Something Changed

Well, I made it five days. I think I better not "officially" close down the blog anymore.

I'm writing this from McNairy Regional Hospital in Selmer. Apparently, the stretching that I pictured in the last post was not going to do the job. It turns out that the calf problem is a blood clot, perhaps two. I have a clot behind the knee, and then I either have another in the hamstring or the clot runs up into the hamstring as well.

Clots make medical professionals nervous. The doctor told me not to stop for lunch but to go straight to the hospital, get admitted, and get the first dose of Lovenox. Of course, that was almost two hours ago. "Hurry up and wait" applies just as much in the hospital setting as it does in the military.

So here I am praying that we won't be sent home with any Lovenox. Here in the hospital, they administer it by IV (I think). At home, it's a shot to the stomach that is occasionally terribly painful. Back in February I was getting insulin every day because I was being fed intravenously. Those shots were given to the stomach, too, but they didn't burn like the Lovenox shots. I much prefer the Coumadin pills.

Inserted note: no such luck. I got the Lovenox shot in the stomach. It didn't hurt at all when administered, but five minutes later it started burning. Fortunately, it was pretty mild and only lasted 10 or 15 minutes. I hate Lovenox shots. The IV insertion hurt a lot worse because it's a much bigger needle, but that doesn't bother me. It's those stomach shots that make me tense up and flinch.

Big Prayer Request

I was also notified by email that a lady who got a marrow transplant 4 days after me has relapsed.

I'm capable of despairing like anyone else, and her story hits really close to home. She has a leukemia they called biphenotypic, which means it's like both ALL and AML. Mine is not biphenotypic, but undifferentiated. That means, I believe, that they were able to determine that she had both lymphocytic and myeloid cells go bad. My cells went bad so early in their development that they were unable to determine whether mine were lymphoid or myeloid. However, I had symptoms of both ALL and AML, like she did.

She got a fully ablative transplant with chemo and radiation just as I did and just 4 days after.

Her picture on her blog looks familiar to me, though I know I never officially met her. Even if I had met her, she would have been bald like me.

When I got the email, I cried like she was my best friend and I was brokenhearted. That is very much not my typical reaction to bad news. (I'm much more likely to cry at good news.)

When I have unusual emotional reactions, I always look to God. Our Father will let us feel his feelings sometimes. It helps us understand him in whatever small way we can and allows us to touch the immense depths of his love.

So let me go out on a limb again and say that I think God is going to show his great power in Jennifer, and that this relapse is going to be an opportunity for him to be glorified. I have no idea how this could turn into a good thing, but I predict it will because God cares about this situation.

Wrapping Up the Story (Unless Something Changes)

This blog was created so that I could journal my experience with acute leukemia and its treatment. I haven't blogged since September 9 because I didn't have any real health news. I love blogging, I love telling stories, I love explaining the Christian Scriptures and church history, and I love writing about health and scientific issues.

This isn't really the place for any of that, however.

I don't want this to be anything except the story of my leukemia battle because I think it's a story worth telling. It's been inspirational, honest, and humorous (I've been told). More than one person has told me I could simply turn the blog into a book, which is what I've hoped for from the beginning.

Let me give credit to others who have written inspirational stories (many of whom are in my blog list). What I've gone through and written about is not unique, but hopefully my perspective has been both interesting and unique.

So here's to hoping this is my final post on this blog. I'm only coming back here if new problems arise. The slow return to health is not really an interesting story, or at least I don't know how to make it one. And I sure hope that is what is in front of me.

I've spent a lot of this day with my foot up because my calf is really painful. Day before yesterday, I did a walk/run of about two miles on Monday. My calf was just a little sore the next day. Nonetheless I did laps around the warehouse, including some sprints the length of our 30-yard makeshift soccer field.

Laying around on the couch this afternoon

The next morning was scheduled to be a family trip to Big Hill State Pond, which is supposed to have the best fall foliage in this area, and my calf was very sore. Big Hill Pond is aptly named, and the best trail there involves a couple big hills.

I had to make a decision. I knew that making the trip with my family would be a terrible idea for my leg. I couldn't miss the combination of nature and family, however, so I went. Four miles of hills were a bit more than my leg could tolerate, so I've been working on my back and taking ibuprofen the last two days.

It was worth it.

About three weeks ago a mile run/walk one day followed by soccer with my son and daughter the next day created the same effect on my calf. It was so painful that I scheduled an appointment with my primary care doctor to make sure it wasn't a blood clot. After an ultra sound, they assured me it wasn't a blood clot, and it healed up in just a week, which I was very glad for.

