Gator Pam

I spent the last two days making a new-to-me keto vanilla blackberry cake for my birthday.. Everything was made from scratch, including the sugar free blackberry jam. It came out decent.

Ooo... Last year was my bedian birthday. This year it is special for everyone!

Back from the hematologist. Huzzah! The increase is so small, she says to stay the course on the dose of walking chemo I'm on, and follow up in three more months.

Finally received test results from the biopsy done at the end of December, while a different area, results were the same as the other biopsy I had done last August on the bladder: precancerous lesion. So, no treatment on either area for now, but annual follow up required for both. Follow up with hematologist today, so I'll learn if my walking chemo is going to be increased, or what the next step is.

Thanks. HomeinKS! I do suspect we'll decide to raise the dose of my walking chemo back to where it was, and that my body will then return to "remission." Perhaps we could then go for the five years suggested, and taper the dose off by quarters, rather than in half to start. We'll see what she says on Thursday.

Thanks Reinholt1!

Well fudge... So, a brief explanation. My chronic myeloid leukemia was in "remission," due to the high dose of my walking chemotherapy. I put remission in quotation marks, because as a chronic condition it never goes away. But it was at a level where it was no longer detected without doing a bone marrow aspiration (never again, please G-d). About a year ago, my hematologist told me of a study where CML patients were taken off of their chemotherapy completely. About 50% of the patients remained in "remission," and were able to remain off of the chemo. She and I decided we would like to give this a try, especially as the walking chemo puts me in the immunocompromised group, and effects what type of work I can accept as a classified substitute. The study was done on patients three years in remission and longer. I was six months away from that point, and eagerly awaited my three year anniversary. When that point came, my hematologist told me that she had consulted on my case with Dr. Brian Drucker, the inventor of the walking chemotherapy I take. His advice was to wait until I was at least five years in "remission," but he didn't see any harm in reducing my dosage, and seeing how my body responded to that. So, we cut my dose in half. My hematologist wanted to closely monitor me at first, so instead of having my blood work done in three months, as was my norm, the first test was done after a month. That came back negative, and we decided to go back to testing in three months. I just got the first three month tests results back. I meet with my hematologist this Thursday, my 61st birthday. I'm pretty sure these results are saying I am not in the fortunate 50%. *sigh*

...and, to all those celebrating according to the calendar of the Orthodox churches:

Joyous Epiphany to all celebrating!

Rabbit Rabbit Rabbit Starting the year off right... Happy New Year!

Upload them to a web hosting site. I use imgbb.com to host my photos. Go to their site, click on upload from your device. Select your photo, click Done. You can add additional photos the same way. Once all photos are loaded, click on each photo one at a time to edit. I set the top number to 450 and allow the bottom number to automatically adjust. Click on Submit. Once you edit each photo, click Upload. When your photos are ready, copy the BBCode for full linked, then paste that code in a reply box or a new post here. Once posted, remove anything that says [url=http://imgbb.com]or [/url]or anything similar. Leave the code which says [img=photo code text.jpg]or similar. Hit preview post to see if it worked. Once happy with it, hit reply. Hope that helps.

I was hoping to see the conjunction. Instead, we got snow flurries.

^this^ I recall I asked len to start a dehydrator thread in The Lounge, and he replied he would enjoy doing so, but it would have to wait as he had quite a few commitments he had to take care of. I don't know if that ties in to his prolonged absence, but maybe?

Members of Dream Theater and former members of TSO put together a Chr-stmas show several years ago they have been touring. I wanted to hear the music first before buying tickets to the show, but have been unable to find anything on YouTube prior to this year. Due to the pandemic, Symphony North was unable to tour. So, first they uploaded a complete song set, played socially distanced from band members homes. I gave the set a listen, but like TSO albums, without the accompanying narrative, it just struck me as OK. In fact, while the musicianship is good, it doesn't seem as polished musically as TSO. However, tonight Symphony North premiered a two hour narrated and illustrated story of The Bell Ringer, including all 22 songs. If you're a fan of TSO's stories, I highly recommend finding a couple of hours to sit and enjoy. We were able to watch on our large screen smart tv, which has YouTube without needing to load a browser. It's definitely worth a viewing.

*cross posted* I'm not the best vocalist, but if anyone wishes to see the three blessings for the first candle lighting, I recorded a live stream on Facebook tonight y'all are welcome to view. חֲנוּכָּה שַׂמֵחַ! https://www.facebook...57869677456365/

I'm not the best vocalist, but if anyone wishes to see the three blessings for the first candle lighting, I recorded a live stream on Facebook tonight y'all are welcome to view.חֲנוּכָּה שַׂמֵחַ! https://www.facebook.com/560391364/videos/10157869677456365/

חֲנוּכָּה שַׂמֵחַ!

חֲנוּכָּה שַׂמֵחַ!

Back at ya!

According to email received this morning...

I use imgbb.com to host my photos. Go to their site, click on upload from your device. Select your photo, click Done. You can add additional photos the same way. Once all photos are loaded, click on each photo one at a time to edit. I set the top number to 450 and allow the bottom number to automatically adjust. Click on Submit. Once you edit each photo, click Upload. When your photos are ready, copy the BBCode for full linked, then paste that code in a reply box or a new post here. Once posted, remove anything that says [url=http://imgbb.com]or [/url]or anything similar. Leave the code which says [img=photo code text.jpg]or similar. Hit preview post to see if it worked. Once happy with it, hit reply. Hope that helps.

Please tell mom she looks lovely, and I love her tabletop Chr-stmas tree.So festive!

If you're looking for an item which has not been discounted at all, today may be the day to order. I didn't try putting say, the Smoke X4 in my cart, but supposedly the whole site is 20% off any one today. Good luck!

I was expected, HuzzahVery quiet day, but a good slow pace to returning to work after such a long break.