Several times, I have had doctors ask me, “Do you have any medical training?” Formerly, I was asked it in the manner of a rebuke, as if physicians were implying that it was not possible for me to have any valid opinion about the rabbit hole I could see them going down, that it was…
This is a long read. I do not apologize. Did you know there were five Marx brothers? Everyone knows Groucho, Harpo, and Chico. There were two more: Gummo and Zeppo. They weren’t nearly as well known. Rumor has it that there may be two more, younger, perhaps illegitimate brothers, heretofore unheard of. When it comes…
Merry Christmas to everyone. It’s been hard times around here. I haven’t written much because I have not had time to write. In the past month, we’ve buried two members of my family, and my brother diagnosed with an as yet undetermined blood cancer. That’s two of us now. In addition to all the many…
Sometimes there are simply no words. No words of comfort. No words of wisdom. No words of understanding. Sometimes there are only questions for which there are no answers. This is one of those times. Watching heretofore unimaginable grief and pain in those I love so dearly is a lesson in futility for me. Everything…
I started the BATCC clinical trial on ruxolitinib on June 17, 2016. It was a two year trial designed test the effectiveness of ruxolitinib on alleviating the symptoms of CLL (fatigue, bone pain, joint pain, and others) by targeting cells that carried the JAK-7 enzyme, which produces inflammation. Inflammation is the source of many diseases…
Some always decry voter disenfranchisement during elections. Were I hot-headed as a general rule, though I can sometimes be, I might have thought attempts were being made to disenfranchise my vote yesterday, but I knew better. Sometimes people just make mistakes. Sometimes the mistaken one is me. Sometimes others. Sometimes both, creating compound mistakes. I…
I once got a bad case of Redbugs (chiggers) Well, I under-reported that significantly. I’ve gotten a bad case of them more than once. I’ve gotten them dozens of times, sometimes from head to toe, with thriving colonies in tender places, growing like new subdivisions in good, suburban school districts, the Redbugs looking for favorable…
