Breast Cancer News

Right now, the San Antonio Breast Cancer Symposium is happening with new information coming in every day. Pat Prijatel of Positives about Negatives(http://hormonenegative.blogspot.com/) is there reporting updates about TNBC. So far, nothing earth-shattering on that front. They are still looking for that magic marker that could be targeted. So far androgen is the front runner followed by p53 gene based deletions.

However for advanced estrogen positive BC, my former company is reporting a new agent that extends the period of progression free survival almost 4 fold by targeting some cyclin dependent kinase involved in tumor reproduction. From its research number, I know when the drug was first made (10 years ago!!!!) because I had submitted a clinical candidate for a completely different therapeutic indication within a month of it. I also know it was made by a lab about 50 feet away from mine. This is big news since the usual 'good news' involves agents that extend this same survival by 50% meaning instead of the cancer returning after 4 months, it returns after 6 months. They call this 'significant' which it may be statistically but.....
The fly in the ointment is that it needs to be taken with an aromatase inhibitor and that the population studied was relatively small  (190 patients?). But if the results hold up in a larger study, which I hope is ongoing, this will help many Stage 4 BC patients and in a purely selfish  aside, help fund my retirement as I am still somewhat dependent on the success of this company though we recently reduced our 'risk'. And I have more friends with Stage 4 ER+ BC than ER-, I would like to give them hope.

Also reported: optical mammography. This involves a hand held device which can visualize a potential tumor using infrared rays. This will not replace x-ray screening but it will narrow down which lesions need to be biopsied. As it is now, 80% of lesions biopsied turn out not to be cancer. These ladies are scared to death needlessly. I knew that 80% figure when I was told my mass needed biopsying and tried to get reassurances from the unpleasant radiologist that I am probably among the 80%, right? No...not with your history. What she didn't add was she knew from the way my mass looked that the chances it was benign was about zero. The other radiologists I met up later with told me that.

Later on the national news, there was a teaser  about a breakthrough in breast cancer treatment that will save thousands of lives. Well I had to see what that was.  It turns out that if one takes anti-estrogen therapy for ten years instead of five years, recurrence rates are cut in half. I had wondered why anti-estrogen therapy was only used for 5 years when the cancer had almost the same chance of recurring at 9 years versus 4 years. But as numerous people have told me, these drugs are no picnic. I am sure this is not good news to those who experience so much pain on them.

Back in the Land of ex-Tumors, it is sunny and cold. It was 58 and rainy yesterday morning when I tried to get a short run in before my many duties of the day started. Who thinks retirement is sitting staring into space? We had Ms. Maya while her mom tried her hand at advising men in upscale clothing. She has to learn as she goes. Her positives: cute, personable (when she wants to be, I of course have seen her not-so-personable side) and engaging. Downsides: confusing computer codes that change daily and really no advanced knowledge of men's clothes. Many men wanted feedback on how they looked and what would be their best color. This she can do. She learned how to  measure. She was surprised that so many men apologized for being overweight. She thought only women had such body issues. In the end, she made 50% of her sales goals (not decided by her) and they seemed happy with her.

While we had Ms. Maya, she grabbed the remote and a crayon. The remote she pretended was a phone which she  held up to her ear. The crayon, she pretended was a cigarette which she held daintily in between her fingers bringing it up to her mouth taking several 'puffs'. Who was she mimicking!!!!! Must be a woman the way she held the cigarette. Naomi was quite upset when we told her this. She hadn't seen this behavior before so Maya must have learned it recently. An angry call was made to Dontae..probably one of his sisters. But we don't want Maya exposed to smoking.

