Living with MCL

Despite being a heavy drinker of green tea since my diagnosis, mainly for its cancer prevention, and hopefully cancer curing qualities, I recently have developed a new found enthusiasm for green tea.

Now whether it has been the green tea I have been drinking for the past 6+ years, my heavy exercise routine, or just pure chance that has kept my MCL stable, or at least [very] slow progressing, for the past 7+ years is certainly open to debate, but based on past research, I have chosen to believe green tea has at least helped to some degree.

So what has given me this new found enthusiasm?

Well, a friend of mine, and cycling buddy, was recently diagnosed with bladder cancer, and knowing my daily regimen called to ask my advice on green tea. He had already done a lot of research on the subject, so when I told him my obsession with green tea consisted principally of drinking the least expensive, decaffeinated green tea available (Trader Joe’s brand of 18 tea bags for $3, and more recently Fresh & Easy’s brand of 40 tea bags for $2), I felt like a neophyte on the subject.

So in collaboration with my friend, .. continue reading ..

Oh, how I yearn for the good old days, when getting through an airport security line wasn’t such a hassle, when a 250 Mb hard drive was considered huge, I didn’t have lymphoma, the dollar was still king, and the US actually made stuff.

Last week was Digital Process Data (DPD) training week at work. Now for those who don’t know what DPD is, basically it’s the computer data (software) fed into numerical controlled (NC) lathes used to machine parts into complicated configurations. It’s also used in the design and inspection of those parts.

Now that, in and of itself, isn’t difficult to understand or deal with (at least it’s no more difficult to understand than all the computer graphics we are subject to on TV and in the movies now a days), but without going into any great detail of everything else involved, i.e. controlling, disseminating and validating the software, suffice it to say it’s a lot more complicated than it sounds. And it’s especially more complicated when you can remember what it was like only a few short years ago.

It reminds me of a saying by Eric Hoffer,

In times of change, learners inherit the earth, while the learned find themselves beautifully equipped to deal with a world that no longer exists.

And what I came to realize this past week was, the world is changing [rapidly], and I’m just not sure how interested I am in trying to keep up with it any more.

Maybe that’s why I like riding my bike so much!

Well after racing at Eldorado Park last night, and a relatively intense ride this morning, I’m encouraged. My knee did not hurt at all.

Not only that, but I just received the results of todays blood work, and my absolute lymphocyte count dropped to 81 thou/cumm (ref 4-11). That’s down 20%, and hasn’t been that low since February 2007.

Of course, one test does not a trend make, and as you may surmise there is also some bad news. My hemoglobin dropped slightly again to 11.6 g/dL (ref 14-18), platelets to 187 thou/mcl (ref 130-400), and my LDH increased to 147 IU/L (ref 91-180).

Now I’ve seen all those numbers before, and with the exception of my hemoglobin those results are within the normal range, so I’m not overly concerned just yet, plus I know I don’t feel as bad as those numbers may suggest.

For someone with an 11.6 g/dL hemoglobin, I think I’m still in pretty good shape. I managed to stay in the pack for the entire race (one hour) last night (albeit in the back of the pack), plus I managed to stay with some much stronger [and younger] riders for the vast majority of this mornings ride.

Now if only knew Becky would be coming back to work a lot sooner than in 8 weeks, I might start feeling even better.

Well, it’s been a week now since Edie and I returned home from Grand Turk, and despite being happy to be home, the reality of how difficult it is readjusting from a very relaxing week, with limited access to information from the [real] world, is finally setting in.

Two notably good things were the HINI [swine] flu is not dominating the news anymore, and Morris is finally warming up to Chloe. I guess Morris has finally come to the realization that we still love him, and Chloe is here to stay.

Oh, if that were the only two things I had to deal with, life would be good, but that just isn’t the case.

First off, gasoline prices have jumped 10% [maybe closer to 15%], and that’s just after deciding I didn’t need to replace my Toyota Camry (34 mpg), after cracking the transmission, and deciding I would start driving the Lexus (23 mpg) from now on.

Secondly is the difficulty getting back in decent cycling form, and hurting my knee trying to do a little too much a little too soon. The knee felt good today, but I’m still afraid to push it too hard for fear it will starting to hurt again.

But the worst thing was .. continue reading ..