Blog – Page 9 – Carrots Over Cancer

Name Standard range	7/15/22	8/18/22	9/15/22
KAPP/LAMB FR 0.26 – 1.65	0.04	0.06	0.07
KAPPA LIGHT CHAIN FREE 3.30 – 19.40 mg/L	5.70	6.71	7.66
LAMBDA LIGHT CHAIN FREE, SERPL 5.71 – 26.30 mg/L	142.52	117.49	110.37

Component	Your value	Standard range
Total Protein	6.4 g/dL	6.0 to 7.7 g/dL6.0 – 7.7 g/dL
Albumin	4.1 g/dL	3.8 to 5.0 g/dL3.8 – 5.0 g/dL
Alpha-1-globulin, electrophoresis	0.3 g/dL	0.2 to 0.4 g/dL0.2 – 0.4 g/dL
Alpha-2-globulin, electrophoresis	0.4 g/dL	0.5 to 1.0 g/dL0.5 – 1.0 g/dL
Beta globulin, electrophoresis	0.6 g/dL	0.6 to 1.2 g/dL0.6 – 1.2 g/dL
Gamma globulin, electrophoresis	1.0 g/dL	0.7 to 1.8 g/dL0.7 – 1.8 g/dL
Total Protein	6.4 g/dL	6.0 to 7.7 g/dL6.0 – 7.7 g/dL

Name Standard range	7/15/22	8/18/22	9/15/22
M-BAND-1 <=0.0 g/dL	1.4	1.0	0.9
SPEP INTERPRETATION	SEE ABN	SEE ABN	SEE ABN

Name Standard range	8/18/22	8/26/22	9/15/22
HCT 39.0 – 51.0 %	36.8	38.5	38.6
HGB 13.0 – 17.0 g/dL	13.6	13.9	13.6
MCV 80 – 100 fL	91	92	92
NRBC <=0 /100WC	0	0	0
PLT 140 – 400 K/uL	137	155	132
RBC’S 4.10 – 5.70 M/uL	4.03	4.17	4.20
RDW, RBC 12.0 – 16.5 %	12.6	13.2	13.3
WBC 3.7 – 11.1 K/uL	4.2	5.0	3.9

Name Standard range	8/18/22	8/26/22	9/15/22
BASOS % AUTO %	1	1	1
BASOS ABS AUTO 0.0 – 0.1 K/uL	0.0	0.0	0.0
EOS % AUTO %	4	5	2
EOS ABS AUTO 0.0 – 0.4 K/uL	0.2	0.2	0.1
IMMAT GRANS ABS AUTO 0.0 – 0.1 K/uL	0.0	0.0	0.0
IMMAT GRANULO % AUTO %	0	0	0
LYMPHS % AUTO %	36	24	42
LYMPHS ABS AUTO 0.9 – 3.2 K/uL	1.5	1.2	1.7
MONOS % AUTO %	14	8	15
MONOS ABS AUTO 0.3 – 0.9 K/uL	0.6	0.4	0.6
NEUTROPHILS % AUTO %	45	62	39
NEUTROPHILS ABS AUTO 1.8 – 7.9 K/uL	1.9	3.1	1.5

Tennessee Beach

September 16, 2022September 13, 2022 Jothi

A few days ago, my wife Vasuki and I went on a mini adventure. I saw on a map a few days prior that there was a beach, near Muir beach, that I didn’t know existed. I do enjoy going somewhere new to experience something different or unknown.

If you live in the Bay Area, I do recommend checking out Tennessee Beach located in Marin. It is a hike in beach, about 2 miles each way from the parking lot, but it is a flat hike, so quite easy. The hike itself is quite a nice hike with interesting things to see (wildlife, marshland, trees).

Tennessee beach is a rock beach, which was cool. The colors and formations were amazing. Mother Nature always seems to impress.

Blog

149 Years of Possessions

September 11, 2022September 11, 2022 Jothi

I’ve been thinking about possessions lately. I take our dog Yukon for a couple mile walk everyday around the neighborhood. He need the exercise and so do I.

The next block over, there is a thin man in his 70’s with white hair and one of those great walrus mustaches. He’s probably a widow and lives in an old house painted kind of a puke green. He has a dog as well, an older golden retriever that Yukon likes to gawk at every time he sees her.

