Costs of denialism?

Worldwide (Map) 
October 20, 2022 – 626,441,100 confirmed infections; 6,573,750 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 241,837,800 confirmed infections; 4,917,467 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 41,150,000 confirmed infections; 1,130.410 deaths

US (Map) 
October 20, 2022 - 97,085,250 confirmed infections; 1,066,600 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 45,161,400 confirmed infections; 729,500 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 8,333,595 confirmed infections; 222,100 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
October 20, 2022 - 4,024,555 confirmed infections; 102,246 deaths
October 21, 2021 – 2,917,300 confirmed infections; 88,674 deaths
October 22, 2020 – 708,360 confirmed infections; 18,750 deaths

Post from:
October 22, 2021 “Not much” 
October 21, 2020 “October updates” 

News blues

The imbalance in death rates among the nation’s racial and ethnic groups has been a defining part of the pandemic since the start. To see the pattern, The Washington Post analyzed every death during more than two years of the pandemic. Early in the crisis, the differing covid threat was evident in places such as Memphis and Fayette County. Deaths were concentrated in dense urban areas, where Black people died at several times the rate of White people.
….
Over time, the gap in deaths widened and narrowed but never disappeared — until mid-October 2021, when the nation’s pattern of covid mortality changed, with the rate of death among White Americans sometimes eclipsing other groups. .
A Post analysis of covid death data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from April 2020 through this summer found the racial disparity vanished at the end of last year, becoming roughly equal. And at times during that same period, the overall age-adjusted death rate for White people slightly surpassed that of Black and Latino people.

Read more >> 

Gov. Gavin Newsom will end California's COVID-19 state of emergency in February 2023 and surrender the emergency powers he has held for over two years, the governor's office announced this week. What does this really mean?
Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Political ads flood the airwaves as We the People get closer to a nailbiter election. (Each day as I read the news, I CANNOT believe that ANYONE would vote for ANY Republican “policies”. WTF?)
1849  (0:57 mins)
J. D. Vance is an Extremist  (0:56 mins)
Even Fox News gets it  (1:00 mins)
The Difference Between McMullin and Lee  (1:14 mins)
Mike Lee begs, Part 2 (0:55 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

The SF Bay Area is experiencing wonderful Indian Summer weather. Additionally, it’s a pleasure to walk along the beach with Mary and more wonderful to hear her maturing perspective on the devastating form of cancer that afflicts her. In short, Mary finds the implications on her health – mesothelioma does not reverse, nor it is curable – a “kind of precious gift that allows me to truly understand and appreciate the gravitas that is life and living. Weird to say but I’m more fully enjoying each moment of my life. More weird to say, more people might face similar fates to allow their deeper apprecation of their lives - and the implications of wasting their time on over-emotional nonsense such as vaccine denialism, etcetera etcertera etcetera."
Thank you, Mary.

***

Mary suffers from toxic contamination of asbestos, and subsequent malignancies in her left lung with “some” implication of lymph nodes near her lower trachea. 

What is asbestos? A mineral mined that, among other uses, is an effective foil against excessive heat buildup. 

What’s its history and is it banned in the US? 

In a word, no, it is not banned. 

I’ll collect and share pertinent info on this mineral as it becomes available.
Asbestos history and background – and culpability
ProPublica: “Swimming in this stuff”: The U.S. never banned asbestos. These workers are paying the price. 

As other countries outlawed asbestos, workers in a New York plant were “swimming” in it. Now, in a fight against the chemical industry, the United States may finally ban the potent carcinogen. But help may come too late.

Read more >> 

NPR: They inhaled asbestos for decades on the job. Now, workers break their silence.

While the U.S. considers finally banning the carcinogen, a group of men have come forward, saying they were exposed repeatedly while working at a chemical plant in New York.

Read more >>

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:23am
Sunset: 6:24pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:15am
Sunset: 6:11pm

Enjoying life

News blues

In a [recent interview, Dr Anthony] Fauci urged the US Congress not to be complacent and to resume funding efforts to combat the virus, including the scourge of long Covid, which remains scientifically elusive but understood to hit women and people of colour especially hard.
“It’s a very insidious beneath-the-radar-screen public health emergency,” the chief medical adviser to Joe Biden said, “because it isn’t that you have people who are hospitalized or dying but their function is being considerably impaired and, for reasons that are obvious, that doesn’t attract as much attention as a death rate.”

Read more >> 

***

On war…

Russian drone and missile attacks this month have destroyed almost a full third of [Ukraine’s] power stations. The destruction has triggered blackouts across the country, but the grid has remained relatively stable, showing that even Ukraine in a literal war with a superpower can still have better power scheduling than South Africa.

Read more >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
Evidence  (0:27 mins)
Two faces  (1:08 mins)
Mike Lee begs  (0:45 mins)
Ticket  (0:59 mins)
Trumperton  (0:39 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - October 18, 2022  (1:55 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A reminder – our planet is beautiful. Photos have the power to prove it >> 

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Nine more days of Mary feeling healthy, enjoying her days of exercise, research, and, yes, joy, too. Indeed, so easily does she find putting from her mind that mesothelioma is invading her lung and that chemo is coming up, again, that, today, she forgot to take her maintenance supplementary meds. That’s the right kind of forgetfulness.
Mary is enjoying life, perhaps more than ever....

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:20am
Sunset: 6:25pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:17am
Sunset: 6:11pm

“Daar lê die ding”

News blues

The Donald and his corrupt shenanigans remain persistent on the news, even to the detriment of Covid (remember how persistent he was about Covid not worth his time and effort to thwart?). Nevertheless, Covid has not “just disappeared” – again, The Donald’s words. Covid is still around.

New offshoots of the Omicron Covid-19 variant that virus experts say appear to spread easily are on the rise in the U.S., … underscoring how the virus is mutating and presenting new risks as it proliferates.
Two of the Omicron subvariants, both related to the BA.5 version that drove the most recent U.S. surge, are called BQ.1 and BQ.1.1. They were estimated to represent a combined 11.4% of U.S. Covid-19 cases by mid-October, according to estimates the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention released Friday.

Read more >> 

***

Covid is one thing. The scourge of cancers on the rise may be even more insidious.

A new review of cancer registry records from 44 countries found that the incidence of early-onset cancers is rising rapidly for colorectal and 13 other types of cancers, many of which affect the digestive system, and this increase is happening across many middle- and high-income nations.
The review’s authors say the upswing in younger adults in happening in part because of more sensitive testing for some cancer types, such as thyroid cancer. But testing doesn’t completely account for the trend, says co-author Shuji Ogino, a professor of pathology at the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health.
Ogino says the spike is due to an unhealthy stew of risk factors that are probably working together, some which are known and others that need to be investigated.
He notes that many of these risks have established links to cancer like obesity, inactivity, diabetes, alcohol, smoking, environmental pollution and Western diets high in red meat and added sugars, not to mention shift work and lack of sleep.

Read “A global epidemic of cancer among people younger than 50 could be emerging” >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Time for answers  (1:40 mins)
Social Security  (1:09 mins)
Protecting the Capitol  (1:06 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

The post “Living”, earlier this week, promoted the efforts to give legal rights to animals, trees and rivers. This week, Rogelio Luque-Lora of St Catharine’s College, Cambridge, writes, “Why I’m sceptical about giving legal rights to animals, trees and rivers.” Read more >> 

***

“Making a plan…”
South Africans are a hardly lot and “making a plan” is as South African as is gorgeous scenery and hard work (and, these days, as South African as Eskom’s terrible load shedding). With unprecedented blackouts, South Africans are, despite Eskom's monopolistic grip on the nation, cutting the chord as much as we can and “making plans” by turning away from Eskom in growing numbers.

Reader responses complied by Daily Maverick Community Manager Sahra Heuwel.
Graphic: Rudi Louw

From Daily Maverick’s “How to cut the Eskom chord”, here’s what South Africans say:

• “I had to buy an inverter as I am dependent on supplementary oxygen. But the present rate of load shedding doesn’t allow the inverter to recharge fully.”
• “We have a back-up battery that currently kicks in to supply us with power for basic needs, which in our case includes a ventilator and medical machines for a severely physically challenged 18-year-old.”
• “We have solar and an inverter but not enough to last the night. We have a back-up generator (too). But (we) still rely on Eskom between load shedding to power the house and recharge batteries. We are basically self-sufficient, but not totally. Provided we can get two sets of three hours of Eskom power, we’re okay.”
• “I have resorted to using wood for cooking and candles for lighting the house.”
• “It’s back to basics. Paraffin is back in use as an alternative. Just for cooking and lights. No electronics.”
• “I grew up with lamps and candles in the (Bantustan) Ciskei, so we have reverted back 60 years. I have a small UPS (uninterrupted power supply) connected to a truck battery in order to teach uninterruptedly online. I even use an ancient push-push lawnmower to lessen grid pressure.”

(On topic, “We are a beautiful country but political thugs are dragging us into the Dark Ages” )

And, so, my dear South Africans, “daar lê die ding….”  (2:10 mins)

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Yesterday’s walk along an island gifted Mary and me with a bonanza of watery wildlife. First, crossing a bridge over the flowing tide, we spotted this curious but unafraid night heron:

Next, glittering silver streaks, like lights on a disco ball, attracted our attention: a school of small sardine-like fishies … followed by four large, hungry stiped bass. I’d never seen such large bass.

Moments later, what looked like plastic bag debris turned out, on closer inspection, to be a blue tinted jellyfish! Never seen a jellyfish in these waters before.

Further along on our walk, we noticed freshly blossomed tree mushrooms. 

Photos: © S. Galleymore. iPhone SE.

My cursory research did not suggest a name for this particular beauty. Maybe you’ll have better luck searching 
This bonanza of peeks into nature should have stimulated us to buy a lottery ticket.

***

Mary and I have a theme song, Gloria Gaynor and “I will survive”  (3:14 mins) Thank you, Gloria.

***

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:19am
Sunset: 6:30pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:20am
Sunset: 6:09pm

Squeaking

Stephen Colbert’s Meet the Flynnstones (0:55 mins)

 
The Lincoln Project:
What They believe  (0:59 mins)
J. D. Vance’s fake non-profit  (0:35 mins)
Storm  (0:57 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Learn more, get involved >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Yesterday, after showering, Meso Mary displayed the clump of hair that had come away in her hand while she shampooed.
Most of her hair remains on her head, but the clump in her hand was a sobering foreshadowing of what may await.
Indeed, Mary, ever proactive, intends to visit a stylist for a shorter, more manageable hair style that will allow her to focus on bouncing back from chemo rather than how she looks to herself and others.

***

Thom Hartmann’s Opinion piece, “Why does the GOP work so hard to let psychopaths in suits get away with murder?” addresses the reality of deaths – including that of Hartmann's father from mesothelioma - due to rampant toxic contamination in the United States.
For many years, I’ve engaged with the reality that “business” – big and little – is geared toward profit and, too often, endangers its workers with nothing to little demanded of the companies. Moreover, this is getting worse. (That is, worse from the point of view of the Little Guy; better from the point of view of big biz and big profit margins.) With Republican Party determination to neutralize (at best) democracy in the US, We the People can expect far more of the same.
A quote from Hartman’s piece:

In America today if you poison and kill your wife to make $150,000 in life insurance money, you’ll probably end up in prison.
But if you poison and kill hundreds of thousands of people so you can take home a multi-million-dollar paycheck, you get to buy a new yacht.
This has to end.

I don’t pretend my work will end this. I’m a very small cog in a very large system. But I am a cog. And cogs, just like squeaky wheels, require a modicum of attention.
Mary’s fatal ailment stimulates me to squeak.
Let the squeaking begin.

***

Inexorable trend toward darkness in:
SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:17am
Sunset: 6:32pm

And the trend toward light in:
KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:21am
Sunset: 6:07pm

Living

Worldwide (Map) 
October 13, 2022 – 623,005,700 confirmed infections; 6,562,000 deaths
October 14, 2021 – 239,341,600 confirmed infections; 4,877,540 deaths
October 15, 2020 – 38,426,375 confirmed infections; 1,091,250 deaths

US (Map) 
October 13, 2022 – 96,831,600 confirmed infections; 1,0634,000 deaths
October 14, 2021 – 44,694,200 confirmed infections; 719,760 deaths
October 15, 2020 – 7,911,500 confirmed infections; 216,860 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
October 13, 2022 - 4,021,750 confirmed infections; 102,200 deaths
October 14, 2021 – 2,914,000 confirmed infections; 88,500 deaths
October 15 – 696,420 confirmed infections; 18,155 deaths

Post from: 

October 14, 2021, “Leadership” 
October 15, 2020, “Scamdemic” 

News blues

Considering another trip to South Africa in the next months, I’ve begun looking into country-by-country Covid travel advisories.
The US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention announced it will assess the level of Covid-19 infection in each country and post notices only when there are new variants or other situations that would change its travel recommendations.
Here’s hopin’
Read more >> 

***

On war… and crowdfunding a war
Ah, the genius of people under enormous life-and-death pressure!
Certainly, the power of crowdfunding put to great use!

A crowdfunding appeal that was launched after Russian attacks on cities across the country on Monday has raised $9.6m (£8.7m) in 24 hours for the purchase of kamikaze drones for the Ukrainian armed forces.
An initial 50 Ram II drones, unmanned aerial vehicles with a 3kg explosive payload, designed and built by Ukrainian companies, will be bought with the money, along with three control stations.

Read more >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Pucker up, J. D.  (1:09 mins)
Republican Socialists  (0:26 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - October 11, 2022  (2:10 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Dr Wendy Schultz, futurist and co-author of the report titled Law in the Emerging Bio Age says. “There is a growing understanding that something very different has to be done if our children are going to have a planet to live on that is in any way pleasant, much less survivable.”
Schultz and co-author Dr Trish O’Flynn call to enshrine rights for the natural world.
I’m for that.
Are you?
Here’s more: O’Flynn, an interdisciplinary researcher who was previously the national lead for civil contingencies at the Local Government Association, says legal frameworks should be “fit for a more than human future” and developments such as genetic modification or engineering. This means covering everything from labradors to lab-grown brain tissue, rivers to robots.

Ecuador and Bolivia have already enshrined rights for the natural world, while there is a campaign to make ecocide a prosecutable offence at the international criminal court. The report for the Law Society, the professional body for solicitors in England and Wales, explores how the relationship between humans and mother earth might be recalibrated in the future.

Personally, I think this is a grand plan…that might take decades to implement. For one thing, the United States does not recognize the jurisdiction of the legal body that is the international criminal court. As long as the US, currently the most influential country on the planet, is not onboard, few other countries will pay much attention. People, however, should continue to push for such a legal framework. Perhaps then politicians would change their stripes and blend with the trend? (Hmmm, just a guess but … nah!)

Read more >> 

***

Staying on topic…

Earth’s wildlife populations have plunged by an average of 69% in just under 50 years, according to a leading scientific assessment, as humans continue to clear forests, consume beyond the limits of the planet and pollute on an industrial scale.
From the open ocean to tropical rainforests, the abundance of birds, fish, amphibians and reptiles is in freefall, declining on average by more than two-thirds between 1970 and 2018, according to the WWF and Zoological Society of London’s (ZSL) biennial Living Planet Report. Two years ago, the figure stood at 68%, four years ago, it was at 60%.

Read more >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

These last 7 post chemo days have been the worst for Meso Mary. (Let’s hope they remain the worst and nothing in the future competes.) Nausea was an issue but the main issues were weakness, dizziness, general malaise, and passing out briefly before falling to the floor.