Hopefully this one will heal just as fast.

My last appointment with Vanderbilt was in mid-September sometime. They're very happy with how I'm doing. I'm having some GVH of the skin (rashes because my new immune system is attacking my skin), but it's mild and steroid cream is controlling it well.

The hemorrhoids have pretty much stopped over the last month, which is a life-changing improvement.

I'm still on minimal immuno-suppressives, and we won't try to wean off those until the GVH has stopped.

I feel like (and am hoping) this is the end of the story for me except a smooth transition back to full health. (I plan on walking a 5K November 3.) If you're new to this blog, you should start back at the beginning of the story when exciting things were happening. Or use my blog list to find others that are still in the midst of their battle, and please pray and hope for them.

If you want to know what's happening with me in the future, here's how:

• My new business: The Selmer Buzz
• My Christian history web site
• My Christian blog

Thanks for all your prayers and for following my journey. Please pray there's nothing more to follow!

Iliopsoas and Piriformis Stretches

I promised once to write a post on how I take care of my lower back. This is it.

Note, I'm not selling anything in this post. I am going to recommend a book at the end, but the advice on taking care of your lower back will cost you nothing unless you don't own a tennis ball. In that case, I am going to suggest you buy one somewhere. If you have lower back pain or sciatica and have never tried the two stretches recommended here, there's a halfway decent chance you'll find significant relief today!

I've done a lot of research on this because both my parents had bad backs, and I've had problems since I was in my 20's. Worse, My wife had two years worth of sciatica. We tried everything. We bought back programs, and we saw two different chiropractors and two different muscle therapists. We paid for treatments from a really impressive machine that gave my wife the equivalent of traction.

Most of the things we tried helped some. The problem was that she had a ruptured disk that was directly on one of the nerves that becomes part of the sciatic nerve. She ended up needing surgery to remove the debris from the blown disk. (We were thrilled to get Dr. Kevin Foley and his "minimally invasive" surgery. It seemed miraculous.)

Despite the fact that she needed surgery, we learned a lot along the way. I also took up long distance running as a 40-year-old so that I had my own sciatica and knee issues. The stretches I'm recommending here have a long history of being effective not just on me but on friends.

The Iliopsoas Muscle and the Psoas Major

Almost unbelievably, we have a muscle that anchors on the bottom six vertebrae of our spine. Yeah, really! Here's a picture of it!

From Wikimedia Commons, public domain

That's the psoas major. It is one head of the iliopsoas muscle. The other head attaches to the inside of the pelvis, which isn't so bad.

The psoas major is the reason you've been told not to do situps with your legs straight. In fact, nowadays most trainers don't recommend situps at all, just crunches. When you do a crunch, you lift just your shoulders off the ground and tighten your ab muscles. As soon as you lift your lower back off the ground, you engage the psoas major and yank right on the bottom of your spinal column!

That's not too bad with your legs bent, as the angle is better. With your legs straight, however, you have terrible leverage and your psoas major is mostly just compressing your disks, not lifting.

The other problem with the psoas major affects office workers or those who drive a lot. You can probably tell from the picture that if you sit down you are going to greatly shorten the muscle. That's not a problem until you stand back up. If you sit most of the time, when you stand back up the psoas major is going to be tight and feel like it's being stretched. As a result, it will squeeze those six vertebrae together, compressing the disks between them. That can lead to both a sore lower back and to nerve pain.

So here's how you stretch the psoas major:

Piriformis

The piriformis muscle helps rotate your leg. It runs from your tailbone to your femur at the hip. It is buried under your gluteus maximus, so it is very difficult to "palpate" (i.e., touch). In other words, you can't massage it. You can't really massage the psoas major, mentioned above, either. That's part of the reason they give so many problems.

I am going to tell you how to get a little bit of massage on the piriformis below, though.

The problem with the piriformis is that it sits directly on the sciatic nerve. If it gets tight and sore, it can press on the nerve and give you sciatica, which is shooting pains down your leg and sometimes numbness. In some people the sciatic nerve even goes right through the piriformis. (And some people don't have one!!!)

The piriformis can get irritated in anyone. Runners typically have problems with it. I'd imagine bike riders do, too.

I'm going to show you how to stretch it, and then how to massage it.

First, the stretch:



The stretch is simple enough, but I had somewhat minor sciatic pain from my piriformis for years in my late 30's. When someone showed me this stretch it was such a relief I almost cried for joy.

You can also massage the piriformis by sitting on a tennis ball on the floor. Massage therapists say that the piriformis basically runs right where the middle of your back pocket would fall when you're wearing jeans (assuming you're not "sagging").

