The Last Lecture

 Diagnosis  1 Response »
Jul 262008
 

You’re diagnosed with a terminal illness, and given 3 to 6 months to live.  How do you respond?

I’d like to think I’ve responded in a positive manner, and I’ve tried to inspire others into realizing exactly what they have, and how to get the most out of life, but I’m really not much of a writer, and I’m not even sure how good a job I’ve done achieving that goal. Fortunately there are those who seem to have been born with the ability to motivate and inspire.

Randy Pausch, who died of pancreatic cancer on July 25, 2008, was such an individual, and before he died, he delivered this inspirational Last Lecture, “Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams“, which to date has been seen by over 6 million people around the world. It’s a little long (1 hour 16 minutes), but in my opinion well worth watching.

…we don’t beat the Reaper by living longer. We beat the Reaper by living well

 Posted by at 3:07 pm

Polychromasia

 Diagnosis  1 Response »
Jul 252008
 

Well I just received a more enlightened (at least a more understandable) explanation of Polychromasia.

Simply put, it is an indication of the bone marrow trying to increase the amount of red blood cells (RBC’s) to correct anemia. And in case you didn’t know, I am anemic.

So when a patient is being treated for anemia, if there is no polychromasia then that means, either the wrong treatment was used, or the bone marrow isn’t functioning.

In my case, it may actually be a good thing, with all the increased exercise I’ve been doing lately forcing my bone marrow to work harder.  On the other hand though, it could be an indication the spleen is not functioning properly, which is a bad thing, since we all know my spleen in enlarged as well.

Oh well, remember, it’s always something. I’ll just have to wait for next months results, to see if there is any change.

 Posted by at 11:08 am

It’s always something

 My MCL  4 Responses »
Jul 242008
 

I received the results of my latest blood work today, and what seemingly has become a trend lately, something never seen before has shown up.

This time it’s Polychromasia, and the indication was I have a ‘few’.

Now if you read the explanation of Polychromasia, I hope you’re not as confused as I am, especially about the following statements.

A slight degree of polychromasia is normal.

So is a slight degree the same as ‘few’?

Increases in polychromasia suggest an increased bone marrow response. [and] No polychromasia correlates with non-responsive, anemic patients………

I don’t know, but both those statements sound like polychromasia is a good thing.

I’m just not so sure that is an accurate interpretation. Hopefully my expert source in this area will respond to my concerns shortly, with a more enlightened explanation.

Anywaze, other than that, with the exception of a 20% jump in my lymphocyte count, and the fact I got dropped from the group this morning, sooner than I was hoping, my RBC, hemoglobin and platelets either showed a very slight uptrend, or at a minimum they remained stable.

 Posted by at 3:47 pm

They say…..

 Cycling, Life, My MCL  2 Responses »
Jul 232008
 

Whenever anyone prefaces a statement with those two words, I always wonder about the validity of what is to follow.

But today as I was watching Le Tour de France,  a statement made during a Take Back the Tour commercial really struck home.

… the mind is stronger than the body, and that’s a danger, because sometimes you can push your body too far.

I had never really thought along those terms before, but as I think about the past week, and the last 6 years, 3 months and 28 days, there’s no doubt in my mind, there is a lot of truth to that statement.

When I was first diagnosed, I set a goal to ride more miles, and at a higher intensity than I had ever done before. I was going to push my body to the extreme, with the ultimate goal being to exercise my MCL into remission.

While I obviously haven’t achieved my ultimate goal, I believe the increased training has helped to keep my MCL from progressing at a faster pace, and it has enabled me to reach a level of fitness I had not achieved prior to my diagnosis. And there in lies the problem.

I don’t think of myself as a 60 year old man. In my mind, I’m 30 years old, and there’s no reason I shouldn’t be able to compete with other 30 year olds.  I know what I am capable of [or at least what I was capable of], and when I can’t keep up, my mind just tells my body to push harder.

I know I did that last Friday on Glendora Mountain road, and I paid for it the next day, because sometimes no matter what the mind says to do, the body just won’t, or can’t comply.

I’m just hoping the last three days, off the bike, has provided enough of a recovery for my body to start listening to my mind again.

Tomorrow will be the moment of truth!

 Posted by at 9:53 pm

More bad days than good

 Cycling, Life, Work  2 Responses »
Jul 222008
 

It all started last Tuesday night, racing at Eldorado Park.  It was fast, and while I stayed in till the finish, there were a number of times I almost quit.

Then on Wednesday, I went for my usual morning ride to the coffee shop. That’s not normally a very fast or hard ride, although it can be at times, so I wasn’t feeling too bad, but I really think it was the ride to Glendora Mountain Road on Friday, that has totally wiped me out.

So wiped out, that on the Saturday ride (aka the Hammer Zone), I got dropped almost before we started. I was totally demoralized, and ended up going home to mope and do nothing the rest of the day, and deciding not to ride Sunday and Monday to try and recoup my energy.

I’m sure everyone will agree that was a good decision (you have to listen to your body, everyone always tells me), but unless I have something else to do, if I don’t ride, I feel like I’ve missed out on something, and things just seem to go down hill from there.

Then of course I had to go to work today, which presents additional challenges, some welcome, but a few not so much.

I don’t know, maybe I’ve been riding too much lately (last month I put on 965 miles, and so far this month I’m already approaching 700 miles, and it’s only the 22nd), but whatever it is, I better get over it soon, because right now I’m just not feeling much like doing anything.

Even getting up to head home from work, seems like a chore, and I’m sure not motivated to race Eldo tonight, but I may just have to force myself.

 Posted by at 12:38 pm

Fixed the problem!

 Life  1 Response »
Jul 202008
 

Well almost anywaze.

Just thought I would give everyone an update on the limited success I’ve had in solving the problem with the latest version of WordPress.

Miraculously I’ve fixed the problem with the permalink structure, so now everyone using the various search engines will be able to benefit from my vast wealth of knowledge on lymphoma [and many other things], without encountering a ’404 error’ messages when linking to my site.

The only problem is, the Category and Explore functions on my site no longer work.

Fortunately the archive section still works, and you can search the website, so until the WordPress gurus come out with v2.6.1, addressing the problem, I’ll just have to deal with that.

I’m done fretting over the whole matter.

IMPORTANT UPDATE 5:21 PM PDST – All is well, the problem seems to be fixed.  Just eliminating one permalink structure attribute seemingly has fixed the problem.  All links appear to work for now.

WHEW!!! I feel a lot better now.

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