit with a controller, there really are orthapaedists who discuss Wii-related sports injuries out there online.)

I have a few follow-ups from some recent Christmas-related postings to share.

First off all, if you enjoyed reflecting on all of the Christmas songs I wrote about, you might enjoy this quiz from the Chicago Tribune, "So You Think You Know Carols?" Twenty-five questions about song lyrics from Christmas carols. For the record, I scored a 23 out of 25, for a 92%. (I have a special talent for remembering song lyrics, as I've mentioned before. It's a sickness more than a talent, really.)

While you're at the Tribune web site, check out their gallery of photos of children crying because they're afraid of Santa. Apparently, readers send in the photos, and they've already filled three galleries. Here's a sample:

Of course, you know my theory -- the kids probably all just finished watching Rudolph.

And speaking of pictures, here's one of my brother and me from Christmas night:

A couple of fine-looking Scottish lads, aren't we?

And lest you think we might be betraying our MacDonald of Clan Ranald ancestors, the kilts we wear are not actually representative of any particular clan. I know -- I've done extensive research. What's important is how awesome we look. Amazingly, neither of us is holding a beer.

And a follow-up to Joe's comment from the last posting -- I didn't type all 35 steps. It's a total cut-and-paste job from another site. I'll be honest.

Another Christmas follow-up in a day or two.

Merry Christmas

....and Happy Hannukah, Happy Festivus, and/or a Joyous Season to you all.

Only a couple more days until Christmas. We're looking forward to seeing family and friends.

The kids have a half-day of school today, so I'm home alome wrapping some presents and watching The Grinch, which is the bestest of all the Christmas specials. (Boris Karloff narrating, Chuck Jones directing, and that guy who does Tony Tiger's voice (They're Grrrrreat!") singing the Grinch song. How can it not be the bestest?)

Strudel has been helping me wrap presents, which has reminded me of something I saw once online called "How to Wrap Presents with a Dog," a variation of which I give you here to describe how my gift-wrapping went:

1. Gather presents, boxes, paper, etc. in middle of living room floor.
2. Get tape back from Strudel.
3. Remove scissors from Strudel's mouth.
4. Open box.
5. Take Strudel out of box.
6. Remove tape from Strudel's mouth.
7. Take scissors away from Strudel.
8. Put present in box.
9. Remove present from Strudel's mouth.
10. Put back in box after removing Strudel from box.
11. Take scissors from Strudel & sit on them.
12. Remove Strudel from box & put on lid.
13. Take tape away from Strudel.
14. Unroll paper.
15. Take Strudel OFF box.
16. Cut paper being careful not to cut Strudel's foot or nose that is getting in the way as she "helps".
17. Let Strudel tear paper remaining to be cut.
18. Take Strudel off box.
19. Wrap paper around box.
20. Remove Strudel from box & take wrapping paper from her mouth.
21. Tell Strudel to hold tape so she will stop stealing it.
22. Take scissors away from Strudel.
23. Take tape Strudel is guarding.
24. Quickly tape one spot before taking scissors from Strudel & sitting on them again.
25. Fend off Strudel trying to steal tape & tape another spot.
26. Take bow from Strudel.
27. Go get roll of wrapping paper Strudel ran off with.
28. Take scissors from Strudel, who grabbed them when you got up to chase her and get the paper.
29. Give pen to Strudel to hold so she stops licking your face.
30. Remove Strudel from present & hurriedly slap tape on to hold the paper on.
31. Take now soggy bow from Strudel & tape it on since the sticky stuff on the bow no longer sticks.
32. Take pen Strudel has been guarding, address tag & affix while Strudel tries to eat paper.
33. Grab present before Strudel tears it open & put away.
34. Clean up mess Strudel made playing tug-of-war with roll of wrapping paper.
35. Put away rest of wrapping supplies & tell Strduel what a good helper she is.

