OOPS...

I hope no one tried to make Pahklava yesterday from the recipe I posted. There was a bit of a mistake in the ingredients, to wit, the 1/2 lb. of butter is NOT for the filling. It is for buttering the layers of dough, as mentioned in the recipe. My apologies to you and to Editor Nancy, who was not home when I finished the post and just caught the mistake this morning. Mea culpa.

Here is the corrected recipe:

Nancy's Armenian-Assyrian-Irish Pahklava

For the filling:                                                  For the syrup:

                   2 cups finely chopped walnuts                        2 cups sugar

                   1 tsp. cinnamon                                              1 cup water

                   3 tablespoons sugar                                       1/2 tsp.  lemon juice

                                                                                          Boil for 1 min., cool for 5 min.

1 package filo dough                                                           

1/2 lb. butter (melt butter in microwave)

In a rectangular baking pan put down 10 layers of filo dough. Brush butter on each layer.

Layer the filling evenly over the dough and pack down hard

Put the rest of the dough over the filling. Butter each layer.

Before baking, cut into diamond-shaped pieces. (make parallel cuts about 2 in. apart
     lengthwise in the longer direction, then make parallel diagonal cuts to get the diamond
     shapes. Dipping your knife in cold water will help make clean cuts.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Serve with syrup. Enjoy!

Pahklava

Got my third round of chemo yesterday, three more to go. It took a long time, five hours in the chair, but I was well equipped with a book ("Fierce Heart", about Makaha, on the west side of Oahu and the heart of Hawaiian surfing culture), two newspapers, my ipod (I'm currently listening to "Sharpe's Sword", by Bernard Cornwell, about the British and French fighting in Spain in 1812), and a bunch of sudokus. Still I managed to fall asleep for the last hour or so. We left the  hospital around 4PM and found ourselves in the rush hour traffic out of Boston. An hour later we were maybe 20 miles along the way and jammed in traffic, so we got off to eat at a 99 restaurant. Displaying my usual high level of common sense, I ordered a cheeseburger with fries (got to keep that red blood count up). Needless to say at 2:30AM I parted ways with the meal, after just managing to keep it down for the previous hour in bed. But I felt better afterward and had a good breakfast this morning. Thanks to my younger daughter and future acupuncturist (one more year of study to go), I had my ginger tea, am wearing my acupressure wrist bands, and also applied acupressure to points on both lower legs as she had instructed a while ago. And I feel fine so far.

But I really wanted to write today about the delicious pahklava Chef Nancy made for Dr. T.and Jason. Dr. T. is from Greece, and would be well acquainted with baklava, the Greek version of the Armenian pastry we call pahklava. Why does my Irish wife know how to make pahklava? A little background: I am of Armenian-Assyrian descent. My paternal grandparents, Marderos and Hiaganoosh, came to New York from a small town in eastern Turkey, part of historical Armenia, in the early 1900's to escape the Turkish massacre of its Christian minorities, of which the largest was the Armenian. The killing by outright slaughter or forced marches through the desert of a large portion of the Armenian population is considered by most of the world to be the first genocide of the 20th century, and the inspiration to Hitler for the genocide of the Jews during World War II. Sadly, the Turkish government has refused, to this date, to admit to its role in the genocide. My mother's large Assyrian family also emigrated from eastern Turkey to escape the massacres. They came from the city of Diarbakir, which had a large Assyrian minority. She was the youngest of seven children and less than a year old when they arrived in the U.S. Unlike Armenians, who have had a homeland right up to the present day Republic of Armenia, there has not been an Assyria since ancient times. The Assyrians were a warlike people who in the seventh century BC had the greatest empire in the ancient world, comprising most of Mesopotamia and Egypt. I remember reading at an exhibit of Assyrian ruins at the British Museum that "their neighbors were not happy to see the Assyrians come around", certainly a bit of British understatement. Assyrians now are scattered throughout the Middle East, particularly in Iraq, site of their ancient homeland. Assyrians, not to be confused with modern-day Syrians, who are Arab and Muslim, are Christians and, in my mother's case, Eastern Rite Catholic, a branch of the Roman Catholic church. My father's family, like most Armenians, were Armenian Apostolic, the national church of Armenia. But the Turks did not discriminate in their massacres; all the Christian minorities were fair game for slaughter. This included Assyrians and Greeks as well as Armenians. But back to the pahklava. Nancy learned to cook many Armenian dishes from my mother. Assyrians  speak Armenian and have the same foods, perhaps with minor variations, as well as the same music and dances and customs in general as the Armenians. In fact, growing up, I considered myself Armenian and it wasn't until I was older that I even knew my mother was Assyrian.

