Tuesday, September 30, 2014

Correction, Corrahction

As you all know, I am NOT a doctor but sometimes I'm able to fake it with the best of them and outline issues, medications and potential symptoms or impact.  However, in my last post, as I found out from my ill-guided NP at Mt Sinai this week, I was incorrect in my description.  I do have Basal Cell Carcinoma (or had it and have since had it removed) but I do NOT have Melanoma so cannot refer to myself with the alliteration diseases: melanoma and myeloma!

Basal cell is one type of skin cancer and is the easiest to deal with and treat.  Once you cut it out, if you get all of it, it's gone.  It doesn't spread and you don't have to worry about it.  The squamous cell carcinoma is apparently a step above but still easily dealt with whereas Melanoma is the worst kind of skin cancer to deal with.

I'm leaving my descriptions there but needed to clarify that my prior post was just a load of gibberish as usual where this post is much more factual and well spoke!

:)

Wednesday, September 24, 2014

Not Quite Tomato, Tomahto - The Irony Of It All

I think one of the most frustrating things a myeloma patient experiences is the lack of understanding about the disease.  How many patients have asked to see the mole that's gone bad?  Literally two days ago I had someone say to me, "I just got tired of people asking to see where my Melanoma was !!! They wanted to "see" my mole !!!"  This is the nature of our disease, the name is very similar thus leading to confusion.

In 2008 I went to the Doctor.  It was the start of rugby season and I was trying to get in shape.  I had bloodwork done and the Doc called me in for some questions.  He asked if I was taking supplements -?!? - I was speechless as the strongest thing I was taking was GNC Mega Man vitamins.  But he wouldn't give up the issue, was I taking supplements, "What would your wife say?"  I had a protein spike and, after the Oncologist visit, I was confirmed with Multiple Myeloma.  My post from that time is noted here: "The Obvious".  If you've not been to the doctor, go, don't pause, go, go NOW.  I found this disease because I was diagnosed early.  So take my advice - go to the doctor.  I even had someone in Central Park this weekend that said they were going to take my advice and go to the doctor this week.  He heard my story and realized he hadn't been in awhile, looked at his wife, daughter and two dogs then back to me, "now you have seven you've touched".

Which brings me to the irony.  I went in to see the dermatologist two weeks ago.  Now I've had a lot going on the last few years and, as I've stated before, I consider myself very lucky, as so many people have it so much tougher.  When I checked in the girl at the desk asked if I had been here before and I said "of course, but it's been awhile."  It had been awhile, since 2008 to be exact.  Since 2008 - since before my diagnosis.  Are you seeing the irony here?  I haven't been to THIS type of doctor since 2008.  I'm soooooo stupid!

I got a Pneumovax injection in January of 2009 and I had a massive reaction.  My arm swelled for weeks, it was painful but it finally settled down, but I've always had a mark there.  I don't remember when but it turned into a big red dot (slightly smaller than a dime) on my left arm.  But I'm sure I mentioned it to the other doctors at least once. So I go to see the Dermatologist and he asks if there's anything I'd want him to look at.  I explained that I had a reaction to the Pneumovax injection and that it left a mark  but I had shown it to my other docs who said not to worry.  He looked at it and paused.  He said that if he had seen it alone, without my explanation, he would have immediately said it's a Basal Cell Carcinoma.  He took a biopsy to check.  I hadn't been to this doctor since 2008.  I'm sooooo stupid.

This brings us to Tomato, Tomahto - Myeloma, Melanoma.  Now when someone doesn't understand and gets confused I can say yes, that's the disease I have and be right on either point!  Talk about making it easy on me.  I have the disease I have and I have the disease everyone confuses it with!

I'm poking fun at something that I guess really isn't funny.  Luckily, like with my case of Myeloma, I've got it easy.  Basal Cell Carcinoma is the best version of this disease to have.  It doesn't spread, it's very focused on the area where it occurs.  Once they come in and dig it out it's gone.  So I'm not worried - heck, this one runs in the family.  Even my mother isn't worried - and that's saying a LOT!  But that being said I also did a quick search and it turns out that vaccination sites are more susceptible to this type of issue.  My doc said it's usually squamish cell (sp?) but whichever it may be, if you have a vaccination spot, keep it protected.

The irony, in addition to the alliteration, is my preaching that I did early on and didn't take to heart:  GO TO THE DOCTOR - GO TO ALL THE DOCTORS.  GO NOW!

You know what's next for me?  A colonoscopy - and I excited?  No - BUT I'M GOING TO THE DOCTOR!

Tuesday, September 23, 2014

Ode To Eric - for posterity

Ode To Eric -
As I lay my head to sleep,
I pray to god, protect his feet!
200 miles he hopes to make;
With inspiration - a piece of cake.
Eric runs for two full days,
Towards a CURE in many ways.
It's times like these I hope never end,
He's someone I'm proud to call my friend!
The poem is done, the run is near,
Go kick some asphalt, then we'll have a beer!


