merry, merry...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Ensconced in the warmth of Scottsdale, AZ where today it will be 71 degrees. That's happy making. Quite awhile ago a learned colleague's son developed an Xmas card for this area. On the cover it showed a line drawing of a pool with folk gathered around having drinks. The caption read: "It's Christmas time in Tucson. Folks are sitting around their pools drinking margaritas." When you opened up the card, the interior said, "How is it where you are?" I was told he sold about 10,000 of them. While the message was a little snarky, it certainly confirms our experience here so far. It has, and continues to be, beautiful.

We escaped No, Utah in the nick of time. Cache Valley had a foot of snow a couple days after we left and the winter temperature inversions were firmly in place along with high concentrations of PM 2.5. (These are microscopic particles that get into your lungs.)  We don't miss that.

We have been joined for the season by our daughter who will be here until the New Year. We are all having a fine time, capped today by a great meal at the Royal Palms resort. When I was a high school sprat, we lived near that resort and we used to be able to rent their horses in the off season for $2 an hour. You could ride right out of there into desert. No longer. It is all housing now. ("They paved Paradise, and put up a parking lot." Thanks, Joanie.)

Still carrying chronic upper respiratory crap that produces hacking and expectorating. But it feels less intense. Don't know, at this point, whether I am beating it or not. We'll see. Otherwise health seems fine. Sleeping well, eating too well, walking okay. I'm happy.

Hope you all are the same and are having a fine holiday. 

Ordinary doings

Not much to report. Finished my third series of maintenance/booster chemo at the beginning of October and just this week, six weeks later, had my port flushed. That'll happen once more before heading south. While south I will show up at Mayo's Hospital there in Scottsdale where I have a patient number and a doc to relate to. All that to get another port flush while there. Moreover, I find that they are not Medicare Preferred so I will have to pay and be reimbursed or get charged and then send the check to them. No matter, it will be more hassle than if we were here.

The snow has begun. The resorts are opening early--before Thanksgiving--because almost all of them now make their own snow. Down here in the valleys it is white, but the roads are open, just wet. Sure don't mind if it stays this way until we get outta here! A week without a storm this time of year and the winter inversions set up. Our air has already been in the moderate (read moderately bad) range, and it will only get worse as winter progresses.

Later....

Feelin' fine

Thought I'd briefly share what the condition is in, given a couple weeks since an infusion. I am finally getting rid of the upper respiratory infection that I picked up while travelling this summer. Food is starting to taste completely wonderful. (Look out weight gain!) It has taken a third round of anti-biotics. Jan has now contracted similar symptoms. Guess who she got them from? Hope she can shake it faster than I have.

Back from a quick weekend gig with the Celebrate America show in Sun Valley ID as a part of their Sun Valley Jazz Jamboree. The band and show went up this year for expenses, betting on the come. The SVJJ people indicated that success would permit a paying gig next year.  Rumor is that they were so satisfied that multiple nights are contemplated next year. Tickets went in an hour and we had an audience of 1,000+. Heard some decent music there, but it is largely traditional in nature. The patrons--elderly, that's us!--ate it up.

More when the muse strikes....

4 of 4 of 3 of 4

Last of the current series; one more maintenance/booster series to go next April. I will see the nursing ladies a couple times before hie-ing off to AZ in Dec because I will be getting my port flushed every 6 weeks until that time. In the meanwhile one of the ladies there is interfacing with the Mayo Hospital Outpatient Infusion Clinic in Scottsdale where I will get one or two more flushes before returning to Cache Valley in the spring. One cannot just present at the Clinic there without being associated with an onc doc on staff. Hopefully, I will not require any extra services from them. If anything untoward transpired we would hit the trail for home and the more familiar surround regardless of the winter air quality. (Untoward means an autologous stem cell transplant.)