Nancy's Armenian-Assyrian-Irish Pahklava

(See corrected recipe in next post)

For the filling:                                                  For the syrup:

                   2 cups finely chopped walnuts                        2 cups sugar

                   1 tsp. cinnamon                                              1 cup water

                   3 tablespoons sugar                                       1/2 tsp.  lemon juice

                                                                                          Boil for 1 min., cool for 5 min.

1 package filo dough                                                           

1/2 lb. butter (melt butter in microwave)

In a rectangular baking pan put down 10 layers of filo dough. Butter each layer.

Layer the filling evenly over the dough and pack down hard

Put the rest of the dough over the filling. Butter each layer.

Before baking, cut into diamond-shaped pieces. (make parallel cuts about 2 in. apart
     lengthwise in the longer direction, then make parallel diagonal cuts to get the diamond
     shapes. Dipping your knife in cold water will help make clean cuts.)

Bake at 350 degrees for 20 minutes.

Serve with syrup. Enjoy!

Beth Israel

It was back to Boston yesterday, back, that is, to Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, or BIDMC for short. According to Lady Google, Beth Israel is one of the top teaching and research hospitals in the country. It's the main teaching hospital for Harvard Medical School. It's a huge facility and I can't speak for all the departments, but the hematology/oncology department where I'm treated is like a family, albeit a very highly skilled and efficiently operating but warm and personal family. When I go to the seventh floor I feel like I'm coming home. From my doctor to the nurses to the office staff, they all make me feel like I'm the only patient there. And I'm sure all the other patients feel the same way.

Yesterday was another day of blood-letting and X-rays, specifically a CT scan (pretty easy except for drinking the two quarts of barium). My numbers were all very good, my sodium is up again, well into the normal range, and my lymphoma has shrunk. So the doctor is very happy, I'm happy, Nancy's happy and I feel great, eating like crazy and walking 2-3 miles again. The doctor is pretty sure my fever is due to prostratitis, so I'll be on two more weeks of antibiotic to hopefully knock the infection out. I get my third round of chemo Friday and if all goes well, the only side effect will be some more hair falling out (yes, there's still some there, but not much).

Finally, I have to mention the NP, Jason, who is my first contact point at BIDMC. He is extremely knowledgeable and just a great guy and he's a great complement to my oncologist, Dr. T.  I have complete confidence in both of their diagnoses and prescriptions. And special credit must be given to Editor Nancy for her contributions to this post. It looks a lot better now than when I first gave it to her to edit (I slipped in this last part).

Return of the Killer App(etite)

My appetite is back, as of yesterday, in full force and just in time to keep me from disappearing entirely. Yesterday I ate everything that wasn't nailed down or couldn't move fast enough to escape. And we finally went out, a week late, for Nancy's Valentine's dinner. We went to Wimpy's in Osterville, a restaurant/pub that specializes in seafood. Nancy loves seafood and doesn't get to eat it very often (she forgot to ask me if I like seafood before she agreed to marry me - bad move). I had prime rib, rare, and (drumroll, please) an ice cold draft! It's the first beer I've had, except for a few sips snuck from my son when I wasn't being watched, since last summer. And I survived, the final proof that my stomach problems of the last eight months were in fact due to the lymphoma in my chest compressing my esophagus and the vagus nerves to my stomach, and not to my favorite foods like coffee, chocolate, peanut butter, tomatoes and the occasional beer, all of which I have avoided since early last summer. Since the start of chemotherapy (the first treatment, I was told to my surprise, killed most, perhaps up to 90%, of the cancer cells; the remaining treatments are to get the rest) I have noticed an easing of the nasty symptoms of stomach upset and shooting pains up and down my back. I've been slowly adding back forbidden foods to my diet, without ill effect. The beer was the final test, and I passed with flying colors. Which is to say I feel fine this morning. Can't stop eating, in fact. So far I've had a bagel with cream cheese and avocado, coffee, orange juice, V-8 juice, an apple, and a dish of delicious vanilla bean coconut milk ice-cream. And now, at 9AM, I'm starving.

The fever is gone as of yesterday, responding to the antibiotic as expected. Supposedly the fevers are not caused by the chemo but are due to an infection of unknown (so far) origin. So tomorrow it's back to Boston for more tests to see if they can solve the mystery. The good news is that leaves my hair loss as the only real side effect of my chemo so far. I'll take it.

Boston

Well, back to Boston yesterday for more tests. Can't get rid of my pesky fever. Wednesday and Thursday it was fever and nausea, with only some relief from Tylenol. Being on fluid restriction for my low sodium didn't help me feel any better, though it did help get the sodium back up. Thursday my temp got up to 100.8 so it was time to contact the doc in Boston. 'Come in tomorrow' (surprise) so off we went at 8 AM, hoping to avoid the rush hour, for my 10:30 appointment. Chauffeur Nancy did a great job navigating the traffic and we got there plenty early. Blood work (I'm hoping I don't run out of the red stuff before this is all over), followed by waiting to be called in. I wish I'd brought a book along. The magazine selection in the waiting room is awful. The only copy of Sports Illustrated was from just before the NFL playoffs began, and featured on the cover a picture of the Patriots' Vince Wilfork with the headline 'Why New England won't be stopped', and inside, of course, an article explaining how the Pats are a lock to win the Super Bowl.

