Devils Tower Wyoming
From the Wandrin Archives 2007
Friday, February 6, 2015
Wednesday, February 4, 2015
Just Wondering
It happens to all owners of cars. You go to a dealership garage to get service on your car. A couple of days later, invariably you will get a call asking about your service experience. I've had that experience many times over the years as I traveled the country. It has also happened with the Highlander I now own. Those phone calls may have been annoying, but offered the answers they wanted.
I am still waiting for that first "how are you doing" call from the doctors, nurses or hospitals. I really don't want a phone call for a simple office visit. Where I want the call is when I have an outpatient procedure or after just one of those chemotherapy treatments over the past months.
At this point, I have had four out patient procedures and four chemotherapy treatments. There have been no phone calls to check up to see how I am doing. They could ask about how I am feeling. Is there any pain and other issues that I might be dealing with. If I am feeling bad and hurting, the least they could do is offer to prescribe some (more) drugs.
There has been no phone call. Ever. The only time there has been a phone call was when I called. Of course I left a message for a call back -- which happened many hours later.
I am wondering. If the auto dealers can make a call to check up on a service call, is it too hard for the medical providers to care. Just a little.
I am still waiting for that first "how are you doing" call from the doctors, nurses or hospitals. I really don't want a phone call for a simple office visit. Where I want the call is when I have an outpatient procedure or after just one of those chemotherapy treatments over the past months.
At this point, I have had four out patient procedures and four chemotherapy treatments. There have been no phone calls to check up to see how I am doing. They could ask about how I am feeling. Is there any pain and other issues that I might be dealing with. If I am feeling bad and hurting, the least they could do is offer to prescribe some (more) drugs.
There has been no phone call. Ever. The only time there has been a phone call was when I called. Of course I left a message for a call back -- which happened many hours later.
I am wondering. If the auto dealers can make a call to check up on a service call, is it too hard for the medical providers to care. Just a little.
Monday, February 2, 2015
Thanks To...
...blog readers, commenters, emails, and phone calls for your continued wishes and caring.
I'm not feeling like I was twelve weeks ago before the treatments started. However, I felt good enough today to reward myself with a desert hike.
A half dozen ravens were swooping and playing above me as I walked part of the trail. Occasionally some would perch on the spines of a dead saguaro. As I grabbed my camera to catch three ravens on this skeleton saguaro, two took off. So I got what was left.
The living saguaro are sucking up a lot of water. The summer monsoons followed by the frequent rains since have been good to them. The frequent rains means a great spring for wild flowers.
These almost evenly spaced saguaro remind me of columns from the ruins of a Green temple.
All the desert flora is looking healthy and green. That includes one of my favorite plants in the desert -- the Christmas cholla.
Thank you for following along. Also, thank you for your wishes and concerns for my health.
I'm not feeling like I was twelve weeks ago before the treatments started. However, I felt good enough today to reward myself with a desert hike.
A half dozen ravens were swooping and playing above me as I walked part of the trail. Occasionally some would perch on the spines of a dead saguaro. As I grabbed my camera to catch three ravens on this skeleton saguaro, two took off. So I got what was left.
The living saguaro are sucking up a lot of water. The summer monsoons followed by the frequent rains since have been good to them. The frequent rains means a great spring for wild flowers.
These almost evenly spaced saguaro remind me of columns from the ruins of a Green temple.
All the desert flora is looking healthy and green. That includes one of my favorite plants in the desert -- the Christmas cholla.
Thank you for following along. Also, thank you for your wishes and concerns for my health.
Sunday, February 1, 2015
Mini Book Review: The Cancer Chronicles
By George Johnson
Full title: The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine's Deepest Mystery
Long before the cancer lurking in my body became an issue, I had read books on cancer. Curiosity drives me. Some of those books were good. Johnson's book is excellent.
Reading decades of cancer research, Johnson describes what is known and the the vast amount that is unknown. With each new discovery about cancer, it only leads to another question. The cure for cancer is as elusive today as it was when the "war on cancer" began with the National Cancer Act in 1971.
