Category: My lymphoma and related medical stuff

Today had my semi-annual visit with lymphoma doc, Dr. Zelenetz at Sloan Kettering. I'd had my now-every-year CAT scan and it was "pristine". Bloodwork was fine; a couple of readings slightly outside the norm, but nothing of any importance. So, we can still buy green bananas! 

I could never quite figure why having your stem cells returned to you constituted a transplant, but that's what they call it. Anyway, the idea is to re-build your immune system, after the high dose chemo has (hopefully) killed off the remaining lingering cancer cells. The side effect is that the chemo gives your immune…

I seem to have made a full recovery from pneumonia, which was diagnosed last Monday. By the past weekend I was pretty much symptom-free and was back in the gym. I saw Dr. K today, and she said my lung was clear – they are doing a CBC just to be sure my white count…

More bad news, as I age … Maybe I'll just have to practice more? If you feel like you can’t drink the way you used to, you’re not alone. An aging body is more sensitive to alcohol than a younger one. The reason is that older people metabolize alcohol more slowly, and they also have…

Rugby players always knew this – Researchers at Granada University in Spain have come across a discovery that will undoubtedly please athletes and sports enthusiasts – a pint of beer post-workout or match is better at rehydrating the human body than water. … subjects in the study were asked to run on a treadmill at…

Author Katherine Russell Rich Now there probably aren’t a lot of Web sites where the announcement that you’re around and breathing would cause anyone to take notice, let alone respond. But this is a site for people with Stage 4 breast cancer, something I’ve had for 17 years. The average life expectancy with the diagnosis…

Maggie recently had a feature written about her in the local (Journal News) paper. She and I were both diagnosed about the same time. In fact, the day I had same day surgery to install my mediport at Sloan Kettering, I ran into her in the waiting area, as she was going in for surgery. That…

Personal Best – To Exercise Early or Late, Now There’s a Question – NYTimes.com Greg Atkinson, also at Liverpool John Moores University, said that some researchers, noticing that heart rates during exercise were lower in the morning, reasoned the way I did — that people must be more efficient in the morning. It would mean…

There was a very fine feature in the excellent health section of the NY Times yesterday. My mother is suffering from dementia. A month ago she had to move out of the independent living facility into an assisted living residence. She has real memory problems, trouble remembering to take her meds, as well as some mobility issues.…

An important question (and certainly very important to me!). This is a not-very-long but comprehensive posting on the NY Times Health blog, looking at both experimental animal studies and human studies. The tentative conclusion is that intensive exercise can indeed suppress the body's immune response. On the other hand, experiments with mice indicate that mild…