Speedo, July 10, 2000 - January 24, 2010

Speedo, one of our 2 Italian Greyhounds passed away in his sleep early Sunday morning.
We are reminded of him all the time now when we are at home, and he is not. He was a lap dog, more comfortable in our laps than anywhere else. He was always there at the door to to meet any of us when we got home, and he'd try to climb us when we sat down in order to playfully lick at our ears. We got Rudy, the other hound, about a year after we got Speedo. We're all hoping Rudy adjusts well to his new life without his friend and tormentor. One of Speedo's favorite pranks was to start barking in Rudy's face until Rudy started howling back. Eventually, they would bark in sequence, one, then the other, for minutes until they tired. Speedo seemed like the brighter, more spirited dog.

It was really hard to see Speedo's lifeless body lying on his dog bed Sunday morning at 7. He first appeared to be sleeping, but normally he would be up, or at least move his head to look up at me. As I stood in the doorway to the lower bathroom where the dogs slept, I rubbed my eyes to better focus on his form. His chest was not moving. Rudy was not lying in his familiar place next to Speedo. He was not even in the room. I crossed to the outside door, opened it, poked my head out and shouted for Rudy. He came running from the corner of the yard. When he got close to the house he dovetailed over to the back door, did not seem to want to come to me at the side door. Later on, I walked to the corner of the yard and found a small cleared area in the leaves where it looked like Rudy spent some time sleeping in the cold morning air. Hours before, Rudy must have sensed what happened to Speedo. He was afraid.
Speedo had a vet visit last Tuesday. Dr. Meyers was not hopeful. Speedo had been developing several health problems over the past 3 years. Italian Greyhounds do not have a long lifespan. But it amazed me how the spark and spirit of life animated that little dogs body. Like all animals, his body is the result of perfect creator engineering. Billions of of atoms, molecules, structures, chemicals reactions, come together to animate a small, nervous sack of bones and fur. For all the perfect engineering, the animal was not a machine. It was a unique spark that animated Speedo. It caused him to connect to us in ways that could never be engineered or constructed from the elements. That's my opinion. The spark, the spirit that animated Speedo has moved on, that's all. He died on his own terms. We actually thought we'd have to take him in to be euthanized on Friday. But he seemed to be doing well, not in pain by the end of the week. He still met us at the door with the gyrating tail. He still had an apatite. But he was breathing quite hard. The vet gave us some doggy valium to relax his muscles and not concentrate on the tempest going on inside. Saturday night, while sitting on the couch watching the Vikings self destruct, Speedo sat by my side and kept looking at me with his cute brown eyes. He visited with all of us in turn that night, I think. He knew he had to go. He left on his own terms. We were really glad for his nine and a half year visit with us.

Day +730 TWO YEARS

The suspense for me officially ends today.
Thanx to statistics on post stem cell transplantation outcomes, if I kick off from here on out it will not be because of 'transplant complications'. My odds of living to a normal old age are better than 95%.

