No, I don't glow in the dark

This is a summary of my prostate cancer treatment at the Samaritan Pastega Regional Cancer Center in Corvallis Oregon during the fall of 2017.

My primary care physician  Dr. Athay, referred me to a Urologist because of elevated PSA levels and frequent urination. The levels were doubling every six months.  The Urologist, Dr. Brandt, did a prostate biopsy which indicated cancer in 3 of the six locations sampled.  The biopsy classified my cancer as a Gleason 8 which is very aggressive. The urologist referred me to a Radiation oncologist, Dr. Wahl. A bone scan indicated that the cancer had not metastasized.  A CT scan indicated that the adjacent organs and tissue were also cancer free. The treatment would be a hormone shot to stop testosterone production (which promotes the cancer growth), wait 6 weeks, then start 9 weeks of external beam radiation. The radiation treatments would be 5 times per week.  I turned 77 years old shortly before the treatments began.

The prostate gland is a walnut sized organ located next to the bladder.  It produces seminal fluid during an ejaculation of sperm.  Prostate cancer is the most common cancer among men (22% of all types of new cancer cases in 2016).  Since my father died of it at age 82, my risk of getting it was doubled. The survival rate is the best of all of the forms of cancer.  In 2016 there were only 26,210 deaths reported in the USA.  If the cancer is detected and treated early there is a nearly a 100% survival rate for 5 years. It is estimated that 1 in 6 men will get prostate cancer.  Most men with prostate cancer die of other causes such as heart attacks, strokes,  or age related illnesses. Prostate cancer is an old man problem. By comparison lung cancer, which is the second most common form of cancer, has a very high mortality rate. Prostate cancer has no known cause while lung cancer is preventable.

The radiation therapy machine (linac) is shown above. The linear accelerator is able to produce high-energy beams. Computers and software control the size and shape of the beams. The machine rotates around the stationary patient. Treatment takes about 15  minutes and is painless. The technicians get me lined up and then step out of the room to watch the treatment on monitors.

I experienced only two significant side affects. First the testosterone shot mellowed me considerably and squelched my sex drive. Secondly the radiation treatments caused fatigue. Before one of my treatments I fainted in the restroom and bruised my  hip, but luckily had nothing broken.

It is very important for the prostate position to remain stationary in the body during the 9 weeks of treatments. Therefore my weight had to remain constant. During each treatment a full bladder was needed. Also a balloon was inflated in the rectum with the result of "pinning" the prostate in exactly the same position for each treatment.  The abdomen had three dye markers which the linac used to make sure the body was correctly positioned.

Samaritan billed  the insurance company about $3,000 for each treatment. Medicare negotiated this fee to $1,500 pre treatment. My out of pocket was only about $60 per treatment.  I better last at least 5 years more in order to make it a good investment.

My support group is Janeil driving, super nice nurses, and a harpist in the waiting room. Also a free massage once a week that I didn't take advantage of.

Should Southwest Airlines Propose a Jumbo-bum Surcharge?

On our  flight from Portland to Chicago Midway we were boarding with only middle seats still available. We needed to sit towards the front so that we could later rush to our connecting flight to Manchester, N. H. with only minutes to spare. On the first seat available the people on both sides (aisle and window) were spilling over and under the armrests. The rotund lady sitting by the window had her large purse in the seat as if to say it was already claimed territory.  When Janeil asked for the seat the lady then mentioned that there were seats available in the back of the plane.

Janeil spent the whole 5 hours in the seat with her arms locked to her sides because the armrests were occupied. If she had been as clever as Steve Martin in the film Roxanne there are probably 20 retorts  she could have fired at her. Such as, "Did you pay for two seats?"

If people have posterior dimensions that take more than one seat width shouldn't they be surcharged just like excess baggage? Most airlines have a gauge to check the carry-on luggage dimensions. In a like manner the airlines could install a seat at the boarding area that has an alarm indicating when the flab limit has been exceeded. The surcharge would only be required when only middle seats need to be used.

