health

The Last of Us Ended Me

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mushroom on a meadow
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My Johns Hopkins oncologist once told me that if he had twenty patients with lung GVHD, aka bronchiolitis obliterans syndrome, as bad as mine, he would have 20 dead patients within the year. Of course, he didn’t tell me this until many years after my initial diagnosis when it was certain I was not going to abide by those fatal odds, odds which were significantly more fatal than what my NIH doc told me.

He also told me that if I ever got pneumonia, it would be game over for me.

Well, I got bacterial pneumonia a year or so ago and, well, here I am.

Only the good die young and all that, you know how it goes.

Well, after I was cleared to re-enter the game of life at full speed and contact, my doc clarified his game over remarks.

He meant to say, or, according to him he did say and I just don’t remember, that if I ever get fungal pneumonia, then it is game over.

Well, well, well…

That has upped the game’s stakes quite significantly.

And now I wished I had never watched that damned terrifying show that was adapted from that damned terrifying video game.

Of course it wasn’t nearly as terrifying until put into the context of my doc’s prediction.

And which is why my heart ever so slightly skips a beat whenever I see one of the evermore present fungal superbug spreading headlines.

Headlines like this one from today:

Fungus ‘superbug’ cases rise to highest levels in Nevada

In October, there were 57 new clinical cases of the drug-resistant, potentially lethal fungus that can invade a person’s bloodstream, brain, heart or other organs, according to Nevada Division of Behavioral Health data. In the same month, 123 cases of colonization were reported in which individuals typically have the fungus in the folds of their skin, invisible to the eye, yet are not sick. Those people can still transmit the pathogen.

The fungus can spread from person to person and also from contaminated surfaces and equipment with transmission occurring most often in healthcare settings. Patients who have been hospitalized for a long time, or have a central venous catheter or other lines or tubes entering their body, are at highest risk for infection, public health authorities say. Healthy people usually don’t develop an invasive infection.

Fortunately, I do not live in Nevada…

But, the way things are going, I doubt it will soon matter where one lives.

The only bright side to all this for me is, like I’ve already said…

Only the good die young.

And I am a long, long way from young.

You have got to be kidding me…

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Omicron?!

Really?!

Couldn’t they have forgone the Greek alphabet for this variant of the Covid virus and come up with a less frightening, end of times name to call it?!

On Friday evening, the World Health Organization gave the variant the name Omicron. “This variant has a large number of mutations, some of which are concerning,” the W.H.O. said in its official description. “Preliminary evidence suggests an increased risk of reinfection with this variant.”

W.H.O. says new variant in South Africa is ‘of concern’ as countries impose travel restrictions, New York Times, November 26, 2021

#prayfortheend
#ofthepandemicthatis

Here’s to blood in the eye…

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A few years ago I started getting migraines. I didn’t know they were migraines at the time because they weren’t painful, they just knocked me for a loop – dizziness, nausea, in need of sleep, lights too bright, ears ringing, the usual suspects.

The first one I ever had scared the bejesus out of me, hitting me so hard while I was out mowing the lawn that I almost fell to my knees. It even knocked loose vitreous from my left eye and to this day I have little black gnat-like floaters buzzing around in there and annoying the hell out of me.

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An Important FDA Safety Announcement for my Donor Stem Cell Transplant Brothers and Sisters

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FDA warns about increased risk of cancer relapse with long-term use of azithromycin (Zithromax, Zmax) antibiotic after donor stem cell transplant

The French study which the FDA based a recent safety announcement on had to be discontinued after two years because the rate of the return of cancer and even death was too high in those patients with cancers of the blood or lymph nodes who undergo a donor stem cell transplant and were taking the antibiotic azithromycin (Zithromax, Zmax) long term to prevent a certain inflammatory lung condition [LUNG GVHD/BOS].

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Slowing Down the Synapses

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Or, Speeding Up the Reviews

Not the primary reason but one of the reasons I decided back in April to take a hiatus from the web was because I wanted to give my brain a break from all the nonsensical chatter that was cluttering it so.

I have been having what I collectively call chemo brain issues for quite some time so I thought it may do me some good to lay off for a while all the hyper-clicking and attention-span deflating skim-reading that the web so sweetly and successfully induces us into doing and which studies have told us is altering our brain and its ability to focus on and process information.

To counter what seemed to me to be my lack of focus and ability to process effectively process information (perhaps less a result from all my web time and more a result from all the chemo and prednisone I used to be strung out on years ago (and, in the case of chemo, which I still take daily dose addiction of)), I decided to turned off the web for a while.

Which, for the most part, I did surprisingly enough.

To fill the time I no longer spent on the web, much of which had been dedicated to this blog, I mobilized the pen and cracked open the books pretty hard.

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Any Wim Hof fans out there?

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If you’ve never heard of Hof before… prepare to have your mind blown.

This dude, known as The Iceman, can withstand the coldest colds and endure the hottest hots for practically as long as he wants all because he can control his mind and, through that, his core temperature, all through a radical breathing technique of his.

I’ve lost nearly half of my lung capacity due to a side effect called graft versus host disease after from my bone marrow transplant so, apart from the fact my survival rate chances were in the cellar, I never expected to be able to do much in the way of cardiovascular work ever again.

My son turned me onto Hof last year and, while I’m still in my initial stages of learning from this guy, you should see me going for it on the exercise bike and with the weights. I cannot imagine how much more I will be able to progress the more I progress with Hof’s techniques.

Reminder, as per clearly stated in my Terms & Disclaimers I am not a doctor so don’t go doing this stuff without consulting the experts first.

But if you want to experience a new reality of living… watch the fascinating Vice documentary about him below and then go check out this wild man’s youtube site.
 

 

Get Mellow

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If I had been given a 14% chance of living to five years after my Lung GVHD diagnosis instead of a 13% chance, I would have then had to call my little self-help book HOW NOT TO DIE: In 14 Easy Steps instead of 13.

And as the additional step to keep one alive, I would have added “Get Mellow,” because I have learned throughout my years that life is stressful — it is even more so when your health fails you. One has to take action to keep it cool or the stress just compounds the damage.

In addition to prayer and meditation, I listened to many different varieties of relaxing music to get and stay mellow. However, once I found this Tibetan Bells video it became The One and Only.

It’s been a while since I’ve listened to it.

But, seeing how the stress levels seem to be rising…

It’s time for me to once again… Get Mellow.

OMMMMM

 

The Purpose of Pain

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When it comes to physical pain, it’s purpose is hardly in question: It focuses us to where our immediate attention and action is required.

We accidentally rest our hand on a hot stove top burner and, without our sense of pain, our hand, if it weren’t for our sense of smell, would become cooked well enough to serve up at the next meal.

We could laugh at this, but sadly and horrifically there are some who do not experience the sense of physical pain due to a rare condition known as congenital analgesia.

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