Johnson writes a well focused book about the many areas of cancer research, the treatments for a patient's cancer, and as a family observer of a cancer patient from identification through treatments.
Full title: The Cancer Chronicles: Unlocking Medicine's Deepest Mystery
Long before the cancer lurking in my body became an issue, I had read books on cancer. Curiosity drives me. Some of those books were good. Johnson's book is excellent.
Reading decades of cancer research, Johnson describes what is known and the the vast amount that is unknown. With each new discovery about cancer, it only leads to another question. The cure for cancer is as elusive today as it was when the "war on cancer" began with the National Cancer Act in 1971.
Johnson writes a well focused book about the many areas of cancer research, the treatments for a patient's cancer, and as a family observer of a cancer patient from identification through treatments.
Friday, January 30, 2015
Friday Photo
Frozen Fog on Storm Mountain
Drake Colorado -- between Loveland and Estes Park
Wandrin Archives 2001
Before Cyndi and Rich moved to Loveland, I was a frequent guest at their home on Storm Mountain. The photo was taken in March of 2001 just a few months before I set off on my 13 year long nomadic journey. However, since I was already living in my home on wheels in Golden Colorado at an RV park, I consider the photo part of my wandering life.
Today is a gray and rainy day in Tucson with the Catalina Mountains hidden in clouds. This seemed an appropriate Friday to post one of the few photos in the Wandrin Archives of snow on the ground.
Thursday, January 29, 2015
Great To Hike The Desert
I had cabin fever. It was over three weeks since I was last out for a hike.
Call it cabin fever, but really I felt rotten most of the time. I didn't feel like getting out.
A week of recovery after chemo treatment #3 was followed by a lumbar puncture to to put chemo in the brain spinal cord. That procedure was followed by a week long headache before the docs decided that when the puncture was done, the body didn't seal the hole. So back for another procedure to fix the leak. After that it was time for the next chemo treatment -- #4. That was over a week ago and this morning I was feeling good enough to go for a hike. A short one.
It was a solo hike. I knew it would be a slow hike with lots of rests. My cell phone was with me just in case of a problem. The hike was about a mile and a half.
It felt so good to be outside in the desert. It was a great way for me to get rejuvenated.
The goal of chemotherapy is to kill the actively growing cells. The side effect is that the drugs in that chemotherapy attacks any growing cell in the body -- i.e. skin and the digestive tract.
The chemo treatments have a cumulative effect on the body. The wrinkles have wrinkles. I'm down eight pounds from the first chemo. I can't spare that loss. Food doesn't taste good. The most recent chemo added neuropathy to the side effects. Typing this blog is a challenge.
The neuropathy is a game changer. When I researched the neuropathy side effect, typically it goes away after three to five months. The caveat is that it may never go away.
Considering this treatment ordeal is elective, I've made an appointment with the oncologist with lots of questions about the risks of stopping now.
Call it cabin fever, but really I felt rotten most of the time. I didn't feel like getting out.
A week of recovery after chemo treatment #3 was followed by a lumbar puncture to to put chemo in the brain spinal cord. That procedure was followed by a week long headache before the docs decided that when the puncture was done, the body didn't seal the hole. So back for another procedure to fix the leak. After that it was time for the next chemo treatment -- #4. That was over a week ago and this morning I was feeling good enough to go for a hike. A short one.
It was a solo hike. I knew it would be a slow hike with lots of rests. My cell phone was with me just in case of a problem. The hike was about a mile and a half.
It felt so good to be outside in the desert. It was a great way for me to get rejuvenated.
The goal of chemotherapy is to kill the actively growing cells. The side effect is that the drugs in that chemotherapy attacks any growing cell in the body -- i.e. skin and the digestive tract.
The chemo treatments have a cumulative effect on the body. The wrinkles have wrinkles. I'm down eight pounds from the first chemo. I can't spare that loss. Food doesn't taste good. The most recent chemo added neuropathy to the side effects. Typing this blog is a challenge.
The neuropathy is a game changer. When I researched the neuropathy side effect, typically it goes away after three to five months. The caveat is that it may never go away.
