10 pages of abstracts down, 22 more to go on Thanksgiving

I have begun to review the CLL abstracts out of ASH, the big scientific conference on all things bloody.

Last year I attended in San Francisco, and this year it is in the Big Easy, and I am sorely tempted to go again.

It is very busy, very crowded, very expensive, and really not a great place to get into any deep conversations.

It is however a great place to renew contacts, shake hands, and learn the very latest on CLL and transplant.

Also great place for H1N1 and a lousy place for a vegan. Too many fragrant temptations. There is a poh'boy sandwich with my name on it for sure in the French Quarter.

It is a great place to get overwhelmed in fact.

Instead I chose to get overwhelmed at home.

So much reading and cogitating. OUCH!

The abstracts are all available online at http://ash.confex.com/ash/2009/webprogram/start.html

I am through downloading and skimming the ones of interest in the first 10 pages or 100 papers. I have about 22 pages or 220 abstracts more to get through.

Then I do the same thing for transplants.

And then ITP (low platelets).

I am thankful for this resource.

I am thankful I can understand much of the scientific writing, that would have been beyond me a few years ago.

I am thankful that I can put many of the articles into perspective and not be bowled over by the the authors' sugary conclusions. I need a good BS detector to sort through some of the data.

I am thankful for the great majority of researchers who are out there trying in such wildly different ways to find an answer, to find a cure.

I am thankful for all the volunteers who agreed to enter these trials, sadly sometimes at the cost of their lives. They are my heros.

I am thankful to be here, and well enough to be looking at my options.

But honestly, for a few thousand dollars more, it would be way more fun to be going to ASH.