Month: February 2022

War in Kharkiv, Ukraine

~ pmglasser ~ Leave a comment

Only 45 km (28 miles) from the border with Russia, Kharkiv has been the scene of heavy fighting (link) since the beginning of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24 (Thursday). My girlfriend Nataliya and I have watched with anguish from afar as her homeland and hometown have been subjected to naked Russian aggression.

Nataliya has lived in the United States nearly 20 years, but all her family still lives in or near Kharkiv, including her brother (married with a young son with special needs) and her parents (both retired). Her brother lives on the east side of Kharkiv and says there has been fighting in nearby streets. Her mother and father live in a rural suburb on the west side of Kharkiv and say they can’t sleep at night because of all the explosions. Her mother, Iryna, says they don’t turn on the lights at night because they’re afraid to make themselves a target. Her ex-husband Vlad also returned to Ukraine only days before the fighting started to care for his mother and father who are both in poor health. His mother had surgery shortly before the invasion and was sent home prematurely to make room for anticipated casualties. Vlad has remarried and his wife and stepdaughter are very worried too since it looks like he won’t be returning to northern Kentucky anytime soon.

News reports indicate the Russians bombarded Kharkiv with missiles and artillery before sending in ground forces. A gas pipeline and the local airport were damaged. Fighting erupted throughout the city, but the Ukrainians claimed to have completely repulsed the attack by Feb. 27 (Sunday). But on Monday, Russian artillery has started to pound residential areas in Kharkiv (as seen in the video) killing dozens which flatly contradicts naked Russian lies that they target “only military objects.”

Kharkiv is a major cultural and economic hub and is the 2nd largest city in Ukraine. Founded in 1654, Kharkiv was the capital city before Kyiv rose to prominence in 1934.

Known for its beautiful churches and magnificent museums, Kharkiv is also a sister city of Cincinnati. Mayor Aftab Purval has offered assistance (link) to any Ukrainian refugees who may eventually arrive in Cincinnati. St. John’s Unitarian Universalist Church has already begun to raise funds to help as well. A rally is planned on Fountain Square at 3 p.m. Monday (Feb. 28) with Mayor Purval speaking at 4 p.m. More than 500,000 people have already fled the fighting in Ukraine. Please make a donation to any relevant humanitarian group if you are in a position to do so!

Kharkiv is 5,300 miles away and is separated from Cincinnati by 7 time zones, so the flow of information has been very slow. I had started to sleep much better in recent months after suffering from COVID-somnia but have had very little sleep the last few nights.

Nataliya and I had been planning a visit to Ukraine to spend time with her family in Kharkiv. I only met Nataliya’s mother briefly when she visited Cincinnati in 2019, but I say a few words whenever Nataliya chats with her over Facetime. I’ve been taking some rudimentary Russian language classes through the Babel app. Being so close to the border with Russia, Kharkiv is one of the regions in Ukraine where Russian is more common. Ukrainian and Russian are very similar (link), and both use the Cyrillic alphabet; as a result, many Ukrainians are bi-lingual. About 68% of the population primarily speaks Ukrainian while 30% speak Russian and the remainder speak other languages.

Nataliya’s son Alex speaks Russian at home and usually visits both sets of his grandparents every summer. Alex doesn’t understand the scope of the war and, in his youthful naivete, expects to return this year as soon as the shooting stops! Nataliya’s parents live on the more rural edge of Kharkiv, so they have a little garden, some chickens, and rabbits whom Alex loves! He was heartbroken when the furry matriarch recently died.

I have been awed by the dogged Ukrainian resistance in the face of nearly 200,000 Russian troops. But, there are suspicions that Belarus (a close ally of Russia) might send troops to fight alongside Russia (link) in Ukraine. So far, Belarus has only facilitated the invasion by allowing Russian troops to cross through Belarus in order to attack Ukraine.

My first interest in history arose was based in military history and especially World War II. That background makes me painfully aware of the suffering this war is causing. Therefore, I am an advocate for peace, which is one of the seven principles of Unitarian Universalism (link). So, I feel guilty when I take smug satisfaction after seeing videos of burned-out Russian tanks and armored vehicles on the streets of Ukraine. However, I realize this is Putin’s war and not a war the Russian people wanted.

As shown by recent massive peace protests in 48 Russian cities (link), many Russian people abhor war. Especially when thousands or perhaps tens of thousands of young Russians will die as result of an illegal and unjust war that Putin unleashed.

No major Ukrainian city has been captured yet and the tyrant Putin agreed to negotiate with Ukraine. I doubt that the diplomatic talks will lead to much progress, especially while Russian troops are still killing innocent civilians in Ukraine. It seems unlikely that domestic protests or international sanctions will topple Putin either, since he has weathered both before. Perhaps this situation is different?

Living with Cancer for 5 years

~ pmglasser ~ Leave a comment

Five years after being diagnosed with cancer, and I am still on the treatment “treadmill.” I was originally diagnosed with Stage 4 non-small cell ALK-positive lung cancer shortly after Christmas 2016.

This 5-year status update for my “cancerversary” is a little overdue because the results of my MRI scan in November of last year were ambiguous. I had another scan in January and was hoping for a little more clarity, but the results were still not clear-cut. I decided to provide an update anyway. The combination of targeted daily medication and several rounds of radiation therapy have kept things mostly stable for the last several years.