Postscript, we made our connecting flight even though I forgot my coat in the overhead storage bin and had to elbow my way through the departing passengers to retrieve it.

Why don't you buy a canary?

My Nissan Frontier pickup has a cracked exhaust manifold. This means that exhaust gas can leak out between the engine and the muffler. One of the main components of this exhaust is carbon monoxide (CO). It is odorless and invisible. Nut cases who want to commit suicide park their car in a closed garage with the engine running and die. The person doesn’t   feel a thing; they just pass out and quit breathing.  

I’ve decided not to get the problem fixed immediately, the bill would be $410. My temporary solution is to drive with the truck windows down this summer. When it rains I’m going to take the CO detector from the bedroom and put it on the car seat beside me. When I explained this to Janeil her response was, “Why don’t you get a pet canary instead to ride with you? If it passes out before you do, you’ll know you’re in danger.”  

She would really like me to sell the pickup. When I checked with KIA Nissan here in Corvallis they weren’t interested in buying it at any price.  They said it was basically sound, but that it would cost them too much to make it “pretty enough” to sell.

MAYA MYSTERY

Mayan codices

Mayan sculpted glyphs

In the mid 1550’s the Catholic clergy under the direction of Bishop Diego de Landa collected and burned the ancient writings of the Maya in the Mesoamerica region.  These books were in the form of codices written on fig tree bark in the unique Mayan hieroglyphic language.  The Spanish masters felt they were ridding the Mayan people of idolatry.  Innumerable clay and stone artifacts were also smashed and burned.

“Thus, flames devoured the precious Maya books and the flames destroyed the cornerstone of Maya civilization, reduced to ashes the scientific backbone of a highly civilized people and sounded the death knell of independent Maya thought.” (Blom, The Conquest of Yucatan p 109).

The clergy banned the writing of hieroglyphics and within a generation the ability to write and read this remarkable language died.  Fortunately, the clergy could not destroy the writings that were sculpted on the temples, palaces, stela monuments and pyramids that lay hidden under mounds of decay in the Mesoamerican jungles.  When these ancient city-state buildings were discovered and reported by John Lloyd Stephens in 1841, an effort to revive the ancient Mayan writings began.

In the 1950’s the code began to emerge with brilliant work by numerous language “detectives”  This was aided by the discovery of the Dresden codex which had 78 leaves, each 3.5 inches by 8.7 inches, of text and pictures.  Since then the ancient Mayan language is now 90%  recovered with only a few glyphs untranslated. 

Two other mysteries have not yet been solved.  First how did the advanced systems of mathematics, writing, and astronomy seemingly appear fully developed out of thin air in around 600 BC?  Mayan language is one of only five independent systems known to human development.  Secondly, why did the social and political system of city-states that had been successful for 15 centuries suddenly cease to flourish around 900 AD?  The whole region went into a steep, irreversible decline with no more major building projects and no more genealogical chronologies carved.  Perhaps the destroyed codices could have given us the answers of why these kingdoms were abandoned.

Love Thy Neighbor

The neighbor's rat family has been enjoying our pear crop this year.  They have eaten over half of the pears on the tree.  So far they haven't developed a taste for the squash or tomatoes in the garden nearby.

We also wrote notes to the neighbors who have been parking too close to our driveway. I put some bright orange tree marking paint on the curb to try to "guide" the drivers. I have their license numbers and will use the "three strikes and you get a ticket" approach.

Unfortunately they will probably move their cars before the local police finish their donuts at the coffee shop.

My CPR Certification Experience

As a volunteer driver for Dial-A-Bus I'm required to re-certify in CPR/First-Aid every 24 months. The class took 5 hours. In addition to Dial-A-Bus drivers there were 6 students from the community college dental assistant program, 2 teenage baby-sitters who wanted an impressive resume, and a massage therapist. The AHA and Red Cross keep updating their policy.

Here are some of the latest CPR changes: (a) 30 chest compressions and 2 breaths cycles, (b) 100 compressions per minute regardless of the age of the victim, (c) AED defibrillators cost only $1,200 are readily available in public buildings like grocery stores, and (d) the main object of your aid is to get oxygenated blood flowing to the brain in less than 6 to 10 minutes.

