MY WRITING JOURNAL

Wednesday, August 18

Surviving & Living With Cancer(s)

When I was 60 years old (2007) I was diagnosed with non-hodgkin's "b" cell lymphoma and was told by my oncologist that this type of cancer would never leave my body. my cancer was staged at level iv which in many cases is terminal but in my case it was because the lymphoma was in my bone marrow.

My treatment began with monthly infusions of rituxan which took about 4-6 hours depending upon how busy the chemo nurses were. For several years my lymphoma grew but grew slowly and slightly.

in 2010, i experienced a heart attack while walking on the treadmill and an angioplasty operation revealed that I had three blocked arteries. between 2010/2011, I had 3 heart surgeries and had 5 stents inserted and have had minimal problems since.

In 2011/2012, I worked in kentucky for a few months and the oncologist there ordered Cytoxin and Fludara in addition to my Rituxan and it is widely believed that one of those first two drugs caused me contract melanoma.

After my melanoma was surgically removed from my foot, five years later it migrated to my groin and it was difficult to ascertain if it was the lymphoma or melanoma that was growing or both.

My oncologist treated me for both cancers and for a while, he was not sure if he was going to be successful in stopping their growth. So, in 2017/2018, Radiation was added to my monthly infusions.

Fortunately, the two individualized treatments worked and both my cancers started to experience minimal growth if any growth at all. Again, with a biopsy, my oncologist was unable to determine if it was the lymphoma or the melanoma that was growing.

After 13 years of chemo treatments, surgeries, radiation, and immunotherapy treatments, I have left with the following situation with which I must live:

hypothyroidism
Lymphodema in my left leg
Weight gain of 50 pounds (of which I have lost 30)
anemia due to very low red blood cell count
no immunity due to very low white blood cell count
low platelet count
intermittent nausea
High susceptability to squamous carcinomas (of which I have had 6 surgically removed)
constant mild to not so mild fatigue
no taste of food
swollen prostate
extreme sensitivity to sun rays
Extreme sensitivity to humidity
constant sinus infections
constant facial skin infections
Pink skin pigment has disappeared
Mouth soars
minor loss of hearing
intermittant blurred vision
intermittant diarrhea
an increase in tooth decay
increase risk of afib
allergic reactions to bug bites
increased risk of deyhydration
minor bouts of depression

Are all of these related to my cancer treatments?

Well...

maybe yes...

maybe no...

Some could be related to old age or not...

But, the fact remains that I deal with this list on a daily basis and have gotten to the point where I don't even think about it anymore... My limitations have just become a part of my life.

I don't really think about living with cancer, I just think about living my life, one day at a time, while trying to make the most out of each day. If I make the most out of each day, then I consider myself to be living a successful life and living a successful life is, for me, a form of happiness.

There were many days still lodged in my memory banks where I laid on the tile floor in the bathroom, puking my guts out.... I remember my body convulsing and arching as I tried for many seconds to bring up through my throat what my body did not want.

I remember those episodes lasting for hours as my body heaved and pulled from the inside... my upper body became super hot and broke out in sweat that made me feel I had just gotten out of the shower.

I was completely exhausted from the vomiting and laid on the tile floor waiting for the next episode to grab hold of me... Sometimes, it would get so bad and of a long duration that my wife would take me to the ER.

i don't like being around stangers in a waiting room when i am convulsing and vomiting and trying to puke out what little is left inside. It is embarrassing and rather humiliating but necessary.

Those days are gone for good I hope...

Populist Press

TOP STORIES:

Afghanistan

The Skater

The Great Reset

The Great Reset: The Global Elite’s Plan To Radically Remake Our Economic And Social Lives August 16, 2021

Sam Jacobs, The Great Reset is upon us…or at least the powers that be are trying to bring it out. What was once a fringe “conspiracy theory” is now on display plain as day for everyone to see. The economic, political, academic, and media elites around the world are leveraging the chaos, confusion, and restrictions on liberty from the COVID-19 lockdowns and using them to radically alter society around the world.

What will this change look like? The global elites want to create a society of renters who own nothing, while also pushing a social agenda that would be unpopular with the unwashed masses and difficult to implement in a society with a broad, ownership-based middle class. What this means is that you would rent not just your home, but also your phone, computer, car (though you probably will “carshare,” the term for renting a car when you need one for an extended period and summoning one when you need it for a ride), and even the pots and pans you cook with.

The flip side of this will be a radical transformation of the world economy. No longer will you have a job in the sense that it has traditionally been understood. Instead, you will work various and sundry “gigs,” all of which place you in a precarious position at any given time. You will receive a fee for services performed, with no benefits, paid time off, healthcare, or anything else that the middle class in the West has become accustomed to.

To facilitate the Great Reset, rural populations will have to be coerced into more concentrated population centers since dispersed populations have too high a “carbon footprint.” The suburbs will be a thing of the past as suburbs and exurbs become more like cities. Mixed-use housing, where you and 500 other people live in a mid-rise condo hive with shops and “workshare” spaces (the new version of an office – on your dime, not your employer’s) in the same area.

