mixed news

Weight yesterday = 224 lb
Weight today = 225 lb 

Well, obviously we have turned the corner on the weight loss. I am not surprised, since I am eating large amounts of organic (read: fully--yet naturally--fatted) foods. It is pleasing to note that the bod is back to normal functioning on that score. This next week I will engage in more portion control within the expanded array of foods I am now eating in hopes of preserving some, but not all, of this weight loss. I would like to end up the chemo 10% lower in body weight, i.e., 20+ lbs lighter. That would put me at about 210 lbs where I haven't been for 20 yrs, which is smack in the middle of the charts for people my height (6'5"). My internist, Mike Stones, has said he would not like to see me below this weight. And, if one figures 6 chemo cycles of 3 weeks, then rounds up a couple weeks to 20, a 20-lb weight loss during that time frame is about a pound a week, also smack in the middle of most weight-loss programs.


I have been lower than 210 lbs once in the past 20+ years and that occurred whilst the docs were trying to figure what I had going on in re GERD = gastro-esophageal reflux disease. They found out eventually that I had no motility in my esophagus, that is, the food was not actively pushed down that tube which reflexively opens a valve at its bottom (the lower esophageal sphincter or LES) and pushes the food into the stomach, after which the LES contracts to prevent food and acids from refluxing back into the esophagus. In me, food was simply piling up in the esophagus. With just the slight provocation of a gently rocking boat, I was upchucking (tres unusual pour moi) and the weight was falling off. A soon-to-be-retired upper GI doc at UU diagnosed, achalasia, saying I was less than a handful of such cases that he had seen in his 35 years of practice. Mike Stones says that current thought causally is a South American parasite, and, of course, my achalasia manifested a couple years after we did Peru in 1987. All this is to say that I lost 30+ lbs (to 185) before that was turned around. (The UU doc fixed the problem in 10 min: he inserted a balloon into the esophagus and forced open, permanently, the LES. That fix still holds.) None of my family liked me at 185 and I daresay, I couldn't maintain that weight level now, even if I tried. 

The bad and the ugly. I have been cruising along practicing daily, until Thursday when I noticed a cold sore developing on my upper lip, right where my lip locks into my mouthpiece. I tried to play Thursday evening at ST&P's usual jam and was massively unsuccessful. I had a range of about five notes. This may be the first manifestation of contracting a little infection somewhere--my sinuses are also draining--but may be dietary, too. (They seem to occur when my level of fruit intake is too high and right now it is high.) I have had cold sores, some sort of herpes, since I was a kid. They massively interfere with trumpet playing. And they retreat at their own sweet time. So I am totally bummed, that while I feel so good physically, I may not be able to play. In high school I once had to play a complete solo piece in Nogales, Sonora that was broadcast on Mexican radio. I had a huge cold sore. The show went on. It was terrible. In a nation of fantastic trumpet players (think Rafael Mendez), I flubbed my way through whatever it was. I am sure they were not impressed, and I was very embarrassed.  I have doubled my lysine intake. But still this morning my upper chops are inflamed. (I have good advice on a prescription med that I may acquire if I can do so without another doc visit.)

It's alimentary my dear Watson. Suffice to say: prunes be good! I guess I shouldn't be surprised at the feedback I received via email about this section of my last post including the bad puns and double entendres. (Actually, I have always enjoyed bad puns.)  I think this is because most of the readers of this blog--our dear friends--are as old as we are. I just have to figure out how to get through the next chemo week, wherein food intake will once again be problematic, and the problem of constipation may, once again, occur.  In regard to that: I will probably get off all preferred foods by next Friday about 72 hours before that next big infusion to minimize subsequent aversions to the foods I really like, and force liquids during the rest of the time. I also have acquired an OTC veg lax preferred by AbJ should I need it.


I am amazed at some of my compatriots in the infusion room who seem to have Carls Jr burgers delivered which they devour whilst hooked up. I wonder what their next few days feel like.


A little more on cancer history. At the beginning of the last century the medical people became aware of acute lymphoblastic leukemia (ALL), a blood cancer, which was presenting in very young children, and killing them, soon after their conditions were diagnosed. They were looking for substances that would kill leukemia cells and nothing else, since there was no location to do surgery, i.e., the cancer cells were everywhere. At first they settled on vitamin B12. Studies showed that this would buy them mere weeks, but reliably so. They also discovered folate (eventually folic acid) and this, too, would buy them some time. Then someone decided to try substances in combination and this bought the most time of all. However, none of these combinations was curative in the sense of a silver bullet: the cancer usually always showed up again, just after a longer delay (in ALL often measured in weeks). However, this research directly led to the idea, still prevalent today, that combinations of substances are better in this fight than single substances. Ergo, in my tx: 6 substances: R,C,H,O,P and V.