It Might Get Messy

Head and neck cancers are rarish. They account for about 3% of U.S. cancers, most common in white males over 50 [1], meaning about 52,000 diagnoses annually. So far—aging, white—I fit the profile. But tobacco use is highly positively correlated, I’m clean on that axis. Unfortunately so is alcohol use (and we’ve already discussed my lifelong love affair with beverage alcohol and chronic application of alcohol-based oral care products), so I’m back in the doctors-can-only-shake-their-head-when-they-hear-about-your-lifestyle in the diagnostic history category. But it turns out there’s something else interesting. The Human Papiloma Virus (HPV) turns out to be related, quite possibly causally, to some head and neck cancers. 


So, despite the anti-vaccine wack jobs populating the internet and public meetings nationwide, and the even wackier jobs populating the religious-intense wastelands of North America who think that disease-preventive vaccination is somehow going to turn their children into sexual predators (or prey, or something), there’s ANOTHER reason for a universal HPV vaccine. Real reductions in head and neck cancer rates.


As for me, I learned this week that despite vast improvement in my overall health, my jaw is still painful, I still get a head full of sticky mucous at the end of the day, and I can easily push my under-exercised physiology too far. I’ve managed to work my daily activity up to something over 1000 meters of “running” (read: “slow, painful, shuffling”) alternating with shooting 30 to 45 bolts with my 175 lb draw crossbow on the range at College Park. Believe me, between hauling a crossbow-safe target several hundred meters down to the backstops (don’t even THINK about trying to retrieve your bolts from backstops made for longbows, recurves, and compounds) and cocking and shooting for an hour or more, I get plenty of exercise.


So I was a little shocked to find that a quick business trip to Chicago, where I had to function for a day-and-a-half including a lengthy dinner with clients (great restaurant, wonderful service—Kinzie Chop House—the only thing I could deal with—the broth from the minestrone—was homemade beef stock. Incredible! And the lemoncello—made by the owner’s aged aunt—of course—awesome). Got to visit Beth and Maggie for a couple hours. Flew home, passed out, got up, drove to West Virginia where Dr. Y and family had rented an old-timey tourist cabin in a state park while attending a technical conference. Had a fabulous time, but was frickin’ exhausted by 10 pm last night, and am even more frickin’ exhausted now—just about precisely 10 pm—Sunday night.


So it’s still a struggle, my friends, but a struggle we’re winning, it seems. I go in for “lymphedema clinic” this week, where they’ll attempt to massage my lymph-swollen face back into some semblance of normalcy. I’m also getting much closer—very close—to getting all 4 weblogs in this little writing enterprise back up and going. For the moment, I’ll leave you with a few interesting photos. 

A twig with the bark stripped by porcupines.

A soldier beetle guarding its territory.

A gorgeous little spring flower.


Thanks for being here, everyone. Spring is powering into the northern hemisphere, we’re just about back to bare feet and shorts. And parking butts on the beach. Yee Haa!!!


Notes


[1] http://www.medicalnewstoday.com/releases/243574.php