You don't need to move around a lot. Find the sore spots and just put as much pressure as you can COMFORTABLY stand. Don't make it horribly painful. It's amazing how such "acupressure" relaxes the muscle.

You may find there's a lot of sore spots around your bottom and hips that are helped by such pressure.

WARNING: Just be very careful to sit where muscle is on the ball, not bone. It's really just your tailbone, the top of your femur (your hip joint), and the bottom of your pelvis that you need to avoid. Those are not hard to find.

Ok, I hope that helps.

Oh, wait. I promised to recommend a book. Instead, let me recommend a web site, where I think the best and cheapest amount of information on taking care of muscles and joints are. I've been using this site to help others for about 12 years, with immense success. The book I would recommend from that site is any of the "Pain-Free" series. "Pain-Free Living" is the most comprehensive, but it's also the most expensive. You'll find the other books, even though they're specialized for runners and triathletes, espouse the same principles and will apply to you, and they're cheaper.

The website is julstro.com. I get a commission if you buy anything from her site. I never feel better than when I'm recommending a julstro product.

Of course, try out what I wrote above and what's in the videos above. I'll bet 30% of the people who read this, assuming you're over 30, will find significant benefit from the stretches. Others will have friends who would benefit.

I've got a number of stories about people who've been helped by this advice that you can read at my Christian history site. I don't want to write a bunch of stories here and make this page longer.

Chemo Fingerprints and Tapering Again

Rather than start with something serious, let's have a little fun at my expense.

I'm bald again.

Why? Well, this has a lot to do with it:

Need a clearer view?

I decided that I had little enough hair that I could just trim it myself with the beard trimmer. It looks okay with a modern-style crew cut, so that's what I was going to do.

I forgot, however, to check the charge on my beard trimmer before I began, and it was completely dead by the time I was done with one side of my head.

Oops.

My trimmer doesn't run plugged in. Plugging it in is just for recharging.

We were one our way to Freed Hardeman University to finish enrolling Caleb,  and I really didn't want to show up there as a punk rocker. On the spur of the moment, all I could think of to do was to use the razor that doesn't require batteries. My good ol', three-blade, disposable razor.

It took a little while, but I got it. My disposable razor doesn't have a setting for "3-day beard" or anything like that, so bald seemed to be the only choice.

Everyone seems to agree that I look ten years younger bald, so I like that, but I'm not staying bald. Here's a picture in better light. I'm not mad; I'm just squinting at the sun and trying to hurry because I'm not supposed to be out in the sun ... especially with all that forehead exposed!

Resolving Last Week's "Seizure of Persons"

I was trying to think of a Christian way to deal with the events of last week. My arrest was not a big deal. I brought that on myself. My son's arrest, however, was ridiculous and leaving the issue alone so that it could happen to the next person did not seem like an option to me.

A couple days ago, I was struck by what should have been obvious. Just go talk to the sheriff, and see if he'll do something about the situation!

So yesterday I dropped in to make an appointment. He was in, and he saw me immediately.

I added this picture just to
have something pretty to contrast
all the pictures of me.

We went back and forth a little bit, but in the end, I think I have to acknowledge that there is no way for the sheriff's office to double check the warrants that are issued to them. He offered to show me the stack of warrants that they have outstanding.

They do have to be double checked, though, and some attempt needs to be made to contact those, like my son, that obviously don't need to be picked up in the middle of the night. Protection against unreasonable warrants is a right that the constitution says "shall not be violated."

The place that needs to happen, however, is in the county clerk's office, where the warrants are issued. As it turned out, the sheriff had already talked to my lawyer, and both of them had already talked to the county clerk's office. They are already putting a system in place so that appeals, which happen at the circuit court in the middle of town, are registered with the justice center, which is on the bypass on the edge of town.

I think they were embarrassed that no system was already in place, and they're rectifying that as fast as possible.

Does no one appeal decisions in this county? Is this really the first time this has ever come up? Maybe there's just not much reason to appeal a general sessions court ruling, and it happens very rarely.

I also talked to him about the condition of the jail cell, and the sheriff told me it's already their policy to clean the cells between prisoners. He promised to leave his office and go straight in to check on the condition of the cell I was in and ask about what happened last week.

So overall I was pretty happy with that. Our lawyer is involved in the discussions with the county clerk's office, so I'm confident he'll make sure the system they set in place will never again put him in the position of having one of his clients arrested while the case is on appeal.

