Tag: cancer

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If You Knew, Would You Still Do It?

Jothi

I was doing my morning walk with Yukon this morning, and apparently Tuesday is yard day. There were numerous yard cleaning companies out cleaning up people’s yards.

I saw a guy up on the right, with his sprayer pack on, hosing round up on the 30 little weeds in the front of someone’s yard. It got me thinking, if people knew for sure, 100%, without any doubt that round up causes cancer, would he still do it?

It probably took 30 seconds to spray the weeds. It probably would have taken 3-5 minutes to pull them out. So he is gaining a few minutes to do something else with his day, at the expense of potentially giving himself cancer. Personally, I don’t think it’s a good trade. Is it worth the risk?

By reports published and court cases, I can say, that with high probability, that round up does cause cancer, particularly blood cancer. I unfortunately used it for years, and I believe it was a potential factor in developing myeloma.

Would you still feed your children Cheerios, if you knew it has round up residue on it? I wouldn’t, but unfortunately I didn’t know at the time and we had bowls together as a family.

Bayer, the maker of round up, decided in 2021 to stop selling the product to residential customers for non-professional gardeners because they kept on getting sued and losing to people with lymphoma.

What about all the people (or the dogs) walking through that person’s yard, getting the residue on their shoes and spreading it? I personally went as far as I could to the other side of the street, held my breath and hurried by.

If you knew, would you still do it?

I suppose, the answer would be, maybe? People know that smoking cigarettes gives you lung cancer, heart disease and other problems. They still do it. Mind you, they are addictive and round up isn’t.

NPR, on October 22nd, 2022, reported that 95% of the plastic that American’s consume are NOT recycled, despite being put in recycling containers, they still end up in the landfill.

If you knew that, that piece of plastic that surround the item you just bought was going to the landfill or float around in the ocean, would you have still bought it?

It sure made me pause and think. One would just assume that if it has a recycling symbol on it, it gets recycled. Apparently not. You feel lied to and betrayed.

That’s not even thinking about the health consequences of plastic. I don’t really want to get into that too much, otherwise I’ll be writing forever. I get why it’s so popular. It can be so customizable, cheap and useful. I personally hate plastic. The damn stuff is everywhere and in everything. It feels unavoidable at this point.

The New York Times wrote an article, The Types of Plastics Families Should Avoid. Basically types of plastics, phthalates and bisphenols, are bad news for you and your family. I feel like it’s only a matter of time, for it to come out that the replacement plastic for those types are also bad news for you.

For your health and the health of the planet, please vote with your wallet as much as possible! Buy metal, ceramic and wood when you can!

You can only do the best you can with life. A person has to wonder though, what would you change about your life, only if you knew…..

Blog

Labs 10/13/22

Jothi

Normal blood numbers look good. Cancer numbers look BLAH! I feel like my cancer cells see the cancer drugs and are flipping the bird and going the other direction.

Name Standard range8/18/229/15/2210/13/22
KAPP/LAMB FR 0.26 – 1.650.060.070.06
KAPPA LIGHT CHAIN FREE 3.30 – 19.40 mg/L6.717.666.73
LAMBDA LIGHT CHAIN FREE, SERPL 5.71 – 26.30 mg/L117.49110.37118.37
ComponentYour valueStandard range
Creatinine0.68 mg/dL<=1.34 mg/dL
Estimated Glomerular Filtration Rate>60 mL/min/1.73 m2>=60 mL/min/1.73 m2
ComponentYour valueStandard range
Bilirubin, total0.7 mg/dL0.2 to 1.2 mg/dL
Name Standard range7/15/228/18/2210/13/22
TSH 0.4 – 4.2 uIU/mL18.73.23.7
Name Standard range8/26/229/15/2210/13/22
HCT 39.0 – 51.0 %38.538.638.5
HGB 13.0 – 17.0 g/dL13.913.613.6
MCV 80 – 100 fL929291
NRBC <=0 /100WC000
PLT 140 – 400 K/uL155132123
RBC’S 4.10 – 5.70 M/uL4.174.204.24
RDW, RBC 12.0 – 16.5 %13.213.313.6
WBC 3.7 – 11.1 K/uL5.03.95.3

