Author Archive for: DaveDias

We walk by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7

According to Wikipedia, in medicine, amyloidosis refers to a variety of conditions in which amyloid proteins are abnormally deposited in organs and/or tissues.  A protein is described as being amyloid if, due to an alteration in its secondary structure, it takes on a particular aggregated insoluble form similar to the beta-pleated sheet.  A LIGHT CHAIN is the small polypeptide subunit of an antibody (or immunoglobulin). A typical antibody is composed of two immunoglobulin (Ig) heavy chains and two Ig light chains.

Late Friday afternoon we learned from a nurse on the Oncology Ward at UCSF that Irene’s September 3, 2009 Kappa LIGHT CHAIN value was elevated:

Kappa: 122.8, 3 months ago it was 51
Lambda: 41.8, 3 months ago it was 42
Ratio: 2.9

* KAPPA LT CHAIN, FREE 51.9
* LAMBDA LT CHAIN, FREE 42.3
Ratio: 1.23

Three months earlier the values were the following:

* KAPPA LT CHAIN 44.1
* LAMBDA LT CHAIN 34.9
Ratio: 1.26

Following are the historical Kappa Light Chain values:

June 2007, 652 (stem cell transplant date)
July 2007, 78.5
October 2007, 33.1
February 2008, 56.7
March 2008, 39.4
May 2008, 39.4
December 2008, 37.2

Today, Dr. Lloyd Damon of UCSF informed us that occasionally a blood test may indicate a reading beyond the acceptable tolerance so he wants Irene to be re-tested in October rather than waiting until December for her next regularly scheduled checkup.  The test in a few weeks will determine whether the September 3rd test results were an outlier or relapse of Amyloid.

Shirley Churchill met Irene at Satellite Dialysis Center and worked with her for 2+ hours on physiology techniques designed to foster body function.  She did this while Irene was undergoing treatment.  Shirley never ceases to amaze us …. she drives from her home in Menlo Park to Watsonville (one hour+), spends 2+ hours with Irene then drives home …. THANKS SHIRLEY!!!

The emotional pendulum on Irene’s Journey of Faith continues to swing as far as the EAST is from the WEST and the last I checked, eastbound never meets westbound, and westbound never meets eastbound.

We walk by faith, not by sight.
2 Corinthians 5:7

Caminando con Fé

Dave

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Carmen, Jane (Irene’s sisters) and friend Kim arrived Friday evening to stay the weekend and celebrate Irene’s belated August birthday!!

On Saturday, they savored lunch and tea at the “Bloomsbury Tea Room”, a local favorite in Soquel.

Saturday evening they played dominos in their jamas ….!!!

Carmen and Jane call our house “paradise”, so you can see the play on words!  The sign was among many birthday gifts to Irene.

Thanks for checking in …. and for caring,

Dave

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This poem by Rudyard Kipling has inspired and motivated me for decades…ENJOY…!!!   

If you can keep your head when all about you
Are losing theirs and blaming it on you;
If you can trust yourself when all men doubt you,
But make allowance for their doubting too;
If you can wait and not be tired by waiting,
Or, being lied about, don’t deal in lies,
Or, being hated, don’t give way to hating,
And yet don’t look too good, nor talk too wise;

If you can dream – and not make dreams your master;
If you can think – and not make thoughts your aim;
If you can meet with triumph and disaster
And treat those two imposters just the same;
If you can bear to hear the truth you’ve spoken
Twisted by knaves to make a trap for fools,
Or watch the things you gave your life to broken,
And stoop and build ‘em up with wornout tools;

If you can make one heap of all your winnings
And risk it on one turn of pitch-and-toss,
And lose, and start again at your beginnings
And never breath a word about your loss;
If you can force your heart and nerve and sinew
To serve your turn long after they are gone,
And so hold on when there is nothing in you
Except the Will which says to them: “Hold on”;

If you can talk with crowds and keep your virtue,
Or walk with kings – nor lose the common touch;
If neither foes nor loving friends can hurt you;
If all men count with you, but none too much;
If you can fill the unforgiving minute
With sixty seconds’ worth of distance run –
Yours is the Earth and everything that’s in it,
And – which is more – you’ll be a Man my son!

—Rudyard Kipling

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