Miscellaneous

Now that have moved most of the belongings into my new apartment, things are beginning to settle down. These last few weeks have been quite rough on my body, so it's been great to get a respite from the constant moving and unpacking of boxes.

I got a notice in the mail from my nephrologist, who has rescheduled my next scheduled appointment from the middle to the end of May. Since I'm totally in control managing my edema, a delay is not too much of an issue, but I would really like to get another blood test soon to see how my kidneys are doing.

Here's some random news off the wire:

• If you haven't read my news item earlier this month, famous science-fiction writer Robert Jordan was diagnosed with amyloidosis. He is undergoing the high-dose chemotherapy and SCT treatment. Today he is on Day+6, and it is great to see that he has a good sense of humor through all this. You can read his blog here.
• Our friend Lance Carter is showing a great response to his Dexamethzone treatments. I'm glad to see that he's on the up-and-up. Keep on fighting the good fight, Lance.
• Thanks to Lance's wife Lisa for posting the testimony given by Terry Peel to the US House of Representative Subcommittee on Labor, Health & Human Services. It is a plea to have more funding allocated to Amyloidosis Research. He gives a good overview of the disease, and why more attention (and more dollars) needs to be given to finding a cure.
• Team Tony has really started to slow down on production, and its ascent into the elite 500 has temporarily come to a standstill. As of this writing, we are in 613th place. We've crunched over 3000 work units, scored a half-a-million points... Why stop now? If you haven't considered joining Team Tony to contribute to amyloidosis research and awareness, I strongly recommend you check it out.
• The next Amyloidosis Support Group Meeting for New England will be held at Boston Medical Center on May 20th, 2006. The speaker will be Dr. John Berk, one of the directors of the Amyloid Program at BUMC. Here's more information if you're interested.
• A raffle to benefit for Amyloidosis Research is being conducted by the Nassau Wings Motorcycle Club. They are giving away a week at a very nice resort in Arizona. For more information, a flyer in PDF format can be found here.

Well, my fingers are always a little tight in the evenings due to some fluid build up, so that's it for now.