HEALTH and WEALTH

 

First, something about my health:

This Sunday I am going to the Mayo Hospital in Phoenix. I'll be there for two weeks.

I have cancer — multiple myeloma — and my oncologist has encouraged me to start the process of a Stem Cell Transplant. I'll provide some explanatory text, courtesy of the Mayo Clinic website.

Multiple myeloma is a cancer that forms in a type of white blood cell called a plasma cell. Plasma cells help you fight infections by making antibodies that recognize and attack germs.

Multiple myeloma causes cancer cells to accumulate in the bone marrow, where they crowd out healthy blood cells. Rather than produce helpful antibodies, the cancer cells produce abnormal proteins that can cause kidney problems.

I'm giving serious thought to this situation. Stay with chemo for a five - ten year prognosis or do the transplant for ten - fifteen years, if it works and if it doesn't leave me with worse quality of life due to side effects.
 

Prayer will help. That is the "wealth" I mentioned. I have friends and family praying for me as I contend with my cancer. I am right with God; His will is being done and I am OK with that.  
 

Stem cell transplantation. A stem cell transplant is a procedure to replace your diseased bone marrow with healthy bone marrow.

 Before a stem cell transplant, blood-forming stem cells are collected from your blood. You then receive high doses of chemotherapy to destroy your diseased bone marrow. Then your stem cells are infused into your body, where they travel to your bones and begin rebuilding your bone marrow.

If you're considered a candidate for stem cell transplant, your initial therapy will likely include a combination of treatments, such as targeted therapy, biological therapy, corticosteroids and, sometimes, chemotherapy.

Your stem cells will likely be collected after you've undergone a few months of treatment. You may undergo the stem cell transplant soon after your cells are collected or the transplant may be delayed until after a relapse, if it occurs. In some cases, doctors recommend two stem cell transplants for people with multiple myeloma.

After your stem cell transplant, you'll likely receive targeted therapy or biological therapy as a maintenance treatment to prevent a recurrence of myeloma.
 

"In a stem cell transplant, the patient gets high-dose chemotherapy (sometimes with radiation to the whole body) to kill the cells in the bone marrow (including the myeloma cells). Then the patient receives new, healthy blood-forming stem cells."

They will be "harvesting" some of my healthy cells the end of this month. (They will keep for a year or so.) These healthy cells will be used in an Autologous transplant:

For an autologous stem cell transplant, the patient’s own stem cells are removed from his or her bone marrow or peripheral blood before the transplant. The cells are stored until they are needed for the transplant. Then, the person with myeloma gets treatment such as high-dose chemotherapy, sometimes with radiation, to kill the cancer cells. When this is complete, the stored stem cells are infused back into the patient’s blood.

If that does not do the job, next step will be the Allogeneic transplant:

In an allogeneic stem cell transplant, the patient gets blood-forming stem cells from another person – the donor. The best treatment results occur when the donor’s cells are closely matched to the patient’s cell type and the donor is closely related to the patient, such as a brother or sister. Allogeneic transplants are much riskier than autologous transplants, but they may be better at fighting the cancer.

Side effects for either procedure will be a lower immune system and possible kidney damage leading to dialysis.

Ecclesiastes 12 Remember Your Creator in Your Youth 1 Remember now your Creator in the days of your youth, while the evil days come not, nor the years draw near, when you shall say, I have no pleasure in them;  2 While the sun, or the light, or the moon, or the stars, be not darkened, nor the clouds return after the rain:  3 In the day when the keepers of the house shall tremble, and the strong men shall bow themselves, and the grinders cease because they are few, and those that look out of the windows be darkened,  4 And the doors shall be shut in the streets, when the sound of the grinding is low, and he shall rise up at the voice of the bird, and all the daughters of music shall be brought low; 5 Also when they shall be afraid of that which is high, and fears shall be in the way, and the almond tree shall flourish, and the grasshopper shall be a burden, and desire shall fail: because man goes to his long home, and the mourners go about the streets: 6 Or ever the silver cord be loosed, or the golden bowl be broken, or the pitcher be broken at the fountain, or the wheel broken at the cistern. 7 Then shall the dust return to the earth as it was: and the spirit shall return to God who gave it.  8 Vanity of vanities, said the preacher; all is vanity.

