Ned Henry January 26, 2021 nedhenry.medium.com
11:30 AM Here’s today’s selfie. Not bad but the hair is getting thinner. And I used to have such a thick head of hair. Supposed to be a nice day here. A little rain but up to the 70 which is great for January in Atlanta. It’s like that here — you can have winter days in the 30’s or get up to the 70’s. You never know. Just a hint of seasons. I like this town which is why I’ve stayed here for some 35 years now.
Guilty pleasure — listening to Meat Loaf Bat out of Hell II — Back into Hell.
2 PM — Sue came over and took me for a little walk down the block. My right quad really hurts. Must do some stretching of it now. So sweet of her. I’m moving pretty slow and feel pretty weak. I guess that’s normal for chemo but I like my old strong self better. We had a nice talk. She told me Publix was doing vaccine now so I called my pharmacist there but it’s all on line sign up. So I’ll try that at 6 AM tomorrow. Have another one of those medical conference calls with the Lymphoma Research Foundation at 3 PM about Covid and Lymphoma. So, I’ll be back after stretching and that call. Haven’t gotten to the ACIM yet. Shit. Not gonna rush through that.
Almost 3 PM — Listened to this album while I stretched. I wanted to find the Song Slow Train Coming but this is Gotta Serve Somebody instead.
Off to learn more about Covid and Lymphoma. Later.
4:15 PM — Well that was enlightening. I am a stage 4 DLBCL patient in R-CHOP chemo therapy. I just completed round 2 of 6 rounds of chemo and will be in chemo until late April. If the disease is not cured after R-CHOP, then I go into another chemo called CAR-T. What I have is a very fast moving aggressive cancer but the chemo is considered curative. I know I’ve said this beofre but I’m just updating those who might not have caught it before. Covid complicates everything. I am at greater risk of getting covid and have a much greater risk of more severe symptoms due to the increase risk for hematological malignancies. Slow growth Lymphomas can be treated for Covid by suspending chemo treatments but that is not an option for fast growth lymphoma like I have. In a study of 3,330 Lymphoma patients who contracted Covid, 77% were hospitalized and 34% died. Age (over 60 — (I am 70)) created a 47 % greater risk of contracting Covid with lymphoma than the average 60 year old person. The risk is less with Hodgkins lymphoma which I do not have due to patients typically being younger and the disease often is slower moving. The vaccine will be less effective for me than for normal folks due to my compromised immune system due to both the cancer and the chemo. Both the duration of effectiveness and the percentage of effective will be less. So if it’s 95% effective for you for one year say, it might be 60% effective for me for say 6 months. They don’t really know yet. But they know it is worth getting any protection I can at this point. One of my chemo drugs — rituxamab — which has been the hardest one for me may also suppress the efficacy of the vaccine. More study on the effects with rituxamab need to be done. They also talked about the different vaccines. and if you’ve been paying attention you know this stuff but they discussed the 4 major ones out there pros and cons. It was a very informative medical conference but of course did nothing to get me on any list to get an appointment to get vaccinated. So I am on the Emory wait list and I am going to try to get on the Publix wait list tomorrow morning at 6 AM when the appointments are opened up for the next day. Until then, I wait to get vaccinated. Given these statistics, it makes no sense to me that Cancer patients in chemo with a good possibility of beating it which I have, should not be prioritized. But that is not how Georgia (and probably most other states) are doing it. Very hard to slice and dice such a large population to that degree of differrentation.
So that is the medical update. If anyone is interested in a recording of the one hour conference I’ll post it when it’s available rpobably in a couple fo days. But I gave you my notes.
I did want to listen to this 10 minute video again on my disease from a year ago. I haven’t listened to it since I first got my diagnosis. Since this report last year, the FDA has approved CAR-T cell therapy for patients that R-CHOP fails. So bottom line there is hope, but it could be long road ahead.
OK enough medical stuff. Let’s get to the course.
ACIM — Lesson 24 — I do not perceive my own best interests.
6 PM — Got off the phone with the Palliative care folks at Emory. My sleeplessness problem is in their bailiwick. So I’ve been doing almost everything wrong. Well not everything but alot. I like Sativa way better than Indica. It wakes me up, makes me feel my body, makes me want to move. Indica makes me just want to sit there and be stoned. It’s mellow, stationery and boring. She wants me to switch to Indica from Sativa. She thinks the Sativa is contributing to sleeplessness and I have to say that makes sense. I am taking too much Ambien so she wants me to back off that — not more than one a night, stay away from the anti-anxiety drug which really doesn’t help. I am building up a tolerance to Ambien so I need to back away from it and try to use Indica for getting sleepy at night. So that’s the new plan. I sure hope it works. I’ll touch base with her after a few days and let her know how it’s going. I’ve gotta make a call and get some dinner and spend my hour with Judy Woodruff. I’ll be back later.
10:15 PM — Just added water to the humidifier. In the winter I add humidity to the air in the house since it’s so dry and in the summer I run a dehumidifier all summer long to remove humidity from the air. Part of living here.
So Lobster Bisque for dinner on Tuesday night. Just how good does it get. I mean really. Chased with 3 chocolate chip cookies and there are plenty more cookies for ther days ahead. Thank you Pete!!
Had a really good call with Terri, watched the PBS Newshour — good news summary — always is without a lot of bullshit. And worked on the lesson, It’s a good one. Might take 2 days with it. Kinda tired so I’m going to go lie down and see if I can nod off while listening to Bach. No Indica yet but maybe I don’t need it. Gonna go ahead and post this and start again next time.
Oh before I go, I did finally get a vaccine appointment. Called several counties around here and got one with Gwinnett County (where I had my first house) in a town called Conyers. That’s where Aubrey used to live the last time I saw her. Her phone number did not work when I tried to call her a few weeks ago. There was an appearance by the Holy Virgin Mother there in the 90’s. Google it if you don’t believe me. Our Lady of Conyers. They have a monastery there and I think that’s where Gavin’s ashes are buried so I may make a day of it next Tuesday the 2nd of February. If Emory comes through before then well I can cancel this one and go for the more convenient location but if not at least I have an appointment. And probably a few things I can do out that way. Not sure which vaccine it is or whether it’s administered in the car like in Dekalb county but at least I know in a week I can get the first shot. Took a hit of Indica.