Another reason to hate Sports Illustrated!

I was sorely tempted to throw the magazine away, but really, we foolish Pats fans deserve to have it rubbed in our faces. Anyway, there was good news. My sodium is back in the normal range, though at the bottom of that range, and from now on I can have two liters of fluids a day. According to the doc, the low sodium had nothing to do with the chemo, but was a result of all the fluids I was drinking. He pointed out that my sodium, as measured over the years at my annual physicals, has always been at the low end, which is true. Hydrating has been a habit since my running days, which actually ended about 25 years ago, so I guess I can live with normal amounts of fluids now. Well, the big concern of the doc is why the fever. My numbers all look good and a chest X-ray (I'm going to be glowing in the dark soon) didn't show anything in my lungs. So before we left I had to get one more blood-letting so they could do a blood culture, whatever that is. The doc wants me back next Tuesday for more blood-letting and a CT scan of my chest and of my sinuses. I guess he's serious about finding the cause of the fever. And he prescribed an antibiotic to take starting last night. We did hit the rush hour going home, and finally got back around 5 PM. Chef Nancy took some of her delicious homemade meatballs out of the freezer and we had a wonderful spaghetti and meatball dinner. My appetite, missing in action most of the week, is finally back.

I feel a lot better today, thankfully, since Nurse Nancy has abandoned me for a quick trip home to take care of some business there. If this post is especially incoherent or unusually boring, it's because I've also been abandoned by my editor, Editor Nancy. So please address all complaints to her.

Numbers

I'm a math teacher. I like numbers. But lately I'm getting really tired of them. Not most numbers. It's still fun to solve a really tricky math problem, say Fermat's Last Theorem, which I'm really close to proving and finally winning my first Nobel (and please don't tell me about Andrew Wiles from Princeton - his proof is way too complicated). It's the kind of numbers that show up on my labs, which I've been getting with increasing frequency lately, that I don't like. I actually don't mind those numbers when they're good (in the "normal" range). Then everyone's happy and I can do what I want, with no interference from doctors, nurses, concerned spouses, etc. But my latest labs yesterday came back with a very low sodium level of 126. I don't like that number. Because of it I have to restrict my fluids to 1 liter a day. A liter is slightly more than a quart. For years I have consumed at least a gallon of water a day, plus other fluids. So I started today and have never been so thirsty in my life. And I'm not doing much, mostly sleeping and sitting around. I would cheat in an instant, but I'm told the alternatives are seizures and other sorts of nasty things. Plus it's hard to slip anything past my own private nurse. So I'm  having my four 8-ounce glasses of juice, and sucking on lemon drops in between to fool my system into thinking it's getting more fluid. Other numbers are low, as is to be expected with chemo, but none dangerously so. I've always been a little anemic and am a little more so now. I'm told to eat more red meat, which I suppose I can force myself to do. I know that eventually, after all the treatments are done, my numbers will get back where they belong. Then I'll like all numbers again. For now, back to Fermat. I should have the theorem proven soon. Stay tuned.

Lazy Weekend

My fever was gone by Friday, but I felt tired and had a low level nausea all weekend (I occasionally had to force myself to eat a meal, but by last night devoured the delicious lemon, garlic, oregano, pepper and olive oil-coated pork chops Chef Nancy cooked up). It's definitely a bit worse than after the first chemo, but still manageable. However, it made for a mostly housebound weekend. Didn't even take a real walk. But got lot of reading done. The bright spot was yesterday when we had our four-year old granddaughter for most of the afternoon. Grandma had the duty, played with her while I stayed glued to my recliner, getting the occasional visit by a kitty tickling me or a puppy climbing onto my lap. It was wonderful having our little sweetheart there. And I feel much better today.

Some random thoughts: I'm listening to a wonderful book, "The Alchemist", by  Paulo Coelho. It's kind of a philosophical speculation built inside a story that's a fantasy and an adventure, beautifully written by Coehlo, a Brazilian author. It's the story of a young Andalusian shepherd who travels through Arab lands in search of a treasure waiting for him at the pyramids, but whose search, aided by various wise men and women, is in fact for his "personal legend". I'm completely hooked, enjoying it immensely, and highly recommend it. Also, Nancy watched the Grammys last night. She was knocked out by Mick Jagger, who she said looked and sang great, like a young kid. Ok, I'm jealous. I'm sure he's even older than me. He has no right looking and acting so young. It ain't fair.