Name Standard range8/26/229/15/2210/13/22
BASOS % AUTO %111
BASOS ABS AUTO 0.0 – 0.1 K/uL0.00.00.0
EOS % AUTO %524
EOS ABS AUTO 0.0 – 0.4 K/uL0.20.10.2
IMMAT GRANS ABS AUTO 0.0 – 0.1 K/uL0.00.00.0
IMMAT GRANULO % AUTO %000
LYMPHS % AUTO %244239
LYMPHS ABS AUTO 0.9 – 3.2 K/uL1.21.72.1
MONOS % AUTO %81514
MONOS ABS AUTO 0.3 – 0.9 K/uL0.40.60.7
NEUTROPHILS % AUTO %623942
NEUTROPHILS ABS AUTO 1.8 – 7.9 K/uL3.11.52.2
Name Standard range8/18/229/15/2210/13/2210/13/22
ALB 3.8 – 5.0 g/dL4.04.14.1 
ALPHA 1 GLOB EP 0.2 – 0.4 g/dL0.30.30.3 
ALPHA 2 GLOB EP 0.5 – 1.0 g/dL0.40.40.5 
BETA GLOB EP 0.6 – 1.2 g/dL0.60.60.6 
GAMMA GLOB EP 0.7 – 1.8 g/dL1.11.01.1 
TP 6.0 – 7.7 g/dL  6.66.6
Name Standard range8/18/229/15/2210/13/22
M-BAND-1 <=0.0 g/dL1.00.91.0
Blog

You’re a Cancerer

Jothi

It was a cold and windy night. My cousin Soren had decided to take his wife and family on a holiday. They had a spare room in the house they rented and invited me to come along. It was an odd vacation home. You had to take a boat to get there because it was on a tiny island the middle of the sea.

After we got warmed up and our arms recovered from all the rowing, we started settling in. I found my room, it was on the second story of the house overlooking, well of course, the sea. I dropped off my belongings and headed back down stairs. The rest of the family was sitting around a tall dining room table on black stools.

“What should we have for dinner”, Soren asked

“I want pizza!”, cried my niece. 

“I want roasted vegetables with quinoa!”, cried my nephew (yeah right, good one).

“I want a drink”, cried my cousin.

All of a sudden, there was a roaring boom and the power went out.

“It’s probably just the gfci breaker” I said (of course the whole house is gfci protected being on a tiny island, surrounded by water, safety first).

I got up to check the electrical panel, but I stumbled backwards, because there was a big hairy man standing there, check that, this is my story, a beautiful woman standing there. (Hmmm…. My wife might read this, never mind, a big hairy man it is).

My eyes met the big hairy man’s eyes.

“I’ve been looking all around for you, Jothi” he said.

“You have?”

“I need to tell you something” he replied. Hmm… I thought to myself, what could it be?

“You’re a Cancerer” He said.

“Wow, that’s great news” I exclaimed. Of course of was lying, having no idea what a Cancerer was.

“Well, can I be one too?” asked Soren

“No, you are a Nuggle. Non-cancer folk”

“Jothi, We need to get you to Perpendicular alley and get you all signed up and ready for the adventure forthcoming”, said the man.

“Perpendicular Alley! Wow, that sounds incredible!” Although quietly in my head I was thinking it would be nice if it was a more interesting or flexible shape. “Let’s go!”.

And before I knew it, I was all signed up and on the program, I didn’t even fully know what exactly was going on, my life forever changed.

Please excuse my silly story parody. It’s been bouncing around in my head for awhile.

Have you ever noticed how people treat you different once they know you have cancer? It seems like either they can be overly sympathetic because they think you’re about to die and pity you or they suddenly don’t want to have much to do with you. “The very thought of your cancer make me feel so uncomfortable, that I can’t be around you”. Just like that, people can just melt out of your life. Which is fine, truthfully it’s best not to be around people who are like that. Their problem is within themselves.

I really like the song “Best Fake Smile” by James Bay. There is nothing like getting a fake smile. Please take it with you and go find what makes you happy and have a great life.

Well, to be fair, I’m not the same person as I was prior to cancer. Things seem clearer, simpler, to me. There is a new level of appreciation and gratitude for life. I also don’t seem to have patience for pettiness, selfishness or complainers. Not that I don’t have those things show up within myself from time to time, I don’t have patience for them there either.

I have met some amazing, chronically ill people in the last few years. Their ability to keep going with a gusto and still keep smiling with the challenges they go through on a daily basis is inspiring.

I recently watched a show about a 12 year old boy, who has sickle cell disease. Sickle cell disease is a condition where your red blood cells are not round, but in the shape of a sickle.

The consequence of that are fatigue, early cell death causing anemia or blocked blood flow causing pain.

There is no cure for sickle cell disease. Treatments include chemotherapy and blood transfusions.

Towards the end of the program, the interviewer asked the boy, “Do you wish you never had sickle cell disease?” The boy sat there quiet for a minute in thought and said “No”. I think that surprised the interviewer and he asked why. The boy said “sickle cell made me into the person I am today and it gave me a greater appreciation for life and what I have.”

“Wow”, I thought to myself. This kid is my hero! He is wiser than half the people you see walking down the street. Amazing people are everywhere and come in all sizes. Some light bulbs just burn brighter than others.

So the next time you pity or decide you aren’t comfortable with a cancer person (or other chronic illness person) in your life, look inside yourself and remember you could be losing out on someone who is truly remarkable.

If you have cancer, you’re genuinely amazing!

Blog, Nutrition

My Strategy

Jothi

One of things that is a challenge for me with myeloma is that it is generally an older person cancer and most of the data out there is based on someone much older than I am. The median age for myeloma is 66-70. Only recently has it been showing up in younger people.

