More Updates

I have some stuff to share about new and interestiung developments in cancer and lymphoma research, but they'll have to wait until next week. A few updates first.


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Peter's basketball team won their league championship last night. They finished the season 33 and 1, and made it to the state semifinals. The league championship was pretty satisfying, because last year they lost the championship game by 40 about points (Peter wasn't on the team then), so the coach and some of the returning players felt a little bit vindicated. Peter played for about a third of the game, and did his usual great job on defense, fighting for loose balls and rebounds, and coming out of it all with an sore wrist and an elbow to the eye. But he thinks it was all worth it.


Peter played Junior Varsity this year (5th and 6th graders), and has been anxious about whether hell make the varsity team next year. But after the game, when he went to thank the coach for all he'd done, the coach told Peter that he hopes to get the team into an informal rec-type league this summer. "I want to keep my returning guys sharp. I'll let you know more soon." So we took that as saying Peter is expected to come back next year for varsity. That's a relief to Peter.


The biggest news of the night, though: Lady Luck continues to try to make ammends. I won the 50-50 raffle. These raffles are very popular at school basketball games around here. You buy a ticket for a dollar, and the winning ticket wins half the money collected, with the other half usually going to the school. BUT -- the winner can take a shot from half court (or ask someone else to do it), and if it goes in, the winner keeps ALL the money. This being a championship game, there was a big crowd, and they sold an unusually large number of tickets. So I won $100. Peter took my half-court shot for me, and while the shot was on target, it fell a little short. So I got my money and the host school got theirs. Good deal all around.


Still, Lady Luck still hasn't totally made it up to me for this whole cancer thing....


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As for my health: I've been battling a strange ear thing for the last three weeks. I was on antobiotics for ten days, and the middle ear infection cleared up, but the kind of popping/pressure in my ears, with slight dizziness, has remained. I had my ears irrigated, and still nothing changed. I went to an Ears-Nose-Throat guy a couple of days ago, and my ears are physically fine (except for a slight loss of high frequency range hearing, probably due to too much Black Sabbath through loud Radio Shack headphones during the early 1980's). His guess is that the other problem is being caused by stress -- tight jaw muscles messing with my Eustacian tubes. He suggested I stop chewing so much gum and avoid foods that make me work my jaw too much. He knows of my health situation (some progression lately with the lymphoma) and said, "I can't imagine anything more frickin' stressful." So I'll go with his "stress" diagnosis for now.


I see Dr. R a week from today.


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Finally, I want to share a personal problem I've been having. The Dial Corporation no longer makes Coast (Original Blue) Soap.


I've been using Coast for years, and about six months ago, our grocery store stopped carrying it. Isabel found a bunch of Coast really cheap at the discount grocery we also go to, and she bought me about 20 bars. Now that's just about run out. I looked everywhere and couldn't find any.


I went to the Dial home page yesterday, and found a link for Coast Pacific Rage, or something like that, with a link for finding a retailer who carries it. Well, even this new stuff is unavailable within 100 miles of my zip code.


I was curious if there was anything online about Dial limiting their selling area for this new version of Coast, and I found a video from a woman named Missy Ward, lamenting the loss of Coast Original Soap. As you can see from her video, she too is a long-time user, she hates the new stuff, and she has scoured retailers and the internet for Coast Original to supplement her stash of 250 bars of the stuff.


I've come to grips with the fact that I to give up on Coast, particularly if people like her are working that hard to find it. Which saddens me somewhat.


So if any of you have some old Coast Original Blue soap in the back of a closet, let me know. I can't promise I'll buy it from you, but I'll pay for postage. And if you accept Missy Ward's offer of $7.00 a bar instead, I totally understand.


But I'm also now looking for Coast alternatives. Send me your suggestions. Soon.

Happy Saint Patrick's Day

An Irish man, Seamus, walks into a bar and sees his friend Patrick.

"Why so sad, Seamus?" asks Patrick.

"I got bad news today. I have cancer," says Seamus. "The doctor says the prognosis is good, but Patrick, could you make me a promise?"

"Anything," says Patrick.

"If I die, will you take a bottle of the finest Jameson's Irish whiskey and pour it over my grave?"

"Oh, Seamus," says Patrick, "I'll be happy to....but do you mind if I strain it through my kidneys first?"

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Happy St. Patrick's Day, everyone!

A Couple of Updates

Well, Peter's basketball team has finally lost a game. They were 30 and 1 this year, and made it to the semi-finals of the state tournament, but lost yesterday by 3 points. It was a great game, and they lost to an excellent team. They have one more game this season -- the finals of their league tournament on Thursday night. Let's hope they finish on a positive note.