Shea Butter

Whew! My fever broke during the night. Woke up twice with my t-shirt soaked with sweat, but no fever. Finally woke up this morning starving. Nurse Nancy (Chef Nancy?) made me a delicious omelet, with avocado, tomato and cheese, better than you could get at any restaurant. Got to go to the lab today to get my numbers checked, just in case.

I meant to write yesterday about the shea butter cream I made Wednesday. Both Nancy and I have very dry skin, especially in winter. She has always used shea butter cream as her therapy of choice, and a few years ago introduced me to it. It works great, but is way too expensive for my taste. And it's always scented. Yuk. Why stink, sorry, scent, has to be added to every sort of personal product I just don't know. The smells make me sick, and I suspect I'm not alone. But back to price. We have a 3.5 ounce tube of the stuff (scented of course) that costs about $18. Which comes to about $82.29 per pound! The one pound tub Nancy buys online, also scented, costs about $35 with shipping. A little better, but could I do much better? So, given that I have a lot of time on my hands and have always been an inveterate tinkerer, I took a look online to see if maybe I could make my own, at a much more reasonable price, and without the stink. It didn't take long to find what I needed. It was a candle making site, but they had an easy looking recipe for shea butter cream, just three ingredients and about a half hour of work. So I ordered four pounds of raw shea butter and 10 ounces of rice bran oil. Cost about $40 with shipping. With another bottle of the oil ($2.95 + shipping) I can make eight pounds of cream. It works out to about $6 per pound for the finished product.

So how did it turn out? I made the first batch minus stink, for me. It came out pretty well. It's a little greasy. I probably didn't get the proportions just right, will have to tinker with that on future batches. But it passed the fussy wife test. So I'm going to get some stinky fragrance oil and make the next three batches for Nancy and our girls. (But I've been told I have to get nicer containers. Personally, I don't see anything wrong with the Tupperware tubs.)  Below are some pictures of the raw ingredients and the finished product. First, the raw ingredients:

Only three ingredients

Raw shea butter from West Africa

 And the finished product:

What's wrong with the container, and why do I have to hide it?

The finished product

And finally, the expensive, smelly stuff (note it is only 10% shea butter; mine is 62.5% shea butter):

The expensive stuff

ER

Started feeling really punky yesterday afternoon, nauseous and had the chills. Felt like I had a fever, so I took my temperature (somehow we've amassed four thermometers, none of which actually agree with each other) and came up with a consensus reading of about 100.8, well over the limit (100.2) to call the doc. We got hold of the on-call doctor at the cancer center at CCH and I was told to go to the emergency room right away. We were there about two hours, during which they checked my vital signs, did blood work, urinalysis, a chest X-ray and nose swab for flu. The particular concerns are things like low white blood cell and platelet counts, since chemo suppresses the immune system and does a number on healthy cells as well as cancer cells. And infection is also a concern. Thankfully, the numbers were all good and other tests were negative. Also, the chest X-ray showed shrinkage of the lymphoma from the last X-ray, so the chemo seems to be working. I had kind of a rough night last night, up and down all night, fever in the 100+ range. Been mostly sleeping today, some nausea and chills, not eating a lot, but the fever is down. Taking Tylenol for the fever and an anti-nausea medicine. The folks at the ER at Cape Cod Hospital were very efficient. I felt well taken care of. My hair is falling out in splotches now. But then again, I don't have to shave any more, so it's not all bad. When all the hair is gone I'll post some before and after pictures.

We've had cold weather here at the Cape. Guess I was a little premature about Spring.

Agent Orange

Every so often I find myself wondering how I ended up with cancer. I know it's in the family, but it is probably in most families. And there was no lymphoma, to my knowledge, in my family. I've mentioned before that I don't believe you can control a lot of the risk factors for cancer, but then again I have always eaten a pretty healthy diet and stayed very active, and, I think, handled stress pretty well (when I couldn't avoid it altogether, always my first choice). So the question has hung unanswered in my mind, a puzzle occasionally popping to the surface. Well, a week or so ago Nancy was on the phone with her sister Susan and afterward told me I had likely gotten lymphoma due to exposure to Agent Orange, a herbicide we dropped in Vietnam to try to deny the cover of jungle foliage to our enemies the Viet Cong. I was very skeptical. However, the ladies were persistent. Susan, like Nancy, is not a medical professional but is drawn to medical and health topics and, like her sister, is expert and persistent at internet search. Did I mention they're related? So yesterday Susan called and we had a long conversation. She pointed me to several web sites that discuss evidence of the high rate of lymphoma, and other serious diseases, in what are referred to as blue water navy veterans who served in waters off Vietnam during the conflict. The basic facts are laid out in an article in The Salem-News, an Oregon news outlet. Here are a few quotes from the article:

Vietnam War veterans are a fine lot: they suffered through the War; they suffered the abuse of an ungrateful nation upon their return; they continue to suffer the indignity of an incompetent and antagonistic Department of Veterans Affairs (DVA); and they are the fastest dying group of veterans of any war we've fought. By the end of 2009, only about 30% of all Vietnam War veterans were still alive. At that rate, the last of the Vietnam War veterans will be buried by the surviving soldiers of WWII.