Mary fell three times, the first time heavily on her left hip – bruising it – and subsequently falling on the same hip but not as heavily.
After the second fall, she decided to lower her center of gravity and crawl instead of walk.
It’s terrifying to see someone one loves reduced to crawling along the floor to ensure she doesn’t fall and hurt herself.
Yes, Mary could have simply stayed in bed. Indeed, she stayed in bed for much of three days, but that's impractical, well nigh impossible, when one has been directed to drink more than 2 liters of liquid per day. What goes in, must come out....
Mary is stubborn (one of her best features when on a project; not such a great feature after chemo treatment). She refused the oncology nurse’s advice to go to the hospital emergency room reasoning, “at least not now. I’ll go if needed. For now, it’s not worth the stress of getting there, waiting in a room potentially with Covid sufferers, and accepting advice that will include ‘hydrate, hydrate, hydrate.’ Why don’t I simply stay home and hydrate?”

Good points.  
She took her own advice and took it easy, working slowly on personal projects, and eating nutritioius meals. 
I fully support her. I have full confidence that she’s making the right decisions based on her situation and needs.
At the same time, I’m becoming more enraged at Mary’s reality.

Imagine. Being fatally attacked by asbestos “hidden” in materials that Mary used and uses to share her creative gifts, asbestos not only known but purposefully embedded by manufacturers into materials because it’s cheaper than removing it and therefore means making more profit for manufacturing companpies.
Outrageous... and I intend to publicize the outrage. 

***

Sometimes the good balances out the not-so-good.
Good: we took a short walk in the park where I photographed this red tailed hawk with its dinner, a ground squirrel. 

Not-so-good: being dinner.  

I’ve never been allowed this close to a bird of prey before. This one clearly wasn’t ready to abandon its gustatory pleasure to avoid the close observation of two intrigued and puny humans.

Red tailed hawk
© S. Galleymore

***

Continuing with cool in and around San Francisco Bay Area ...
SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:16am
Sunset: 6:34pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:22am
Sunset: 6:07pm

Post chemo – session 2

News blues

Our third pandemic winter rapidly approaches with cooler weather, and people spending more time inside, where the virus spreads more easily. The risks of a resurgence is increasing with the first hints that another possible surge of COVID-19 infections could be on its way.

Infections have been rising in many European countries, including the U.K., France, and Italy.
"In the past, what's happened in Europe often has been a harbinger for what's about to happen in the United States," says Michael Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy at the University of Minnesota. "So I think the bottom line message for us in this country is: We have to be prepared for what they are beginning to see in Europe."

Read more >> 

***

On war…
Ukraine Under Attack: Documenting the Russian Invasion Photographers in and around Ukraine have captured the horrors of war >> 

***

The Lincoln Project:
Liz Cheney: flip or skip  (0:42 mins)
Priorities  (0:26 mins)
Ukraine  (0:59 mins)
Lead blockers  (1:05 mins)
Last week in the Republican Party - October 7, 2022  (2:15 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

Fat bears >>

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

A pattern emerges in Meso Mary’s post chemo treatments. Now that she understands which anti-nausea drug to take – Zyprexa – she states that she is “queasy” but not nauseous. Some tinnitus distracts her sense of hearing, too. But overall, while she rested most of yesterday – no walks outside – she reports “feeling better.

You go, girl!
 

***

Cool in and around San Francisco Bay Area today
SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:13am
Sunset: 6:38pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:27am
Sunset: 6:06pm

Chemo - session 2

Worldwide (Map) 
October 6, 2022 – 619,794,750 confirmed infections; 6,552,300 deaths
October 7, 2021 – 236,735,200 confirmed infections; 4,832,640 deaths
October 8, 2020 – 36,069,000 confirmed infections; 1,055,000 deaths

US (Map) 
October 6, 2022 - 96,552,300 confirmed infections; 1,061,500 deaths
October 7, 2021 – 44,086,000 confirmed infections; 708,200 deaths
October 8 , 2020 – 7,550,000 confirmed infections; 212,000 deaths

SA (Coronavirus portal) 
October 6, 2022 - 4,019,800 confirmed infections; 102,185 deaths
October 7, 2021 – 2,909,000 confirmed infections; 88,000 deaths
October 8, 2020 – 685,155 confirmed infections; 17,250 deaths

Post from:
Oct 7, 2021, “Confusion and complication” 
Oct 8, 2020, “Debatable” 

News blues

As Meso Mary heads into chemotherapy session  - 2 of 4, we hope, and no more needed, at least for now – we’re heartened by ongoing research into this environmental disease brought exposure to asbestos.