First action after making sure the scene is safe:

After determining the victim is unresponsive and not breathing, point to a bystander and tell them to call 911, point to another bystander and tell them to get the AED and return immediately.

Regarding CPR:

1.  When you begin the 2 inch chest compressions on an adult you will hear "crunching" for the first 5-6 compressions. This heals itself later and you should understand it is not a bad thing.
2.  You may crack or break the sternum, vertebrae, or ribs. You may bruise the heart, puncture a lung, or lacerate the liver. While all of these would be bad, they are not worse than the patient's current condition (unresponsive and not breathing = dead). Oregon has a very fine Good Samaritan Law.
3.  Push hard and fast.
Continue until the patient revives, advanced care arrives, or you cannot physically continue.
4.  Once you start the AED,  DO NOT TURN IT OFF.  Continue to follow the instructions given by the AED. If the AED does a shock, it is trying to STOP the heart from useless fibrillation. You are trying to restart the heart's normal beating pattern with the follow up compressions.
5.  If it looks bad, it probably is or soon will be. Don't make it worse by hesitating. Act as you've been trained.

Regarding First Aid:

With ingested poison, call Control Center 1-800-222-1222.  Memorize this number.  DO NOT GIVE THE VICTIM ANYTHING UNLESS ADVISED TO DO SO BY POISON CONTROL!  Do not use Syrup of Ipecac unless instructed to do so.

If the victim is conscious you must ask them if you can help. If they say no, do not touch them. If they become unconscious ask them again. No response is an implied YES.

On third degree burns (charred) do not run water on the burn but apply cold wet dressing to cool the burn.

Put a sterile covering over a severe injury to keep it out of sight of the victim and bystanders.

Treat for shock by having the victim lie down, keep them warm, and raise the feet (unless it's a head injury).

Try to keep any bleeding wound lower than the heart to let gravity help stop the bleeding.

After the training, I was surprised how motivated I was to follow the motto, "Do the best you can for as long as you can."  We also have a family-sized Red Cross first aid kit ($25) being delivered by FedEx ($7).

Rocks in socks

For the second year in a row Pamela (Olsen) was the program director for the June cub scout district day camp in Central Point, Oregon.  The theme was Rocks and Stars and it lasted all week.  There were 180 boys attending.  Each day there were 7 forty-minute sessions.  The boys rotated to the various stations in patrols of a dozen kids with an adult den leader.  The archery range and beebee gun ranges are always favorites with the boys.

My station taught the boys how to find the hardness of a rock, which is one of the advancement requirements.  I had them each do the hardness tests on a chunk of obsidian (hardness 6) and a chunk of granite (hardness 7).  It was hands-on and they did really well.

Breaking geodes at Cub Scout Day Camp

Then we had the boys break open Keokuk Geodes which I had gathered from stream beds in Nauvoo, Illinois last summer.  For safety we had the boys wear goggles and also wrap the geode in an orphaned sock.  The boys would hit the golf ball-sized geodes with a hammer repeatedly until it broke open.  Almost all of the geodes had beautiful quartz crystals inside.  The boys added these to their pouches along with the other rocks which they had accumulated each day.  By the end of the day camp they will have about a dozen very nice specimens of many different types of minerals.

Pam and Esther had gone on many expeditions collecting rock samples.  Pam also purchased a supply of some of the harder to find minerals.  For example, there were quarter-sized pieces of petrified wood, gypsum, graphite, basalt, granite, quartz and obsidian.  The Olsen kitchen was a small sweat shop breaking larger rocks into 180 pieces of each of these.

During my sessions there were only two injuries.  One slightly smashed finger from a misdirected hammer blow which caused a 10-minute crying fit.  The other was a cut finger from a flying chip (which is why we had the boys wrapping the geode and wearing goggles).

In my opinion Pam did a superlative job of organizing and executing a character building week for 180 well behaved Cub Scouts.  The periodic morning rain and afternoon sun did not dampen the enthusiasm.