2/2/21 Naive? Me?

Sometimes, I am naive. I am inclined to think that when I’m face to face with someone and they are speaking they are telling the truth, because I think everyone is honest and telling the truth. My naiveté has led me to a few disappointments in my time. Perhaps you have experienced this, too. I…

11/15/18 Ruxolitinib Moves On Without Me

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…

5/12/18 Summer’s Here

No. It’s not really summer, yet, but today sure seemed like it. Summers seem harsher here than they used to be. Maybe my tolerance is faltering. Lots of things at my age are faltering. I am glad to be still be here. We have been working long hours in Olive Branch, Mississippi, in the throes…

4/15/18 Two More Years

I have been on the Ruxolitinib trial for two years now. It has been good so far. The trial was designed to address the symptoms of CLL and prove, disprove, or measure its efficacy in individual patients. The requirements of the trial were that each person enrolled must not be treatment naive, meaning that they…

10/5/17 Troubles….Everywhere…Well, Nearly Everywhere

My trip to Houston for a checkup was enlightening. I saw much that the otherwise unobserving eye might have missed. I don’t miss much, though; after all, my name is Sharp. I had been to see Hemosapien on 9/27/17. I had not seen him in a while since I have been on this clinical trial…

2/1/17 A Trip into Decadence

Debbie and I made a trip to Houston on Sunday. I had an appointment at BATCC for my two month checkup for the Ruxolitinib clinical trial I am on. For a while we were making the trip every two weeks, but now, we have settled into two month, which is a lot better. Over the…

12/13/16 Long Trip Back From Houston

Dr. Gooday, Nurse Alice, Nurse Sarah and crew at BATCC were all about like I expected them. BATCC seems to get along just fine, though I am not there every day to see its inefficiencies, nor the frustrations of its employees. I, on the other hand, am very familiar with my own frustrations, and today…

12/12/16 A Complicated World

12/9/16 It’s a complicated world out there. Politics, economics, terrorism, globalism, hegemony, wars, pestilence, earthquakes, storms …so many things just waiting for a chance to manifest themselves to interfere with our lives. So many of those things are beyond our control, leaving used tossed on stormy seas, cast adrift in shallow draft lifeboats, bobbing around…

5/19/15 The List Needs Some Help

In an earlier blog post, I discussed the list. Lots of folks want to know about the list, some of which I share, but most of which I keep to myself. “How are you doing?” an acquaintance recently asked. “Just fine,” I said on automatic pilot. “And you?” They beleaguered me with their entire list,…