Medical Musings: And now for something completely different

Saturday, April 2, 2011

And now for something completely different

I have friends who drive me nuts, which, admittedly, for me isn't a major road trip. Maybe just a ride around the block. They email me pictures and videos of precious kittens, bears with their heads caught in car windows, seagull thieves, hapless bank robbers and the like, as well as viral and decidedly loopy conspiracy theories. I just love my delete key.

Once in a while, however rarely, I am emailed something that makes me laugh. The subject of this blog is decidedly serious, so I indulge my sense of humor as much as I'm able, if only to neutralize the heartburn. I liked this video even though it has nothing whatsoever to do with myeloma. I'll try to be serious again next week. If you don't want to soak your keyboard, don't drink anything while watching!

5 comments:

AnonymousApril 2, 2011 at 2:08 PM
Very funny, Lonnie. I will share it.
Eric Vogt
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SandyApril 2, 2011 at 6:23 PM
Truly worth waiting for it to download or upload or whatever it does on my slow modem in the jungle... great great humor!
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AnonymousApril 2, 2011 at 9:41 PM
Trying to figure out how to send it along to make others laugh. What a good sport, and what a good ventriloquist. I always enjoy a bit of fun and laughter. Thanks Lon, hope you are all doing well:) Lynne and Ralph
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Anything PlaceApril 3, 2011 at 8:39 PM
haha that is funny
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plastic cardsApril 6, 2011 at 7:26 PM
i like medical,i am a doctor in china,working over 20 years.
thanks for your share.
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They spam, I moderate. When you send a comment, it will disappear for a bit until I am notified. It hasn't been eaten. On the plus side, I can now reply to questions or suggestions, if you have any, in the comments!

About Me

I have multiple myeloma, a rare, incurable, universally-fatal blood cancer. The average survival in 1998 for the newly-diagnosed was three years with conventional chemo, five years with a autologous bone-marrow transplant. Through a combination of diligent study and miraculous luck, I'm in good shape more nearly fourteen years later.

I've had just about every treatment medicine has to offer: chemotherapy, autologous transplant, allogeneic transplant from a matched but unrelated donor (a MUD), and a donor lymphocyte infusion (DLI).

I started blogging just before I was scheduled to have a second autologous transplant in early 2009, but there was too much cancer in the marrow. I was devastated. By November, my tumor burden was astronomically high: I had run out of time.

So I gambled on the rare and dangerous allogeneic transplant from a matched but unrelated donor, which is when I began this blog in earnest, but after a month I couldn't blog because I had become so weak I couldn't lift my hands to the keyboard. I was hospitalized for nearly three months; nearly died three times; and I continue in recovery more than a year later. My wife was once told to make "final arrangements" for me.

I wanted especially to describe my struggle with fear. Fear often leads to bad medical decisions: its acid eats away ones quality of life. Fear leads to too much treatment too soon, or to treatment too long delayed. I hope to explain the tools I've developed to neutralize it. I am writing a book on the subject which I hope to finish before I'm financially destitute: who plans to retire at age 53?

Along the way I'll try to provide the context of my life inside of which these tools work. Also, I can't resist the occasional digression.

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Saturday, April 2, 2011

And now for something completely different

5 comments: