Secret Diary. Do Not Read

Thanks, Tony. I'd like to read the article. How's Mrs. Tony doing these days? I know radiation can cause physical exhaustion. How many more treatments does she have?

When I have an anxiety attack, I feel jittery and my hands get cold and shaky. Weird that emotions can cause such physical responses.

 

Hey there, buddy. It's nice to "see" you around these parts. Thanks; I'm glad to be feeling normal, at least for the most part. (I never was totally normal...haha.) Is that flower in your yard? Just beautiful. How are you these days?

 

Beth, I think my wife is doing very well, but that doesn't stop her from worrying. She has 15 more radiation treatments to go, her latest concern it is she's down 3 lb. My daughter and I went out and purchased a variety of snacks, so if she has a urge for anything we'll have it in house.
Here's that article.

Human Injected With Cancer-killing Virus Vaxinia

Ed Browne
5 days ago
Scientists have injected a human medical trial participant with a virus that is designed to kill cancer cells.
The treatment is known as oncolytic virus therapy, in which a natural virus is genetically modified to enter cancer cells and replicate itself, thus killing them. Crucially, it's designed to do this while avoiding healthy cells.
The treatment can also help prime peoples' immune systems against cancer, according to Imugene Limited, a clinical cancer research company.
The virus in this new trial is known as CF33-hNIS, also known as Vaxinia. The phase 1 clinical trial will start off by injecting the virus into people who have solid tumors and have had at least two prior types of treatment. The virus is either injected into the tumor directly or into a vein.
Then, once safety has been demonstrated, patients will be injected with both the virus and pembrolizumab, an antibody that improves the immune system's ability to fight cancer cells.
The trial will aim to recruit 100 cancer patients across the U.S. and Australia over a period of approximately two years.
Patient recruitment is ongoing, but Imugene along with the Los Angles-based cancer care clinic City of Hope announced on May 17 that the first patient has been dosed with the virus.
"Our previous research demonstrated that oncolytic viruses can stimulate the immune system to respond to and kill cancer, as well as stimulate the immune system to be more responsive to other immunotherapies," said Dr. Daneng Li, principal investigator and cancer research professor at City of Hope, in a press release. "Now is the time to further enhance the power of immunotherapy, and we believe CF33-hNIS has the potential to improve outcomes for our patients in their battle with cancer."
CF33-hNIS is a pox virus that spreads from cancer cell to cancer cell, replicating itself inside of them. Eventually, the cancer cells burst and release thousands of new virus copies. This stimulates the immune system to respond and target the cancer as well. Until now the drug has only been tested on animals.
If the drug does well it could move on to further trials, but it's far too early to tell what the results will be yet. According to the Cancer Research Institute, only one oncolytic virus therapy has been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before—T-VEC (Imlygic), which is a modified herpes virus that is approved for the treatment of melanoma, a type of skin cancer.
Each year in the U.S., more than 1.6 million people are diagnosed with cancer and nearly 600,000 die from it, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

 

Today our youngest son came over bright and early to replace the door jam and frame around our front door, as well as the weatherstripping and door sill. This was to repair the termite damage found last month. Thankfully we didn't have damage to the door itself, but tearing out all the trim and facings then replacing them was an all-day job. He finished up around 7 p.m., everything except a bit of putty and painting. Having kids pays off sometimes.

 

Argh, it's so hot and dry; I feel like we moved to Arizona and no one told me. I've been in the pool a few times and it's nice so far, but as hot as it is the water will soon become tepid. I have slowed down on my bread/rolls baking but I did bake a loaf of bread yesterday.

We're celebrating our 35th anniversary... oh my goodness, how did that happen?? Apparently time actually does "fly when you're having fun." Marrying that man was the best decision I ever made; he's my best friend. We agreed a few years back that we'd no longer exchange gifts but just have a nice dinner to celebrate. He has continued to bring me flowers which I love.



I received the pasta extruder attachment for my Kitchenaid mixer earlier today. I guess pasta making will be my next obsession. Goodbye, waistline!!

I think we discussed Fiestaware dishes somewhere in this thread and I learned that a few other SoC ladies are also collectors. The new 2022 color "peony" has finally hit the stores so I ordered a couple of pieces from Macy's during their 30% off F&F sale. I don't need any more dishes but I can never resist picking up at least one piece in the new color.

 

I would suggest a trip to somewhere you've never been for the big anniversaries. I took my wife to Hawaii for #40, a place she had never been but always wanted to see.

 

Wish I had something interesting to write about but life's kind of just chugging along. Hoping to see some much-needed rain this week; we need a break in the heat.

Last week we had to have a new radiator put into the Jeep; amazingly it was only $528 total for the new radiator and installation. I expected it to be a lot more so was shocked, but glad that's done.

Oldest daughter, son-in-law, and their 2 sons have been in Hawaii for the past 2 weeks. They stayed on Oahu for a week and the big island of Hawaii for a week. I think this was their 4th time to go there; they love it. She's bringing me some Kona coffee and a Hawaiian shirt (hope it's not made in China) for her dad.

