There's research that shows that being given a placebo in place of real medication, in other words a substance that shouldn't have any actual medical impact, can genuinely improve health outcomes. The "placebo effect" is sort of a "strength of wishful thinking" situation.

Unfortunately, that's unlikely to work in immunology. I was in a Lyme Disease vaccine trial a couple of years ago, and didn't know whether I was receiving the vaccine being tested or a placebo. After a couple of injections, I was actually disqualified from the trial because I'd started immunotherapy infusions as part of my cancer treatment after my last surgery. I still had to wait until the end of the trial to find out whether I'd been getting the vaccine or a placebo injection, which is typically just saline (salt water).

Well, I hadn't heard anything, and I was pretty sure the trial was going to be unblinded earlier this year, so I dug through old voicemail messages and found the phone number for the office running the trial at Robert Packer Hospital in Sayre.

I was getting the placebo, not the vaccine. No immunity for me!

The good news is that the trial seems to have gone very well, and Pfizer has filed for FDA approval of the new vaccine. A human Lyme vaccine is likely to become available to the public within the next several months or so. I'll keep an eye out.

I guess there are fewer and fewer people trying to observe Passover with any degree of strictness these days, especially among the Reform Judaism population, but it's a tradition that I've always enjoyed.

Now, I don't spend the days before Passover excising all traces of chametz, or any leavened grain foods, from the house, and dusting with a feather. But I do try to carefully avoid all grain except for matzah and its derivatives. That includes beer, whisky, and most other spirits, which these days are distilled from grain.

Friday, we went out to dinner, and I thought I'd ask if there were any vodkas at the bar distilled from potatoes (the traditional eastern Europe way) instead of grain. The bartender told me confidently that Tito's was made from potatoes! He proceeded to make me a Tito's martini. Meantime, I was surprised and skeptical, so I asked the Internet.

He was wrong, it turned out. Tito's is made from corn, and they tout that because it means their vodka is gluten free.

So, I had a glass of wine, and he spilled out the drink. Later, I had a drink made with tequila, which is distilled from agave, and is perfectly Passover-safe.

I don't mind when people don't know, say so, and find out, but when they're confidently wrong, it can be a problem.

Tags: alcohol, judaism, martini, passover

Yesterday was both the fifth anniversary of my first (botched) hernia surgery and the second anniversary of my third (and so far last) kidney cancer surgery, in which my right kidney was removed.

I've also been recovering from a (thankfully mild) case of COVID. Rachel came home from Rhode Island on New Year's Day with a cough, and I already had a sniffle, so it's not 100% clear which one of us brought the infection into the house. I was much snifflier over the weekend, went to work on Monday, and Rachel took a COVID test on Tuesday morning and suggested I should, too.

So, I've been working from home since Tuesday morning. She felt much sicker midweek than I did, but felt a lot better yesterday. I'm feeling just about normal today, with just a little lingering congestion. A fresh COVID test is cooking now so I can see how much virus I've got flying around.

It's the third time for each of us. Rachel had the OG virus in 2020, and I'm told it sucked! I had it in spring 2022 (months after my first kidney surgery) and again in fall 2023 (caught at a conference in Buffalo where it hit dozens of attendees). I wouldn't say I enjoyed it either time, but the second and third were not as severe as the first for me. It just felt like a cold and sore throat this time, and it hadn't occurred to me to do a test until Rachel suggested it. I'd actually been considering getting one of the dual Flu A/B and COVID tests from Walgreens before the end of December, just to have on hand, so I could take advantage of having used up my deductibles and out-of-pocket limits, but I didn't get around to it. I might as well anyway. The flu levels have been pretty high in New York State.

Our new office, which wasn't really reasonably set up for us, is being rearranged on Monday morning starting at 9am, so we have to pack up all the contents of our cubicles before then. That means I've gotta head to campus, either today or over the weekend. I'll wear a mask.

Hope you're all having a decent start to the New Year.

P.S. My test this morning shows nothing! Rachel's has just a thin line remaining.

Tags: cancer, covid, covid-19, hernia, illness, kidney cancer, rachel, surgery, work

How goofy! LiveJournal wants me to write a post congratulating their "mascot," Frank, in order to show me my 2025 statistics. Well, congrats, Frank! And Happy New Year, one and all. Hope you're well.