Peter was unhappy about the loss, of course, but Catherine was a pool of tears at the end of the game and half the ride home. We were really touched that she was sharing her brother's sadness (unlike John, who read a book during the whole game). But then we finally got out of Catherine that the real reason she was so sad was because if Peter's team had won the state tournament, we'd all get to travel to the New England championship tournament, and she realized that now she wouldn't get a chance to stay in a hotel with a pool.


Still, it was nice that she was sad about the loss....sorta.


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The lead article in today's Parade Magazine is about Jon Lester, the Red Sox pitcher who was diagnosed with an aggressive NHL at age 22, was treated with chemo, and came back to win a World Series game in 2007 and pitch a no-hitter in 2008. Very inspirational. If your Sunday newspaper doesn't carry parade, you can read the article online here. There's a link of page 2 of the online version called "The Facts about Non Hodgkin's Lymphoma," that talks about symptoms, diagnosis processes, and treatments. It's a short article, but it's great that NHL is getting some exposure, especially if it can help people know what the symptoms are.


Lester hasn't publicly talked about his NHL too much; he says he doesn't want to be defined as a cancer survivor. Totally understandable. So it's nice that he's willing to talk about it here and help increase awareness.


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Speaking of the Red Sox and cancer:


There's a small controversy about Sox pitcher Jonathan Paplebon. In an interview from Esquire magazine, he said he was glad that Manny Ramirez is no longer with the Sox, since he had quit on the team before he was traded, and was becoming "a cancer." (Maybe not so samll a controversy; try Googling "Papelbon and cancer" and you a few hundred hits. Lots of news outlets carried that story.)

Now some people are upset with Papelbon for using the word "cancer" so loosely to describe his former teammate. As a cancer patient, I feel entitled to an opinion on the topic:

I don't see why people are getting on Papelbon. The term "clubhouse cancer" has been around for a long time as a way to describe a teammate who brings everyone else down with his bad attitude. Try Googling "clubhouse cancer." The first ten hits have stories about Stephan Marbury, Coco Crisp, Lane Kiffin, Jim Edmunds, and others being called "clubhouse cancers." Where's the outrage?

I guess part of the problem is a seeming insensitivity to teamamtes Jon Lester and Mike Lowell, who are both cancer survivors. Still, I think the whole thing echoes the attitude that cancer isn't a word we're supposed to say out loud, only in whispers, if we say it at all. As you know from reading the blog, I refuse to take that attitude. I certainly don't flaunt my cancer, but I think if it doen't get talked about, it remains something too scary to be dealt with. It's too old fashioned an attitude for me. Talking leads to awareness. Talking leads to emotional relief.

So Papelbon is insensitive, maybe. But I can't make cancer jokes here and then criticize Papelbon for using the term too informally. It was an extreme comment, maybe. But it's not a word that should go unsaid.

(Ooooo -- now I'm all fired up for baseball. Bring on opening day, baby.)

My New "Doctor"

I had an amusing cancer-related experience recently.


I got a haircut a few days ago. I was a little hesitant to go at the time of day that I did, because I knew I'd end up getting it cut by the same woman who did it last time. She's a Talker, and worse, a Know-It-All-Talker. I deal with enough of them every day at work; I don't need one cutting my hair. She also gets in moods where she gets a little insulting. It's overall not usually a pleasant experience. But I went at that time anyway, because it was going to be my only chance for a while to get a haircut (we're getting to the crazy time of year now, at work and with the kids' lives).


The last time I saw her, she noticed that I have a small bald patch at my hairline near the back of my neck. It's maybe as big as a nickel. I have one under my chin, too. I know they're there, and they don't bother me. (Interstingly, this kind of spot alopecia is an autoimmune issue -- something to do with T cell lymphocytes, from what I understand. Probably not related to lymphoma; I've never read read anything about that connection.)


Well, the last time she cut my hair, she saw the small patch, and for the next 10 minutes, repeated to me how important it was that I rush to see my dermatologist, because it could spread to my entire head. (Not true -- it's actually very rare that such a thing would happen.)

So when I went back to her a few days ago, I knew she was going to bring it up again, and I decided I would tell her I was a cancer patient and hope it would just shut off all conversation, the way it does with most people. (It's almost as effective conversation stopper as telling people I'm an English teacher.)


She started cutting, and sure enough, she brought up the alopecia. I stopped her with a, "Yeah, I know it's there...I'm a cancer patient....."


It didn't shut her up. Not for a second.


