Seasons Greetings
I don't like to push the holidays so much, because it implies everyone is Christian, and that isn't the case. But given that this blog covers construction too, I thought this card was pretty funny.
I could say it's been a crap year for me, being diagnosed with two cancers and congestive heart failure. OTOH, one cancer is "cured", the other seems to be responding well to treatment, and that is the case too with the CHF. So it could be way way worse.
But it sucks because I am affected. My energy level is probably 50% of what it used to be. I can't bike. And the cancer treatment's major symptom thus far is wrecking my taste buds, called "metal mouth" in the trade. So I don't know if the food I'm eating is crap (yes, I don't think the last fajita dish I had was particularly well prepared, but I'll never know) or it's me.
And of all the health stuff, my mind hasn't been effected, at least so far, and that is a blessing, regardless of a particular religion.
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But it's sad that the issues we're dealing with now about water out west have been present for the last 155 years, with no change, or even in the almost 40 years since the book was first published, Utah is still resistant to changing water policy and happy with agriculture growing high water using low value crops.
I'm a bit more than 25% of the way through so far.
I've come across another book I haven't started yet, called Rocky Mountain Divide: Selling and Saving the West, it's 30 years old. Looks to be very important as well.
And I'll have to read Stegner's biography of John Wesley Powell.
posted by Richard Layman @ 4:00 AM&Permanent Link
15 Comments:
Actually I should pick up that one on land trusts.
Thanks for the medical updates.
Yeah that is a really bad side effect. It’s amazing what a difference taste and smell makes.
The good news is we’ve been blowing up dams all over the west. Water out west is always a zero sum game
I was thinking of an update in terms of water conservation (eg Las Vegas and Orange County), more crazy proposals, and how Utah Governor Cox called for prayer for rain, and then took credit for 2023's good year for precipitation dragging some elementary school kids to sing.
Learning a lot. I'm embarrassed to say that before, I thought the Bureau of Reclamation was part of ACE.
Had a really good meal yesterday, fish sandwich, cole slaw, a great smoked ketchup for the fries and I don't normally eat ketchup. Prepared very well. DK if it was the fish, or the preparation but it tasted great. (My weight is way down. I need to get some 30 inch waist pants. But it's somewhat stable now. Still, between covid and this I've lost 20% of my weight.)
There is a lot on the internet and some literature on keto diet for cancer. The basic concept is strong. Cancer cells prefer fermanation and sugar. That the pet scan it’s just looking for evidence of sugar metabolism. Translating that into human diet is hard. They have breath analyzers that look for ketone that can help with compliance. Keto is hard and it’s more important just to get that weight back on.
My brother has been pushing me to keto. I do have an appointment with a nutritionist in a couple weeks. Mostly I'm not too hungry. I do wonder after yesterday's swordfish not having aftertaste if I should eat less meat (although beef with teriyaki sauce was fine a couple weeks ago) and more fish.
Drive to CO and get some marijuana. Great for appetite and sleep.
Yeah, bad side effects in terms of cognition but just take it at night.
They have medical marijuana here. My eating is down definitely. But I sleep fine.
That cards been done many times by A&E firms, civil engineers, surveyors, etc.
Turns out even the Bureau of Reclamation has started doing some honest histories. But at the Glen Canyon gift shop there was only one book on revisionist water history and not CD. And the BLM visitor center for Grand Staircase Escalante had nothing about the "current contoversies."
At a historic preservation conference a couple years ago, BLM exhibited and they did have some of the key reports. (I seem to have lost the photo.)
You can definitely see why now there are IGs, but they are still strongly influenced by the agencies.
PS I started losing my hair, which sucks.
Hair will grow back. You're on R-CHOP?
Might take a year, though, be patient.
It's technically a thanksgiving meme, but I think Taleb's Parable of the Turkey is a good one to remind yourself around New Years.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/hillennevins/2021/11/24/the-parable-of-the-turkey/?sh=1910b1c96cab
At least for me, it's usually a bad point in the year, although strangely (historically) my birthday month has been worse.
But the point of the turkey tale is we're not supposed to be a a whig, or think that the future is always going to be better, but it can be worse and enjoy and live what we've got.
Get an electric bike! although prices for good one are still insane.