So, since I am back into regular society--actually for this maintenance stuff I have never left--I will probably be less regular with these missives. I have already enjoyed tapering back onto reasonable quantities of alcohol. And the social schedule in fall here is mighty good. It has included football games including a very special tail gate group; jazz concerts; rehearsals for the Kicks band; dining in/out with friends; a wine tasting (read: swilling) group; family birthdays--yes, I am now on the downslope toward 80, and my daughter on the same slope to 50; the weekly jam group which is actually starting to have its special moments (may there be more!); a quarterly Sunday brunch group; and maybe one more fishing trip--if the feds will open up Lake Powell--when all back there come to their senses. Need I go on?

We have been very lucky so far this fall in that it has been wet. I can see snow on the peaks as I type this and one hopes for a hard, wet winter, especially since one won't be here! This kind of weather keeps the air beautiful.

So no news will be good news.

3 of 4 of 3 of 4

The title of this post comes from the fact that today marked the third of my four infusions of this cycle which is the third of the four maintenance cycles themselves. Tricky, huh?

All went well, in fact they must have opened up the pipes a bit because I was finished by a little after noon. A couple things this afternoon kept me from a nap.

We think perhaps we were prowled this morning between when Jan left at 10:20 and I returned close to 1 p.m. A door to the deck was open--one we never use. Some cupboards were slightly ajar. In our closet, someone moved an old wallet (empty!) that I no longer use and upset an alarm clock. When you are as anal as Jan and I are you know when your stuff has been moved. She is missing a couple strands of pearls, and a pearl bracelet, but we don't know when they went missing. Anyhow, we reported the intrusion. This had to have been someone knowledgeable of how to enter our house through the garage. (Quite a few people over the years I assume.) Well, that entry has now been closed and I will have the locks rekeyed Monday. After 20 yrs there is no telling how many keys we have out. But it should be noted that there was no evidence of a key being used in the present case. Nevertheless it seems prudent to change the locks after 20 yrs anyway. Let's see what happens going forward because it almost seems as though maybe we were getting a once over.

Off to the first Kicks rehearsal tonight of the fall season. Playing Stan Kenton's music. Should be--dare I say it--kicks.

Session 2 of Maintenance 3

Pretty routine. Monday night we were in SLC for a jazz concert, so I was a tad short on sleep when I arrived at the CVCC Tuesday a.m. The bag of Benadryl put me out for most of a couple hours. Then I read for the remainder of the 31/2 hours the infusion took. Surprisingly, I still had a nap after lunch, so maybe I exerted more than I thought during the time leading up to the infusion, or it had some effect on me. No problem sleeping last night, either.

I popped onto the treadmill to get some steps in on Sunday and by Monday my shins were talking to me. Shin splints essentially happen to me every time I take time off from walking and then go back to it. They take nearly a week to go thoroughly away. Any attempt to shortcut the healing process just brings them back. So I will give it a few more days before climbing aboard again.

Another week and I will have lived through 75 years and begin my 76th year. Amazing. Who would have thunk it all those years ago. A woman next to me in the infusion room could not believe that I was 74. I definitely want to hear that some more...

old home week...

Going back to the CVCC is like going home. The nurses are all smiles and flirty-friendly. Old men are welcomed and comforted. Next to an ex-smoker who has lung cancer. At first he didn't want to talk but the nurses fixed that. The Center called and wanted to switch my series to 4 consecutive Tuesdays since their Wednesdays were getting out of control. Nice move, since I didn't wait 10 min to get flushed and en-tubed. Surprisingly, the initial Benadryl didn't put me out, though we joked about "Grayson going bye-bye". The infusion room eventually filled. I was out of there in the usual 3.5 hrs and eating Italian thereafter.

I think these maintenance infusions exacerbate my neuropathy, which my onc-doc says, "We gave you". But that may be a figment of my imagination. The weather has changed dramatically to fall: monsoonal pattern with southerly winds, thunderstorms, rain, cooler. All concurrent with my infusion, so my increased neuropathy, leg weakness, and arthritis are conflated with the weather, a correlate known to bug me in the past. Nothing to do about it but ride it out.