The short version is that it’s a total end to the American way of life, specifically the way of life of most of the Western middle class. The specifics, including the why, are a longer story that you’re going to want to read if you want to be ready to fight against the Great Reset. TO READ ENTIRE ARTICLE, CLICK HERE...

Track and Field

NASA Astronauts

Russia's state-owned news service, TASS, has published an extraordinarily defamatory article about NASA astronaut Serena Auñón-Chancellor.

The publication claims that Auñón-Chancellor had an emotional breakdown in space, then damaged a Russian spacecraft in order to return early. This, of course, is a complete fabrication.

The context for the article is the recent, near-disastrous docking of the Russian Nauka science module with the International Space Station.

The TASS article attempts to rebut criticism in US publications (including Ars Technica) that covered the incident and raised questions about the future of the Roscosmos-NASA partnership in space.

One of a dozen rebuttals in the TASS article concerns a 2018 incident—a 2 mm breach in the orbital module of the Soyuz MS-09 vehicle docked with the International Space Station.

Russian cosmonaut Sergey Prokopyev, European Space Agency astronaut Alexander Gerst, and NASA's Auñón-Chancellor had flown to the station inside this Soyuz in June. The leak was discovered in late August.

Left unchecked, the small hole would have depressurized the station in about two weeks. Fortunately, cosmonauts were able to patch the hole with epoxy, and the Soyuz spacecraft was deemed safe to fly its crew of three back to Earth.

Attention quickly turned to what had caused the hole to appear. A micrometeoroid strike was ruled out. Some Russian media reported that it had been caused by a manufacturing or testing defect, and this seems to be the most plausible theory.

At the same time, however, sources in the Russian government started baseless rumors that perhaps a disgruntled NASA astronaut had drilled the hole. READ MORE

Water

Intelligence

Instead of the soul, the eyes may actually serve as a window into the mind: A connection may exist between pupil size and certain types of intelligence.

Of course, intelligence comes in many forms. You can acquire knowledge from reading, following the stats on your favorite sports team, or even the street smarts that may be helpful in certain cultural contexts.

Fluid intelligence, meanwhile, isn’t related to culture or learning. It is defined as one’s ability to acquire information from their surroundings on a basic level — how to process it and solve novel problems. This sort of intelligence is largely associated with multitasking and working memory.

These are the kind of smarts that play out instinctively; for example, when multitasking by talking on a cellphone while walking. You need to watch what’s in front of you without tripping, while also carrying your side of a conversation.

“People differ greatly in their ability to maintain attention,” says Randall Engle, a psychologist with the Georgia Institute of Technology who has studied working memory for four decades. “The ability to manage all of that turns out to be hugely important.”

Pupils and the Brain
Most people think that pupil size simply relates to the body’s response to light. This is true, to a degree. When someone shines a flashlight into your eyes, your pupils will constrict or shrink. In the darkness, your pupils typically dilate in an effort to improve eyesight.

Such responses are driven by the parasympathetic system. It essentially keeps your basic nervous system in order and dictates basic tasks like resting, digesting, eating and reproduction, Engle says. But pupil dilation is also related to another area of unconscious nervous system function — the sympathetic nervous system. This area controls the “fight or flight” decision-making process. That’s why your pupils may dilate when you're nervous, angry or afraid — a good reason to wear sunglasses if you play poker. READ MORE

Innocence

Tuesday, August 17

East TN Living

Today, it is raining throughout the Valley as the local stations warn us to brace for flash flooding... and, that makes sense because the ground as a result of many days of high heat is hard and will not absorb the water easily creating runoff.

But for me, it is just another day being retired after retiring in 2015... 6 years I have enjoyed the lifestyle of not having to be anywhere and not being forced to kiss ass just to remain employed... still, after 45 years of working for "the man," I am glad that I no longer have to do that...

I have been told by many people that their careers were not like what I experienced and I am glad that all of them had something different... work will always be work... and quite honestly, I really don't miss or need the money.

I am comfortable with the lower middle class income that I have as it pays the bills while allowing me to do whatever I want to.

Many people throughout the US look down their noses on TN as a backwards State, fiercely devoted to their Baptists beliefs, and who marry their cousins and quite possibly their brothers and sisters from time-to-time, who spend all of their time farming, making shine, and who have black, decaying teeth.

Unfortunately, that is NOT A TRUE PICTURE...

Ivy League Colleges and University PhD graduates teach in our colleges and universities... they offer their medical expertise in our hospitals, clinics, and private practices... they work at Oak Ridge National Laboratories which rivals the Research Triangle Park in NC.

Nashville is the home to COUNTRY MUSIC which is a BILLION DOLLAR business...

And, some of the best marijuana in the country is grown in and around the foothills of the Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

Jack Daniels is made here in TN along with moonshine and if you recall, TN is the home to Peyton Manning who was just recently inducted into the Football Hall of Fame...