One group of Vietnam War veterans that have had more than their share of hard knocks are those Navy, Coast Guard, and Marine personnel who served offshore Vietnam. We refer to this group as the Blue Water Navy (BWN). The VA currently refers to them as Vietnam Era veterans, to clearly separate them from those who served in the Vietnam War, which requires having had one's "boots on ground." That is now the definition of a Vietnam War veteran. 

I am a blue water navy veteran of the Vietnam conflict, having served in the Navy from 1964 to 1969, but not, as they say, as boots on the ground. I did spend frequent short periods in the country, though. From about March 1965 to mid-1967 I was an aerial navigator on C-130 transport planes, flying for VR-7 and VR-22, Navy transport squadrons based at Moffett Field near San Fransisco. We flew regularly to Vietnam, transporting men and equipment to the war zone and usually returning, sadly, with dead and injured soldiers. But we never spent more than several hours on the ground. Refuel, file flight plans and get out as quickly as possible. So, the Agent Orange idea didn't seem to apply to me, and I discounted it. But I read further. Some excerpts (highlighting is mine):

Why Distance From Shore is Totally Irrelevant

In 1989, the Center for Disease Control (CDC) conducted the "Selected Cancers Study" as a comprehensive medical study of the effects of Agent Orange/dioxin exposure to our troops who fought in the war in Vietnam. The outcry from veterans of the US and Australia wanting answers to their growing list of fatal and disabling diseases was growing quite loud. The conclusion of this and some later Australian studies resulted in a number of interesting findings: 

- Of the three service branches studied for all cancers in the "Selected Cancers Study", Navy veterans had the highest overall mortality;

- Veterans of the naval services, who didn't spend time on land, had a higher incidence of Non-Hodgkins Lymphoma (NHL) than the land-based troops, by a factor of about 20%; 

- Navy veterans had a higher than expected mortality from lung cancer (39%) and melanoma (56%);

The basic thrust of the evidence is that the higher rate of cancers among blue water navy vets than soldiers on the ground  is due to the fact that a lot of Agent Orange ended up in the water, washing off the land or disbursing from the planes as they returned to their carriers in the Gulf of Tonkin. On board the navy ships in the gulf, "potable" water used for showering, drinking and cooking was distilled from sea water. This process concentrated the deadly compounds from the herbicide in this so called potable water. Here is more from the article:

Following the "Selective Cancers Study," U.S. Government funded investigation by active research into the medical and scientific effects of dioxin on American veterans of the Vietnam War simply stopped. The Ranch Hand Study, now recognized as a fraudulent debacle at the highest levels, is the only large scale study that was conducted. In contrast, the Australian Government, with findings of the same anomalies regarding their Navy veterans, ordered their medical research facilities to come to some conclusion as to why those anomalies involving service offshore Vietnam existed. In a series of further studies, capped off by the RAN study published in 2002, medical evidence showed that Royal Australian Navy (RAN) sailors were highly dioxin-contaminated. It also showed that the conversion of sea water containing dioxin used in the flash distillation technique identical on all U.S. and Australian naval vessels, increased the toxicity of dioxin taken onboard with water by a factor of almost 4 and tainted the potable water used for cooking, drinking and bathing. No one knows how long the dioxin molecules or the contaminated water remained in the fresh water tanks of these ships, but they both left residuals in the tanks and pipes well after the ship left the vicinity of Vietnam. We believe that the reason for the unusual level of diseases suffered by the naval services vs. the land services was a matter of ingestion and dosage level: land troops experienced a few exposures with large amounts of dioxin primarily through skin absorption but with some ingestion and inhalation, while naval personnel experienced a long and continuous duration of ingested low dose exposure, on a daily basis, often for six months to a year. No one knows if and for how long that exposure continued after the ship left the vicinity of Vietnam and took on new, unsuspecting crew.

So what's this got to do with me? Well, I served as ship's company on board the USS Coral Sea (CVA-43), an attack carrier, for a year after our navy transport squadrons were disbanded in 1967. My time on the carrier included a combat cruise off Vietnam from July 1967 to April 1968. During this time our air wing flew nearly round the clock combat missions over Vietnam. I drank the water contaminated with dioxins from Agent Orange, showered in it and ate food cooked in it, as did all my shipmates.