I’ll confess that I’m a bit of a data/numbers/stats person. How do I know if a certain set of data points are the way they are because it’s just myeloma or it’s because it’s off of someone who’s 70? The answer is, I don’t.

Most of the oncologists I’ve talked to like to say, “You’re young, you can take it”. Umm gee thanks, I get extra drug abuse because I’m young and can take it???? It’s a fine line between dying of myeloma and dying from drugs meant to kill myeloma. I like to keep that in mind.

The 5 year survival rate for myeloma is about 40%. Obviously, like most people, I want to be on the side of the 40% that is still alive. I want to be a myeloma person who is still alive in 10 years, 15 years, 25 years. 

What’s my strategy to achieve that? A strategy that I believe can help a person who is any age.

By doing what is good for my body, down to the cellular level and bad for cancer. It’s funny how things that are really good for us are also good at getting rid of cancer cells (and other chronic illnesses, I might add).

The biggest foundational piece to health is diet. Without a healthy diet, as the first building block, it’s hard to have success with anything else. Everything builds off of food and drink. It’s easy for me to point to having a poor diet as part of the reason I’m in this mess to begin with.

Feed your body nutritional food that is GOOD for you and don’t feed yourself food that is good for cancer growth. It’s just common sense if you think about it.

NF-KB is the primary pathway for growth in Myeloma, regulating inflammation and immune responses. Doesn’t it just make good practical sense to eat an anti inflammatory diet as to not give myeloma what it needs to grow. We know sugar, dairy, highly processed foods, meat and alcohol are inflammatory for the body and feed cancer cells.

1. I choose an anti inflammatory diet that is plant based whole food which is anti cancer. Food that is full of life/prana/qi and not something that expires 6 months from now.

Some people call a whole food diet, full of vegetables and fruits, legumes, healthy grains and healthy fats extreme. If you stop and think about it, I eat the same way as my great grandparents did and every generation before them. Does that sound extreme? If you had a time machine and went back in time to the 1800’s and asked someone if they have an extreme diet, they would look at you like you were crazy. In fact, I eat better then my great grandparents, because I have access to so much more variety. Only ignorance holds people back.

2. Next, I make sure that I drink purified water. You only have to glance at the news to read about stories of toxic water in whole towns (Flint MI, South Shore KY etc.) that is undrinkable. The local governments come out and say “my bad”, leaving you to deal with the fallout. I use a RO water filter currently. We have pretty good water here in California, but when we change the filters, they are really disgusting. Filter your water!

3. There are basically two thoughts of dealing with cancer, killing it with chemotherapy, surgery or radiation or to block it metabolically (starve it). Metabolically makes the most sense to me, since cancer cells are just your cells gone wrong and I can’t kill my blood without killing myself effectively. Truthfully, I’ve been hammering away at this metabolically and I haven’t been able to get the results I want. The best I got the oncologist to say is “Your myeloma isn’t behaving as expected. You are a high risk patient who is behaving like a standard risk patient”.

I’m currently mixing both worlds of chemo and metabolic blocking. I do take supplements such as Curcumin, Reishi, D3/K2 among other things that inhibit myeloma growth (they inhibit other cancers as well).

4. “Sitting is the new smoking”, they say. Move your body! I stay active everyday, walking, hiking, gardening, bike riding and Qigong. Some say cancer is cause by stagnation of the body, in areas that lack oxygen. Exercise has lots of benefits such as increased oxygen, blood flow (looking at you revlimid non-blood clots), increased heart rate, plus it can get you out of your own head!

5. Speaking of heads, I’m pretty sure I suffered some sort of ptsd with the cancer diagnosis. I took me a couple of years working through stuff to overcome it. It was a big growth experience for me. Getting out raw emotions, breathing techniques and meditation is what worked for me. I still keep up with pranayama and meditation daily for upkeep.

I have had plenty of seemingly one sided conversations with God. One of the things that I’ve gotten back is, an overwhelming sense that I’m meant to go through this (for reasons that are still a mystery to me), so that is very reassuring for me.

6. Detoxing. I’ve spent a significant amount of time working on detoxing my body (and mind). I done detoxing methods from naturopath methods and I’ve gone to India twice for a major full body detox called Panchakarma, which is a month long process each time. I’ve definitely had some raunchy stuff come out of me. Of course we live in a toxic world and I’m continually having toxins come in no matter how much I avoid it. I use diet and infrared sauna to keep on moving things out that aren’t supposed to be there.

To sum up my strategy, I do what is good for me and bad for cancer. Using chemo when I need it (trying to stay away from it as much as possible). Keep moving and living. Hit the myeloma with certain supplements. Keep working on my head and remembering why I want to keep living.

Eat Your Vegetables!

Blog

CAR NK Cells?

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?

Blog

Jumping Jolting Jane

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!