I know you are the last person to "car-talk" but I'd look into a used Bolt. There is a $4000 car for used EV under 25,000 and under two years old, has to be bought from dealer and income requirements. Depreciation on EV is brutal but easier to get rid of one now than 10 years ago.
Pretty jealous you've been to Glen Canyon, would love to see it. That and crater lake are my bucket lists for NPs. Not a great list but it's mine!
Happy New year, and at least we're not Shane McGowan.
The Shane McGowan comment made me lol. Sadly, his obituaries indicated his last few years were quite terrible. His wife must be a Saint.
Will read the parable. Thought about a Bolt actually but we already got a new car. At the time, EVs or hybrids weren't quite available. I don't feel so terrible because we don't that much, but we are still contributing to the air quality problem. This year is the worst since we've been here. An e bike is on my list, but biking seems far away right now.
My last "ride" it took 45 minutes to get 3/4 mile, slight incline, to the grocery. It was the incline. 5 minutes back, rolling downhill.
I should have the treatment memorized but I don't. It's not that one but it is a combo. I only had one treatment and there was significant reduction. All but one of the cancerous nodes are in one area. So I don't know about the errant one.
Didn't get to really explore GC because I'm no Billy goat these days. But it's on the list for return, definitely. I've been delaying finishing the book. Today or Tomorrow, finally. Thank you for the recommendation. Everyone in the west should be reading it.
It is BV-CVP. But one drug is switched out for another, because of my heart issue. And if I needed a bone marrow transplant they say no, again because of the heart. Fortunately no spread to the marrow/bones so that isn't an issue.
Interesting. It's a class of drugs called ADC. Antibody Drug conjugates. CD30 targeting protein, very engineered. I made a bit of money off ADC -- including the one you are one back in 2018. ADC are probably the "hottest" thing right now (2023) in drugs, starting to come into their own.
tt's a three part drug, one part is the antibody which looks for CD30 expression, then the linker which hopefully dissolves, and the "payload" which delivers the drug to the target.
So to honest, I'd say you got lucky and are getting that as a first line treatment. Should reduce side effects. The 2018 trials had improved survival as an additional benefit. Not sure what they switched out but guessing it was Doxorubicin, which is a more traditional chemo agent and not great for heart tissue.
Before, I had no idea about all the advances in cancer treatment. I mean i sort of knew, but not at this level. I definitely am benefiting. The one thing about mine is its rareness, which is good then that the practice community is international.
There was some back and forth with insurance about one drug in the cocktail. I have no idea about the cost. But they approved it in the end. Mostly the authorization process doesn't involve me. I just get a letter in the end.
probably the"BV" part -- Adecritis. Seattle Genetics put it down as a a $100,000 drug when it first came out. From what I can tell it's being used a lot, but probably not was a first line therapy.
yeah the advances in cancer -- programmed cell death, checkpoint inhibitors, ADC have been tremendous in the last 10 years.
This week Moderns released their study on skin cancer "cancer vaccines" which are showing tremendous promise and real results as well.
The issues are
1) nobody wants to do the studies to do this stuff as a monothearpy --- my guess is you don't need the traditional chemo and the ADC will work well enough. But it would cost several billion dollar to prove.
2) These therapies are mostly helping liquid cancers, not solid tumors, where surgical recession is preferred. Lots of issue with next generation thearpaeis and tumor microenviornemnts.
I'm Stil confused about your cancers, real medical mystery but if it's really two separate cancers (biopsy / histology / DNA) not clear what they are doing for the CRC. They probably got it, but there are some circulating cells left. The chemo agent you have will kill them, but that is (AFAIK) untested. Now if the NHL is primary and the src secondary I'd feel more confident that the CRC is also expressing the CD30 and will get killed.
Probably dd not mention by primary hobby at this point is biotech investing. Easier to lose money on that than golf.
Going back on topic, I brought up Powell because that was his vision of the West -- towns/cities as settlement but not ag. Moving in that direction but the water pricing is still an issue.
I say two because I had colon cancer. The CT found raised lymph nodes. It was determined that that was lymphoma, not related to the colon. I had surgery for the colon and in doing it they found no spread for colon cancer, although did a second biopsy for the other since the first was somewhat indeterminate. (Hence move from HL to NHL diagnosis). It's physically apparent so I've wondered why no surgery. I've been meaning to ask. The doctor probably said before but I don't remember.
2. Prescient hobby.
3. I want to read up on Powell.
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