Your long-suffering correspondent is starting to feel a bit like the Old Testament guy Job, a basically good guy that God torments ceaselessly with a series of horrible events. Yesterday I had an appointment with my oncologist, and I mentioned that my left lower leg, ankle, and foot were swollen. She set up an appointment for an ultrasound to rule out any blood clots, conducted by a very experienced and […]
I’ve come to the day where I have to start the chemotherapy regime to treat my multiple myeloma. I’d be less than honest if I said that I wasn’t a bit scared about it, given the concoction of drugs I’ll be putting into my system. There are three main drugs, a steroid called dexamethasone (which I’ve taken before and is frankly the least concerning); a drug called Revlimid that is a relative […]
I received some good news from my oncologist today. The cytogenetic analysis of the cancer cells in my bone marrow came back with a “translocation” type that is generally considered to be associated with a good prognosis, which means that I’m likely going to be eligible for a stem cell transplant at the end of my chemo treatment, which gives me a chance to end up in a position afterwards […]
I’m an amateur photographer, not particularly gifted, but I enjoy taking pictures, especially of landscapes and urban architecture. For years I used Canon cameras and lenses, but when about two years ago I was interested in moving up to a “full frame” sensor from my existing “APS-C” system (see is here for an explanation), I decided to make a change given the lack of good reviews for the newer full-frame […]
Hi Everyone, for those interested here’s an update on the likely course of my treatment over the next 4 – 6 months, based on a meeting Suzie and I had on Monday with our Kaiser oncologist. To recap a bit, the condition I have is called multiple myeloma. It is caused by malignant plasma cells located in bone marrow that grow out of control. That can cause tumors (like the one […]
I’ve been overwhelmed by the responses from everyone to my post. I hope that I can in time reach out to every one of you, one by one, to express my thanks and to touch base individually. Every single note touched me, whether from friends of 45-plus years or my newest co-workers. One more reminder that in spite of everything, I’m a lucky guy. Suzie and I have our first […]
A week or so ago I struggled up to the house site after a rain to see if there was any problem with runoff or erosion. There wasn’t. I walked around a bit and took some pictures. The saddest was this one of the address tiles above our front door. We had bought these at the big BHV store across from the Hotel de Ville in Paris. They were the […]
Most of you know that Suzie and I (and the boys) lost our beautiful home in the Wikiup Hills due to the Tubbs Fire, shortly after the last blog post here, in early October. Now part two: Soon after we moved into our replacement apartment in Santa Rosa, I began feeling pain and numbness in my left leg. I assumed it was from pulling a muscle while moving furniture into […]
When Suzie and I travel, we love to just poke around, sometimes going to places that aren’t perhaps on the top of the tourist to-do list, just to see what we might find there. Today was one of those poke-around days; we ended up in a place we’d never heard of when we started the day. The first stop was, in truth, on the tourist list: the Château de Flaugergues, a […]
This little village of about 300 people has been around since the founding of a church on the site in the 800s. We had lunch at a tiny place (the building was constructed in the 1000s) and learned about a path that went out into the country, among terraced olive orchards between two high mountain ridges. Beautiful.