Today is the day, 2 years ago that I laid in a hospital bed overlooking the beautiful Torrey Pines golf course, dying; poisoned by chemicals dreamed up by some creative geniuses sitting months before in their cubicles in some silicon valley think tank, clicking furiously on their mice to make new and strange combinations of hexogonal carbon-based chains on their CAD/CAM computer software. The jet from Baltimore had arrived the night before spewing ozone-killing gases from its engines, yet carrying various joy-giving very-late Christmas gifts as well as a life-giving small igloo cooler marked 'Biohazard'.
The poisoning had worked to perfection. Because I was a good and well-behaved patient, the hospital staff had decided to postpone my impending exit by administering daily transfusions of bodily fluids one normally doesnt give a second thought about. The poisoning produced no pain, just a deep, deep queezy feeling and dreams of an increasingly bizarre nature. The dreams were becoming less and less an activity associated with sleeping. I'll be writing more about that one day soon.
On this day in 2008 I was to witness some rare events. It started in the early afternoon. First, I was visited by 2 head nurses at the same time. Even one head nurse was a rarity in my room. They brought in a large round bag with an orange colored concoction. This was the first round bag to be hung from my chemo-tree. Every other bag had been rectangular with round edges. Those bags always came in round around the middle but left the room flat in the middle, empty. The orange bag was round and full. It was like a big orange donut. As I watched in stupefied wonderment, the nurses commenced a procedure between themselves that I instinctively knew would be very very bad to interrupt. For instance, a joke to them about orange donuts, and I'm not here today writing this hoo-ha. The nurses read the copious text on each bag to each other, saying "check" this and "correct" that. I drifted off for what seemed hours, woke up to the head-head nurse asking me "Are you James Anderson, birth date October 4, 1954?" I almost said, "Yes, but I know for a fact there is another James Anderson with the same birth date in this hospital." I really dont know why I think such things at the most inopportune times. The orange fluid in the bag seemed to be glowing. "Yes", I said, "I am one and the same person."
As Tiger Woods warmed up his clubs for the Buick Open on the golf course outside my window, and the afternoon sun shown brightly through the January afternoon mist, a concoction of Steve Ever's blood and stem cells was strapped onto my chemo tree and the pump adjusted to 200ml per hour. The thin plastic tube between the bag and the port on my chest turned neon orange. From a slow death, to a quick poisoning to an unimaginable antidote; in fifteen minutes, the mad path my life been taking had come to this fork. The orange bag was empty. I could once again take some control over my future.
On this day Steve flew home to Pensacola from Baltimore. I entered into a twilight zone. A zone of of waiting, of dreams, of existing; waiting for deliverance, hoping and praying for the next 2 years to be kind.

Steve has had good things happening in his life the last couple years; new kind and caring people, new job advancements, new responsibilities. We keep in touch often. I am very happy about this and think he deserves all good things for what he has done for me and my family. Apparently he was able to grow back the stem cells he so graciously gave me 2 years ago today. Stem cells are like love. You can give some of yours away to someone in need and it will grow back thicker than before. Wait, that makes stem cells more like hair.

Our little bit of Colorado

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year everyone!

My health is still improving. I had my second baby bout with some bug or bugs in October and November. The sore throat lasted much longer than normal for me, probably due to my immune system still being in training.
Cat, Maddie and Dylan doing well too, all ready for the holiday vacation.

Last Thursday I had my most recent appointment with Doctor Jeffrey Andrey at Scripps Clinic. I had blood samples drawn on Wednesday. All systems are go. All blood counts are in the normal range with the exception of my Ferritin levels. All those blood transfusions loaded my system up with iron, the core element in hemoglobin. My Ferritin is still above normal, so I will start another 3 phlebotomies started in January. Each unit withdrawn will lower my Ferritin level. By April I should be in the normal range. My next appointment with Dr. Andrey is in May.

On January 9, 2010 I will pass a statistical milestone. The long term prognosis for 2 year stem cell survivors is very, very, very good. The graft took perfectly and I've twice been able to fight off common bugs that plague our everyday lives. But I must be respectful of the fates. I don't want to go overboard and jinx my upcoming birthday by presenting too rosy of an outlook.

Meanwhile, the 'treat' for my blog readers in this post will better be appreciated by those live in the North San Diego area. We have a wonderful scenic canyon here called Penasquitos Canyon. Hiking from I15 to I5 is a beautiful 5 mile, gently rolling, under the oaks and sycamores jaunt. In the middle of the hike is a small waterfall. It is the turn-back point for many hikers and runners who don't want to complete the entire 5 miles. San Diego does not get much rain. So our little waterfall does not make a big show. In fact, you can easily tip toe across the stream above the fall without getting your feet wet. In the summer, some of the flow is fed by a small spring a couple miles east, where the old ranch house still stands. The ranch house used to be the center of the Penasquitos cattle ranch around 90 years ago. But I'm afraid most of the water coming down the canyon in the summer is from urban runoff. The canyon is rimmed with houses built during the last 30 years. Many people over water their yards and have leaks in their irrigation system. Even so, there are places in the canyon where kids still throw their fishing lines.
I always wanted to see the canyon waterfall when it really was a waterfall and not just a bunch of gigantic rocks jutting out of the ground. So, a week ago Sunday morning I grabbed Cathie and the camera and hiked to the fall. It had rained heavy the night before. You can click on these images to see much larger versions.

I see indications by the shore that the river was a foot or 2 higher earlier in the morning.



You would definitely not want to tiptoe across this stream.


Not much, but it's our little bit of Colorado in North San Diego.


I'm going to go back for a visit after a REALLY big rain!



The wild torrents of Penasquitos Canyon.



Bye until next year,
Jim

Why the Lizard Does Push-Ups

...but more on the lizard later. First, the topical post.

August 13 I probably had my last bloodletting. Another pint of blood drained and discarded. This should bring my ferritin level down to the normal range. My next appointment at Scripps Clinic is with Doctor Andrey in 2 months. At that time we'll decide if I need 1 more phlebotomy.
In my 2 years of MDS, including the 4 weeks of hospitalization I took in around 50 pints of the red stuff from donors; just to keep me alive. In the last year, starting a few months after my transplant, I've discarded perhaps 30 pints of my own blood; just to get rid of the excess iron from the transfused blood. Interesting. My days as a human pin cushion are coming to an end. On this visit, there was a problem with my left arm vein. It was not productive, so the nurse had to stick my right arm. It was kinda like blood prospecting. First, lidocaine was injected with a tiny needle, producing a quick burning; followed by numbness. Soon followed a big needle into which the blood must freely flow from my body. The lidocaine shot into my left arm was the last from it's vial. I didn't feel the burn. The burn is actually a sensation to be welcomed because it means the wild antics from the big needle's insertion will not be felt. Turns out that last of the lidocaine in a vial is weak. On this day, the big needle was felt. My right arm got a squirt of the first lidocaine from a new vial. The small needle's drug burn was quick and shot up my arm a couple inches. Then it was out and the pain was gone. When the big needle came, it did not hurt.

Here's my perspective: An interesting end to what was once a perfectly choreographed string of phlebotomies.

Warning, there are images and an video in this post that may not be available in the email format. Please see the original post at www.interanimate.com

Here's one thing about the Western Fence Lizard. They are cute little guys. Way too cute to be feared. Over the years I'm sure everyone has seen them masquerading as dinosaurs in front of very small cameras. Take the 1966 movie "One Million Years B.C." for example. This movie had Raquel Welch running in terror from the little slip slips. I've included a photo of the movie poster and a photo of 2 lizard 'extras' pretending to fight. The lead dinosaur in this movie was a Western Fence Lizard who was deemed 'not terrifying' enough for the trailer shots. Despite their less-than-hostile appearance, the WFLs were very good actors and took their art seriously. In the 50s and 60s, many of them started doing standard calisthenics with the hopes of developing a more menacing appearance. None of the lizard actors actually got paid well. An occasional exotic fly was put into their terrarium between sets, a hot rock to sleep on at night. They had no tiny gym equipment available in their tight quarters so they did jumping jacks and push-ups. That explains the push-up way back then. Raquel got older and became a dinosaur herself while acting in another 1 million movies and tv episodes. Movie directors got tired of cleaning lizard cages. Animation technologies improved. The lizards retired from acting.



Here is the other thing about the WFL, and is also true for many small Lizards. Millions of them across the America still do pushups; on rocks, on dirt, on fences, everywhere. It turns out they've been doing push-ups for millions of years. For those of you who have never seen this amazing stunt, see the attached video. If you sneak up upon a lizard, you may often see it doing quick push-ups. These aren't sissy push-ups. These are military style push-ups. From a prone position to a quick jerk upwards with their heads at attention. Once in a while you may see the more buff lizards doing the one handed push-up. Very rare.