Also, correlative with the cooler weather and the maintenance sessions is new found energy. I have not needed much napping this week. I feel up, but not uptight.

Finally, the decision to cancel fishing in the south appears to be a good one as there are road closures all over, and flash flood warnings in abundance.  Might have been quite nasty and I'm too old for that kind of test now...

hangin' in...

Getting continued, mostly pain-free time from the recent epidurals. Tonight is the last night of the Celebrate America show and I seem to be maintaining. Sitting in a sort-of deck chair for 3-4 hours on stage is a bit pressing, but an occasional pre-med dose of Aleve gets me through. Sleep is shortened now because I come home at 11 pm or so pretty jacked up from having played. Chemo maintenance is scheduled for Tues. next and I leave for Lake Powell and several days of fishing a day later--weather permitting. Thunderstorms are predicted for all of next week down there and the wind and lightning can be quite dangerous. I'll try to get back here again after my infusion and before I head south..

"see them 'roiding along..."

This post's title should be sung to the tune of Tumblin' Tumbleweeds. I am flying high this morning. Third cup of tea, totally unnecessary. Up since 4:30 a.m., totally unnecessary. Reading a complete book every other day, totally unnecessary. 48 hours into steroid, epidural injections in the L5-S1 disk spaces, totally necessary. (This was the same disk space injected last year.) Since my crippling up due to overuse, in travel earlier this summer, I have stayed off my feet and mostly recovered a kind of stasis in which I don't hurt too much, I am fairly flexible, and my leg weakness is tolerable for most of my daily functions. That is, I can pretty much do what I want to do. I don't weed, I don't cut grass, I don't climb ladders, or walk long distances and so on, but I can look after myself, drive, get out for lunch, go fishing, read, play my horn, be with my family, and socialize. In sum, life is pretty darn good.

The steroid epidurals confirm my experience with the prednisone during chemo.  A distinct upper for me. Shortening of sleep cycle is prominent among side effects. I can see, I think, why the sports guys could be into steroids, big time. I got some pain down my left sciatic nerve to the knee during the procedure on this round, while on the right side--my major weakness: I cannot push off on that leg--it just felt warm. But the effects on leg strengthening and pain reduction, particularly sciatica, were pretty immediate. I am much more comfortable walking now.

My doc gave me two take aways from this session. 1. I got 11 months effect from the first round which is quite good. He thought the length was at least in part due to my continuing attempts at core strengthening and flexibility. 2. The sort of overuse crash I had on the Vancouver trip will resolve about 3/4 of the time on its own with rest, that is, for me, getting off my feet. Mine certainly did. 3. He did qualify that there may be diminishing returns on the repeated use of these injections. Point taken.

Got my final port flush yesterday before my next series of maintenance chemo in Sept. At the same time I pushed the start of that series back one week so it would not interfere with the Celebrate America gig the week before. That gig will be 5 nights, preceded by a couple days of rehearsal. I have been prepping all summer, practicing nearly daily and have to be a little careful of overusing my chops. But we had a big band gig last week or so--two hours--and I sailed through it with some left at the end.

So I end where I started, flyin' high. Today, I've got a haircut, lunch with my regular guys, some shopping, a wine-and-cheese gathering late afternoon, and a jam session this evening. Not bad for an old fart approaching his 75th...

What's the matter with August?

We had a pretty fabulous July: road trip! Across Nevada's loneliest highway through Tahoe to Bishop CA and back to Vegas for a spontaneous reunion of Jan's cousins. Thence, we flew to Vancouver to help my auntie celebrate her 100th birthday. It was amazing to see her spunk and her mental sharpness. That, too, was an occasion for cousins--this time, mine. The weather cooperated throughout.

