I just came across this very informative website which I have also placed a link to in the side bar.
Dr. Hesham Attalla MD, PhD, from the Netherlands, has managed to break down many of the complexities of medicine in way that even mere laymen can comprehend.
I found his piece on Cytokins very informative, but there is information for everyone.
I recommend it to everyone.
If there was any doubt before, it was all wiped away this morning.
When I awoke, the thermometer had reached a frigid (at least for Southern California) 40.6oF (4.8oC). We usually don’t get those kind of temperatures until late January or February. I just hope this isn’t an indication of things to come. It could put a real crimp in my training.
Besides the rain, cold weather is the only other acceptable excuse to stay in bed, and not go for a bike ride. 40oF is my typical cut off point, but while today was actually above the cut off point, I still decided not to ride.
In anticipation of taking Edie to her oncologist appointment this morning, I did a hard workout on the computrainer yesterday, followed by weight training at the gym, and a 15 minute run on the tread mill, so I had a legitimate excuse. (I still may go to the gym later for a life cycle workout or run on the treadmill, that is if I don’t decide to go golfing instead.)
So here I sit writing some innocuous post, to pass the time, which might be better spent breaking out my winter riding gear.
Bummer! 
About two months ago, I posted about how a fellow blogger, who has CLL, nearly always relates his post to his CLL.
When I started this blog a year ago, I talked about my disease, and many of the problems I encountered along the way, not so much because I felt any sicker back then, but because I had something to say.
Now I seem to be running out of those “pearls of wisdom”, and tend to post mostly about my day to day life, as boring as that may be to some.
The reason for that, I have come to believe is, I just don’t feel sick. I haven’t had any treatment yet, and there is none anticipated in the near future, so how can I possibly talk about being a patient?
I doubt that many people, if any, would consider that a bad thing, but as a patient blogger over at The Medical Blog Network, I feel as though I am shirking my responsibility, when I don’t write about how it feels to be a patient.
It also makes me jealous of those other patient bloggers, in a perverse sort of way, not because I want to feel sick or start treatment any time soon, but because the information David and others provide is useful to anyone who is a patient.
Oh well, such is life, and even though I love David’s blog, and always look forward to his next post, I still take solace in the fact that being a patient isn’t just about what it’s like to be sick, it’s also about how to enjoy the positive aspects of life, and not to dwell on the negative.
Here I was, all siked up over people learning of my blog, and what emotions might be stirred up from it, as it turned out, Thanksgiving dinner with our nieces and nephews can best be described as uneventful. While many more people are aware that I have a blog, not everyone is aware of the content, nor do they seem interested enough to read it.
It appears, even Naomi (see my last post) failed to inform anyone just yet, since the two people who I would have expected Naomi to say something to, did not give any indication they talked to her, when I met them for a bike ride yesterday morning.
So now I don’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed? Maybe I’m not psychic after all! 
It was only yesterday that I wrote about one of Edie’s nephew, who we hadn’t told of our health problems, discovering my blog, and thinking this may be a sign of things to come.
And no sooner do I mention that, then Naomi (one of the old gang, who I have mentioned in previous posts) sends me an email today, saying she was one of those who never bothered to check the web address in the signature line of all my emails.
I suspect she wasn’t so much the one to discover it, as it was Mike, her boy friend, who actually uncovered it. Of course I have been known to be wrong on occasion in the past.
The thing is, Mike is also a Non Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL) survivor, and he was recently in the hospital due to complications from treatment he was receiving for his lymphoma. I had sent him an email (and yes, I did visit him in the hospital also), before I knew he was in the hospital, wishing him well.
And yesterday, Mike got out of the hospital, so I have a sneaking suspicion that when he was checking back emails, he came across mine, and was just curious enough to check. I may also have expressed too much knowledge of NHL, for anyone not so deeply involved with it themselves, to have peeked anyones interest.
So stay tuned, it should be exciting times in the days and weeks ahead, as more and more people discover my previously closeted life. I only hope they are good times.
I can hardly wait.
It was about this time last year when I registered my domain name, and I wrote my first post on December 5, 2005, and finally a family member, on my wifes side who we had not told about our health problems, managed to find out on their own.
You (at least I did) would think, since every email I send out has the URL for my blog, plus all the emails that my wife and I send to friends and relatives is suffixed with @livingwithmcl.com, it wouldn’t have taken almost a full year for someone to finally be curious enough to investigate. But it did!
Yesterday, Edie received a call from her nephew, who lives in the valley, to inform us that his sister (Edie’s neice), who also lives in the valley, discovered my blog. It came as quite a surprise to them. It should also make for an interesting Thanksgiving dinner, when we go over there Thursday evening.
So what is it that made her check that domain name? If it was curiosity, I would have thought she would have discovered it long ago. I always check domain names of friends to see if there is a website attached. Mostly there isn’t any, but that doesn’t discourage me from still checking every time I come across a new one.
But why is it that most other people don’t bother? Have we just gotten so jaded by the huge number of emails, that we don’t want to take the time or we just don’t feel there is any value in checking? Or have we lost our adventurous nature, and no longer want to discover new things?
Who knows, but maybe this is just a sign of things to come!