Scientists have debated the cause for lizard push-up behavior for decades. It seems the consensus is that push-ups are some kind of lizard language/display/mating behavior. This article gets very scientific with a study on different push-ups and what they all mean. Do NOT attempt to read that article. If you think my little dissertation is putting you to sleep... Well, I'm here to say 'BUNK' to the common theories. No, I'm not going to say they are trying to buff up any more. Those days are gone. And they know it.
I've been studying lizards for years. By 'studying', I mean that I've momentarily observed and marveled about their behavior several times since I was, like 7 years old. My recently developed push-up theory is so simple I don't know how it could have been missed by the scientific community.

Many small animals have side facing eyes. This is a great advantage when you are small and tasty. You get an advantage of a nearly 300 degree field of vision. With this kind of perspective you are not so easily duped by predators sneaking up behind you. Predators, like humans, cats, dogs, eagles, falcons, owls, etc, have forward facing eyes. This is a great advantage when you are trying to sneak up on small tasty animals. You get stereo vision with 2 eyes looking the same direction. Each eye sends a simultaneous, separate picture to the brain. The brain merges the pictures together to make a 3D image of the prey. This gives you a great advantage when it comes to the chase. You can see depth, the distance between you and your dinner. The animal with side facing eyes has little if no, 3D vision. The lizard can see more objects around it but it cannot sense the object's distance.

The poor, lowly lizard. Who cares? As you know, reptiles are amongst the oldest land animals on the planet. They were once pretty big. They once ruled the earth. When things changed the big ones didnt do so well. The smaller reptiles who could hide in the earth survived a long period of harsh conditions. When they emerged, they had competition; they became the hunted. I like to think of the common fence lizards as One Lizard. One Lizard, with it's body comprised of millions upon millions of independently operated franchises. Kinda like Starbucks. There is one in every corner... of your back yard. After all, the same (almost exact) DNA exists in each and every lizard. They are part and parcel of the One Lizard. To survive over millions of years, the One Lizard had to adapt to changing conditions. But the change could only come from the bottom up, from the feet on the ground. The One Falcon and the One Bobcat, amongst others, were always trying to make life impossible for the One Lizard, by eating him. The Falcon and the Bobcats were getting smaller and faster. The One Lizard was caught in an evolutionary vice. The One Lizard was in deep doo-doo. The Falcons and the Cat were pretty happy cuz the Lizard was easy to catch. All too often, the tasty little reptiles just sat on the rock and didn't make a move to escape...until it was too late.

Here's what I think happened.

Hundred of thousands of years ago one female lizard laid some eggs that had a genetic mutation. The DNA in her eggs had a slight flaw from the normal. Mutations have always been common when cells divide. The copying process is prone to errors. Almost 100% of the time, the errors result in nothing. The new cell, the egg, dies. Once in a great while a mutation survives. Of the mutations that slip by, almost 100% result in slight changes to the lizard that do nothing to help the lizard survive. It gets an extra toe. It gets a slightly longer tail. The mutation neither helps nor hinders the lizard, so the expressed trait eventually disappears.

The mutation on this long ago day slipped by and became expressed. The eggs hatched. The new lizards emerged to face the hostile world. This batch of lizards looked no different from their hundreds of siblings or cousins. All toes accounted for. Same lizard odor. Same lizard size and shape. But something changed in the brain. These sisters and brother lizards had a brain that was able to perform a new trick. None of them knew they were different from the rest of their once huge family. Most of their hundred of brothers and sisters were already gone. In many cases, without ever having laid an egg or tasting their first fly, the siblings were eaten by birds or cats. Only by multiplying in vast numbers had the One Lizard been able to survive over the countless millenniums. Most of this special brood of lizards survived to lay their own eggs, thousands of them. All eggs carried the same genetic mutation. Over time the mutation became part of the One Lizard.