He recently put his house on the market to sell. It’s very much a fixer upper, with siding falling off in certain places and mold growing on parts of the walls.

Being what the housing market is currently in California, it sold within a month and half, for way more than it should of. But, hats off to the guy, I’m happy for him for getting a lot for his house, and hopefully he will live happily ever after.

He did get to live in the house for about 2 months after it sold, so my dog and I still got to gawk at his house and his dog. He had a garage sale a week and a half ago for the pre move purge. A whole garage driveway full of stuff.

He sold what he could, but the next day there was a whole driveway full of stuff that was now a free pile. We stopped on our way past, to see if there was anything we wanted. I looked over the hoard and didn’t see anything that would benefit our lives and we kept walking.

I got to thinking, as I typically do while I walk, since my only company is more interested in peeing on things. This guy has a whole driveway full of stuff he doesn’t want. He tried to sell it and there is still a whole driveway full of stuff no one wanted to buy. It’s now been a week and a half since the free pile started and there is still a whole driveway full of stuff he can’t give away!

Wow, that’s crazy to think that he had all of these possessions that no one wants for I don’t know how many years. That’s some baggage.

Of course that got me thinking about my own family’s possessions. Let me tell you, we have STUFF. Having 4 kids with their combined 62 years of collecting. Add that to the 87 years of my wife’s and my collecting and that’s a whopping 149 years of possessions!

Fortunately we have had to move a few times, as recently as a couple of years ago. Nothing like moving to get you to pull out your things and look at them. We continue to purge, we seem to always have a bag or two that accumulates over a couple of months for Salvation Army’s thrift shop.

I’ve personally gotten extra fussy since the cancer diagnosis, about getting things that only benefit me or my families lives. Who wants to deal with a pile of extra stuff in the case of my untimely departure. If something doesn’t give me happiness, I don’t want it.

When you look at a item, does it fulfill a purpose or does it give you happiness that you own it? If it doesn’t, maybe you shouldn’t own it anymore. Of course when you bought the item, you were happy and excited about it. Toys are the best example of that. My kids darn near exploded 🤩 with excitement every birthday or Christmas (I’m a little jealous that’s adults loose that, I’m try to get that back a bit).

After the excitement fades, are you still happy you own it?

Long term storage cracks me up. Sure it has its uses, especially for people in between homes or business use. But if it’s used for people who just have so much stuff that they can’t fit into their homes and can’t part with, it’s just crazy. Paying hundreds of dollars a month to keep owning something that you don’t want to look at. America at its best.

It’s also funny, when you sell or give away a possession, you feel so much better and lighter now that’s its out of your life. In this case, less is more!

To have a better life, better your everyday life just a little. One way of doing that is to be not bogged down by your possessions.

Eat your vegetables!

Blog

CAR NK Cells?

September 9, 2022September 26, 2022 Jothi

I was reading various news channels today and I came across something that I have never heard before: CAR NK cells.

Having a blood cancer, like many others who also have myeloma, we certainly have heard of CAR T cell therapy. CAR T cells are genetically modified T cells that target and kill myeloma and lymphomas.

CAR T cell therapy is pretty cutting edge and effective but it does have some big disadvantages such as cytokine storms and death.

Are CAR NK cells the future? They don’t seem to currently work well with solid tumors but are showing promise with blood cancers including Myeloma.

Check it out.

Dana Farber June 2022 – Specially Equipped Natural Killer Cells Show Promise Against Form of AML

Dana Farber September 2022 – What are Natural Killer Cells and How Do They Fight Cancer?

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Ya Grumpy Bastard

September 2, 2022September 5, 2022 Jothi

Dexamethasone Dexamethasone Dexamethasone

It’s a steroid that is supposed to enhance chemotherapy. I told my brother the other day that I’m taking a steroid.

“Cool” he said, “Are you going to have huge muscles?”

“I wish, not that kind of steroid” I replied, remembering my very normal muscles from the mirror the other day.

“No, I just get to lose sleep and have my mental aspects altered”.

I’m currently taking 20mg Saturday and Sunday, which is the high. Steroid crash starts happening Monday night and all of Tuesday. It feels like I want to collapse and explode at the same time. Also it seems like there is a little angry gremlin in my chest trying to escape

I was eating lunch talking with my wife about it last month.