Giving the current state of affairs and the increase in violence and crime, I would not be caught dead in:

New York City
Atlanta
Chicago
Baltimore
Los Angeles
San Fancisco
Portland

Liberty

USA Fails in Afghanistan

President Joe Biden blames his actions on the deal that was negotiated by former President Donald Trump with the TALIBAN in Afghanistan...

President Joe Biden did not take responsibility for how the US withdrawal in Afghanistan unfolded which is the problem that the rest of the world has with the USA...

President Joe Biden SCREWED UP or listened to his advisors who were deadly wrong... in either case, Biden made the final decision...

Also, since President Joe Biden has been president he has OVERTURNED several programs that President Donald Trump put into place... so, why could he overturn the deal in Afghanistan???

MORE IMPORTANTLY...

what does the rest of the world think about our decision and how we left Afghanistan?

what does our allies think about how we handled our exiting in Afghanistan?

will our allies support us next time?

what does our enemies think about how we handled leaving Afghanistan?

China
Russia
North Korea
Iran

DOES AMERICA REALLY WANT TO REMAIN BEING A GLOBAL LEADER?

Populist Press

Keamu Reeves

Spontaneous Creation

There is no place for God in theories on the creation of the Universe, Professor Stephen Hawking has said.

He had previously argued belief in a creator was not incompatible with science but in a new book, he concludes the Big Bang was an inevitable consequence of the laws of physics.

The Grand Design, part serialised in the Times, says there is no need to invoke God to set the Universe going.

"Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something," he concluded.

'Planetary conditions'
In his new book, an extract of which appears in the Times, Britain's most famous physicist sets out to contest Sir Isaac Newton's belief that the universe must have been designed by God as it could not have sprung out of chaos.

Citing the 1992 discovery of a planet orbiting a star other than our Sun, he said: "That makes the coincidences of our planetary conditions - the single Sun, the lucky combination of Earth-Sun distance and solar mass - far less remarkable, and far less compelling as evidence that the Earth was carefully designed just to please us human beings."

He adds: "Because there is a law such as gravity, the universe can and will create itself from nothing.

"Spontaneous creation is the reason there is something rather than nothing, why the universe exists, why we exist.

"It is not necessary to invoke God to light the blue touch paper and set the universe going." READ MORE

So Tiny

Our Metabolism

Blaming those extra pounds on a slowing metabolism as you age? Not so fast.

A new international study counters the common belief that our metabolism inevitably declines during our adult lives. Well, not until we’re in our 60s, anyway.

Researchers found that metabolism peaks around age 1, when babies burn calories 50 percent faster than adults, and then gradually declines roughly 3 percent a year until around age 20.

From there, metabolism plateaus until about age 60, when it starts to slowly decline again, by less than 1 percent annually, according to findings published Thursday in the journal Science.

To tease out the specific impact of age on metabolism, the researchers adjusted for factors such as body size (bigger bodies burn more calories overall than smaller ones) and fat-free muscle mass (muscles burn more calories than fat).

“Metabolic rate is really stable all through adult life, 20 to 60 years old,” said study author Herman Pontzer, an associate professor of evolutionary anthropology at Duke University and author of “Burn,” a new book about metabolism.

“There's no effect of menopause that we can see, for example. And you know, people will say, 'Well when I hit 30 years old, my metabolism fell apart.' We don't see any evidence for that, actually.”

Pontzer and colleagues studied a database of more than 6,400 people, ages 8 days to 95 years, from 29 countries worldwide who had participated in “doubly labeled water” tests.

With this method, individuals drink water in which some of the hydrogen and oxygen have been replaced with isotopes of these elements that can be traced in urine samples. READ MORE

Our Pets

Shape Shifting Fish

Scientists piloting a remote submarine have caught a rare glimpse of one of the deep sea’s most mysterious and elusive creatures.

The bright orange, female whalefish (of the order Cetomimiformes) was spotted half-swimming, half-gliding through the glare of submarine's lights around 6,600 feet (2,013 meters) deep offshore of Monterey Bay, California.

The whalefish sighting was one of only 18 made by marine biologists from The Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute during 34 years of deep-sea exploration.

"Whalefish have rarely been seen alive in the deep, so many mysteries remain regarding these remarkable fish," the Monterey Bay Aquarium Research Institute tweeted. "With each deep-sea dive, we uncover more mysteries and solve others."

So little is known about the lives of whalefish that for more than a century after their discovery (they were first recorded in 1895 by two Smithsonian Institution scientists), the three vastly different forms the animals may take across their life cycles were mistaken for entirely different zoological families.

First, there are the tapetails: scaleless larval forms with long, streamer-like tails and mouths that seem to have a comical overbite; they live and feed near the ocean’s surface.

When the time comes for these fish to assume their adult forms, two vastly different body shapes await them. READ MORE

Pages

Wednesday, August 18

Tuesday, August 17