Considering this treatment ordeal is elective, I've made an appointment with the oncologist with lots of questions about the risks of stopping now.
Friday, January 23, 2015
Friday Photo
Windmill on cattle ranch
In the hills near Santa Barbara California
From the Wandrin Archives 2006
Sunday, January 18, 2015
Mini Book Review: The Big Fat Surprise by Nina Teicholz
The full title of the book is The Big Fat Surprise: Why Butter, Meat and Cheese Belong in a Healthy Diet.
Nina Teicholz tackles the long held mantra that eating fat makes you fat and eating saturated fats clog arteries and cause heart attacks.
Guess what. It was a big con job perpetrated by bad science and then taken up as the mantra by the US health agencies and food manufacturers. Soon there were all kinds of products that were free of fats. To make foods taste good, sugar became the go to substitute.
Teicholz starts the book about demon fat with Ancel Keys and his diet studies about 1950. His studies became a belief system. There were other studies that didn't support that the low fat reduced heart attacks. However, those studies were shouted down by the "experts" or just shunted aside as an anomaly. Those studies didn't support the "low fat high carbo" belief system. Belief systems are hard to change.
There still is no blaring of the message in the headlines -- or the 24 hour cable news stations. There are a few articles about the new information, but it isn't get a whole lot of coverage. It is difficult to change beliefs that have been been touted for decades.
The book is not based on just a couple of studies, but the studies over decades -- both in the US and other countries. The details of the studies from "low fat high carbs" to "high fat low carbs" is most fascinating. The book also describes how highly connected names can drown out the good science.
An interview with the author summarizes the thoughts in the book:
http://mashable.com/2014/05/15/nina-teicholz-bacon-saturated-fats/
A summary article by Nina Teicholz about the fallacy of eating meat:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/how-americans-used-to-eat/371895/
These are some excellent reviews of the book high lighting the points made about fats.
http://www.caloriegate.com/the-black-box/review-of-nina-teicholzs-big-fat-surprise-a-page-turning-nutritional-whodunnit
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/low-carb-diets/big-fat-surprise/
http://www.afreebooks.com/ebook/the-big-fat-surprise_98631
Nina Teicholz tackles the long held mantra that eating fat makes you fat and eating saturated fats clog arteries and cause heart attacks.
Guess what. It was a big con job perpetrated by bad science and then taken up as the mantra by the US health agencies and food manufacturers. Soon there were all kinds of products that were free of fats. To make foods taste good, sugar became the go to substitute.
Teicholz starts the book about demon fat with Ancel Keys and his diet studies about 1950. His studies became a belief system. There were other studies that didn't support that the low fat reduced heart attacks. However, those studies were shouted down by the "experts" or just shunted aside as an anomaly. Those studies didn't support the "low fat high carbo" belief system. Belief systems are hard to change.
There still is no blaring of the message in the headlines -- or the 24 hour cable news stations. There are a few articles about the new information, but it isn't get a whole lot of coverage. It is difficult to change beliefs that have been been touted for decades.
The book is not based on just a couple of studies, but the studies over decades -- both in the US and other countries. The details of the studies from "low fat high carbs" to "high fat low carbs" is most fascinating. The book also describes how highly connected names can drown out the good science.
An interview with the author summarizes the thoughts in the book:
http://mashable.com/2014/05/15/nina-teicholz-bacon-saturated-fats/
A summary article by Nina Teicholz about the fallacy of eating meat:
http://www.theatlantic.com/health/archive/2014/06/how-americans-used-to-eat/371895/
These are some excellent reviews of the book high lighting the points made about fats.
http://www.caloriegate.com/the-black-box/review-of-nina-teicholzs-big-fat-surprise-a-page-turning-nutritional-whodunnit
http://www.proteinpower.com/drmike/low-carb-diets/big-fat-surprise/
http://www.afreebooks.com/ebook/the-big-fat-surprise_98631
Friday, January 16, 2015
Friday Photo
A younger Wandrin Lloyd
Murray Canyon -- Palm Springs, California
From Wandrin archives 2003
Friday, January 2, 2015
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