“I think the steroids are affecting me mentally, I feel more angry and irritated”. Mind you, I think most people would say that I’m a pretty mellow guy who gets along.

“Do you want to know the truth?” She asked me. “Of course I do”, I replied. “It’s affecting you a lot. I’ve noticed and the kids have noticed”.

“Good to know”, I said.

You can’t work on a flaw within yourself if you don’t quite know it exists. I feel like we are always kinder to ourselves in our minds and skew our perception. I had an old Filipino friend and co worker and his favorite phrase is “I’m a legend in my own mind”. I love that phrase and think of it when evaluating myself. It’s helpful to have a trusted family member/friend to let you know how the rest of the world perceives you.

Last Tuesday (steroid crash day), I could tell as soon as I was done eating breakfast, today was going to be a challenge day emotionally. I was GRUMPY. I decided that I was mostly going to try and keep to myself so I didn’t share my mental wonders with the family 😜. My poor wife decided she wanted to cheer me up a bit, but the gremlin would not allow it. GRRRRRR is what she got in return.

It is my personal goal to be constantly working on myself, especially mentally, to be in control of my mind. I spend time analyzing myself on why I react to certain situations and how to improve. Being grumpy, mad or sad is just a state of mind (or FEAR, that’s a huge one, needs it’s own post though). With training, you can take yourself from one state of mind to a better one.

I start with of a picture in my mind of who I want to be, to set my goal. That way I can compare the way I am to who I want to be. Certainly no one wants to be an angry grumpy bastard, even on Dex days. Try to improve a little every day and over time you will find yourself a better person.

Overall, I think I’m doing alright mastering myself, still lots of room for improvement, but then again I am a legend in my own mind.

Blog

Megamind

August 29, 2022September 5, 2022 Jothi

About 4 days after my start of the Dara/Pom/Dex regiment started I woke up in the morning feeling awful. Of course that was to be expected having just started chemo again.

I stumbled into the bathroom to wash my face because I thought I had a large amount of sleep in my eyes. Wash wash wash…..hmm this doesn’t seem to be helping. I turned off the water and looked in the mirror to see my head swollen. Oh, what fun! I can’t blink proper because my eyes are swollen.

We called up the infusion center because a swollen head was not on the list of side effects. They said they would talk it over with the pharmacy and get back to me. They called back a short while later and said “we can’t find a swollen head a reaction to any of the drugs”.

I always find it reassuring when the people who are giving you these drugs say “gee, I dunno”. They have me taking zyrtec prior to the Dara injections to stop a allergic reaction. “Just keep taking the zyrtec daily and hope it helps”. Well, it did end up helping (I think), either that or the drugs wore off. My head doesn’t swell anymore, but my face still gets red and puffy one a week. Clearly a reaction to the dex.

I was eating breakfast that morning and I told my kids I should shave my head and dye my skin blue because I feel like Megamind. They agreed it would be a good idea.

What do you think?

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Labs 08/18/22

August 24, 2022 Jothi

Here is my last set of labs. I back dated the labs a bit just to show the trend. Looks like Dara/Pom/Dex is having a good effect for me. 8/18 test is after one cycle. 7/15 is my baseline.

I was thinking things were working a few weeks earlier, because my monocytes were way above normal range on the weekly blood tests. Monocytes are basically your body’s garbage trucks. So I have a large amount of dead cells needing to be processed, I was just hoping they were dead myeloma cells and not too many healthy cells. I still have a ways to go. I wonder how long it will take to get the light chains/M band punched back down?

Kidney’s and Liver still working well, High five!

Standard range	6/17/22	7/15/22	8/18/22
KAPP/LAMB FR 0.26 – 1.65	0.05	0.04	0.06
KAPPA LIGHT CHAIN FREE 3.30 – 19.40 mg/L	7.16	5.70	6.71
LAMBDA LIGHT CHAIN FREE, SERPL 5.71 – 26.30 mg/L	135.98	142.52	117.49

Name Standard range	6/17/22	7/15/22	8/18/22
M-BAND-1 <=0.0 g/dL	1.3	1.4	1.0
SPEP INTERPRETATION	SEE ABN	SEE ABN	SEE ABN