Actually, Strudel wasn't that bad today. She only made it to about step 7, and then she got tired of me yelling at her, so she took a couple of sips from the cup of coffee I had set down on the floor, and then jumped up on the couch to take a nap.

Things are settled down now; we're done with grading, pretty much done with shopping, and we can relax for a few days. After the new year starts, the kids are back in school, and we have some plans before our classes start up again: we promised Catherine we'd paint her room (in two shades of pink, but without the mural she has asked for); we have to get our Spring classes planned and materials posted online; we have a few professional development workshops to attend; and, if we're lucky, we'll have a little time to catch up on some reading.

I'm also taking some time to reflect. My one-year diagnosis anniversary is coming up. (Can you belive it's been a whole year?) Some things have changed in a year. I'll write more about that soon enough.

But for now, everyone have a safe and happy Christmas/Hannukah/Festivus.

Let it Snow

We've been busy getting ready for Christmas, and had all of that hard work interrupted by our first big snowstorm of the year.

I can't find an official snowfall total, but I'm guessing it was 7 or 8 inches. Nice and fluffy, not too bad to shovel. The kids didn't have school yesterday, even though the snow didn't start until about 12:30 in the afternoon. But when it did start, it came down hard, an inch or two per hour.

We had planned on finishing up some Christmas shopping yesterday, but we stayed in instead, leaving the shoveling for this morning. We made some Christmas cookies and watched Elf. As immature as it is, this is my favorite scene from the movie. Naturally, the kids like it, too.

So our day wasn't what we had planned, but it was pretty good anyway. And the snow looks beautiful.

This is snow on the New Haven Green (sorry for the small size of the picture):

And here's the sculpture outside Engleman Hall, the building where the English Department is located:

We're expecting more snow tomorrow. Or maybe frozen rain. They still haven't figured it out. But it will be a mess, whatever it is.

So nothing much new to report, but I waned everyone to know we're doing OK, and I'm feeling fine.

Oh, and those two pictures were taken last December, not yesterday. I found them online. I'm too tired from shoveling to actually go downtown and take picures.

Lots of Great NHL Research

I hate to ruin all of the Christmas and birthday frivolity with more of that "cancer talk," but....


.....but at least it's good cancer talk.


A couple of weeks ago, the ASH Conference took place. ASH stands for the American Society for Hematology. Hematology is the study of blood disorders. I figured you'd want to know, since I didn't know what it was until I was diagnosed with a blood cancer.


Hematology covers a pretty wide range of blood disorders, but there were a whole bunch of lymphoma-related research reports that came out of the conference. Lots of good, promising research, in various stages. I'll give you some brief summaries.


One research report discussed the results of an early trial for a drug called Blinatumomab, which is classified as a BiTE antibody. I wrote about BiTE antibodies before: the antibody attaches to cancerous B cells with one end of the molecule, while the other end attracts and attaches to a T cell, the kind of cell that can kill a B cell. Rituxin works well, but doesn't seem to always get all of the B cells it's looking for. Researchers think this might be a way to improve it. This was a small, phase I study, meant to figure out which dosage level of the drug would work best. Looks like they figured it out. They're moving on to a larger study, but it looks very promising.


Another panel of researchers discussed results of Rituxin Maintenance. It's a European study, so they use the European name MabThera instead of Rituxin. (I won't get into what Rituxin is -- if you've been reading the blog for a while, you know by now.) Basically, Rituxin Maintenance is the practice of giving Rituxin to a patient after he or she has received chemotherapy. It's been found that R-Maintanence prolongs the effects of chemo by continuing to fight off the lymphoma cells that were weakened by the chemo. This presentation showed that the R-Maintenance was pretty successful. It's a fairly common practice now, but this is more proof to continue it.