So, you can see that I have spent a larger than usual number of hours cooped up in autos and airline cabins and in the associated activities of hauling suitcases into and out of them. In Vancouver, I tried to walk to eat. By then I was in great pain. It has taken all of the couple weeks we have been home for my lower back and knees to kind of repair. Mostly, that has happened because I have not done anything physical.

Then last week I had some postponed dentistry, the preparation of  a new crown. Within a day or so of that session I started in with what has been a vicious upper respiratory infection. I haven't had green mucous like this since I was a kid. I am about a week into it now and if in a couple more days I don't feel substantially improved, it is off to Insta-Care for some antibiotics.

So name the cause: 1. Airline recirculated air? 2. The impact of the dentistry? 3. The more general impact of doing too much? All are contiguous to the advent of this infection. Or is it just something about August? I was in enough pain before the travel period that I called my Physical Rehab doc for another epidural injection. Of course, he couldn't schedule it before the trip. It is coming up in a couple weeks. But when I look back I see that my prior injection was last year. Guess when? August, yes. I came to peak pain then, also. And the year before? My cancer diagnosis. August, yes.

Bright side? The prior epidural lasted a full year. That is pretty good in anyone's book. Also, I think my immune system might be fighting the good fight on this infection.

But on the dark side? It's August, a time I seem to be heavily involved with the medical community.

Happy 4th...

Coming from SLC where we are spending the holiday with my daughter and sister-in-law. Yesterday was my port flush and the brain now firmly reminds me that it is time to update the condition my condition is in. Which is, as they say, pretty good. Which means that nothing has changed. Still with the neuropathy, and the arthritis.  Still managing both.  Finding out that alchohol is pretty good as an analgesic which works well on both of the types of pain  generated by these two maladies. My deceased father-in-law was the model for this type of pain management. He never really got loaded, but by late afternoon was pretty mellow. Don't want to make too much of this: I am not even boozing every day. Just saying that when I have a whiskey-soda in the evening I can walk up stairs normally.

After Jan sees to her hair tomorrow, Jan, I, and her sister will drive to the Great Basin National Park and thence to Ely, NV. Then the following day to Carson City NV across the lonliest highway in the US. A short time at Tahoe and thence to Bishop, CA and the backside of the Sierra Nevadas. After a couple days we will make our way to Vegas for a few days.  All of this is provoked by Jan's cousins who have decided on an impromptu reunion. There are at least a half dozen of them--Bishops, Coxes--and they are all fun to be with. But Vegas for 3 days???  In July???

The  ides of August, about the time of my next flush, will mark two years since my initial diagnosis. Just noting....

life its ownself

Life continues apace. Got flushed this week and didn't tumble immediately that that is the occasion to update this blog. However, memory finally prevails. Actually, I momentarily forgot the port flush! I scheduled some fishing this past week and it conflicted with my prior-scheduled port flush. No problem, thought I. I will just call the Cancer Center and reschedule. But then, I forgot to do the latter. A niggling feeling on the way home from fishing made me call the center and they said, "You should have been here yesterday."  I was able to reschedule for later that day so all was well. In re the port flushing there is a couple of weeks flexibility (6-8 weeks) before things get seriously plugged up.

I am unhappy in that there has been no improvement in my neuropathy as the second maintenance chemo sessions fade into the past. I expect I have reached some sort of status quo given the amount of chemo I have had beyond which I will not improve. Since I have two more sessions over the next year that may bode poorly for where I finish up in terms of my mobility and pain levels. Funny, since there were improvements in my neuropathy after the first chemo maintenance course I thought that would happen again. It does not appear so at this time.

Mobility is again becoming an issue. I now realize I may have been basking in the warm glow of the steroid shots I got late last year in my lower back. On the positive side the effects of the shot have lasted near or more than 6 mos. A second round is available in as little as 90 days so I have had a good benefit from this. I will delay as long as possible in the sense of continuing with my stretching and core strengthening but it would appear now that they alone will not suffice.