Name Standard range	8/5/22	8/12/22	8/18/22
HCT 39.0 – 51.0 %	34.5	36.3	36.8
HGB 13.0 – 17.0 g/dL	12.4	13.3	13.6
MCV 80 – 100 fL	92	92	91
NRBC <=0 /100WC	0	0	0
PLT 140 – 400 K/uL	119	117	137
RBC’S 4.10 – 5.70 M/uL	3.76	3.93	4.03
RDW, RBC 12.0 – 16.5 %	12.8	12.9	12.6
WBC 3.7 – 11.1 K/uL	3.9	3.1	4.2

Blog

Jumping Jolting Jane

August 21, 2022 Jothi

A few weeks ago, our family went and saw Thor, Love and Thunder. Spoiler alert, this post will contain spoilers. If you plan on seeing it and haven’t yet, stop reading now.

It was the first time I had gone to a movie theatre in over four years. Like many cancer patients, I was sheltering in place long before covid.

It was a pretty good movie, although I feel like marvel movies aren’t quite as witty or polished, since Disney bought them. I feel they should have gotten a little more out of drunk Thor and it would have been funnier and more in character if the Guardians of the Galaxy ditched Thor, instead of just leaving.

Anyhow, the movie was a bit bold and took on cancer. Jane Foster has cancer. Stage 4 (make up your own kind of cancer), no treatment will work, and is told to get her affairs into order cancer.

I did think it was funny that her IV in the infusion center wasn’t running. Oh, the things you notice after being in the system. Obviously, they shouldn’t infuse even saline solution for a movie, but they could have had it drip in a bucket on the floor with a bit of creativity. Moot point, just nitpicking.

Thor’s hammer chooses Jane as its new wielder and she is a super hero, healed while in Thor form but still dying. Towards the end of the movie, Jane is really struggling and is taken back to Earth to get hooked up to an IV with chemo that apparently doesn’t work?!?!?! Umm ok? But this time Thor, God of healing, um I mean thunder, is there and it will be different? Forehead slap 🤦🏻.

But WAIT!!! Thor has to leave Jane and go save the day. Jane can’t come because she needs the chemo that not working.

The movie does redeem itself at the end with Jane saying screw this, transforms into super hero Jane and saves the day. She goes out in the blaze of glory and passes away the way she wants to pass. Now, I don’t know about you, but going out in the blaze of glory sounds pretty good for any chronic cancer patient. Overall, it was an entertaining enough movie. I was just happy and grateful to go with my wife and kids to a movie.

Superman was my guy growing up. As kids we would ask each other, if we could have any super hero power, what would it be? I usually picked flying or being invincible. I was thinking about it the other day (random thoughts) and now for sure, I would pick the power of being to heal anyone from anything. Then I could heal you! I can’t think of a better power to have. Mind you, I probably have a bit of a superhero complex 🤪.

Eat your vegetables!

Blog

Do You Want to Live?

August 19, 2022September 11, 2022 Jothi

Do you want to live? I feel, fundamentally, it is the most important question you need to ask yourself when you have cancer. It takes some deep thought though and probably some intuitive feeling.

Most people will say, “duh”, of course I want to live. The answer to the question is more complex, though. I’ve certainly come across people who say they are ready to die, but actually want to live, and also people who say they want to live, but would rather die.

If you say “no”, maybe you have had a long, happy life and feel like you accomplished what you wanted to. Maybe another person could just be tired of it all and this is your ticket out of here.

You need to have a conversation with your inner self and see why it’s “no” to make sure it’s the right choice. No judgement from me, but you may receive some from family members, which is why you need to actually KNOW.

There are usually not any take backs if you decide you’re done. Your body will usually comply within a short amount of time. This why it’s so important to be at peace with a decision like this.

If you say “yes”, and most people will, what does “yes” actually mean? For most people facing cancer, especially those with cancers without a cure, you are in for the challenge of your life.

Does “yes” mean, I want to live as long as I can eat burgers, pizza, alcohol, fast food, soda and sugary treats?

Does “yes” mean, I want to live as long as I can sit around looking at my phone or TV for most of the day?

Do “yes” mean, I want to live as long as the chemo, radiation, surgery take care of it and I keep living my life the way I’m living?

Does “yes” mean I will cut out the toxic nature of my lifestyle, products and people?

