Living with MCL

And so far it’s mostly good news.

My creatinine (kidney function) and platelets are well within the normal range, as they always been, my LDH (Lactate Dehydrogenase) dropped to 112, which is about 20% lower than it has been for better than a year, and my hemoglobin has pretty much remained where it has been for the last two years, hovering around 12 g/dl.

My CBC (complete blood count) though is another story, and a bit confusing. My WBC (White Blood Cell) count was up [which is bad], and my absolute lymphocytes were down [which is good], but my monocytes were up [which is bad].

It seems, whenever an AUTO CBC (the machine does all the counting) is performed, the machine likes to count some of the lymphocytes as monocytes. At least that’s my opinion, because if my monocytes were really as high as indicated, I would be dealing with other issues, which I’m not.

But it doesn’t really matter so much anyways, since in either case, at worst my MCL is stable [which is a good thing].

So I think I’ve got a few good months [hopefully years] still left in me.

It didn’t even take 5 days, for me to receive my first offer for a new American Express (AMEX) Starwood Preferred Guest credit card, since canceling the identical card Monday, because AMEX refused to give me a good will credit for the annual fee.

And not only is there no annual fee for the first year with this offer, they’re even going to give me 10,000 bonus points for signing up.

I only wish someone would explain to me why AMEX would do this? The logic certainly escapes me, but then again I’m only a metallurgical engineer, and not trained in the world of high finance.

I actually almost took the bait, but then I figured, why bother? Besides I’m sure I’ll get another offer in the mail again shortly.

Maybe they’ll even up the ante the next time.

Well as it turns out, that 4 pound weight loss I was so concerned about, wasn’t anything to be worried about. As of a few minutes ago, I’m back up to the same weight I was last Thursday. I’d like to say I’m happy about that, but I’m really not. Why can’t I seem to lose any weight, as hard as I try?

But with a lot more success than last week!

The group started out a little slower this time, which allowed me some additional warm up, and to get comfortable in the group. Plus, I didn’t allow myself to get strung out off the back, forcing me to sprint out of every turn.

I just hovered in the middle of the pack (peleton), benefiting from the protection from the wind it provides.

All in all, it was a good day, and I’m looking forward to next Tuesday.