So my apologies to the ladies for my initial disdain. Who knows exactly why I ended up with lymphoma - no doubt other environmental factors may be in involved, as well as hereditary factors - but I'm now convinced that exposure to Agent Orange is a distinct possibility. I am fortunate that I have always had good health insurance through my job, and now through Medicare, so I have never had to depend on the VA. But for many veterans of the blue water navy and the air force who are sick due to Agent Orange and do not have decent health insurance, or any at all, the government and the VA have basically abandoned them. Absolutely shameful. Some final quotes from the article:

Previous generations of soldiers were promised the treatment so eloquently stated in Abraham Lincoln's 2nd Inaugural Address: "...to care for him who shall have borne the battle and for his widow and his orphan..." Such care was offered up through WWII, began to wane with the Korean War, and completely disappeared for the Vietnam War veteran (which from hereon includes the BWN.)

 In February, 2002, the Department of Veteran Affairs, on their own volition, and by their own admission having no scientific or medical evidence to justify the move, stopped providing medical care and compensation for service-connected herbicide disabilities to Navy veterans of the Vietnam War, as well as Air Force veterans of that conflict.

Spring?

The heck with the calendar, I think it's the first day of Spring. What a beautiful day, bright sun and temperature in the low 40's with just a slight wind. After lunch we took a long walk by the beach in Hyannisport, about a 5-minute ride from our place. It's a beautiful beach in a pretty nice town. We took some pictures, which really don't do it justice, but we tried. It's one of our favorite walks in the summer. Today walkers and runners were out in force, so it must be the start of Spring.

Hyannisport's own post office

Sea grass

Part of the Kennedy compound. Teddy's house in back.

Further down the beach

Chemo Diet

Day 3 of my second chemo treatment and I feel pretty good, just a little tired. Woke up at 3:30 and couldn't get back to sleep. Had some nausea the day after the chemo, Friday, and yesterday felt worse after a night of waking up all night with nausea and the runs and getting very little sleep. Spent most of yesterday alternately trying to keep busy and sleeping. Pushed myself to a 2 mile walk in the morning and some food shopping in the afternoon, but whenever I sat down to read, fell fast asleep. Very frustrating. But today I feel back to normal, thanks at least in part to my diet. I have to mention the book my younger daughter, who is almost through her master's degree program in Acupuncture and Traditional Chinese Medicine. sent me, bless her heart. The book, written by four prominent MD's, deals with the prevention and treatment of cancer with natural medicine. It gets very technical in discussions of the disease and of chemo, way over my head, but is full of advice on dietary approaches to preventing cancer and minimizing the side effects of chemo. Much of it will be familiar to anyone who already tries to eat a healthy diet, and much of it is way too restrictive and/or exotic for me. Likewise the many supplements they recommend, specific to the type of drug one is receiving (there is a huge variety of chemo drugs, in a large number of categories, used to treat different cancers). But the three recommendations that stood out regardless of the treatment were to eats lots of fruits and vegetables, at least ten servings or more a day, eat very little red meat, and get a lot of protein through foods other than red meat - especially fish, and also chicken, turkey or other white meats, and supplements. In particular they recommend adding whey protein, which is a complete protein derived from dairy - I believe it is a byproduct of cheese-making. So we have been making up a weekly menu, with beef no more than twice a week, fish at least twice, and either chicken or meatless (pizza, anyone?) the rest of the week. And yesterday I went to Trader Joe's and bought some whey protein and added it to my favorite shake: blueberries, strawberries, a banana and some water. Threw in two scoops of vanilla-flavored whey protein mix and turned on the blender. Delicious. My kids call my shake "sludge" - they don't know what they're missing. As my mother used to say, there's that much more for me. As for fruits and vegetables, we have tried for a long time to make sure they are a good part of our diet. So maybe my diet has something to do with how well I've done so far with the chemo. Now if only they had a solution for hair loss (they don't, darn it). I also have to mention our friend Dianne, a nurse, who suggested ginger for my nausea. I bought some ginger tea and had some yesterday and today. I'm sure it helped too. Thanks, Dianne. Also, the book my daughter sent me is "How to Prevent and Treat Cancer with Natural Medicine", by Dr. Michael Murray, et al, published by Riverhead Books.

Went to the nearby Cumby's at 5:30 AM and picked up the Times and the Globe, our regular Sunday treat. It's a mild, sunny and so far windless day here. May be a good day for a walk by the water. Oh, and today is Super Bowl Sunday. I would love to see the Packers beat the Steelers, but if I were a betting man I would have to bet on the Steelers. Hope I'm wrong. Enjoy the game.