What the One Lizard learned starting with those first few franchises was amazing. It learned how to artificially create stereoscopic vision like that of it's predators; by doing simple push-ups. An image of it's surroundings is taken at ground level, and a second image is quickly taken at the top of a push-up. The 2 perspectives from each eye are sent to the brain and the brain returns the concept of depth, in a nearly 300 degree field of view! The Lizard knows how far away an object is located, how fast the object is moving, and in which direction. Birds and Cats now have a really hard time sneaking up on a lizard.

In short, the Lizard does push-ups to get a new perspective.

18 months - All Green

Yesterday I had my most recent 3 month appointment with Dr. Andrey of Scripps Clinic.
Dr. Andrey was happy to report that All systems are green. Blood counts are all good. Metabolic panel counts are perfect. My white counts are still a little low but are of no cause for concern. My iron counts have come way down. Normal Ferritin counts have a range of up to 400 ng/mL (nanogram per mililiter?) of blood. At worst, my count was around 4,000. Since getting around 20 phlembotomies over the last year my count is down to 614. I had one more phlebotomy yesterday, another pint of blood drained off. I'll get one more phlebotomy and I should be in the normal range.
Lately I've been wondering about the swine flu pandemic. They always say that people with 'compromised' immune systems are in more danger from such illnesses than people with normal immune system. Dr. Andrey now places me in the 'normal' immune system group. That is a big relief. I still carry around hand sanitizer and slop it on my hands, shopping cart handles, everything.
I took this week and most of last week off and took Dylan on a car camping/canoeing/hiking vacation in N.California. We hooked up with Rob in Marin county and he joined us for the weekend activities in Hendy Wood State Park and on the Big River near Mendocino. My energy levels were great, took no naps, did lots of rowing and hiking. Had a great vacation with the kids. Life is good.

Meet Dr. Jeffrey Andrey

Thursday I had my first round of vaccinations. 5 shots in my arms. These really are small needles so are not a big deal. I'm quite acclimated to needles anyway. This is what I was vaccinated for: Diphtheria, Tetanus, Pertusis, Polio, Haemophilus Influenzae (Hib), Hepatitis B, Pneumococcal disease. The last one is the biggee. Pneumococcal disease kills more people in the US each year that all other vaccine-preventable diseases combined. I'll be joining the ranks of vaccinated in one year after my final doses.

I'm sure it was just a coincidence, but Saturday morning I got up, walked downstair, opened the bathroom door to let the dogs in. When I bent over to pickup a pooch... yikes!, pulled a muscle in my back. It wrecked some activities I had planned for the weekend. I ended up laying around a lot popping Motrin for the pain. I've never pulled a muscle just bending over like this, so I'm gonna suspect the vaccines.

On to the pictures you see here. The first one I took of Dr. Andrey and I at the clinic Thurs afternoon. He was kind enough to take a few minutes to pose while Robin took a couple pix. You can click on these photos to get a larger size. I was going to cut myself out of the photo of Dr. and I cuz I'm not happy with my continuing acne condition. To solve this vanity problem I simply exported the photo to jpg and compressed it 26%. This has the effect of reducing details in the photo. Thus, compression is a marvelous way to get rid of the things about your face you don't want others to see. As I get older, I'll be upping the compression.


The second picture is one of Peter Sarsgaard. I should first mention my purpose here. As a followup to my last post I realized I wanted a picture of Dr. Andrey and I. After all he is also one of the angels who rescued me from MDS. Kind of a 'technical' angel, but an angel he is none the less. I also wanted to show you how Dr. Andrey is a dead ringer for the actor Peter Sarsgaard. The third picture going down the page is one of Dr. Andrey as posted on the Scripps Hospital website. The picture, I understand, was taken around 10 years ago. Dr. Andrey said he grew the beard cuz patients were wary of his expertise, thinking him too young.