The MRI from November 2021 was a scan of my head and spine since I had two small metastatic tumors in my brain that were successfully treated via proton therapy when I was initially diagnosed. I also have a small lesion on my spine as well that has persisted despite all the treatment. My November 2021 MRI showed that the spine lesion had grown about 5mm compared to a scan 12 months prior. However, the lesion was basically unchanged compared to the most recent MRI 6 months prior. Although not alarming, 5mm growth over 12 months is somewhat concerning since I would prefer to have no growth at all!

In addition, the MRI showed some possible growth of the small lesion in my brain that had been treated 5 years ago. My radiation oncologist consulted with the tumor board and the initial assessment was that a new separate tumor had appeared. The radiation oncologist ordered another MRI in January to get a better idea if anything was actually growing since the change seemed to be so minimal.

I left this unappetizing morsel of information to simmer on the back burner for the next two months. I have had a lot of experience with similar situations during the last 5 years, so I only had a small meltdown around Thanksgiving. But that was mostly due to exhaustion from my ongoing insomnia.

I had another MRI in January, and the radiologist eventually judged that the brain tumor had increased “slightly.” The spine tumor was unchanged compared to the November scan but still about 5mm larger than it was a year ago. I was a little anxious, but at the same time it wasn’t entirely bad news either.

Can there be too many cooks in the kitchen?

The matter is further complicated by the fact that the initial radiation oncologist only deals with my brain tumors while I have a second radiation oncologist who is responsible for treating my original lung tumor and spine. Plus, I have a general oncologist who is the closest to being the “captain” of my treatment team. I would rather have 3 experts who are hyper-specialized rather than 1 or 2 generalists that try to do everything. But it still isn’t easy to get 3 doctors to agree on anything, especially something where the evidence is so marginal!

My brain oncologist was more concerned about the possible growth than my lung or general oncologists. I am not panicked about it, but I will remain vigilant. There are possible side-effects from using radiation to treat my spine, such as possible bone fractures, so I don’t want to jump the gun. But at the same time, I don’t want to let the cancer gain any ground. After further discussions, I told my doctors I would hold off from treatment from now, but that I want to pull the trigger if it continues to grow. If I do need more treatment, the doctors said it would be quick and uncomplicated since the bone of my spinal discs provides an additional “buffer” zone. Proton therapy can target the tumors very precisely without damaging any nearby tissue. If I do need more radiation in the future, that will be my third round after my initial treatment in early 2017 and a second round in 2020 to treat my primary lung tumor.

After 5 years, the treadmill of treatment continues. I still get MRI scans every 6 months and CT scans every 3 months that show my lung tumor has responded well to treatment. I take a pill every day and get my blood drawn every month (the results have been stable recently). The routine never lets me forget that I am merely mortal. Five years later, I still need to perform daily vocal exercises after the cancer partially paralyzed my vocal cords. Every time I shave, I still carefully maneuver around the concave scar on my neck that resulted from surgery to repair my vocal cords. The fact that I’m still in treatment probably seems outlandish compared to the average length of chemotherapy treatment of approximately 3 – 6 months.

I still attend a monthly young adult cancer support group. There’s another person whose cancer experience continues to be a years-long marathon like mine, but most of the other members talk about readjusting to the “new normal” of post-treatment life.

I often lament that it would a nice problem to have! However, there currently is no cure for ALK+ cancer – only treatment that hopefully continues to control it. Nevertheless, the average survival rate is still slightly under 7 years even on medication, and only 2 years remain before I hit that milestone. Research continues to seek new treatment options – especially for ways to tackle ALK+ cancer when it develops mutations that circumvent the current medications. The good news is that clinical trials are already underway in case I should ever need new medication. Thanks to everyone who donates to my annual fundraiser!

I can still hear clock ticking, and feel the last 5 years have been borrowed time. Unfortunately, COVID-19 has also side-tracked the last 2 years, but hopefully the situation will finally settle down into another “new normal” as well. The combination of COVID-19 and stage 4 cancer was particularly terrifying before the vaccine was distributed. These two factors were undoubtedly the cause of my “COVID-somnia” which suddenly appeared in 2020. Despite my 20-year history of sleep apnea, I never really had a problem staying asleep until COVID arrived. But, for the last two years, I’ve been unable to fall back asleep if I wake up during the night (which I almost always do). Only now is my sleep quality approaching a “new normal,” although I still have periods of insomnia and extreme fatigue.

Despite the uncertainty, I have been blessed with many positive opportunities as well during the last 5 years. In 2018, I finally returned to Paris with my family after first visiting nearly 20 years prior. I had dreamt about it for years and finally made it come true. We plan to visit again in the fall of 2022 (a birthday present for myself to celebrate my 40th) after COVID delayed us for two years. I also visited New Orleans with my dad and uncle. Nataliya has been a supportive and loving partner for the last 3 years! We are looking forward to finally getting on the road again together this spring and summer as well! More recently, I have been refreshing my French conversation skills and acting as “game master” for several role-playing games. I am also lucky to have a good job and excellent insurance (which covers the insanely criminal $17,000 monthly cost of my medication). I’ve even found a few truly 0% ABV “beers” that are a reasonable approximation of beer, such as Hairless Dog Brewing and Heineken 0.0, since I still can’t drink real beer (a side-effect of my medication). It’s been so long I don’t even miss the real thing any more!

The last 5 years have been a gift, and with any luck there will be many more!