Music

This one is for anyone who's still reading my blog after my books post. I don't listen to a lot of music, mostly because at home I tend to be reading or doing schoolwork or chores and when I'm walking or driving alone my ipod is reading me a book. My taste in music runs to old-timey, appalachian, scots-irish, mountain music. Lots of names for a broad category. I also like bluegrass and old-time country music, Hank Williams, Merle Haggard, Loretta Lynn, etc. I got hooked on the music in high school in New Jersey, when we used to drive around at night and listen to the radio. We would pick up DJ's like Wolfman Jack, broadcasting rock and roll from a pirate radio station just over the Mexican border, and a black DJ on a local NYC station who played great stuff from groups like the Drifters. We also listened to another powerful AM station, WWVA, out of Wheeling, West Virginia. It played a mix of old-time music, gospel, country and bluegrass. Only my friend Al, and I, got hooked on the music. Al is a musician and can actually sit in with a group and play the music. When we get together we listen to music, and even managed to attend a great old-timey and bluegrass music festival in Minneapolis, his adopted home. So here are my favorite singers (for anyone who's eyes haven't glazed over yet). My all-time favorite singer is Iris Dement. She has an amazing voice and writes all her own songs, often introspective and/or spiritual, but she can surprise you too, as in her duet with John Prine, "In Spite of Ourselves". I'm going to try to insert a video of them doing the song in concert if I can figure out how to do it. Warning, this song may not be appropriate for young children to listen to. John Prine is another of my favorite singers. He also writes his own songs mostly, and like Iris, has great arrangements and backup musicians. Nancy and I were lucky to catch them in concert together at the Calvin Theater in Northampton a couple of years ago (she likes some of my music live, but not recorded). I don't care for most folk singers, the ones with just their guitar and their songs full of existential angst. They put me to sleep. The exception is the early Bob Dylan. Everything he did is great. My other favorite singer is Steve Earle. He's a combination Texas redneck, former drug addict and hard rocker, and old-time lefty, who also writes his own stuff. We saw him in concert in Albany, right after his Washington Square Serenade album came out. It's his tribute to his recently adopted hometown of New York City.

Here's Iris, doing one of my favorite songs, "Sweet is the Melody", on a Scottish TV show.

Here are Iris and John Prine doing "In Spite of Ourselves". Better shoo the kids away.

And finally, Steve Earle doing "City of Immigrants" (The lady singing with him is his seventh wife, Allison Moorer), and a younger Steve Earle doing "Copperhead Road". Moonshine anyone?

If you've made it this far, just a progress report - I feel fine after the chemo yesterday, had a slight bit of nausea this morning but better now. We took a nice walk this morning - it's a beautiful, sunny day on the Cape.

Nurses

I just got back from my second chemo treatment, this time at Cape Cod Hospital. This one was much faster, about 2 1/2 hours. So far I feel fine, just very hungry. Fortunately supper is almost done.

Just finished dinner. Fish fillets, sweet potato fries, wild rice, beets and green beans. Delicious. And I'm still hungry. Nurse Nancy is also a great cook, so I eat very well. Speaking of nurses, the nurses at the hospital today were all wonderful. Very efficient, friendly and caring. But I'm not surprised. I have always found nurses to be that way. They are without a doubt the backbone of our health care system. I have had several operations at Berkshire Medical Center over the years and have always found the nurses there to be wonderful caregivers. I've come to the conclusion that in general, nurses, like teachers, are not in it for the money but to help people. Not for nothing are teaching and nursing called helping professions. I have taught a math class for nurses at BCC every semester for the last 10 years. It's one of my favorite classes to teach, because of the students. They are typically a mix of all ages, but almost all are very motivated to do well, and are just nice people to know. They don't always love math - in fact most would rather do almost anything else, like have a tooth drilled or kiss a vampire bat, than do math - but they will invariably work hard and do well in the class. We have a daughter-in-law and some very good friends who are nurses, and they certainly fit the mold. So, a toast to nurses everywhere. Thank you for all you do for us.

Oh, and doctors are okay too (better get that in or I'm in big trouble).

Books

Tomorrow morning I go for my second chemo treatment. I'll bring a book to read, my ipod with a second book to listen to if I get tired of holding a book after a while, and some sudokus if I get tired of reading altogether. I love to read. I read both fiction and non-fiction. I can't read bad writing, no matter how good a story is, but I can listen to almost anything, no matter how bad the writing, if it's an interesting story. I think I just like being read to. I grew up listening to the radio - we didn't get our first TV until I was 9 or 10 years old - and I was hooked on westerns (The Lone Ranger, Hopalong Cassidy), mysteries (Green Hornet, Superman, Charlie Chan), and comedies (Jack Benny, Groucho Marx, Bob and Ray). Saturday mornings were the best. Grab a box of Ritz crackers, a jar of peanut butter and some milk and listen to all the great shows while everybody else in the house slept.