Tags: #4frank, #newyear2026, happy new year

Four years ago today, I got my first kidney cancer diagnosis. I called my parents, drove back to Ithaca, and had lunch at Red’s Place with Ashley Cake. We split the Burger of the Month and a sandwich special and talked about bars.

The Watershed and The Downstairs and Red's Place are closing. (Thoughts about that another time.)

I'm still here.

When you have a cancer diagnosis and are still alive, you get to call yourself a cancer survivor. I am a cancer survivor.

I'm a couple of weeks shy of two years since my third surgery, and I've been living with one kidney since then. I'm a couple of weeks shy of one year since finishing a year of immunotherapy infusions.

My quarterly parade of MRIs and CT scans have remained clean.

I am still cancer-free.

Thank you all for the steady stream of support! #FuckCancer

Tags: #fuckcancer, cancer

"Ripple" is a new series on Netflix with an ensemble cast whose characters rotate around each other, in ways ranging from incidental to interconnected. Set in New York City, it feels like as much a love letter to Manhattan as a drama. We're almost two episodes in (Rachel didn't quite make it to the end of the second installment last night) and I'm enjoying the performances (Ian Harding and Frankie Faison are two familiar faces) and the largely warm tone.

It reminds me of "Sliding Doors," though that movie (yikes, 1998?!) really dove into the alternate possibilities of random connections happening or not, while "Ripple" sticks to one timeline where characters are variously affected by a single pebble. 

Tags: movies, netflix, tv

I've taken advantage of Early Voting several times since it launched in 2019, voting at both of the early polling places available in Tompkins County: The Ithaca Town Hall in Downtown Ithaca and the Airport Crash Fire Rescue building adjacent to the Ithaca Tompkins International Airport. But I've also voted at my regular polling place at the Ellis Hollow Apartments a few times the last few years, cause I hadn't gotten around to early voting.

Today, I'm voting at my first new polling place in 21 years! The Varna Community Center, where I've certainly been several times, is the polling place for our new house in Ellis. just over the hill in the Town of Dryden.

If you haven't already voted, and you're eligible, please vote today!

I'm in Grand Rapids for this year's Digital Collegium (formerly HighEdWeb) annual conference, and I was last here in 2009 for Cornell's appearance in an NCAA regional hockey tournament. (For anyone who's not familiar with Michigan, I'm nowhere near today's church shooting and fire in Grand Blanc, which is about a hundred miles away.)

Today I picked one of a couple of nearby bars I knew would let me watch the Buffalo Bills football game even though this is Lions territory and they were playing at the same time. On a visit to the men's room at Z's, I realized that back corridor looked familiar. Could I have peed there before?!

It took some poking around after realizing I'd been here with my cousin Elie to find the photo I've posted of him and Rich in one of the front windows of this same bar. The bartender was amused when I showed her that pic, and one of the bloody mary bar they used to have. (They no longer do.)

The game was fun to watch, and the bar had both some good local beers (discounted on Sundays and Mondays) and good NA beers. I like to alternate.

Tags: digicol, digital collegium, grand rapids, highedweb, travel
Current Music: Green Bay vs Dallas

The food safety enthusiast in me is appalled, but I guess starting with fully cooked meat makes it almost OK, right? 😬

Now I'm tempted to check how hot my mailbox actually gets. I know the ice pack and seltzer I like to leave for the mail carrier don't quite stay cold all day.

Tags: heat wave, weather

There's been a growth in my left ear for a couple of years. It seemed to be a skin tag, and after living with it for a while, and my doctor saying it was nothing to worry about, I decided it was enough of an irritant that I wanted to deal with it. My doctor referred me to an ENT, who took a look a couple of weeks ago and said "Yup! Let's remove that." I think I was with him for all of three minutes.

This morning's appointment to remove it was really only a couple of minutes longer. I felt the lidocaine injection, which reminded me of novocaine injections in my gums when I'd needed dental work, but then didn't feel a thing as he clipped out the growth. I only heard it, which was weird!

It's off to pathology to make sure it wasn't anything to be further concerned about, but he doesn't think so. I'll take the cotton ball out of my ear shortly and then just need to clean it and put in antibiotic ointment daily for a bit. It should fully heal in a couple of weeks.