And the beat goes on...again

Port flush day today which means 6 weeks--count 'em--since the last poisoning. Routine visit with the friendlies at the Cancer Center. Ordered a plumbing part after that, then some practice on a few of the rotten intervals and reading involved in Thelonious Monk's music which the big band will be doing in concert all too soon. Some of it seems impossible to play right. Tricky devil was Monk.

My health is status quo ante which is a fine place to be. Still with the neuropathy and the arthritis seemingly affected by the crazy spring weather. A former weather man for one of the SLC stations used to call this time of year, "sprinter". Sixty degrees one day, blowing snow the next. Hopefully, we are done soon. One's thoughts revert back to Key West. Wonder what they're doing now? I am definitely thinking fishing.

Strongly considering a move off the hill. That's a whole blog in itself that I am not quite ready to write....yet.

The Keys and such

Nice time! Weather mostly cooperative in the mid to high 70s, but a couple mornings in the 60s. Shop owner shares with Jan her adage: "If our windows are closed and the ac is not on, it is the dead of winter." To us, it felt great. Our location at Zero Duval St put us right in the action. Our room overlooked (to the SW) the Gulf, Mallory Square, and three bollards (?) to which the cruise ships tied up. We had arrivals and departures daily, except for Wed. Every evening Mallory would fill with buskers--paid most likely by the city since the same acts showed up each night--to entertain the gathered throngs there to watch the sunset. They included a Spiderman, a hula hooper, a couple flaming, juggling acts, and more. An incredible amount of boat traffic plied the waters from the port--over our shoulders--into the Gulf. Really noticeable was when a couple liners dumped their human cargo on the village streets at the same time. Duval seemed very much like Bourbon St in NO. Barkers, T-shirt sellers, bars open to the street, music blaring, all mixed in with high level shops (e.g., Banana Republic; Coach), and restaurants. It was amazing to watch a liner come to a pier and use its side thrusters to ease up to the dock without destroying anything in its path, and then to leave and spin the ship 180 degrees essentially in place. They only had to motor about 800 yds to the south to make a turn to port and be in the Atlantic and out of sight to us. An open bar on Mallory had a jazz group (vibes, reed, bass, drums) each evening, that did nothing but latin, bossa music much to our delight. We heard Watermelon Man every night! (We never did visit them to see exactly where they were, because we didn't need to.)

We started this whole jaunt with a nice day trip through the 'Glades led by Jan's cousins, Jim and Janice Bishop who showed us more gators in the wild than we thought possible. Then we did our own day drive through another 'Glades section that ended up in a wonderful campground right on the Gulf. We got a pretty good feel for the area and concluded: Nice place to visit but....the traffic is horrendous and the drive to the Keys exacting and long.

My overall mission was to get out of socks, into sandals, out of pants into shorts, and out of sweaters into summer shirts. Mission accomplished! We walked daily for our food and drink and the local attractions. Of course, we saw the Truman southern White House and the Hemingway home, and did the trolley circuit. And we ate well, managing to choke down some new foods for us: grouper, wahoo, and gator bites. There was also time to hang by the pool, be brought a cold one, and make some Vitamin D, naturally.

Would we go back? Naw: been there, done that. But it was a fine experience and the time spent was about right.

And, I learned I can still travel. In fact, the warm weather with the ocean humidity seemed to agree with my arthritis. I had little problem walking 8-10 blocks at a time each day. Napped only one afternoon. But, I noted the long day back on the plane resulted the next day in a lot of edema in the feet and ankles. And, as the weather has changed here from spring back to winter for today, my arthritis is back big time. We might have managed another brief flight leg going (e.g., enough to get to the Caribbean Islands). That bears some thought for the future. Now all that remains is to figure out how to pay for our good time...

been there, etc.

Fourth and last booster/maintenance infusion yesterday with no untoward effects. Still with the slightly enhanced neuropathy but that can be dealt with. Regular port flushing set up every six weeks between now and September and the third of the four maintenance series starts then the first Wed. Until then we optimistically expect to get the start of a good summer tan in Key West next week and see an area of the country we have not seen before.