Another study looked at substituting one particular drug for another during a common chemotherapy regimen; the new combo has fewer side effects. The study took out Fludarabine from the regimen and replaced it with a drug called Pentostatin. Both drugs do the same job -- disrupting the lymphoma cells' ability to reproduce themselves. However, Fludarabine can sometimes lead to a condition called Myelosuppression, which means the body makes fewer blood cells. This can lead to all kinds of problems, as you can imagine, depending on which type of blood cell is being suppressed. The Pentostatin seems to be as effective as the Fludarabine, but without the Myelosuppression problems. Another very promising study, and relevent for me, because the Fludarabine combo was one of the chemotherapies that my oncologist and I have discussed for down the road.


Another study (sorry -- the link has expired now) looked at my old pal Zevalin. It was a follow-up on a presentation from last year's ASH conference. It showed, once again, some excellent news concerning Zevalin, a drug which seeks out individual lymphoma cells in the blood and zaps them with radiation. In this study, Zevalin was given after a standard chemotherapy treatment, and was found to extend the effectiveness of the chemo by over 5 years in a large percentage of patients. The authors point out that many study participants have moved beyond 5 years, so they still need to follow up with a revised number to show its continued effectiveness. In other words, next year they may tell us it's been six years of remission. Excellent news.


One more report without a link. This study looked at Treanda, the trade name for a chemo drug called bendamustine, which I've also written about before. Treanda was given to 462 patients. While it was a "single arm" trial, which means it wasn't explicitly comparing two treatments to one another within the same study, the Treanda study did seem to be as effective as CHOP, a common chemotherapy for follicular NHL. More importantly, it delivered the results with much less toxicity: about 91% of CHOP patients lose their hair, but none of the Treanda patients did. The hair loss in and of itself isn't really the issue -- that's what they're using as the measure of how toxic the chemo is on the body. As always, more long-term follow-up will be necessary, but this too looks very promising.


There are several more research reports coming out of ASH that deal with fNHL, and tons more that deal with other types of NHL, but I think this is plenty. You get the point -- there are more and better treatments for fNHL being developed all the time. Even if none proves curative, they give me more options, which is fantastic news to an fNHL patient.

Merry Christmas, Brother

My brother is recovering from a wee bit of leg surgery (a little outpatient stuff), and he requested a couple of Christmas-related videos to help him recover. They're a couple of all-time favorites.

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First, the classic piece, "Santa Claus and His Old Lady," from Cheech and Chong. An all-time favorite.

Whatever happened to all that good drug-themed humor that we used to love? Oh, yeah -- it's still around. There was that Pineapple Express movie....

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Then there's Bob and Doug McKenzie's 12 Days of Christmas. Beer-related Canadian humor. Almost as good as the marijuana-themed stuff.

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So there -- I've fulfilled my brother's request. Now, on to me.

I had planned to run a 5k on Sunday, but couldn't make it. (To make up for it, I ran 4 miles on my own on Saturday. Just thought some of you might like to know I'm still running.) Some friends from work were running the Sunday race, and I really wanted to do it, but we had too many commitments, and I just couldn't squeeze it in.

And speaking of squeezing it in -- here's one race I WILL NOT be running anytime soon. It's called the Santa Speedo Run, and it takes place in Boston in December. As the name implies, you're required to wear a Speedo, and little else. Here's the offical race site, with a link to the official rules -- note the "No Thongs" stipulation. It's 1.25 very chilly miles, with lots of drinking before (to get everyone nice and brave) and after (to get everyone nice and warm).

Here's a picture from the race, courtesy of the Boston Globe:

You just know if I ever did a race like this, I'd end up on the front page of the Globe, and probably a hundred other online news feed sites. I don't need that kind of publicity.

There's a Seinfeld-referenced joke to be made, but it won't be made by me.

A Very Special Day

It is a very special day indeed. Our little girl's birthday.

I mean Strudel, of course. Here she is in her birthday hat.

That's a big smile, not a snarl. Still, she would like us to take it off her.

And below, a birthday tribute to our girl. Enjoy.

Christmas Songs

When we put up our Christmas tree this weekend, we also broke out all of our Christmas music. I've been easing myself into the music thing, trying to avoid the All-Christmas Music stations on the radio. (Although I'm thankful that we did find one during the 2 hours we waited to get from the Garden State Parkway to the Tappen Zee Bridge on the way home from Maryland, which actually helped pass the time.) But I'm already getting sick of them again, so when I drove Catherine to her dance class last week, I sang "Sleigh Ride" to her in my Popeye voice, which she did enjoy ("I ain't driving no one horsk open sliegh, Oleeve.")

I came across a nice post a few days ago called "10 Christmas Songs I'm Already Sick of (and 10 Geeky Alternatives)" from a Wired Magazine blogger named Z. I know how much certain readers like to comment on my musical tastes, so I thought I would comment on some of the selections from this particular blogger.

Z doesn't like Gene Autry's "Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer." I'll agree that I'm a little tired of that version, too, which is why I recommend the version by Dean Martin. I'm pretty sure he was drunk when he recorded it. But I love that he throws in lyrics like "Rudy the Red Beaked Reindeer" just to mix things up.

I have to disagree with his choice of "Santa Baby" by Eartha Kitt. I've always thought this song was just OK, but then my father told me about Eartha Kitt appearing on a TV show called New Faces of of 1952, and how hot she was, and I went back to seeing her as Catwoman on Batman, and then I came to fully appreciate her version. I can't say the same for Madonna's horrible Betty Boop-inspired version. Horrendous. I refuse to even provide a link. Catherine made me turn it off when it came on the car radio.

I also disagree with Alvin and the Chipmunk's "The Chipmunk Song," which still cracks me up. I know -- way, way back, almost a year ago, when someone suggested on the blog that I go to see the Chipmunks movie to take my mind off the diagnosis, I said I was pretty sure that Alvin's voice might actually kill cancer cells. But, really -- don't you laugh every time Alvin says he wants a hoola hoop?

I'm with Z on "Jingle Bell Rock." Same goes for "Rockin' Around the Christmas Tree." Snoozers.

But I love Band Aid's "Do They Know It's Christmas?" Z says it is "now merely viewed as another poorly executed relic from the 1980s, and yet we’re still forced to endure it each holiday season." Oh, how I disagree. The clothes are relics, sure. But you can't say the people are, not when they are still making news. Sting and Phil Collins are still famous. Bono got nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. Boy George....well....Boy George was in the news within the last couple of weeks. You'll have to Google that one yourself. Let's just say he was unkind to a paid consultant and just leave it at that.

I also love "Feliz Navidad" by Jose Feliciano. In fact, I ask Isabel every year if we can get "Feliz Navidad" printed on our Christmas cards. I like the way it rolls off the tongue. Plus, I like the way John makes up lyrics for it while he belts it out.

Finally, I also disagree with "Wonderful Christmas Time" by Paul McCartney. One of my favorite cheesy Christmas songs, right up there with "Last Christmas" by Wham! (When "Last Christmas" came on the radio when we were driving home from Maryland, Peter, my dropkick Murphy-loving son, finally screamed and asked me why I liked this song. I answered, "Who says knowing all the words to a song means you like it?")

Anyway, John Lennon writes deep songs like "Imagine" and "Happy Christmas (War is Over)" and Paul writes lyrics like "The word is out/About the town/To lift a glass/Ohh, don't look down." Brilliant. Right up there with his stirring "Someone's knocking at the door/Somebody's ringing the bell/Do me a favor, open the door/And let 'em in." But he's still my favorite Beatle, cause he's so cute.

I have some other favorites (including a version of Marlene Dietrich singing "Little Drummer Boy" in German), but I won't subject you to them. Except this one. Note that you can have this both ways -- if you like this sort of thing, you get to watch it; if you don't like it, you get the satisfaction of knowing it was nominated for worst video of the year.

And one final plug: If you haven't seen the Stephen Colbert Christmas special on Comedy Central, I highly recommend it. Some excellent songs. (But not for the kiddies.)