Wednesday, November 04, 2015

New Scenery On The Trip

This is still me, with a new look and a new outlook.  I apologize to all the friends and relatives whose calls, cards, letters and emails have gone unanswered the last few weeks.And for the dearth in blog posts.  I'm not demised yet, and have no immediate plans to be so.Really, there's lots of encouraging news. Rosalee likes the shaved head.  She said it's like there's a new man in the house.  Somehow, that should probably worry meSometimes when I catch a glimpse of myself in the mirror, I think it's one of my shaved-head brothers,Mark, Milton and Harold.  I've been working on my sisters, Jo Ann and Louise to shave their heads  in solidarity with their bald brothers.so far, they have resisted all the brothers' entreaties, despite our generous suggestion that they could keep their Amish/Mennonite bona fides by tatooing delicate little white prayer caps on he backs of their glistening heads.

The reason for the shaved head isn't that the radiation and chemotherapy  have done a number on my hair follicles after six weeks of bombardment.   It's because I started a brand new therapy last week called "alternating electric field therapy," (TTF,) which was just approved by the FDA for new tumors on October 5. Here's a Wikipedia article about it.  To learn more read here.It involves shaving  my head and putting electrodes on my scalp and running electricity through my brain at least 18 out of every 24 hours.  It comes with a battery pack which I carry with me when I'm going to be away from an electrical outlet.

This sounds kind of voodoo, but it apparently works.The clinical trials were stopped because the treatment was found to be effective.  I doubt that this is a cure for cancer, but it does extend the life expectancy. Give me another five years and maybe there will be something else.

Now here's some investment advice:  Remember all the tales about how an investment in one share of Coca Cola or Microsoft or Apple when they were first getting started, would have turned into millions when they got established?  Here's your chance. This treatment has only been approved for brain tunors, but it is being tested for other types of cancer.It costs $19,000 a month.  Can you imagine how much money Novocre is going to be making when the treatment is approved for more common types of cancer like lung and breast cancer?  Don't bet the farm; yhe owners of the company could be crooks or terrible business people.  But if you've ever been tempted to buy a lottery ticket, this is probably a better bet.