Without missing a beat, she said, "I knew it. I knew what it was from. What do you have?"


"Lymphoma."

"Yup. I knew it," she said. And then she was off: "I had a guy in here last year with a lump behind his ear I told him to get it checked but he said it was fine but I told him, you better get that checked and he said OK and he got it checked and he came back the next week and said [she paused here] You saved my life. So now I have a customer for life, you know? Not that I did it for that reason it's just the kind of person I am I can't let someone not know because you know that's how I am, but his wife was in last week you should have heard her going on, I mean, that's not why I do it, it's just the kind of person I am. I was in the health field at one time."


She went on for a while more about her sister-in-law who went back to school to study nursing, but only becasue she's in it for the money, and about the crafts she sells on eBay, but then she circled back around to my lymphoma diagnosis.


"You'll be fine. Blood transfusions. That's what you need," and before I could respond, she told me about her former customer (whose life she saved) and how blood transfusions have cured his lymphoma, and he's fine now. "Yeah, I could go into the health field -- but not like my sister-in-law, just for the money, but I like to help people. The problem is, I can't stand to hear someone whine because they have a little cut, you now?"


I finally got a word in, and asked her what she had done in the health field.


"I used to cut patients' hair in a nursing home."


She finished me up, and I paid and tipped her extra for the medical advice. "You'll be fine!" she called out to me as I walked out the door. "Blood transfusions!"

Ran a Race, Finally

This morning, I ran in the WPLR ShamRock & Roll 5K, sponsored by our local classic rock station, and benefiting the New Haven Diaper Bank, a very cool organization. I did OK -- an official time of 31:42, just over 10 minutes per mile, coming in 820 out of 1270 overall, 131 out of 157 in my age division, and #1, as far as I know, in the subvision of Old Fat Guys with Cancer. (As usual.)

Official results are here.

The 31:42 is the official time, but with such a huge field, it took a minute and 7 seconds to reach the starting line, so I'm putting myself unofficially at 30:35, five seconds slower than when I ran this race last year.

It was a beautiful 45 degrees and sunny at the start of the race. I was tired before I even began -- I lost an hour of sleep with the time change, plus we all went to a St. Patrick's day dinner/dance last night, and I helped with the set up and the break down, and then threw Catherine around the dance floor a little bit, so I was tired this morning. (That's me in the picture on the left with two of the teachers from the kids' school.) On top of that, I think the ear infection I had two weeks ago is coming back. So those are all of my official excuses, which every runner needs.

The ShamRock & Roll starts at Toad's Place, an iconic New Haven rock club, and goes up Prospect Street, about three-quarters of a mile straight uphill. I've been doing some hill training lately, so I managed to pass some people on the way up. The trip down was a little easier, and I actually had enough energy to pick it up near the end of the race and pass a few more people in the last few hundred yards.

So it was overall a good race, my first in more than 4 months. It was nice to run outside again and to push myself a little bit. Most importanly, I look good, as you can see. I need a nap, but it all felt good at the time.

Interesting Article

Nice article from CNN, "Where's the Cure for Cancer?"


The President is proposing billions more dollars for cancer research, with the goal of a cure for cancer. (His mom's cancer is no doubt playing into that decision.)


The article, though, brings up the complications that come with that noble goal: there are over 200 different kinds of cancer, all very different. (Heck, there are 30 different kinds of NHL, all extremely different from each other.) So finding "a cure" is going to be tough. Some researchers think a cure might even be impossible for some cancers, and a more realistic goal is to keep some cancers in check so that they are more like chronic diseases. Follicular NHL is often seen in that way -- chronic, so that it is treated as necessary.


I'm no cancer expert, but it seems to me that some of the research being conducted does hint at a common genetic trigger for a lot of cancers. I wouldn't want to abandon a search for a single cure -- it's from that research for a single cure, looking deep into a bunch of individual cancers, that we'll learn more about those individual cancers. I say, don't cut off any possibilities. Big gains come from big goals.

Vids of the Kids

This past weekend, the kids performed in the Connecticut Young Musicians Festival. All three played piano, and all did well.

As I explained about a year ago in a Lympho Bob entry, the YMF gives kids an opportunity to perform in a competition setting without the direct competition. They are judged on their performance, but not against one another. All three of the kids were complimented by the judges. They'll get their scores in three or four weeks.

Last year, I promised video of their performances. Alas, computer and video camera problems made that impossible.

This year, those problems are fixed. Enjoy the vids of my talented kids.

Here's Peter's performance:

And John's:

And, finally, Catherine's: