Update on my wife

 Edie  2 Responses »
Apr 052006
 

Well the results are in from the biopsy on the T2 vertebrae. It’s plasmacytoma! The oncologist described it as a low grade cancer that is easily treated by radiation. Well I’m not sure that treating anything with radiation is easy. What she didn’t mention was that it’s called plasmacytoma when it is localized in one spot, and multiple myeloma when in multiple locations. So today the doctor is going to perform a BMB to check for the spread of the disease, and tomorrow she has an appointment scheduled with the radiation oncologist.

This certainly has served as a wake up call for me. With my MCL progressing so slowly, I almost feel as though I am not really sick, and this gives a lot more credibility to my post of a couple of days ago, The Future – It’s not all it’s cracked up to be

If there is to be at least one silver lining in all this, it is the health care provided by all the professionals at Kaiser Permanente. The dedication of everyone and the effort put forth in getting tests performed, and appointments scheduled has been extraordinary. In the last two weeks, since my wife’s MRI showed the anomaly in her T2 vertebrae, she has had a bunch of blood work, a CT scan, bone scan, appointment with an oncologist and a biopsy of her T2 vertebrae. And today, as I mentioned earlier, she has a bone marrow biopsy scheduled, and an appointment with the radiation oncologist tomorrow.

I can’t imagine we could have received any better care elsewhere!

 Posted by at 7:28 am

OK, so I was duped!!

 Life  No Responses »
Apr 022006
 

But it wasn’t my fault. I am a victim!

It appears that my last post, Fatigue Part II – Maybe it is Real, actually was an April Fools joke.

I was duped because I first saw the posts on GoozNews and Schwitzer Health News Blog on March 31st.

IMO, it isn’t a very good April Fools joke if it is played the day before, and unfortunately I’m old enough to remember Chronic Fatigue Syndrome, attributed to Epstein Barr Virus, afflicting several elite female cyclists back in the 80′s, which made the report sound plausible.

Oh well, such is life. I don’t think it will affect my lymphocyte count, and I did learn a very valuble lesson. In the world of the blogosphere, don’t assume April Fools jokes only come out on April 1st.

 Posted by at 12:53 pm

Fatigue! Part II – Maybe it is real?

 Off Topic  No Responses »
Apr 012006
 

Or it’s actually Motivational Deficiency Disorder, MoDeD (pronounced Mo-Dee-Dee) for short.

In a report this week by Roy Moynihan who reports for the British Medical Journal Austrailian scientists may have come across the reason for extreme laziness.

The condition is claimed to affect up to one in five Australians and is characterised by overwhelming and debilitating apathy. Neuroscientists at the University of Newcastle in Australia say that in severe cases motivational deficiency disorder can be fatal, because the condition reduces the motivation to breathe.

Neurologist Leth Argos is part of the team that has identified the disorder, which can be diagnosed using a combination of positron emission tomography and low scores on a motivation rating scale, previously validated in elite athletes. “This disorder is poorly understood,” Professor Argos told the BMJ. “It is underdiagnosed and undertreated.”

Who knew? Maybe I have MoDeD, from my attempts to become an elite athlete. :) I better tell my doctor, so that he can prescribe the new drug that is being developed to treat this condition. Oh did I forget to mention that

Professor Argos is an adviser to a small Australian biotechnology company, Healthtec, which is currently concluding phase II trials of [I]ndolebant, a cannabinoid CB1 receptor antagonist.

While I have my doubts about this study, mostly because the physicians who first discovered this disorder are on the payroll of HealthTec, and the physicians hyping it most likely are, plus my gut feeling tells me it isn’t real, I do remember a number of years back several elite woman athletes being diagnosed with I believe Chronic Fatigue Syndrome which was attributed to the Epstein Barr Virus (EBV). Maybe this is just a rehash of that, but now there may be a drug to counteract it. I just don’t know, but maybe time will tell.

I did particularly like the comment by Gary Schwitzer in his blog where he reports on this disorder.

I can’t wait to see the ads for this [new drug]. I’m saving my spot on the sofa to watch them.

And I also want to thank Merrill Goozner for first bringing this report to my attention.

 Posted by at 6:44 am
 Newer Entries