On Nov 5, 12:41*am, Larry Jaques
wrote:
On Thu, 4 Nov 2010 07:50:57 -0700 (PDT), "Denis G."





wrote:
On Nov 4, 1:29*am, Don Foreman wrote:
I have friends here that care, other readers please ignore.

We were at Mayo Monday and Wednesday. *

We now have a course of action and treatment. *

Diagnosis is 99% sure that Mary's disease is primary *light-chain
amyloidosis involving her heart and gut. *The 1% doubt that will be
resolved with lab results not yet available concerns the particular
form of the disease but it's really a matter of i-dotting and
t-crossing confirmation of other diagnostic results. *

This is an incurable disease, a form of cancer. *It's akin to leukemia
in that it involves white blood cells, different in that it involves
different white cells. *

It's *rare, *8 people per million rare. * Nobody knows more about it
than Mayo. *It is a very difficult disease to treat because it has
many dimensions and manifestations, *and interactions with other
issues like cardiac, *gastrointestinal and all other organs though
Mary's issues at present are cardiac and GI.

Because there is clearly cardiac involvement and damage, *sudden death
by heart failure *is more probable than for a person without such
damage. * We agree that sudden death by heart failure or whatever
purely beats the hell out of a lingering death fraught with pain.
Neither of us wants to survive the other. *We've been teammates since
forever. We each and both are a bit selfish in not wanting to be a
grieving survivor, and we share a sense of humor about that. *It's a
bad idea to **** my Mary off, but she does appreciate a good joke. *

We think we have top-notch professionals in hemotology, oncology and
cardiology on Mary's team. *

An initial chemotherapy regimen has been defined, which Mary will
begin immedately. * Meanwhile, the cardiologists will try to manage
the conflicting issues of low blood pressure (hence seriously
diminished physical capacity) vs *edema, vs side effects from the
chemo. *

Mary's sense of humor is undiminished. *

The cardiologist of late appointment today, *upon first encounter with
Mary, noted discoloration of her nose. *What *up with that? *I
paraphrase, the cardiologist was Indian, not Afro. * Anyway, *Mar
noted that a fellow patient in an aside in the waiting room said *"I
sure hope you're having a better day than I am." * *The guy was 79 and
we think that he received some very bad news about either himself or
his wife but probably himself *(the self-centered asshole!) *I'd
noticed the despair in this man when he plopped into a chair in the
waiting area but I didn't observe the interaction between him and
Mary. *Mary had cried a bit for him so her nose was red. *

Why do I love her so? *

We noted this evening that Rochester is 90 minutes bed-to-bed. *That's
an easy commute. *We'll probably be doing that with some frequency. *

Remember the Serenity Prayer.

Serenity Prayer for the Stressed (Blueyes424)

Grant me the serenity to accept the things I cannot change, the
courage to change the things I cannot accept, and the wisdom to hide
the bodies of those people I had to kill today because they ****ed me
off. *

And also, help me to be careful of the toes I step on today, because
they may be connected to the ass I have to kiss tomorrow. *

Help me to always give 100% at work: 12% on Monday, 23% on Tuesday,
40% on Wednesday, 20% on Thursday, and 5% on Friday. *

And help me to remember when I am having a REALLY bad day, and it
seems that people are trying to **** me off, that it takes 42 muscles
to frown and only 4 to extend my middle finger and tell them to bite
me.

Amen

--
Experience is a good teacher, but she send in terrific bills.
* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * -- Minna Thomas Antrim- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

I hadn't seen that version. It must be from one of those funny spin-
off denominations.