Like most people I have favorite authors who just don't write enough books. My tastes in fiction run to spy thrillers, satire, some detective novels, historical fiction and any well-written book that has an exotic locale and/or theme. For thrillers you can't beat Robert Ludlum, Ken Follett, Daniel Silva, John LeCarre and Frederick Forsyth, all masters of the craft. One of my favorite authors is Carl Hiaasen whose novels are laugh-out-loud funny. He is a columnist for the Miami Herald with a particular bent towards savaging the people who would rape Florida's environment for profit. He skewers them in delicious ways in his novels. Christopher Buckley also writes some very sharp satire. Stephen Cannell, the creator of the A-Team TV show, writes some good mystery novels, set in LA. It's not literature but he tells a good story. T. Jefferson Parker is an excellent writer with a number of very good, gritty mysteries set in various locales in Southern California.  I'm also hooked on some very light fare. M.C. Beaton has a series about a Scottish detective, Hamish Macbeth, set in a small village in remote northern Scotland. The books are charming and clever mysteries always featuring a murder. My favorite author of historical fiction, a master of the craft, is Bernard Cornwell, who happens to live here on the Cape. I've read or listened to just about every book he's written, and he has written lots of them. I recommend him highly.

My tastes in non-fiction run to history, biography and travel writing. Unfortunately, most travel writing is not very good, but there are exceptions. I picked up "The Caliph's House", by Tahir Shah, a few months ago. It was spellbinding, recounting his family's move to a large, run down house in the heart of Casablanca, and the adventures they encountered in restoring it. A second book, "In Arabian Nights", also about Morocco, was just as good. Pico Iyer is another excellent travel writer, as are Bill Bryson and Paul Theroux (though I find him rather depressing at times). I love to read history. My favorite eras are the classical - ancient Greece and Rome - and our colonial and revolutionary times. One of my favorite books is "The Glorious Cause", by Robert Middlekauf, about our revolution. It's the best of the many books I've read on this period in our history.  Another is J.J. Norwich's three-volume history of Byzantium which was my nightly companion for several months. David McCullough is a compelling storyteller. I greatly enjoyed his biographies of John Adams and Harry Truman. Another of my favorites is Joseph Ellis. His "Founding Brothers", about the founding fathers, is a great read. Finally, I must mention Robert K. Massie. His "Peter the Great",  about the Russian czar, was one of the first audiobooks I listened to, and is one of the best books I have read, even though I generally have little interest in Russian history. Other authors whose histories I have enjoyed are John Keegan, writing on the first world war, and Barbara W. Tuchman, writing on almost anything. There are many others that I haven't mentioned because I can't remember their names (can't remember much of anything any more). I have read six or seven biographies of Alexander the Great, whom I consider one of the most fascinating characters in history. Finally, I have to say I love books, the kind made of paper. I don't think I'll ever be a fan of e-readers, or reading off a computer screen. And because I love free things, I love libraries. Long may they endure.

Snow Day II and a Surprise Package

Like they say, the best laid plans of mice and men etc... We had planned to spend a few days back home in the Berkshires before my second chemo treatment this Thursday (see the previous post). We would leave the Cape Sunday after our girls headed home and return Wednesday evening. Then came the forecast of more snow. Well, maybe we would have to come home Tuesday instead. The forecasts for both the Berkshires and the Cape had the snow starting midday Tuesday, so we would leave Lenox early Tuesday, 7 AM or so, and beat the snow home. This looked good right through midday Monday, the last time I checked before heading to my sister's house for a delicious dinner. When we got home about 7:30 PM, there was a call from my son at the Cape. Had we seen the weather forecast? Did we know the snow was due to start after midnight Monday? Well, no. We hadn't been paying attention. So, in the next hour we packed up the car, closed up the house (a regular ritual of energy-saving and burglar-defying actions to take) and hit the road about 8PM. We arrived at our condo at 11PM, got unpacked and tried to wind down. Way too much driving in one 24-hour period. I don't know about Nancy, but I'm getting too old for this. We did sleep quite a bit later than usual this morning, which isn't saying a lot since we normally get up earlier than the roosters.

It was snowing this morning when we awoke, but turned to rain in early afternoon. Driving was slippery, but not too bad.  I suspect it was worse in the Berkshires. Tomorrow is forecast to be considerably worse - snow, ice and freezing rain. At any rate, I'm very glad we got the call last night. I would not have wanted to drive home in the snow this morning.

I still feel remarkably well. I'm told it should be worse with succeeding chemo treatments because each one does more damage to the healthy as well as the cancer cells. I'm thinking it's not going to be too bad. We'll see.

Finally, when we got home last night there was a package in the mail, from my son and daughter-in-law in Atlanta. It was a DVD set of season two of the A-Team. What a wonderful, totally unexpected, surprise. And I had just watched season one last week. Now I can take my time and not have to worry about a due date. What would I do without my kids?