My Bacteria made me fat!

No I do not love snow

If you take in more calories than you use, you'll get fat. People on the average are getting fatter and fatter..more TV choices, more time at the computer, less walking..yeah, yeah, yeah. But people aren't the only creatures getting fatter, of 24 different species studied by David Alliison at the University of Alabama, from lab mice, cats, feral rats, monkeys, all of them are getting more obese. The only population that hasn't gained significant weight is dogs. Now these animals aren't spending more time at the computers and eating fast food. What gives? Various organisms and possible endocrine disrupting chemicals perhaps. There has been a proliferation in gut bacteria that extract more calories out of food for the host. Infection by a certain adenovirus causes obesity in animals. Certain chemicals in the environment such as BPA binds to receptors that trigger proliferation of fat cells.

Although I am firmer and more compact since my escape from cancerland, there is still too much of me to love. I try to run at least 25 miles a week and spend an hour or so lifting weights. I no longer eat fried foods and I've been cutting back on wine while increasing my fruit and vegetable intake.

We are waiting for the big snow. Naomi's classes were cancelled for tonight. No garbage pick-up tomorrow. We really haven't had much snow this year but there is always something making everything slippery.

Cytochromes are us

Maya and Sunny

Cytochromes are complex heme based units responsible for carrying out some chemical reactions in the body. The liver has many of these systems used in part to detoxify certain substrates. These cytochromes metabolize many of the drugs we take.
Tamoxifen can reduce recurrences in estrogen positive breast cancer (arotamase inhibitors do a better job but have more painful side effects) by 30 %. However, Tamoxifen  is not the active drug. The cytochrome CYP2D6 in the liver converts it to active species. But there are some problems here. 7-10% of people have faulty CYP2D6 systems and you can't tell them by looking at them. Also some SSRIs (antidepressants) interfere with the metabolism too so the estrogen ends up not being blocked and is free to stimulate those rogue cancer cells.
Earlier studies have shown that the recurrence rates are higher with these cytochrome deficient people but a huge study just released at the San Antonio conference contradicts that. These people's overall survival seems identical. Doesn't make sense to me. Perhaps Tamoxifen itself has some activity..but the question I forget to ask the oncologist who presented this the other week is if suppressing estrogen is so important, then why don't they measure the levels to make sure this is happening? Yeah, the whole business doesn't affect me personally as my tumor was estrogen negative but it does affect the grand majority of cancer patients.
Other cytochromes are important too. About 10 years ago, grapefruit was found to interfere with the cytochrome P450. Certain drugs did not get metabolized as expected leading to much higher blood levels of these drugs. It is important that statins get metabolized in the liver by this enzyme system. If metabolism occurs in the muscle instead, bad things happen.

The local news keeps flashing warnings of some huge snowstorm tomorrow. It was clear and sunny today but so, so cold. I wimped out and ran inside.

Last night we had a family dinner at Josh and Julia's house. Baby Maya was her most charming. It was a pleasant evening.

Harris Hill

Memories..they are fading fast. I used to be able to list all the teachers I ever had, at least in elementary school and now I am drawing a blank particularly around 5th grade. Not that that matters. But one memory still is firmly in my mind: the day I saw a plane crash on Harris Hill. Harris Hill is one of the oldest gliderports in the US. It is near Elmira NY, which is not far from Corning where I grew up. My father would take me there. He liked to photograph the gliders. But the plane that crashed was a tow plane as I heard its sputtering engine as it made a downward arc  sideways in the sky landing in some trees maybe a half mile away from me. The pilot must have reported trouble as firetrucks were already headed towards the trees. What year? I think 1958, but it could have been a year later or earlier. I was on the porch of the information center. I remember the panelling and the coke machine. I was drinking some Coke..a rare event in itself. Everything about that moment was so clear. I was young but I knew what I was witnessing was very bad and scary. I don't remember if I heard the crash though. I remember asking the next day whether the pilot died and I was told that the trees cushioned the crash but my parents weren't very upfront with me about reporting deaths. My pet turtle had died around that time. When I asked my mother where it was, she said that the turtle had told her that it was tired of living in a bowl and wanted to live somewhere outside. I wasn't aware that turtles could talk and even if they did, you didn't have to do what they say. I tried to look this accident up on the internet, and found  nada. My father is dead so he can't confirm this either.

While working out today at the Y, I ran into a former triathlon  training partner who also is a BC survivor, ten years now. When I first got BC, I thought about contacting her but I had felt guilty that I hadn't done anything for her while she was doing chemo. Our friendship had sort of sputtered out by then but still it was not a good excuse. She still had to work, had two small children and I think her POS husband had left her by then. They didn't have Neulasta in those days so she was very sick most of the time as her white blood cells were killed off by the Red Devil. Bad, bad Sue. When I first was diagnosed, it crossed my mind that this was karma for neglecting her and another woman. Of course I didn't know exactly what was going on at the time but I should have reached out. We compared notes, which was interesting. Treatment has changed quite a bit in the past ten years.

It is sunny out now..very pretty. Josh and Julia are making a belated birthday dinner for Steve. I had reminded him a few days before that his father's birthday was coming up but he said I needed to remind him on the day of. Hmmm.

My cute grandsons

They look like Siamese twins here

These were all taken by Shanna. I haven' t had the pleasure of seeing the boys myself in 2 months..Maybe at the end of February?

Thirty-one weeks

I watched Ms. Maya this morning while Naomi took her test and then worked out. She was 31 weeks yesterday..how time flies. I still haven't taken a good picture of her smiling. She smiles to greet people but doesn't smile much pass that unless you throw her up into the air.

Spent an afternoon in Ypsi..first at the excellent Vietnamese place there and then coffee at Beezy's  with a friend. Then I went to buy more baby stuff..

