Wednesday, January 23, 2008

Maybe it's a stretch, but ...

With all this reading I have been doing, I came across a fascinating tidbit: a microscopic organism---bacteria, really---called Helicobacter pylori. It was discovered in the early 1980s by an Australian medical researcher who established that it is the leading cause, maybe the only real cause, of ulcers (not stress).

It takes up residence in the lining of the stomach, in the mucosal tissue, and---surprise, surprise---it also causes lymphoma.

Before it gets that far it causes all manner of gastric distress, which I had a great deal of last summer and early fall: bloating, gas, diarrhea . . . all sorts of fun. I thought it was just a new phase of my lactose intolerance, which I have had for years. But maybe---just maybe---there is a connection.

It kind of makes sense. Helicobacter pylori gets into humans from fecal material, contaminated water (we draw our water here at Duane Lake from the lake, a veritable pool of goose poop, although we have a $5,000 water treatment system in the basement). And---get this---the medical literature says there is a suspected association with sheep. Could 20 years of having sheep be a possible source of this lymphoma? It sounds like a stretch.

Anyway, Dr. Schlossberg, my oncologist, was kind enough not to laugh when I shared all this with him and said it would be worth it to test me for H. pylori. The intriguing thing is that the H. pylori often can be eradicated and, when done, the lymphoma often (not always) recedes pretty quickly thereafter.

Aside from all that?

I was feeling pretty good last week. I got to the gym four times, slept pretty well. Then, this past weekend, I began having problems sleeping again and seem to have caught myself a cold. It is interesting how one's mind begins to run when you catch your first cold after being told you have an impaired immune system. Something like "Oh, crap," or words to that effect.

I also had quite a few "itchy sessions" during those bad-sleep nights: all part of the package called Chronic Lymphocytic Lymphoma. I'm not going to dwell on it, but there it is.

This morning I had my first bone marrow "extraction." It wasn't anywhere near as bad as I thought it might be. It was less painful than a dentist drilling. I should know in a week or so whether the lymphoma / leukemia has gotten into the bone marrow. The doctor said, even if it has, it doesn't mean they'd do anything.

More wait and see.

Tired as heck. Time for a nap.