The Gloaming

The gloaming is the quiet time right before sunrise and right after sunset. All is quiet and dark. I waited most of the morning for the fog to lift but it did not. I took my bike out anyway sure that sooner or later the fog would lift. I did not go on my main roads as visibility was so poor and I have no flashing lights. I went on a favorite dirt road covered with slip. If you ever took a pottery class, you'd know what slip is; a mix of water and clay. It is slippery. The decaying coating on my glasses(relief should be soon) did nothing to deter my lenses fogging. Although it was light out, with all the fog and the stuff on my glasses, I was essentially in the dark. I rode from memory hoping that I would not hit the big potholes. It was warm out (December now!!!) so I was comfortable. Travelling with only being able to make out shadows seemed so surreal.

I was obsessing again for little reason. According to a tracking code, my photobook had been delivered Sunday to my house my the US Postal Service. On a Sunday? At the time listed, both Steve and I were home but no book. FedEx was responsible for the original shipment. I called them to say that no I didn't get the delivery but they were useless. They said I needed to give them the delivery label, which I didn't have as I didn't receive the delivery. I had seen a USPS truck out on my street that day so they do deliver on Sunday (FedEx said they did not despite what the tracking said). Right after my bike ride, a neighbor came with my book from 2 blocks away. Her address is one digit different. Our dyslexic postman has given me her mail in the past. So all that fuming about nothing. I had been afraid that the book was delivered to those kids next door who would have just thrown it away.

Hope was back at the yoga class after being gone for a month. I had worried about her but now I have a way to contact her. She will have 2 baby girls in late March. She had left to be able to watch the ultrasound that told them that. Since they had so much trouble pinning down Maya's sex, I figured it would be more difficult with 2 babies blocking the view of each other. How many stage 4 BC patients are expecting twins? Her babies are being carried by a surrogate. 

Dark Parks and Weatherballs

These are two things new to me until this fall. A dark park is an area in which you can view the stars without any competing light sources. There are several in Emmett County, Michigan, where we stayed in October.
Several towns have weatherballs which are beacons that most of the residents can view outside their windows and can forecast the weather tomorrow by decoding flashing colors. Grand Rapids, Michigan still has one. Now with the advent of smartphones, some communities are shutting theirs down. Who needs to look at flashing, colored lights to tell the weather?

I have been staying off this blog in order to concentrate on my last photobook for a while. My task has been complicated by some bug in the photo uploading program in this particular brand (which I won't use again!!!) that reduces my photos to unusable shadows of their former selves. This has happened before and some of my photos were permanently destroyed as I had not made copies. So I had to figure out which ones were wrecked, find the originals, make copies and upload again. I am almost done but this has taken way too long.

It is warm out. I will go on a long bike ride once the fog lifts. Naomi is excited about a new job but it means we will have extra Maya duty. Things are difficult for her but she remains optimistic about everything. Don't want to burst her bubble...

Moms' group was fun with good food and good friends. My pear dessert didn't turn out as well as I hoped as the pears did not ripen enough in time.

Not in a dark park but in my neighborhood. Maya and the lights

We had lunch with Josh yesterday. Things are still unsettled in his life. I wish I could solve all their problems but I have to step back.

Amahs

Above: various cellphone pix of the grandkids over the last few days. The blue and green blanket Tess is sitting on, I made for Josh when he was an infant.

Our neighborhood has a large Asian population. While the parents work, the grandparents take care of the kids. Many of the grandparents do not speak English. Since many of them believe that fresh air does a child good, I encounter them, no matter how cold it is, while I run. There is this one Asian lady I run into almost daily. Her grandchildren must be school aged as she is free to explore the neighborhood by herself. If she sees me coming, she will swing her arms in the same exaggerated manner that I do. I thought she was making fun of me. Yesterday, she was outside of my house while I was finishing up. She gave me many positive gestures (no English) so I guess she really wasn't making fun of me, just acknowledging me.

We now have a brief warm period. Yay! Mom's group tonight. I bought pears several days ago in anticipation but alas, they did not ripen enough.

Again I have a deadline to finish a photobook. I buy these Groupon deals several months in advance thinking I have all the time in the world but soon I get a message saying I have 3 days left and then I scramble.