A winter weather advisory is in effect so I went out to run before it. Can't wait for spring!

At least....

Any attempt to assuage grief starting with the words At least should be quickly squashed.

At least it's a good cancer
At least you had those 50 years cancer-free
At least you could get pregnant
At least you had your child for x years

Now you can tell yourself all sorts of at least statements if it makes you feel better (counting your blessings would be another phrase for it) but it will never..never make anyone else feel better. What got me started on this is that my hairdresser suffered a loss recently and was told several outrageous at least statements. These did not comfort her. They either made her angry or made her sadder depending on the statement even though the intent was probably not that at all.

My hair is now carmel colored instead of white blonde with black and white roots. She managed to cut it so that I still have some waves or at least body without depending on too many hair products. If these waves go away, it will be back to the page boy pictured to the right with Steve...me before cancer. Are any of my readers old enough to remember Spoolies or Dippety-Do? Straight hair was considered a major cosmetic defect while growing up (along with being too tall and having big feet). I couldn't do much about the latter other than slouch, avoid heels, stuff my feet into too small shoes) but I could wrap my hair into spoolies, snap them shut, and sleep on these hard little nubs all over my head. The Dippety-Do made the curls last a little longer though it also made them crunchy and greasy looking. I wasn't very good at this: I would have shanks of straight hair amongst the pseudo-waves. Also I was cursed with cowlicks around my temples..those seemed to go away with chemo but give them time, maybe they will be back. Naomi has wavy hair but she will use a straightener if she has time. Julia completely wipes out all over her beautiful curls with one. Josh just has Julia cut his curls off if they start to appear. Who knows what hair Ms. Maya will have? I see straight pieces of blonde hair that in strong light seem reddish. She also has some little dark brown curls. She will be considered African-American but aside from her latte with extra milk skin, it isn't obvious that she is.

She had her 6 month check-up yesterday even though she is closer to 7 months. All is good though she had a boatload of shots, much more than any of my kids ever had. She has not continued her accelerated growth rate. According to their records, she gained less than a pound and didn't get any taller. She is now smaller than any of my kids at the same age and Daniel.( Daniel has caught up to his 18 month older brother in weight). She looks slim until you see her dimpled thunder thighs. Before the doctor visit, the public health nurse visited and tested her. She did well in her tests except one..looking for a noisy toy which she has done in the past with Naomi. The nurse is not fond of the Circle of Neglect for any amount of time but the doctor thinks it is fine for 10 minute intervals, which is about Maya's level of patience.

We went out to eat for Steve's birthday and I made him a birthday pie. He does not like cakes but he does like cherry pies.

As it was relatively warm today (24 degrees...)I ran outside before the snow was to start though the dusting already out there made things slippery around my house. We are supposed to get a inch or two. Shanna is supposed to get around a foot making her drive to the doctor's not so fun and impossible to park.

Double birthday

He turns three today

His favorite trucks: fire trucks and trucks that dig

He rarely sits still for a picture

Only one year old here. Three years ago, his grandpa got the best birthday present anyone could receive...a healthy, happy grandson.

Three years and a day ago, very early in the morning I received a phone call from Shanna saying that though she had more than 2 weeks to go before her due date, she thought she might be in labor. I told her I would be on my way within an hour. The car was already loaded with baby equipment from her sister-in-law, the GPS loaded with her address and that of the hospital, I just needed some money, some gas,  and to throw my things in a bag. That winter was very snowy but that day was sunny and the roads were clear. It was around zero outside.

According to my GPS, her apartment was 755 miles away. Could I make it in time? I really wanted to see my first grandchild be born. I hadn't slept much the night before; I finally had gone to sleep when the phone rang. I kept awake fueled by coffee and the fact I would soon see a grandchild. What would have been nice to have was an EZ pass (which I now have) as the many stops for tolls took time and I had little use of my left arm due to a fracture. I could not extend my arm and needed to cross my right arm over my body to deal with the tolls. I was also thwarted by NY, which is a very long state, whose law prohibited autofueling. I planned to multitask while getting gas but instead I needed to hold the cold metal down (zero degrees!) with no gloves.
I called every once in a while to see how the labor was progressing. Fortunately, very slowly. At one point, Shanna fell asleep, which in general means no labor. I had grabbed some Italian tapes in anticipation of my trip to Italy. These tapes had you sing key phrases. Some people can memorize songs easier than memorizing dialogs. I was hoping that this would work for me; it at least kept me awake. It was dark by the time I was driving through the snowy Berkshires. I made the trip in a record 12 hours. Fortunately I had easy border crossings, which sometimes can chew up more than an hour.I had gone through Detroit at rush hour and the sun glare had caused some accidents which delayed me somewhat. I was lucky not to have to deal with snow though high winds caused the existing snow to cover the road near Niagara Falls.

Shanna was still debating whether she was in labor when I arrived. She hadn't packed yet. Her apartment faced downtown Boston and there was a fireworks display that night which was fun to watch. It was also a Mom's dinner that night, which I had called to tell them that I was otherwise occupied. The moms all called to see how the labor was going. Around midnight, Shanna finally decided that she was in labor. She was 4 cm when we finally figured out how to get to the hospital in Cambridge (lots of no left turn signs..I thought we could ignore them with the excuse that Shanna was in labor but..). Shanna was progressing well with no pain meds. She was finally ready to push around 5 in the morning. The midwife decided to check her at the last minute and looked alarmed...she couldn't feel the top of the head! An ultrasound confirmed Oliver was breech. So I ended up missing the birth but I could hear his first cry and saw him being transferred from Shanna to a table minutes after his birth. Ramy brought him out to me when he was 10 minutes old. He clearly was a healthy little guy. I called Steve to wish him Happy Birthday and to tell him about his birthday grandson.