I'll probably be a bit more irregular with this blog during the forthcoming months since, I hope, I have little of significance to report except continued improvement in my health.

Later....

the game is afoot

Right. An uneventful 3rd infusion of this series yesterday. Appetite unimpaired thereafter requiring a pork chimichanga to satisfy. Really no other happenings, which is good. Got a hematoma (blood blister) on my right hand and didn't know where it came from. Ah, old age. I was disabused that it was anything cancerous which, unsurprisingly, was one's first thought. ABJ said it should be gone by next week, and already today it is receding. How quick we are to make erroneous associations and to attribute causality thereto.

What game is afoot? A little time in the sun in Key West, FL. We'll see how the sequestration nonsense nationally affects our travel plans which have been made. Our local environment is still monochromatic, that is, mostly white with a little brown, with more white on the way this weekend. Enough.

good news

Time today for my second maintenance/booster session, and all went quite as usual. In fact, they must have dripped me a little faster than last week since I am finished nearly an hour earlier. Again the benadryl doesn't quite knock me out, though one of the nurses jokes about "nighty-night" as that drip starts.

I have noted an upsurge in what I perceive to be my neuropathy symptoms, i.e., more tingling pain in my feet, especially my right which had improved these past few months a great deal; more tingling in my fingertips and a greater perception of hot water; leg/shin cramps for several nights; one practice session on my trumpet where my lips tired all of a sudden. I wondered about that, then further wondered what the mechanism might be. It occurred to me that the retuxin should not have any such direct effect since its effects would be gradual and chronic. My first symptoms this past week seemed to occur within hours of my first infusion. It slowly dawned on me--how long have I been absent from my profession?--that what I might be experiencing were associative effects, conditioned effects, as it were, due to my prior history with this mono-clonal-antibody. I asked ABJ today about whether rituxin administration is mentioned as producing such effects. His answer: Yes! Case closed. The symptoms have not really persisted, though I detect, I think, a slightly higher level of neuropathy than before this series began. Several of the effects have not persisted: e.g., leg cramps and embouchure failure.

Now the good news: My CT scan of Monday last is as clean as a whistle. No adrenergic involvement. Of course, the other old age crap is still there: I have some calcification in my arteries, etc. but am otherwise healthy.  This calls for vacation planning!

....a bag of Benadryl and thee...

Well, first day back for my second booster/maintenance series. It's like old home week: the nurses are all familiar and smiley, the place looks and smells the same, but something seems a little off kilter. I can't put my finger on it. Then it occurs to me that I recognize no one from my prior experience. The patients are all new to me. As a group, they look mostly hopeful, though there are several in the room who are there because they have either just received bad news, or they have found out that the bad news has returned. But it is significant in an awful way that this is a different cohort.

ABJ reviews my case with me as he makes his rounds through the infusion room. I am sussing out what makes him so good. He has time in his rounds to repair to his office to bone up on the next several patients whom he will interview. He remembers that he saw me fronting the quartet at Le Nonne a few weeks back. It is another cue for his prodigious memory that takes me beyond the fisherman I was formerly. Of course, we also review fishing and I repeat the old joke that I no longer do "hard water", but only fish when it is nice and warm and I can be cozy in my boat, rather than listening to the ice crack under my boots and worrying about falling through.

I always ask him to review his other Mantle Cell patients as a touchstone for myself. In doing so, he shares with me his pleasure in the current outcomes of his two, both of whom have exceeded expectations. The expectations in his mind: 3-4 years. (I do recall this was an outcome of the Cornell protocol which he and I reviewed prior to my initial treatment.) It does make things finite. One guy (?) stayed on velcaid weekly for a number of years with no return of his MCL. They are now waiting with no further treatment in that case. A second appears to have undergone an autologous stem cell transplant after his MCL returned and is doing fine. I didn't get a timeline on that one.

