Various Goings On

The weather here in southern Oklahoma is, at last, after days of temperatures in the 80s, acting in more autumnal fashion. Today it's actually cool to cold outside - 49 degrees, windy with a storm in the offing. The trees haven't yet donned their fall colours, after a few more of these cooler nights, it'll happen.

In other news, a routine blood test on 16 October, to discover how the targeted therapy medications are affecting my blood quality, showed that the white cell count was below desired minimum - same for platelets. Oncologist told me to take a second week off the Ibrance capsules - these are routinely taken for 21 days with 7 days off each month. This time I had 14 days off. Blood test yesterday showed figures had bounced back to an acceptable level, so off I go again with the Ibrance. I'm to have a CT scan next week - to check whether much has changed for good or for ill since my last scans around 6 months ago. Not looking forward to that!



The problems I had in obtaining a refill of my pain medication last month happily did not recur this time. Our usual pharmacy has changed their wholesaler. The medications I take for pain-while-walking now come from a different generic manufacturer. I was worried that these might be even less effective than those I've been taking, but, though it's a little early to be sure, I do suspect that these might be a tad more effective.

Further afield, Brexit bumbles on...and on....and on. When, oh when, oh when will it end? The part of it all that affects me personally is the currency exchange rate, it affects my two pensions coming from the UK. The rate has been volatile for a couple or more years, diving down then up, down again etc, depending on what had been Boris Johnson's or Ms May's latest failed attempts at bringing about a deal.

In the USA the season known as "The Holidays" is almost upon us. I'm glad to be here, still, to see it once again! Hallowe'en decor has been showing up for the past few weeks in front yards - ghosties, ghoulies and long leggedy beasties, spider webs and witches...you know the drill. We now await the Trick or Treaters on 31st of the month. We had very few last year - disappointing, because it's fun to see the imaginative costumes the kids come up with, and the excitement on the faces of the littlest ones. Perhaps the custom is starting to go out of fashion, for one reason or another - safety, perhaps, and many communal organised Hallowe'en costume events. Next up: Thanksgiving on 28 November, followed by You-Know-What-mas, a month later.
Ka-ching...ka-ching!

On the knitting front, I'm using a big skein of pink "ombre" tinted yarn to make another, longer scarf. It's something I can pick up and just knit, without need to refer to a pattern. I love seeing the changing shades of pink appear, apropos of which, I noticed that my husband is reading "The Secret Lives of Colour" by Kassia St Clair. I shall read it too, when he's done with it. Back-cover blurb: "From the scarlet women to imperial purple, from the brown that changed the way battles were fought to the white that protected against the plague, from kelly green to acid yellow, the surprising stories of colour run like a bright thread through our history." Several varieties of pink are investigated, for example: Baker-Miller Pink; Mountbatten Pink, Puce, Fuchsia; Shocking Pink, Fluorescent Pink, and Amaranth. Maybe some of those will appear in my scarf.

Grouch, Grumble, Whine....

A frustrating and tiring few days put me in a dark mood this week.

Acquiring a refill of my pain medication - a generic of the brand Norco - is becoming more difficult by the month. I obtained the paper prescription, signed in ink by my temporry oncologist, as required now by law when medications involving opioids are refilled. We took the prescription to the pharmacy we've used for the past 15 years. On being presented with the written prescription the rather unhelpful young lady at the drop-off counter told me "Sorry we can't fill that, we are getting a new wholesaler and we have none in stock. You'll have to go to another pharmacy." "Well", said I, "I could wait for a day or two, I still have a some tablets left. Would you have the medication available in a few days' time?" "No, we don't know when, or if, we'll have them". A bit fishy, that!

We drove to CVS pharmacy just across the road, to be told by a kindly young guy at their drop-off desk. "Sorry, we're all out of those tablets, people coming from the pharmacy across the road have cleaned us out. We might have some by early next week. I'd try Walgreens - not Walmart as they'd likely send you away as you're not a regular customer."

Onward to Walgreens. These pharmacy visits entail a fair amount of walking, and I, the painfully walking wounded one, was not delighted by the fact that pharmacy counters in the large stores are right at the back, farthest away from the entrances - so lots of painful steps for me. Even dosed up with the pain pills, using a quad-cane, walking far is not easy for me.