I wanted to put this down somewhere so I didn't lose it!  This was for Eric's run in Central Park Sept 19-21, 2014 #200MilesTowardsACure  

Thursday, September 11, 2014

Are We There Yet? 200 Miles Of Hope!

So a few years ago I was "Promoting Global Hair Loss" and this guy started commenting on my posts and donating money for a picture of my cat with a light-up mohawk!   A friend of ours, Mary, said he was a friend from Ohio so I never thought any further.  We kept in touch and he commented on my Nike+ posts when I was trying to get back in shape after my Stem Cell Transplant.  I was running a very small amount at first but then started getting up to three miles at about a 9:20 pace - I was feeling good.

Then he told me he's going for a run.

I went for a run last week - 2.5 miles in my brand new shoes.  My friends kid ran a 5k and got 2nd in his age group.  But none of us went for a run like Eric went for a run.  Eric went Forest Gump style. 

He started on Friday morning and didn't end till Sunday morning. 

"Ah wehnt foh a run"*














I ran with him around 10:30 on Friday night.  When I caught up with him he had been running for 15 hours.  15 hours!  And he was just getting started.  After one loop I met my brother and went to get a beer just utterly amazed that I was going to go home, sleep, wake up, have a full day, go to sleep wake up and meet Eric when he was finishing his run.  Eric ran over 160 miles that weekend and raised a ton of dough.  And he raised all this money to help find a cure for Multiple Myeloma. 

I have Multiple Myeloma and I now know a whole lot of people who also have this disease.  It sucks having this disease but, as I've mentioned in the past, I've got it easy compared to some folks.  Cancer sucks and I believe there are two ways of dealing with it: Ostrich or Eric.  Now Eric doesn't have cancer, but a very dear friend of his died from MM and Eric has gone out of his way, and through many pairs of running shoes, to help raise money to find a cure.  If you talk to Eric he will tell you that we're his motivation.  And though we've said it, he'll never take credit for him being our motivation to keep going.

Think about the last time you had your Jerry Lewis moment - you have to be over 40 or maybe even 45 to get that one.  When was the last time you pulled a telethon type moment, where you did something for 24 hours?  The Jerry Lewis Telethon, when I was growing up, was something you did. Watching the TV all night and all day to see the guests and the stupid stuff that Jerry Lewis did.  That was a great memory and it was hard work, watching TV for almost 24 hours.

Eric is going to be running for over 48 hours - can you imagine?  There are no breaks.  What's worse, at 1am Central Park closes and Eric has to run AROUND, literally AROUND, Central Park till 5am.  That's why I'm running Friday night and running Saturday night and why I let Betsy convince me to buy a REAL pair of running shoes.  I run 3 miles at most.  I'll run 12 that weekend.  Eric has inspired me and given me a reason to post another blog spot to hopefully motivate others to be inspired.   You do what you can but Eric's gone well beyond that.  In fact, to get an idea of how inspired...look at this year's "poster" and my picture of Eric pointing.
 
Eric's pointing at my name...That's a real picture of Eric, or should I say shadow of Eric and the color around him are names, lots of names.  These are all people Eric has run for, communicated with or simply pointed at!  These are all people that inspire him but more importantly have hope because of him!  These are all people with Multiple Myeloma.  And I'm damn proud that my name is up there, right around the left hip!

I've said this in the past - we will find a cure for Multiple Myeloma within my lifetime - of that I am sure. 

The MMRF has done an unbelievable job moving drugs forward and the research is starting to pay off.  But none of that takes place without sponsorship and without donations.  I've done my fair share of fund raising over the last few years but Eric takes this to another level.  Because of what Eric does (and many other events/fundraisers like the Rubino Girls, the Crawfish Guys, the IceCream ScooperBowl) we will find a cure in my lifetime.  My kids won't have to worry about this, I won't have to worry about this, but most important of all, my MOTHER won't have to worry about this!

This is what I call hope - and Eric creates that hope with every step he takes.  And this brings up a great point and a little game.  Remember trying to guess the number of M&M's in the big jar?  Whomever can guess the number of steps Eric will need to take to reach 200 miles, I'll make a $100 donation in your name to Eric's run!  Eric or Tani will be my judge but whomever gets the closest will get due recognition here, on my FB PGHL page and via my Twitter account as well as a $100 donation to Eric's run.  So start counting steps - i can hear it now - "are we there yet?"

For donations: http://bit.ly/200m2acure

Eric's kickoff video link: here

* for full and total transparency, I have no rights whatsoever to the picture from Forest Gump and am not trying to abuse that image for financial gain.  I have cancer, I'm writing a post about this guy that runs alot - that made me think of Tom Hanks!  I think Tom would agree, this is a good reason for using the image so hopefully I won't get in trouble!