aloha update

Just haven't been in the mood to update for a while. Been enjoying NOT doing anything here in Hawaii.

I'll just lay it out there so I can move on to bigger and better things: No change medically. Nothing is visibly (better said, palpably) shrinking, so I just hope that things are progressing slowly but surely. Last chemo treatment, lymph nodes disappeared quickly, bit popped right back full of cancer as soon as I go off chemo, so a full a quick reaction may not be what I want (I am not sure if that sounds rational or like I am grasping at straws).

I am getting treatment in Hawaii today (it is 4:15 am, and I am up crossing my fingers that my short positions that I took in the market on financial and the the Russell index weren't idiotic) up in North Hawaii Community Hospital and went up yesterday for a shot and ran into my track coach from high school in the infusion room, it was wonderful to catch up and reminisce!

He reminded me about an issue that I became aware of only last week when I watched Living Proof on a recommendation by Jennifer. It is about the approval process for a drug called Herceptin, which is one of the few drugs that fight cancer without killing you (unlike chemo).

We all know about clinical trials for new drugs. These trials have phases, the first usually being on people who have advanced diseases and are terminal, then they adjust the criteria a bit make changes, start phase 2, and so on, for 5-10 years until approval.

Now THIS is the interesting thing. Even if your cancer is responding to the experimental drug in a certain phase, and you are getting better, and you actually have a glimmer of hope of living, you MIGHT not qualify for phase 2 of the drug (due to age, medicines that you might have taken before, weight, too slow a response, etc). Whereupon the drug is snatched away from you and there is little you can do to get it back since the FDA will no longer allow you to receive dosage if you are unqualified for another phase of the trial, EVEN THOUGH 1), the drug is available, and 2) you responded positively to it.

Nutso, huh?


I have been having a True Blood marathon with my family as I don't have HBO and they have been talking incessantly about this show. Now I get why. It is like Twilight for people who no longer have to worry about their parents catching them having sex.

At first I didn't like the acting, but by the third episode I loved all the characters and couldn't wait to see the next episode. Vampires and sex and Louisiana. Very hot. Sookie, the main character, still bugs me a little bit because she is annoying, but do rent it when you get a chance.

Okay, my stop limit orders have been placed in case consumer confidence in nothing based in reality or Sasha and Malia's lunch menu at school send the market back up.

Gonna crash for a bit. Aloha!