Walgreens, after checking my identity and Medicare details, seemed willing to fill my prescription. They were very busy - lines forming at the pick-up and drop-of counters all the time. They said to come back to pick up the tablets in around 45 minutes. We returned over an hour later. Medications not yet ready for me, so we decided to wait until the next day to collect - to avoid yet another trail to the back of the store that day. Later on, a phone call from the pharmacist at Walgreens told me that I would need the doctor's further authority for the number of pills required by the prescription. (I'd have thought that the prescription itself was that authority!) The doc had allowed for 8 tablets per day (for a month) instead of 6 per day. New regulations mean that extra authority from the doctor will be required for that amount of tablets. I told the pharmacist that, as I take only 6 tablets per day, could he please just fill the prescription for that amount? He agreed to do this, and changed the number of pills stated on the prescription. So, yet another trip to Walgreens the next day, though with rested legs.

At last, I had the tablets in my hot sticky hands. I say hot and sticky advisedly. It was around 95 degrees in town during these adventures, adding to my annoyance and discomfort.

I had hoped that Walgreens might deal with a different generic manufacturer than the one used by our usual pharmacy. Sadly no, that didn't happen - same generic manufacturer, who shall remain nameless. I am convinced, as are many people online, that the generic of Norco made by this particular manufacturer is not as effective as the brand medication itself, or pills made by several other generic manufacturers. It is thought, by regular users of this medication, that not long after December 2017, when panic erupted over deaths by addiction to opioids in the USA, especially in Oklahoma, the effectiveness of these tablets as pain relief medication took a nosedive. Those who had been taking the medication before and after the opioid crisis suspect that some manufacturers have adjusted make-up of these tablets, possibly by changing additional ingredients used in their manufacture. I suspect (a wild guess on my part) that the way the tablets were being used by addicts for purposes other than pain relief, may have been the reason for change. Addicts crushed the tablets. Perhaps some generic manufacturers added an ingredient to prevent easy crushing which, in turn, could also prevent proper digestion of the pain-relieving ingredients. So those of us who genuinely need pain relief go to the back of the queue, we don't matter!

Pain relief from the pills, for me, is minimal but better than nothing. Morphine at the strengths tried already brings even less relief. I'll be asking the temporary oncologist, next time I see him, if there's something else I could try. I'd buy the brand name Norco tablets, even just to try, if they weren't so ridiculously expensive - in the order of $500 + per month!

Whinge, whinge, grouch and grumble! A wheelchair beckons!

What to Write About?

Time to write something - but what to write about? Nothing has changed much since my last update, in relation to medical matters. I have found, after brief experimenting, that medical marijuana tincture - a drop under the tongue, does help to increase my appetite and decrease any feelings of nausea - side effect of my two anti-cancer medications. That's a worthwhile finding - I'd like to put back some of the weight I've lost. No more vaping the MM though, until the current findings about vaping in general are clarified as to whether nicotine or THC (part of marijuana) are involved - could even be both, I suppose. Pain-when-walking remains my main bugbear. Pain relief from my pain medication is good for a short time only, once it has kicked in. Sometimes I think the relief is improving, but not consistently, the following day can bring it back seemingly worse than ever at times. The radiation oncologist said, in regard to this, that bones are not consistent. It's something to watch and note. Perhaps the improvements will, as time goes by, last longer and longer - this is what the oncologist suspects, and I can but hope!

News on a wider scale continues, for me, to revolve around the UK's pantomime known as Brexit, and the USA's pantomime known as President Donald Trump.

Brexit news and the current doings of Prime Minister of the UK, Boris Johnson (aka Donald Trump lite), become more unbelievable by the day - even by the hour this week. I didn't believe anything could possibly make Donald Trump appear to be more presidential - but this week's doings in the UK did it for me! It took a lot though. On President Trump, there's a long-running thread at Quora asking:

https://www.quora.com/Whats-the-best-Donald-Trump-joke-you-have-heard

I read through most of the thread but found most of the jokes a tad lame. Maybe my sense of humour has been lost along with my weight! This joke was the only one that managed to raise as much as a chuckle:

Trump is doing a meet-and-greet at a crowded venue and his security detail is being extra watchful. One of them is a new guy and he’s extra jumpy.

Suddenly, a gunman bursts from the crowd, aiming his weapon at the President. Pandemonium ensues. The rookie bodyguard screams “Mickey Mouse!!!” at the top of his voice and this startles the would be assassin to the point that his aim is off and the shot goes over Trump’s head.

Some bodyguards wrestle the assailant to the ground, while others hustle the President to safety. Disaster averted.

Later, during debriefing, the head of the security detail congratulates the rookie. Without his quick thinking, he tells him, the President might very well be dead.

“But I’m puzzled” he said. “Why on earth would you yell 'Mickey Mouse'?”

“I’m new”, explained the rookie, sheepishly. “I panicked. I meant to yell 'Donald! Duck!!'”