I'm still wanting to go someplace in the RV but the heat and the price of gas has put a damper on my enthusiasm. We'll probably wait till the fall when hopefully it will be a bit cooler.

 

Wow, the ole' diary is languishing. Time for a few updates, insignificant as they are.

Amazing, but today is the anniversary of my LAST CHEMO treatment a year ago. Like most unpleasant experiences, it seems that it was "only yesterday" while at the same time "ages ago." My next checkup with the oncologist is August 9. I also have a followup with the surgeon to examine the surgical scar and will likely get some PT appointments scheduled for what I believe is developing mild lymphedema.

In more upbeat news, we finally got tires ordered for the RV and they arrived at the installer today. I expect to be scheduled for "mobile tire service" one day next week. For several months it was difficult to find 22.5" tires, especially an entire set of 6. We are happy that we don't have to drive across Houston to get them installed. Man, have tires gotten expensive and scarce in the last year...yikes.

Once we have new tires, we'll get the brakes inspected and then it's "go time." I want to go to see my sister in Georgia; I haven't seen her since my brother died in 2020. I'm sure the cost of fuel for the trip will make me swoon but it is what it is. (Motorhome gets about 6-7 MPG and has an 80 gallon tank.) I'd also like to go to my son's place for a weekend to see my granddaughters and spend a little time with them.

We will likely take a few trips and then put the RV up for sale. It's 10 years old and we have basically lost interest in traveling a lot. This isn't the greatest time to be selling a "toy" but whatever. We'll just take what we can get and at least not have to pay for the covered storage facility any longer.

It's been a sad couple of weeks on the BC forum; two of my online friends have died. One was totally unexpected; she had been posting totally normal stuff like what she was harvesting from her garden and out of the blue she passed away. I effing HATE cancer. I have another friend who has been hospitalized due to radiation burns of her esophagus during radiation. She can't swallow and has lost 15 pounds in 2 weeks; very scary and she is in horrible pain.

A couple of weeks ago I got a notice of a "preventative repair" of my Kitchenaid dishwasher, which I thought was odd because it works perfectly. The notice said something about replacing the heating element so I decided to go with it in case there's an issue later. The machine is only about a year old. They scheduled a service appointment for this week.

So the repair guy shows up and when he walks in he says, "so what's the problem we're having today?" I responded, "I think you're supposed to tell me what the problem is. Aren't you here for some kind of recall or something??" He said he'd have to "look at the ticket" which didn't instill a lot of confidence in me... why the hell didn't he "look at the ticket" before he came into my house?? Anyway, he got a flashlight and looked inside my dishwasher, didn't note any issues, and left. What the actual hell??? According to my Ring doorbell, he was inside my house for FOUR minutes and did NOTHING.

So I fired off an email to Whirlpool/Kitchenaid to apprise them of exactly what transpired. Since they had told me my heating element was to be replaced I want it to be noted that this did NOT happen. Not sure if they even care, but I'm annoyed that I had to be bothered for nothing.

So that's about it. I'm enjoying the normalcy of life these days and happy that it's almost fall. I can use a break in this awful heat, and I'm still hoping for rain.

 

Today is "RV Tire Installation Day." Hubby has gone to the RV storage facility to meet the installers; hope it goes smoothly.

Since it has been so hot and dry this summer, we've been doing a lot of watering and having to add water to the pool as it evaporates. We got our water bill yesterday for the past month and it is $153!!! That is the largest water bill we have ever had; it's normally in the $50 a month range. I'll really be glad when the drought is over; it hasn't been this bad since 2011 when our driveway sunk about 4".

I was recently reading about those "vibration plates" that apparently are a thing in the fitness world; probably just the latest fad but I found them interesting nonetheless. A few articles stated that they are beneficial for circulation in the body, including the lymph system. Since I have been terrified by the fear of lymphedema in my arm where all the nodes were removed, I decided to try one out. It's a simple platform that you stand or sit on and it vibrates your entire body at different speeds.



I've had it for a couple of weeks. It's certainly easy enough to do as long as a person has good balance you basically just stand there and vibrate. Not sure if it's actually helping anything but I suppose it doesn't hurt. If I relax my jaw I can get super-duper teeth-chattering going on. (Another hare-brained idea but whatever.)

I need to find a new dinner roll recipe to test since the last ones I made were real duds. I had something weird with the yeast; when activated it in warm water with a teaspoon of sugar it had kind of a syrupy odor as it began to get foamy . That's the first time I've noticed an off-smell with yeast so I guess it's time to toss that jar. I keep it stored in the freezer and it's still good... not past the expiration date and will "bloom" just fine. I just don't understand the weird smell from it... not "yeasty" like it should be. It actually gave the finished rolls a weird off-taste, too.

 

That vibration exerciser is interesting. I would try it wearing bells and a wind chime, create that unique sound. Haha

 

I've never experienced that with yeast, either. Very weird.

Thanks for the recipe, but here are the issues I see:
1. 30 rolls; 5 1/2 cups of flour?? That's a lotta dough.
2. Far too labor intensive for the "Take the Easy Way Out" cook (me)