Vaccine therapy is a new mesothelioma treatment option that involves immunotherapy. A cancer vaccine instructs your immune system to make antibodies against cancer cells, similar to how the flu vaccine prepares your body to identify and attack the influenza virus. Mesothelioma vaccines are still in clinical trials where scientists are testing them for safety and effectiveness.
In a phase II mesothelioma clinical trial, patients who received the WT1 vaccine had a median overall survival of 21.4 months compared to 16.6 months for those who received a placebo. Doctors are also testing the benefits of combining mesothelioma vaccines with immunotherapy drugs such as Opdivo.

Read more >> 

***

On war…
Photos of war in Ukraine (warning, don’t view if you are squeamish) >>

***

The Lincoln Project:
President Biden Speaks in Florida Following Hurricane Ian  (1:17 mins)
Mitch found out  (0:49 mins)
Ron DeSantis on Hurricane Ian Looters  (0:43 mins)

Healthy planet, anyone?

A “luxury game reserve” is planned for on at least 580 sq miles (1,500 sq km) of land in Loliondo, bordering the Serengeti national park of Tanzania, and evicting more than 70,000 Maasai from ancestral land.

Lawyers for Maasai herders who say the Tanzanian government is trying to violently evict them from their ancestral land to make way for a luxury game reserve have lodged an appeal against a court ruling that dismissed their case. …
The government says the land is within the park and should, therefore, be given over solely to conservation purposes rather than being disrupted by human activity. But the herders say the land has been rightfully theirs for generations and accuse the authorities of wanting to use it to create a luxury game reserve run by a UAE-owned company.

Read more >> 

In Africa’s Sahel,

Russian mercenaries may be poised for further expansion in Africa’s strategically important Sahel region after the latest coup d’etat in the region, western officials and analysts fear.
Ibrahim Traoré, a 34-year-old army captain, took power in Burkina Faso on Friday, overthrowing Lt Col Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba, whom he accused of failing to effectively counter rising violence by Islamic extremists in the unstable and poverty-stricken country.
…
Many believe Traoré is likely to invite assistance from Moscow to boost the country’s flailing struggle against Islamic extremists…
Over the weekend, hundreds of protesters, some waving Russian flags, lit fires, tore down barbed wire and threw stones at the French embassy in the capital, Ouagadougou, and attacked a French cultural centre in the city of Bobo-Dioulasso.
The coup comes amid a new push by Russia to win influence and gain access to valuable raw materials in sub-Saharan Africa in recent months, after years of careful if opportunistic efforts across the continent.
Some of the efforts are led by paramilitaries from the Wagner group, a complex of companies linked to the Kremlin and founded by Yevgeny Prigozhin, a Russian businessman and close ally of Putin.

Hmmmm. Russia? The Wagner group? (a private Russian mercenary business). Businessmen and close allies of Putin?
My unsolicited advice? Avoid entanglement with Russia. As pointed out above, Russia’s efforts “to win influence and gain access to valuable raw materials in sub-Saharan Africa” follows “years of careful if opportunistic efforts across the continent.”
South Africa’s entanglements with Russia “unquestionably represented Russia’s biggest foreign policy success story on the continent.”  Continued “foreign policy success” stories will likely mean Russians will build nuclear power plants in South Africa. Imagine. South Africa, a country proving every day for the past dozen years that it has been incapable of supplying “traditional” coal-powered electricity  trends towards accepting Russian “help” to build and run nuke power facilities.
This portends an utterly predictable disaster spreading toxic nuclear waste across southern Africa if greedy South African politicians succumb to Russian blandishments – and lots of money.
Just sayin’….