Do I want to live if I can no longer walk? Do I want to live if I’m missing some body part that affects other things in my body?

Does “yes” mean, I will do what ever it takes to keep living?

You need to identify the things in your life to KNOW why you want to live. You have to hold onto those things to be able to overcome the things that decrease your odds of living.

Would I rather be at many of my children’s birthday parties, or would I rather be eating the cake at a few? (A bit of a silly example, sugar is a much more complicated topic that deserves its own post. Eating a bit of cake a few times a year probably won’t hurt).

It takes willpower, sometimes a significant amount, to overcome doing what is easy, to do what increases your odds.

Cancer was not caused by accident. Cancer is an immensely complicated condition which was caused by numerous things thrown into your pot and mixed together, and it’s different for everyone.

If the 5-year survival rate for a cancer is 40%, would you rather be on the side of the 40% that is living or the 60% that passed away?

Certainly, there are no guarantees. I do believe though, with the right diet, exercise, detoxing of your body, mind and home, everyone can at the very least increase their health and lifespan.

I chose to live. I chose to do whatever I could do to increase my odds. I wanted to defy the odds. I wanted to be on the percentage side of the people who are still alive.

Sometimes when I have a spare moment, a scenario will run in my head of x, y, or z happening to me. I ask myself if I still want to live if x, y or z happen to me. For the most part, the answer is “yes”.

When I’m having a rough day or a rough time of things (usually around treatment), I remember why I want to live, and I repeat to myself: I want to live, I want to live.

I chose to live. I chose to surround myself with life. I chose love and happiness. My choices matter.

What do you choose to do with what time you have, whether that is short or long? What is important to you?

Do you want to live?

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The First Post

August 12, 2022September 11, 2022 Jothi

Well, where to start? My name is Jothi (pronounced Joe-T). I’m married for 20+ years at this point, and we have 4 children aged 12-19. I am a big nature person. I love spending time outdoors, gardening, hiking, going to the beach, exploring. I am also a huge gamer. Games of any type, board games, sports (both playing and watching) and occasional video games.

People who I would like to sit down and have a long conversation with are in no particular order: Dalai Lama, Barack Obama, Warren Buffett, Anita Moorjani, Neil McKinney, Shin Terayama, Ryan Reynolds, Michael Jordan, John Stewart, Helen Jane Long and Steve Kerr.

For my myeloma family out there, I have Lambda Light chain myeloma. Which means I have too many lambda light chains that make up my blood for everyone else. I have the 14;16 translocation in my myeloma genetics, which basically means my myeloma is smarter than standard myeloma and is good at side stepping drugs.

I had 2 lesions when I was diagnosed, one on my 7 rib on my right side and a bigger one on the right side of my sacrum. Sometimes, I think about tumor placement in the body, and while there are worse spots than the sacrum, the sacrum is a terrible spot to have a tumor! I don’t recommend it. That’s the spot where your spinal cord fans out in a fantastic web of nerves. To this day, it’s like a little bird sitting on my shoulder poking me, saying, cancer, cancer, cancer.

I have had radiation on my sacrum and I went through the VRD chemo protocol (Velcade, Dex and revlimid). I elected not to do the stem cell transplant at that time. My lambda light chains at the high point were 470 and my Kapp/Lamb Fr was .01. M-band was 1.4.

About a month ago I started on Dara sq, Pom and Dex. As of last blood draw, my Lambda light chains are 142.52 Kappa Light chains 5.70 and KAPP/LAMB FR is .04. My M-band is 1.4. These numbers are after being off of all Chemo for over 6 months after I had a go with covid and saw that the chemo wasn’t doing anything anyhow.

I’ve had 2 pet scans this year, with the most recent in July. Both have come back showing no cancer activity.

I have become very passionate of diet, nutrition and what actual food is along my brief journey. When I was struggling for a website name, my kids suggested: Eatyourvegetablesdotcom, but it was already taken. But it is definitely my motto.

That’s the gritty numbers post with the information download. I hope my future posts will be a bit more fun and entertaining.

EAT YOUR VEGETABLES!!!

Category: Blog

Labs 9/15/22

Tennessee Beach

149 Years of Possessions

CAR NK Cells?

Ya Grumpy Bastard

Megamind

Labs 08/18/22

Jumping Jolting Jane

Do You Want to Live?

The First Post