The procedure today was delayed only fractionally in that the nurses couldn't get blood to flow back out of the port so I received an extra bag of saline to start. Eventually they prevailed and it was onto the Benadryl--which almost but not quite put me out, per usual. This was followed by the big bag of retuxin. Jan brought me a sandwich and the last bag tapped out at virtually the same time that we finished the sandwich. Total elapsed time: 4.5 hrs.

It has been one year since pictures so I am scheduled for a followup CT scan next Monday of chest, abdomen, etc. They were out of barium milkshakes so I need to go in tomorrow to pick up a couple bottles. A mid-morning scan time means that I prep upon getting up.

ABJ also reminded me that I am now 18 mos out from diagnosis, i.e., August 2011.

home again, home again

We are back in snowy Cache Valley. We are unused to plowing, blading, and blowing snow every day. Turns out it is a pretty good workout. We are grateful, however, to exchange all this snow for the incredibly low temps  and horrible air that occurred in our absence. Perhaps we planned correctly? Not likely; more just lucky. However, I had a colleague/fishing partner, now long deceased, who would leave CV for Mexico each Xmas and return Feb 15. It always seemed to me that his return coincided with perceptibly longer days and ameliorating weather after the dark and cold of each January. So perhaps a vicarious lesson was osmosed. In any case, we had little choice but to return as my booster/maintenance infusions start next week and run for the month of Feb. In addition jazz band rehearsals recommenced last eve and Jan has already conducted a board meeting at Sunshine Terrace. So we stayed as long as we could. IT COULD HAVE BEEN LONGER! Alas.

I have already fallen once--fortunately into a shoveled snow bank so that only my dignity was bruised. That is to say, that getting around here is treacherous for the old. My balance is the pits. I  did put in 6 weeks of strengthening my core while in PHX and feel much better for that. I have been able to wrassle the snow-blower without ill effects. But parking lots and byways are essentially unplowed at this point and feel dangerous. We look forward to a by-week, by which I mean some time with warmer temps and no snow. I believe that is the current long-term forecast.

The time at the snow blower and plow driving has led to daily naps while  I get accustomed to the new schedule and exercise. While in PHX I would guess my naps were down to one a week.  I believe that there are additional gains in the neuropathy in my extremities. My right foot feels more alive. Still tingling in the fingers. I have started taking osteo-biflex on the recommendation of my sis-in-law's personal trainer. I believe it may be working on the joint pain. He sees about half his clients report a good effect of that stuff. The rest of my health seems good.

I did hear a rationale for the booster infusions from another non-Hodgkins sufferer: The main chemos were to attack the aggressive form of the cancer cells and the maintenance infusions are to keep the indolent variety in check. Interesting...

sunshine, funshine

Basking--not really because it has been too cool--in Scottsdale AZ. Relatively speaking, however, we are very well off compared to home where it is well below freezing and there is plenty of snow. So whilst we are in the high 50s and mid 60s, but not yet 70s, we are riding high.

There are too many good restaurants here, all of which it appears to be our goal to sample. And there has been additional hemorraging for clothing which I will probably never wear. Nearby there is a tailor selling Italian suits for $100. Too good to resist. And there are shoe outlets we just don't have in the frozen north. Plus, I am getting a couple collectible trumpets restored. Hope to pick up the first one today. So, life is good right now.

There is the usual arthritis and neuropathy and I don't know whether my work on my core strength is helping with the lower back. But I'll keep on. Sleeping well, and not napping very much--once or twice a week is all. Thus, I am at least maintaining, if not progressing, and that may be all one can hope for.

Our daughter joined us here for Xmas and returned north just a couple days ago. Next week we will venture to NM via Tucson with the goal of visiting good friends who are ex-pat Loganites.

Home beckons at the end of the month for meetings (Jan) and rehearsals (me) and maintenance infusions (me). All good things must end eventually...

Hope all of you reading this have a good and healthful new year.