 

 

SEER OF MUCH, SAYER OF LITTLE.

I'll let the music do my talkin'.

SCAPEGOAT redux

"Clever and prescient".

"Ahead of his time".

"Speaks faster than he thinks".

 

Those are some of the favorable comments experts agreed to publish regarding my blog efforts. This post originally ran last summer. Specific examples can be expanded to include most of what is currently coming out of DC.

 

The Secretary of State, Attorney General, President, Commissioner of The IRS, any of the top people are saying things like "Gee, I didn't know about this" or "Gosh, they never told me ..."

 

They are lying. They are setting up circumstances to throw low-ranking subordinates under the bus. They cannot find enough underlings willing to fall on their swords so they will line some up for the drop. Grab. Toss. Done.


I'd like to see these epitaths on top-ranking tombstones. After the tar and feathers, that is.

"Not my fault"

"What difference does it make?"


Nothing has changed since this post first appeared. Well, yeah, it has. It has gotten worse. 

scape·goat

  skeyp-goht  noun


Things are not changing much in the Mid East, haven't really changed for centuries.
That is because the world is made up of people. Hmm, ya oughta write that down.

I first posted this to acknowledge Israel's high holiday, and from whence comes the modern day usage of the concept. I'm showing it again because the elections are drawing nigh and we get to see people doing what they do best, which is lying, cheating, and stealing. Only this is not ordinary people, folks like you and me that live normal ordinary feet-on-the-ground lives. 

This is Politicians, who cloak themselves in Sanctimony and Righteousness. Funny thing is, their blood flows red same as ours.   


We start with this:

  

1.

Chiefly Biblical . a goat let loose in the wilderness on Yom Kippur after the high priest symbolically laid the sins of the people on its head. Lev. 16:8,10,26.

Fast forward:

2.

A person or group made to bear the blame for others or to suffer in their place.

Hitler in his rise to power used the Jews as scapegoats. Mid-thirties and the German people were suffering the Depression same as we were back here. He said something like:

"You know why you're poor? Why you are suffering, unemployed, got no food, so forth?"

"It's because of the Jews. Look at 'em, they have food, they got jobs (many bankers, lawyers, doctors - chas) they are the cause of your suffering."

 

 

Hitler stirred them up and told them if they voted him in, he had solutions.

We know how that turned out.

Any of you that read this blog have your eyes open. This is not news.

Seems to me that we are headed in the same direction. Not with the Jews. With the current powers that be blaming our troubles on Reagan, Tea Party, White folks, rich people, patriots, Christians, look at the watch list.

Check out the Fast & Furious scandal. Benghazi, The VA wait lists. They are lining up some poor schmendricks to take the fall. Stonewall and lies and some poor bastard to throw under the bus. The money, immigration, the wars, whatever is fucking up real good is, well, it's not my fault. 

IT'S NOT MY FAULT  I'd love to see that as Obama's epitath.

Oh. Gee. That goes on his tombstone after he is dead ... Oh.


 

 

SUNDAY MUSIC

Psalm 100

King James Version

 

 Make a joyful noise unto the Lord, all ye lands.

² Serve the Lord with gladness: come before his presence with singing.
³ Know ye that the Lord he is God: it is he that hath made us, and not we ourselves; we are his people, and the sheep of his pasture.
⁴ Enter into his gates with thanksgiving, and into his courts with praise: be thankful unto him, and bless his name.
⁵ For the Lord is good; his mercy is everlasting; and his truth endureth to all generations.

ADIOS CALIFORNIA

  Hive mentality.