Meanwhile, back at the ranch…

Another session of chemo pending becomes real when Mary takes one of two Decadron – generic for Dexamethasone – the day prior to chemo. She takes another two today, the day of chemo, and plans to take the final two of this session tomorrow.
Decadron is a steroid that reduces inflammation, “helps the symptoms of inflammatory conditions… also helps calm your immune system... and when taken for nausea and vomiting … is thought to work on chemical messengers in the brain to reduce feelings of sickness.”
Roll on, Decadron – help Mary "treat conditions."
Last go round, Mary did not suffer vomiting but did suffer nausea and who knows what "other conditions."
This time around, she’s taking seriously advice received about the four different types of anti-nausea meds she’d been prescribed … and she's settled on Zyprexa (although she's not taken any yet. Results pending). She avoided this drug during her first session – trooper that she is, she simply put up with nausea – as Dr Google described Zyprexa as “an antipsychotic medication that affects chemicals in the brain [and is] used to treat psychotic conditions such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder (manic depression) in adults….”
Chemo, indeed, has side effects, but what to make of treating nausea with drugs designed to treat “schizophrenia and bipolar disorder”? To mangle a quote: Ours not to wonder why, ours but to swallow and not die.
Dr Google's warnings about Zyprexa that impacted Mary's decision

• Zyprexa may impair your thinking or reactions. Be careful if you drive or do anything that requires you to be alert.
• Avoid drinking alcohol while taking Zyprexa.
• Zyprexa is not approved for use in older adults with dementia-related psychosis.
• You may gain weight or have high cholesterol and triglycerides (types of fat) while taking this medicine…. Your blood may need to be tested often.
• Olanzapine can cause high blood sugar (hyperglycemia). If you are diabetic, check your blood sugar levels on a regular basis while you are taking this medicine.
• Avoid getting up too fast from a sitting or lying position… Dizziness or severe drowsiness can cause falls, fractures, or other injuries. Get up slowly and steady yourself to prevent a fall.
• Avoid becoming overheated or dehydrated….It is easier to become dangerously overheated and dehydrated while you are taking Zyprexa.

Hmmmm.
National Cancer Institute reports that:

Scientists think they may have found a promising treatment for people with advanced cancer who have nausea and vomiting not caused by chemotherapy. In a small NCI-funded study, treatment with olanzapine (Zyprexa) greatly reduced cancer patients’ nausea and vomiting compared with a placebo.
Many people with advanced cancer experience chronic nausea and vomiting that can make it difficult to eat and can lessen their overall well-being. 

The scary part of this report?
“… a promising treatment for people with advanced cancer who have nausea and vomiting not caused by chemotherapy.”
So many treatments for mesothelioma are “promising” rather than confirmed. Mesotelioma is described as "rare" - therefore, IMHO, not worthy of funding as it's unlikely to produce profits over time. Additionally, Mary’s oncology team presents Zyprexa as an effective anti-nausea drug, not a drug for “people with advanced cancer who have nausea and vomiting not caused by chemotherapy.” This disconnect will be further explored with the oncology team.

***

Tuesday, I posted about a less than stellar visit  with a phlebotomist likely fresh out of phlebotomy school who poked Mary twice with a sharp needle before “finding a vein” and extracting blood.
Wednesday, Mary’s inner elbow – the site of the poking – is bruised although no longer swollen. I’d fretted that the bungled extraction might lead to infection, right at the time Mary is most vulnerable to infection. Judging by the lack of swelling, we have one less side effect to worry about.
However, Mary received a phone call from the oncology clinic to return to the clinic to extract more blood. Not only had the green phlebotomist made a hash of the blood letting, she'd not taken sufficient blood to complete all pre-treatment tests. Grrrr, the day before chemo, the patient is advised to "rest". Running around to pick up the pieces of a boteched blood extraction during late afternoon traffic on the roads (no time for bus riding) is hardly restful.

***

Darker earlier and later in the San Francisco Bay Area 

SF Bay Area:
Sunrise: 7:10am
Sunset: 6:44pm

KZN, South Africa:
Sunrise: 5:30am
Sunset: 6:03pm