A PERSONAL EXPERIENCE ~ Astrology & Radiestesia/Radionics

GUEST POST FROM GIAN PAUL (IN BRAZIL)

Having broken a knee more than 3 weeks ago and torn most of the ligaments around it, I've passed some days and nights in considerable pain. And if not pain, half numbed by drugs which only address the symptoms, but per se don't cure.

Astrologically my accident (happened while cutting a ripe banana tree on a wet day) was perfectly foreseeable:

Being Aries, it happened 3 days after Uranus entered my sign and Neptune was leaving its conjunction with my natal Mars in Aquarius, ruling the tibia (and that's where I have the most pain). Also Saturn opposing Jupiter in Aries (Saturn being the bones and Jupiter one's general well-being), I received my dose of "astrological teaching" on that day! (Who reminded me of Saturn signifying the bones was Fabienne, of Astrology Unboxed, often commenting on this blog - and I don't know if I should really thank her for that. But good astrologers cannot mince the truth, so I am sending her belatedly a special hug.)

While lying in bed during repeated sleepless nights, the only noise to hear being my Rottweiler chasing occasionally an opossum nibbling at some bananas, and besides that only distraction, really intensive pain, I was wondering about some article I recently read on how yoga "can help to overcome pain".

In general I detest drugs (Voltaren, Tramal etc. which help killing the pain but leave us numb). Also I believe that they are not really so helpful as they let one move a limb where one shouldn't, the pain, a normal signal to stay tranquil, being artificially suffocated.

But the thing with yoga/radiestesia/radionics started to occupy my mind during those difficult nights. When pain is intensive, any mind-occupation other than to focus onto where it hurts, is a benediction.

I do not know by what "mental combination" I had some days ago the idea, instead of "counting the sheep" in order to be able to sleep, to think of the type, category of pain I was having. But not just of my own, rather of that affecting many of those who recently must have been hurt by the tsunami in Japan and left without care on some destroyed beach or similar place. Or of those poor fellows, fighting (or defending Gaddafi) and having a leg (or more) blown off by some mortar explsion or similar projectile.

AND ALMOST MIRACULOUSLY (!): the more I was able to focus attention towards the (imagined) pain of others (imaginary for me, but certainly existing beyond my capacity to actually see and feel), my own pain RECEDED.

I cannot say for how long and to what degree, but for fact, I felt relief, and even could fall asleep. This was repeatedly the case, during subsequent recent sleepless nights.

In order to rationalise (not being totally romantic, after all):
Astrologically speaking (astrology being the most rational type of tool helping me in general to explain to myself what's going on), I presently have several "heavy transits" going over my natal chart:

Neptune opposes natal Moon, squares natal Venus/Uranus. Uranus (in transit) opposes my natal Neptune and MC and is in sextile with itself and natal Venus. Sun and the stellium in Aries is conjunct my natal Sun. Saturn (the "bones") opposing.

As mentioned, I gave some thought to radiestesia and radionics as I lay sleepless:

Radiestesia: In my personal experience I had a friend, partner in one of those "huguenot, protestant" private banks in Geneva. Whenever he planned to shift a major position in one of his client's portfolios, he had to tell the client beforehand. The latter would then, with the help of a pendulum, go over the stock's name and confirm his agreement for a shift or not. It worked, apparently, as my friend, at every year-end, was inundated with French fois-gras (the business of his client). More specifically on Radiestesia, it was officially invented by a Frenchman named Tourenne. Before him Radioestesia was known under the name of "Rabdomancia" and two other Frenchmen, Drs. Thouvenel and Bleton wrote about their findings involving magnetism, health and electricity. And then there was the "great Messmer", decried by the official medicine of his time.

Radiestesia: From the Greek, estesia = to feel and the Latin, radio = the vibrations.

Radionics: Albert Abrams (called "the dean of gadget quacks" by the American Medical Association) was the one who popularized this "science". I personally think that this type of "activity cum research", when seriously undertaken, can effectively open new frontiers. As astrology and other esoterica. The risk of abuse or simply being carried away by one's experiments being obvious.

Radionics: Wikipedia says: " The use of blood, hair, a signature, or other substances unique to a person as a focus to supposedly heal a person from afar".

In my recent experiencings with pain, I am convinced that something psychological in us can relieve pain. As is claimed by the proponents of yoga. My problem with yoga is that it seems impossible (for me at least) to keep my mind genuinely focused on one object for more that 30 seconds. Some yoga specialist even admit that that's quite normal. And they then add: "at least at the beginning. So that's were I (still) am...