Thus far on this journey, we’ve had causes and effects and
precipitants on precipices; we’ve had surprises and monotonies and expectations
of expectorants; we’ve laughed, collapsed and risen from the dread (awful puns a
bonus).
We’ve made it to here with a now shrunken tumor. The full report
is still pending, but the initial review is promising. Now, on to the next
phase of my whack-a-mole game with R.C. (Rad Chemo):
Immunotherapy.
I could write a scientific
chapter & verse on this mode of cancer treatment, but you have Google, too.
Suffice and simply to say that it’s a way of training my body to attack cancer
from the inside out, instead of going at it from the outside in.
Just think of me as a human antic-cancer microwave. For the next
few months, that’s what I’ll be. I’m just hoping that my turntable doesn’t slip
off the rollers.
Meanwhile, because I think we both need a good distraction today,
here are three random mind clouds drifting by:
How did I get to be this old on this planet and not know about
allelopathy? (Go Google).
It’s best demonstrated by this pin oak in the back yard. Before my sweet scientist/plant biologist
wife Diane enlightened me, I didn’t know trees (or any plants) had this encircling,
stunting, survival mechanism. I always thought it was just tree shade
repressing the surrounding grass.
Silly boy.
How did I get to be this old (embarrassingly, as a New Englander) and
not know that sunflowers were not just that one big-headed smiley variety, but Ma
Nature also produces a variety that grows several heads?
Again, enter Diane, planting the surprise evidence in the side
garden.
How did I get to be this old (ESPECIALLY as a New Englander) and
not know that moose sometimes kneel to eat? If I thought about it at all, I
thought they operated more like wide-stancing giraffes.
None of the above, and all of the above, has everything and
nothing to do with my cancer. I’ll let you sort it out.
More as we go, El
