Cancer Training

This weekend, Carol and I attended a conference sponsored by the International Myeloma Foundation here in Dallas. It was very informative as we learned about current treatment methodologies and upcoming drugs, ways of handling side effects of the chemotherapy, and other good stuff.

Leading doctors in this disease nationwide were there, and it was good to listen to them, and chat with them between sessions, as well. Some of these men have been cancer doctors longer than I have been an engineer (that’s a long time), and their names are on testing procedures for evaluation of this disease. There also were very helpful sessions by a cancer nurse, and a myeloma patient.

The top question on every patient’s mind is what are current survival predictions for patients in their situation. One patient there had been in treatment for 19 years, and there was a report of another patient who has been in treatment for 31 years. These are the outlier data points, but praise God for outlier data points. Then I met a man who looks healthier than me, and has been in treatment for only 3 years, but his cancer is not responding to the drugs, and the prognosis is not good. It is all over the field.

All in all, it was a good conference, and I am glad we went.

Father’s Day 2009

Today is Father’s Day, and I would like to pay tribute to my father, James Vernon Bennett, Jr., now deceased. It’s been a little over two years since Dad died in April 2007. The morning after we buried him, I went out to the woods behind their house to spend some time alone. I found an acceptable stump and sat down. It was cold spring morning in Arkansas, and I shifted my body so that my back caught the fullest effect of the sunlight to keep me warm, and remembered it was something my Dad had taught me to do as we worked outside in the cold together.

A father teaches his son many things. Among the things my Dad taught me by example more than words was the value of hard work and honesty in business dealings, and the importance of a man taking his family to church on a weekly basis.

I took this picture of Dad about a year or two before he died. It was autumn, and I had taken him for a ride in his truck, and we walked out to an overlook over the Little Red River just outside Heber Springs. It is my favorite picture of Dad.

Here’s to you, Dad. I hope all readers have had as wonderful a Father’s Day as I did.

Night Trains & Pianos

Some of you know my time-wasting dilema of a few weeks ago as I tried to find Lyrics, etc. to a particular song, which was incorrectly titled on an instrumental CD as "Night Train to Memphis." When I found the lyrics, I said, "No way those lyrics can go to that song," and the time-wasting began. Anyway, with only wasting but a small portion of your time, here is a link to the coolest instrumental (piano) version I ever found of Night Train to Memphis (This guy, Alan Dale, has some other neat stuff on You Tube, too).



And here is a really good version of "Night Train", though the version I heard and started this quest was a Bluegrass/Blues version with harmonica, fiddle, bass guitar and drums, and was incorrectly labeled on the CD as "Night Train to Memphis," rather than the boogie woogie version here.

Cancer Update

Results on the blood sample taken June 12 indicate that the decreases to the cancer have leveled out and actually increased just slightly over the blood sample taken last month. This month's M-spike is 1.3, still one of my lowest, but a little higher than last month's 1.1. The factors that would indicate a slight increase in the M-spike (and thus, the cancer), like total protiens and globulin (the type of protien where the M-spike is) all showed the same slight increase. This month's total protiens, like last's, remain in the normal range, meaning that if I were checked for a routine physical at this level I wouldn't be sent on for further testing to see if I have cancer.

I am hoping that the slight increase is due to the colds I fought and antibiotics I was on the past month. While I have no scientific basis for this hope, I also have no scientific basis against it.

In other aspects, my blood is looking much healthier. My red blood count is up almost to normal range, as are the HGB and HCT, which reflect the blood's ability to carry oxygen and iron.

Thanks for caring and praying.

Life Persists

This year I have three new pecan trees and one rescued azalea bush.  The pecans trees are thanks to the friendly squirrels (cute rats with bushy tails)inhabiting our back yard.  Over the winter, they buried some pecans found elsewhere in the neighborhood into flower pots in my back yard.  The pecans sprouted into trees after I planted flowers this spring, and I transplanted them, tree, root, original pecan and all into some new flower pots consecrated solely for that purpose.  As would only be appropriate, Squirrel George the x kept me close company during the process, and I rewarded him with peanuts for his trouble in planting the pecans.

The azalea bush was originally a $13 bargain I bought in Arlington last year.  It got trampled when we replaced our fence a couple of months ago, and then replaced with an azalea given by friends as a Christmas gift, but not delivered until spring.  Anyway, much to the not-too-concealed amusement of close family members, I dug up the root, planted it in a pot and set it in a place where it would receive just the right amount of sunlight, from an azalea’s point of view on sunlight, and let the Creator’s ordained processes of nature take work.  This weekend, about two months later, the root sprouted vegetation.  As an amateur gardener, I never cease to be amazed at the way life persists when given opportunity to do so.

Here is the photographic proof of the pecan trees and azalea bush.  The final picture is one Carol took of the way I arranged flora vegetation, et al, just off our back patio this afternoon.  The figurine in the background is not St. Francis.  That would not do for a Protestant Evangelical elder.  It is St. Augustine, considered to be okay for those with leanings toward Calvinistic/Reformed viewpoints.  I put it there hoping he would bless the grass (just kidding!).

Status: Not quo

For those who have not yet heard, the results from the last cancer test came back very encouraging. The M-spike is 1.1, much, much lower than at any point since diagnosis, now 20 months and counting Again, this is almost a 50% reduction since last month, or down to 1/3 of what it was two months ago when I began the Revlimid. My oncologist is "thrilled," and Carol is "very excited." I am little excited, and will be very excited if it continues this way another month.

Thanks for your prayers, caring, and expressions of concern!

Update

I saw the back doc yesterday, and he took a look at me and at the MRI pictures from Thursday evening. He declared that I had a nerve getting some pressure from the spine in my neck which was causing pain from the neck through the right arm, and I also have some bursitis in the right shoulder. To fix things, I got an Acme At-Home Do-It-Yourself put your neck in traction kit to relieve some pressure on the nerve (sounds nuts to me, too, but you should hear what they do to you if it gets so bad you have to go to the hospital for treatment), and take some medications for the bursitis. For now it is treat these things at home and keep an eye on them and take other action if things get worse. Frankly, I think a crawling baby is cuter, scroll down one blog entry.