Spring has Sprung (not original, but true)

Typing on my blackberry from the playground at St. Mary's River State Park, where Robbie and I have traveled--he on his bike, me on foot--on this bee-yoo-tee-full Spring day. I am in t-shirt and shorts in celebration of this 75-degree, sunshine-filled, soft-breeze-blowin' day (by the way, I'm trying to set a record for most hyphens used in a blog entry). It's glorious.

One of the tenets of Buddhist thought is to live in the "now". If you spend your life fretting about the past or worrying about the future, then you are missing "now", and when it comes down to it, "now" is all you have.  Life is a continuous cascade of infinitely short "nows".  Days like this make it easy to stay in the now.

P.S. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -  There, that ought to nail down the hyphen record.

Homework Assignment for YOU!

All,

I've been invited to speak to a Cancer Survivors' Day gathering in New Jersey in early June.  The title of the presentation will be "I Didn't Order the Lymphoma" and the topic will be blogging and why it's important.  I hope to make it humorous (bet that surprises you). 

What I need from all of you is some input on what your favorite/most memorable blog entries have been.  I'll probably be reading many of the entries during the talk, and I want to make sure I get some good examples. 

If you would be so kind, please comment back with the dates of your favorite blog entries and maybe some idea of what it was that made it stick in your mind.  It doesn't have to be the funniest; it could be the hospital blogs that gave you information that you might not have otherwise gotten.

If you don't want to comment or haven't figured out how, please email me your inputs at timothy.mcmichael@navy.mil.

Thanks much,

Tim

HEADSTAND!

Hi all!  No big news, but a personal yogistic breakthrough.  At class tonight (Tracy teaching, Justin and Yoko the other students), I finally met one of my personal yoga goals--I did a headstand.  In fact I did several headstands, including one that didn't use the wall as a back stop.  I did get an assist from Justin, for which I was very grateful.  Also, in what may be a first in North American History, it was a yoga class with more male students than female students.  I was part of history.  Just wanted to share.

He's going to Slytherin

Although we have not yet heard him speak in Parsil-tongue, the picture above proves that Robbie can unhinge his jaw to eat pancakes.  That snake-like tendency alone should land him with Snape and company when he gets to Hogwarts.

Got my ass absolutely handed to me at a two-hour Dynamic Flow yoga class this morning.  Of the 30 or so students there, I definitely positioned myself for the "Most Improved" award.  Don't get me wrong--glad I went, felt great when I left.  But I did have an "Oh Crap! We're only an hour into the class!  I could have sworn it was almost over!!" moment.   It was great to see Ann H., the instructor, who is the Ur-instructor in Southern Maryland and an absolutely fabulous teacher.  I knew I was in trouble when I looked around the class and saw that my fellow students included pretty much every Southern Maryland yoga instructor from every class I've taken over the last two years down here.  The workout that Ann crafted (and through which she never showed a moment's fatigue) pretty much taxed them to the limit.  Me?  Reduced me to a gasping puddle of sweat.  Never the less, wouldn't have missed it.  I can only improve from here.

Liz and I took Robbie to "Cheeseburger in Paradise" tonight, where he continued to establish his Adventure Eater credentials by eating Conch Fritters.  Love that kid.

Praise the Lord and Pass the Ibuprofen

Nothing new medically, but went to a great 1-1/2 hour yoga class last night.  I was a little nervous going in, as an hour and a half is a relatively long class, and this was labled as a "Level 1/Level 2" class, meaning it could get moderately advanced.  I wasn't sure I had the strength or stamina to hang.  There were only four students in the class, and the other three looked all fit and bendy.

Turns out I did have the stamina and I did have the strength (or at least 90% of the strength).  GREAT teacher named Tracy, who loves getting her feet above her head.  We did a really neat, different 'flow' segment that got the sweat going, worked several poses that targeted the hamstrings (ouch), and finished with half-handstand (described in my last pre-hospital post in June), shoulder stands, and finally full handstands.  Well, 75% of the class did handstands.  One person--OK, it was me--just couldn't force himself up into the full handstand.  We were working against a wall and I think with a spotter I could have done it, but by then my triceps were shot, so it's just as well that I watched the others. 

I'm pleasantly sore today and will definitely be going back next Tuesday, assuming Liz isn't on travel.

No New News (and No New Gnus)

Just saying hi and telling you that I'm finally starting to believe Spring may actually come to the Mid-Atlantic States some day soon.  Beautiful today, with highs in the mid-50's.  That will seem cold next October, but seems downright tropical just now.

We had a family breakfast at Robbie's favorite new restaurant--IHOP. (Aim high, boy.  Aim high.)  Afterward, the Robster and I went on a "walk"--apostrophied because I'm the only one actually walking.  Robbie is either on his bike or being pulled in our large wagon.  Today he elected to ride the bike, and he rode it on a 3.75 mile loop without once complaining about the distance, even though his hands were getting cold.  Really proud of him.

Medically I feel fine.  I'm five days into Cycle Four of Revlimid, buoyed by the thought that this drug is doing the trick and knowing that its best effects normally come later in the treatment.

Also, I've been invited to speak at a Cancer Survivors' gathering in New Jersey this coming June.  Said invitation was proffered by the Lady Louise, my friend who first suggested this blog.  The theme of the gathering is "Laughter is the Best Medicine"; not sure why she thought of me.  [smiley emoticon].   I'm thinking of a talk whose theme is "Why You Should Blog and Why You Should Make it Funny".  I will also publish my consulting fee schedule.

Going to bed now.  Nighty-night.

Vials of Blood for all my Friends! and Good News

YOU ARE VISITOR NUMBER  11

Good visit today with Dr. Cheson, but more on that in a paragraph or two.

After going into work at 6:30 to get a little work done today, I left for Georgetown at 8:15.  Good traffic, good parking, got there at 10:15 for an 11:00 appointment.  I decided to walk the Georgetown campus for a while and do what any good son would do--I called my mother.  I know that's what good sons do, because I asked my brother Wilson, who happens to be a good son.  Mom and I caught up with each other, trading medical stories while I climbed the hills of G-town.

Got back to Lombardi with 10 minutes to spare.  Went in, signed in, got my vitals taken, and went back to the lab to get my two vials of blood drawn.  Went back to the waiting area feeling all smug.  That lasted until Jenny, the trials nurse, found me and dragged me back to the lab area to fill the other six vials that she needed (she told me to call her when I got there, but I forgot.)  So I ended up with symmetric bandages over matching left and right arm blood draws.

I got to talking yoga with the phlebotomist who drew my blood both times.  She said she was looking for some new exercise to lose weight, so I started singing yoga's praises.  Then I got yet another lesson in "have no assumptions".  She mentioned that when younger she used to be a weightlifter.  As will happen, we started talking about 'maxes', and I nonchalantly mentioned that while in college my max bench press was 305 pounds.  With no hint of condescension, she mentioned that she used to bench 350.  I believed her.

ANYway, the good news:  it appears that Revlimid is doing the trick.  The last marrow biopsy shows 'residual' CLL where a year ago my marrow was 50% involved.  Even three months ago it was at 5-10%  involved.  Dr. Bai, a physician working with Dr. Cheson, could barely find any of my lymph nodes, where last year they would have been obvious to a freshman pre-med student.  Of course the good Doctor himself was able to find a couple, but nothing like I've had.  So it looks like this is working.

Now remember, this isn't a cure.  There's not a cure.  But if we can get it into remission, then I buy time until a cure is found.  If/when it comes back again, we drive it into remission again.  It's a long term game I'm playing.  But so far it looks like this round we're making good progress.  If I was drinking during the week, I'd be drinking tonight.