Not My Cup of Tea

TEA GROWING AREAS IN JAPAN

Well I finally decided I could no longer handle the dishwater tasting green teas that I have been consuming after finishing off my store of pre-tsunami Japanese organic Sencha tea many months ago.

I  have been nervous about the radiation risk to the tea crop in Japan, That's not a crazy concern.

My wonderful grower and supplier is from Kyoto which is more than 300 miles from the power plant.  He has certificates that say his tea is free of radiation and I completely trust him.

Whom I don't trust is the Japanese government and their food monitoring.

We know that the crop in the famous tea growing prefecture of Shizuoka which is about one hundred milds closer to the damaged reactors was contaminated.  The westward winds after the radiation escape probably mitigated the Japanese exposure, but the safety data is conflicting. By the way Tokyo is about half way closer to Fukushima than is Kyoto.

I ordered some Japanese tea from a supplier in New York that swore that he still had some pre-disaster tea in his USA warehouse, airtight and sealed. I eagerly waited for it to arrive and brighten my morning breakfast. Very disappointing. It was mediocre at best, better than the junk at the grocery store, but no sparkle, no sweetness, no life.

I  have never been a big fan of Chinese teas - I have been to China and I don't trust what is claimed to be organic. I worry it is too often just a label that lets the vendor jack up the prices, and bedsides the tea seem more astringent. Remember the Chinese and the baby formula and the  dog food. Indian teas are better, but "green" is not their strength.

I have some green tea from Malawi that I'll try next.

So I still missing my gentle but very lively Japanese Sencha.

I admit it. I am a tea snob.

Today I ordered over 500 grams of four different Japanese organic Senchas, all from the southern island of Kyushu (Kumamoto, Kagoshima, and Miyazaki), about as far from the damaged nuclear reactor you can get and still speak Japanese as your official language.

I am hopeful and my mouth is watering in anticipation. The reviews could have been used to describe a a classy pinot noir.

One of the great luxuries of being in remission is that I feel OK to complain about what is and isn't my cup of tea.

Yesterday I said the prayer for the dead (Kaddish) for Dr. Larry Deutsch again and remembered that others were not so lucky. I also prayed that ibrutinib and its ilk and the next generation of therapies to follow them will soon and in our time make tragedies like Larry's and so many others, painful memories of a past left behind. His partner will be sending me his autopsy and I will share here what the dead can teach the living.

I am doing well, finishing my steroids tomorrow with my right ear still doing fine and only an increased fatigue burden.

Paddle boarding at Sunset Beach tomorrow morning with my family, and off to OSU in Columbus on Tuesday to see friends and get my last infusion and more ibrutinib.

Tea or not, it is good to be alive.

So Sad

Dr. Larry Deutsch

My friend, Dr. Larry Deutsch died of complications of CLL. He was only 66 years old, a well respected family doctor, an honest medical writer, (see Calorie Wars)  and gifted hypnotist with offices in Ottawa and New York City.

We met in person at CLLPAG in Niagara Falls last April, but had been internet pals for a long time before that. We had worked on some hypnosis audio files to help deal with the stress of CLL. He was headed to Socal for a visit next week, but sepsis intervened first.

He was a kind and thoughtful physician and a good friend, full of life, hope and plans for the future. A life cut short. I will miss him and our many Skype calls.

I am way too sad to write much today. More later on the possible painful lessons from this tragedy.

Cancer sucks.

Coping with Cancer: Living with Leukemia and Lymphoma

Friends,

Like my hero, Chaya Venkat at http://updates.clltopics.org/ I have avoided selling anything through my website or promoting anything more than a bone marrow drive or a worthy charity.

I am now going break that rule to make a heartfelt sales pitch for a project that I was involved with in an effort to help fellow CLLers or those with other cancers.

For the last several months I have been working with my friend, Dr. Larry Deutsch an international renowned hypotherapist.

Like me, Dr Larry is a Canadian family doctor. Like me he teaches other doctors. Like me, Dr. Larry has needed to change the nature and scope of his practice because like me Dr. Larry Deutsch has CLL.

We have been collaborating on an audio file that uses his expertise and empathy and my knowledge of the disease from the inside out to help patients cope and maintain a calm sense of control with the diagnosis of leukemia and lymphoma in particular and cancer in general.

I believe that the MP3 that we produced is strong medicine. Larry is a powerful hypnotherapist with an important message.

Let me be clear. We are not promising a melting away of your cancer by a sheer act of will. We are not promising any cures. We are simply trying to build your confidence in dealing with a process that can often feel overwhelming.

Dr Deutsch did the heavy lifting on this project, but I am very proud of the part I played and very happy with the final result.

Please listen to a sample on this webpage.

Please download the MP3.

You will be glad that you did.

Every sale will generate a donation to CLLPAG in Canada and LRF in the USA, two important organizations that help the CLL and lymphoma community. I have worked with them both. Their conferences are first rate and important to many patients and caregivers, but they could do so much more with more support.

We all do so much better when we can get some help that allows us to slow down, and let go of the stress.

As I have been known to say, we are all in this together.

Hope my readers are OK with this bit of a commercial, but I am a believer in getting behind what you believe in and I do believe that how we cope with our cancer plays a role in how we do with our cancer.

I will publish more links to ASH videos over the next few days, and some stuff on 11q deletion, but tomorrow I leave for a conference on CME in Orlando for a few days.