Chemo Fingerprints

One thing I forgot to tell you was the great difficulty they had fingerprinting me last week. Fingerprinting has come a long way since I was fingerprinted every time I moved in the military in the 80's. No ink is involved now. There's a scanner, and it puts a picture up on a computer monitor.

The computer kept rejecting my fingerprints. Finally, the guy doing the fingerprinting asked to see my hands. Then he showed me the crevices running the length of my fingers, including right across my fingerprints. After he showed me those, he turned the monitor my way so that I could see that not only did I have these crevices running the length of my fingers, but I had tinier ones crossing my fingertips as well. We couldn't see them, but the scanner was picking them up. It looked like someone had made a checkerboard with tiny squares all over my fingertips. Behind that checkerboard, we could see the whorls, loops, and arches that are supposed to make up my fingerprint. It was like they were covered in a mesh net on the screen.

Can you see the lines on my fingers and the web design on my index finger? The computer could see them, too; better than it could see my fingerprints.

Here's a closer view. There's a lot more lines too small to see that the computer picked up.

So we took 7 or 8 prints of each finger, and then he picked the best one. The computer itself only approved one or two.

The Taper

After the rough month of July, I was scared on Monday when we dropped back to 7.5 mg of steroids instead of 10.

Worse, on Tuesday I was very sick. I was exhausted, had diarrhea, and I was constantly nauseous. I slept a good 7 hours over three naps during the day besides what I had slept the night before, and I went to bed at 9 pm.

Wednesday, I woke up feeling as well as I've felt since I left the hospital. I got up, took one of my cars to the repair shop at 7 a.m., then walked a mile to a different repair shop to pick up our other car. It was after that I went to see the sheriff.

I guess I really was sick on Tuesday, not just reacting to the steroid taper.

We'll see. We're not tapering any further until the doctors see me again, and that won't be until September 13.

Chemo Lines Revisited

I'm doing remarkably better now that I'm back on the steroids. I do need to repeat my note of self-justification that the amount of steroids that I am on is no more than what your body is making every day.

I am still fascinated by the "chemo line" effect. I wrote a couple months ago about the chemo lines on my fingernails. Those have grown out, but now I'm dealing with the chemo lines on my toenails, as seen below:

See that big line down the middle of my big toenail. All my toenails have lines like that. Some have grown to the end, and the closer to the end the chemo line gets, the more the nail separates at the line. You can probably see how one edge of my left big toe is separating already.

I didn't take the clearest photo. I just couldn't get the right lighting. Anyway, the chemo line on the toenail of the second toe has reached the end and half of it is loose, so I cut most of that half off.

It's not really a problem on my toes like it was on my fingers. The nails get real jagged and catch on every bit of fabric there is, especially socks, but I can just tape my toes up. Then there's no problem. I couldn't do that with my fingers because I have to wash my hands all day, use my fingers to do things, etc. Toes are mostly useless except for being stubbed and for a place for bees to survive and sting when you step on them barefoot.

Notice how crowded those right toes are? I have just one bunion. I'm going to give free bunion advice to anyone who wants it. First, mine's not bad (nor is it related to chemo, but to kicking a football in jr. high school), so if you have a severe bunion, my solution may not work. Here's what a bunion looks like:

See how big the knuckle of the big toe is? That's what's meant by a bunion. Calcium builds up in the knuckle, driving the big toe towards the other toes. It crowds your toes, and it can cause pain both inside the damaged knuckle and on the side of the knuckle from rubbing on shoes.

I never had the shoe problem, but the knuckle used to ache pretty much every evening unless I was off my feet all day.

The solution? I got some MSM/Glucosamine cream from Nature's Sunshine. (You can buy it all over the internet.) I used it topically on the knuckle once or twice a day, and within a week my toe joint didn't ache at all. That continued for a few months, then I quit for a couple weeks just to make sure the cream was the source of the improvement. It was. The pain came back in a few days.

Over the next two years I tried that experiment several times, quitting for a couple weeks, and the pain always came back in 3 or 4 days.

After about four years, I hit a point where I either forgot to restock or just got lazy and quit using it, and the pain has never come back. I haven't used the cream in six years, and my bunion hasn't hurt me the entire time.

If you have a painful bunion, I hope that works for you, too.

Oh, my daughter has a bunion. It works for her as well. She uses the MSM/Glucosamine cream for a while, then quits a while until the bunion starts aching again. Then I'll get her another tube. We probably only buy one tube every two years for her.

Weird post, I know, but I am just fascinated by the chemo lines. They are caused, by the way, by chemo killing the fingernail and toenail cells, then the nails going back to growing once the chemo wears off.