Miracles, mortality,and me

It's been a month since I posted anything: another case of "no news is good news."

I truly knew what I was thankful for this Thanksgiving.

A week or two ago I read a new report about a French trial of a new chemotherapy drug. The drug company found volunteers and gave them the new drug. A very large number of them died quite soon. The test was immediately halted. As the author of the report wrote, how do you find a way to thank these brave souls (or their families) for their courage, for their contribution to all the rest of us? Sobering to contemplate, is it not?

Tomorrow, December 2nd, I start round three of chemotherapy, with miracle drugs other volunteers tried and survived (most of them, anyway). With luck, this cycle will produce as few negative side effects as the first two rounds did---practically none.

I don't dare get excited, but last night---for the third night in a row---I actually slept more or less like a normal person: horizontally, not sitting up, and no CPAP machine. Wow. Three nights in a row. Let's see if it actually continues for a while.