The last picture another one of Peter Sarsgaard taken when he was younger as well. I don't know what to tell you. It's kinda like having a celebrity doctor. If I knew how to contact Sargaard, I'd surely alert him to the existence of his angel twin. But then, you know, that's prolly the exact reason why celebrities keep their contact information private. How could he possibly know that I'm not just the run-of-the-mill wacko-stalker fan? I mean, I'm not really a fan anyway. I couldnt even name most of the movies he's acted in. It's just the look-alike thing... Nevermind... Sigh...

At any rate, this post is my Thank You to Dr. Jeffrey Andrey of Scripps Memorial Hospital in San Diego for his wonderful care, his dedication to his patients, his encouragement, his positive attitude, saving my life, and oh, his good looks. His sense of humor is very endearing as well.

Not My Blood

A strange thing happened to me on April 16. At a routine visit to Scripps Green Hospital, Dr. Andrey alerted me to the results of a lab test done in January.
The test indicates that the blood flowing through my veins is not my own. In other words, the report shows that the DNA in all of my various types of blood cells is not my DNA. After his announcement Dr. Andrey had to quickly leave the office for a minute. Unfortunately this left my imagination alone to run wild.

My knowledge of medicine is not extensive. I studied biology at USCD during college. My interest in biology waned when I studied Biochemistry; something about the Krebs Cycle. My foray into Genetics the previous year should have warned me that all was not well with my choice of Biology major. I achieved a 'B' in the study of Mendel's pea plants. At any rate, I'm pretty sure from all my reading that each organism possesses only it's own DNA. Therefore, I had to search elsewhere for an answer to Dr. Andrey's startling news.

First up. Was my body snatched? Had alien beings and taken over my body? I discount this theory because mentally I feel the same. Although, that might be part of the process, not to think you have been taken over. On a similar thought, had I been snatched up by an alien spacecraft and become the subject of their experiments? If this was true then there would be a gap in my presence at home. Surely a family member would have noticed my disappearance for a few days. Unless; they had also been abducted at the same time and do not know it themselves. If I had been abducted how and why did the aliens replace my blood with that of someone, or something, else?

Before I could start thinking up really crazy reasons for my alien blood DNA, Dr. Andrey came back in the room. I dont actually have a picture of him to show you. But it turns out he is a dead ringer for the actor Peter Sarsgaard when Peter is sporting a beard. I found the picture to your left on the internet. Apparently Peter is married to Maggie Gyllenhaal who's brother is Jake Gyllenhaal. Jake starred in the movie "The Day After Tomorrow", which had a scene where Jake gets into a New York Taxi driven by Rik Magon, who I worked with for a year in 2001. Rik just happened to be in New York the day they were filming in 2001. The director picked him out of a crowd to be the taxi driver. What does this have to do with anything? I don't know. Just thinking I guess. Anyway, Dr. Andrey had the explanation for my strange blood. I don't know why I didn't think of it before, other than the fact that it was a lot more fun telling you this way. It turns out... that I had a stem cell transplant 462 days prior. Yes, the alien spacecraft was actually my room at Scripps Green hospital overlooking Torrey Pines golf course! Because my own bone marrow had decided to retire without consulting with me, the doctors performed this procedure that only used to be the stuff of science fiction.

They pumped me full of nasty chemicals that killed what was left of my old derelict marrow stem cells, then they pumped in some stem cells from an angel who now happens to be living in human form, in the same town I was born; Pensacola FL. Steve donated his stem cells though a simple process in Baltimore Maryland on January 8th. Less than 24 hours later his gift was on the opposite coast, being transfused into my vascular system through a plastic tube coming out of my chest. You see, the Body Snatchers explanation seems much more believable, eh?. Last weeks chimerism report results are very good. No sign of my old stem cells coming back. Steve's generosity has given me new life. All else looks good. I feel that I am totally back to normal. Healthly. Energetic. Thankful for life, for friends, for family. Thankful to God.