Cataracts

Maya came with us to my eye appointment

These look better on her than on me

She liked the horse that made galloping noises

For the past few months, my vision has become worse and worse. I let them talk me into this coating the last time I got glasses that now has disintegrated so much , the lenses are quite cloudy. On top of it, I seem to be developing cataracts but as the optometrist said, it isn't the end of the world. The surgery needed to get rid of them would also obviate my need for glasses. As it is, they aren't bad enough to justify the surgery but maybe in 2-5 years.

I was able to bike early this morning though my toes were frozen from the ride. I rarely bike so late into the year. I used to have neoprene foot covers but who knows where those are. I saw just one other rider and he had neoprene this and that on.

Strange searches

On Statcounter, there is a page which tells you how a reader came across your blog. Some readers come from other blogs; others know my url. But some are here for specific searches. What has been most popular lately is "How to isolate a drug". The drug in question is caffeine. I used it as a demonstration at work to show kids how we operate. The other is a diorama of a Chippewa village Shanna made as a 5th grader out of papier mache.

But then there are some weird searches. Several times, a picture of Shanna as an 8 year old was a result of a search for 'cute, nude, young boys". Ugh. She is a girl, not nude though she was young and cute. Today was a search of a child with Marfan syndrome and they came up with a photo of Naomi as a 10 year old. Yes she is tall and thin but does not have the other features of Marfan's.

We finally figured out how to put a password on our WiFi. Not sure if those crazy kids next door sucked off our internet for free but now they can't. Also I read about a scary court battle. Some downloaded child porn was traced to a certain ISP and a search warrant was issued. The owner of the ISP had no bad stuff on their computer but it was noticed that he had unsecured  WiFi. The authorities then used a program to see who was sucking it up and came up with the suspect whose defense was that it was an invasion of policy to hunt him down in such a manner. There is no expectation of privacy for the owner of the ISP but some one who 'borrow' WiFi might think they have 'an expectation of privacy'. After going back and forth, it was determined that the freeloader had no expectation of privacy either and was prosecuted.

So computers can be seized at any time. and apparently, individuals can trespass and take photos through windows that can't be viewed from the street to be used as evidence. Such is life.

Maybe it will be warm enough to bike tomorrow. At least it was dry enough to run. Another lazy day. Steve and I had a nice Latin lunch with empanadas and posole roja.

Mama Sunflower

At the start of our breast cancer yoga class last night, the director came in to let us know that our beloved teacher had a recurrence of her breast cancer. This time it is all over the place. She just adopted an infant early this year who she refers to as Baby Sunflower. She is Mamma Sunflower. Such a sweet, gentle soul who I believe isn't yet 40. So unfair. A letter from Mama Sunflower was read to us saying that she will be a yogi among us instead of teaching the class. She is on a clinical trial in which some of her cancer cells are removed in order for artificial antibodies to be developed which are then inserted. It is  hoped that these antibodies  go out and destroy the cancer cells. They do have a similar procedure marketed for prostate cancer.

She had been feeling some pain which she had attributed to carrying Baby Sunflower but no, it was liver pain. Lesions were found within. Further scans showed similar lesions in her spine and lung. She had early stage breast cancer around the same time as I did, not sure what kind. In general, BC in younger women is more aggressive.

We were all in tears. It was hard to concentrate on the exercises  led our new teacher, Ms. Noodle, named by me as she said we were to emulate a wet noodle whereas I can only emulate a uncooked noodle. If I bend too much, I crack. Unlike Mama Sunflower, she has not had breast cancer. Although she had characterized our class as restorative, it exhausted me and I am among the healthy. She will need to dial it down a bit.

After my run, I took Maya to the library storytime where her cousins and aunt were. Then total chaos at my house for the afternoon.

I was discussing retirement with a friend the other day. She is afraid of it because, what would one do? Somehow, even with all this time on my hands, I don't have enough time to get things done. I have a list.....