I observed and reported on prior visits to NorCal (Castro Valley). Found the same atmosphere and head space down in SoCal. Maybe flock of sheep but the insect analogy seems more fitting. A California band put out a song "Hotel California" and it suits the state.

Note:This excludes the Central Valley which is like farm & ranch other places, American flags and churches abounding.

The coastal area is indeed like a hotel. Many residents/workers are as obsequious as hotel staff. Most have entry level jobs, take what they can get because there are six people waiting to replace them. Buyer's market. Dressed to the nines, working two jobs to stay afloat, grovel when they have to, keep boss happy. There is a quiet desperation in their eyes, they know something is out there circling in for the kill but they don't know what it is, or won't admit it. As long as the surface tension holds they're OK. Nice cars, upwardly mobile meaning run as fast as they can to stay even. Hampster on a wheel comes to mind. 





We stayed around Long Beach with some long-time friends. On the way home we went south to San Diego. As soon as we hit San Diego the people changed. Quick take: like farm & ranch with military influence. They do not appreciate the open border crisis. I am back in familiar populations with real life values. For anyone living along the Cali coast the bug out vehicle of choice would be  a motorcycle. Not a big one, say 500cc max, quiet exhaust. Getting out of any large urban area would require it and especially in Cali. Everything runs on freeways, surface streets are built grudgingly and without flow patterns. Someone who knows his way around could traverse them but a stranger would need the mobility of the bike. It would take ten minutes to gridlock the whole state highway system with a team of two dozen in synch. Shudder.

When the grid goes down they'll be eaten (perhaps literally) by the ghetto blacks and browns.
 





The residents of the coastal areas are oh so nice; I can see they would be good neighbors. Green. Eco-friendly, yearning to save just one child.

I think proximity to the Pacific Ocean might explain some of the behavior. Nice white teeth, kind and gentle demeanor. Softer than a sneaker fulla shit my father would say. Went down to Huntington Beach but I didn't see any of those surf bunnies that got bra size higher than their IQ.






Never made it into San Francisco, or "San Francisco" as the locals call it. If I did I would be double-dawg certain to do as this guy suggests. You know, to blend right in:





I probably woulda felt more at home in the Central Valley. Drag strips, farm & ranch, meat eaters. Is not Altamont in around there, up near Livermore?

A few years ago the Brocker went on a trip to Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island and discovered noticed the Atlantic Ocean. That's my kind of ocean. Besides, the Brocker doesn't look anything like Lucy. Actually we're more like Fred and Ethyl but that's a story for another time.

TALK IS CHEAP

As for blogging, The most impor­tant tasks of the aspir­ing blogger are:

(1) blog daily;

(2) link head­lines;

(3) excrete out­rage - vainly, and rep­e­ti­tiously;

(4) throw on some boobs;

(5) don't drink, and don't die;

(6) use post titles that contain buzz words to attract strangers;

This lifted off the pages of The Washington Rebel some months ago, before it imploded. The sophistry and polemical discussion on that blog site reached critical mass:

I doubt the efficacy of teaching, though it's noble indeed to attempt it. Witness the enormous learning, wit, and insight of so many wonderful bloggers whose voices can now be heard. Still, as entertaining as their efforts are, it seems to me that the effect of their work in defeating the liberal, grifter enemy is marginal. Colonel B. Bunny

 

 

NOT ELEVATOR MUSIC

I do not trust people, places, and things the way I once did.
I avoid crowds. I avoid elevators too. Matter of fact, there's a lot of things I avoid these days.

 I abhor surrendering control to others. [Not the I want to do everything my way control.] The safety and well-being of me and mine control.

DPJK is on my family crest. (Don't Play, Just Kill). That sound harsh to you? Look out your window, see what is going on around you.



The music which follows does not contain any heavy messages meant to back up my declaration. It is just stuff I like to hear. I play music like this, open up a new tab and browse a few links. The music keeps me in sight of shore.