Finally, an oncologist

Finally, after a wait of one month after the tumor was discovered, I got to see an oncologist at the Royal Prince Alfred Hospital. The delay was brought about, partly by it being the holiday season and partly by some mishandling of the referral by various parties.

It was a harrowing afternoon’s business.

We were introduced to a very pleasant team of specialists, each with a role to play in the management of my condition. They included the oncologist (the professor), his registrar, a general clinical nurse to consider various aspects of my care from the point of view of several disciplines; and a clinical trial nurse who will help manage my involvement in a clinical trial, should I choose to participate in one.

Dichloroacetate profile paper

A paper that describes the drug dichloroacetate as it relates to the treatment of Huntingtons Disease is available from the Huntington Project website.

Pain increasing

I have had a pain in my back for some time now, say a year or so. I had presented to doctors but it has always been assumed that it was typical back pain that might be found in a person of my age and it was suggested that I do some regular exercises.

Some time late last year it developed to a level where it was sometimes difficult to do some everyday activities such as shopping. This development was part of the process that led to the diagnosis on December 28, at which time I was prescribed pain killers.

Over this last weekend the pain has become much worse and I am continually sore and tender on the lower right side of my torso despite the current level of pain killers.

Tomorrow I will at last get to see an oncologist.

Update: I rang the surgery of the doctor where I originally presented with back pain. It seems that my last vist there was August 2005 and a previous visit in June 2005. It is clear then that I have had pain that at least dates back to August 2005 or perhaps even earlier.

Ten Canoes

I went to the Friday (26/1/7) 3 o’clock session of Ten Canoes at the newly renovated Chauvel Cinema in Paddington.

I liked the film, although my mind wandered quite a bit while watching it. I suspect that there would never have been a film made previously that so successfully provides an authentic translation of Aboriginal story telling tradition to the cinema. It is certainly the first full-length feature film made entirely in an Indigenous Australian language.

The film has a story within a story structure and plays out a jolly good yarn of love, war, murder and justice in Aboriginal society. Great landscapes and and many interesting scenes depicting day-to-day life in tribal society.

Nationalism is a disease

Albert Einstein said that: “Nationalism is an infantile disease. It is the measles of mankind.“

His wisdom has fallen on deaf ears in my country. On Friday, the nation celebrated its national day. Millions of gaumless Australians, proudly wearing, carrying and waving various representations of the flag, flocked to celebrations of our Great Nationhood. Each special little Australian made gleeful entreaty to their companions and strangers alike to have a “happy Australia day“.

This is the simplistic, self-obsessed, fairyland into which our most-popular-prime-minister-in-living memory has led us.

Pretty bits of paper

I believe that many people harbour a stationery fetish. There is something so satisfying about the potential that is represented by all those pristine notebooks and inscribing instruments.

My beloved and I discovered a wonderful shop to satisfy the peculiar appetite of such a fetishist in Enmore Road, just up from the Enmore Theatre in inner Sydney.

The shop, Amazing Paper, specialises in selling pretty bits of paper. We came across it one evening last week, after attending a meditation class down the road in Newtown at the Sydney Buddhist Centre. The shop was closed when we first came across it and she, being an actual artist and someone who is therefore inclined to seriously purchase such items with a view to actually using them, was keen to get back and look at it during opening hours. We called in a couple of days later and several purchases were made.

The shop’s website loses marks for having a splash page, a practise that is generally discouraged by usability experts.

Otherwise, the site appears to be a fairly standard ecommerce site and probably quite functional. Of course browsing does not provide the sensual delight that can be experienced when browsing the actual shop on a summer’s afternoon in Enmore Road.

Pension card arrived

My pension card arrived in the post today.

Dicholoroacetate information page

The Department of Medicine at the University of Alberta have set up an information page to report progress on developing dicholoroacetate (DCA) as an anti-cancer drug and they say that they are committed to performing clinical trials in the immediate future.

There is also an email list to receive notification of updates to the page (no RSS feed!?).

Science blog on dichloroacetate

Following the news regarding dichloroacetate and its ability to shrink tumors in test tubes and rats, some commentators have suggested that it will be difficult to fund clinical trials of the drug because of its non-patentable nature and alleged lack of profit potential.

These comments criticised by a blogger who apparently has some experience in cancer research and has also read the paper in Cancer Cell. He also says that although certainly promising the results would be less than likely to be as effective in clinical trials:

Those of us who’ve been in the cancer field a while know that all too common are drugs that kill tumors in the Petrie dish and in mice or rats but fail to be nearly as impressive when tested in humans.

More from Orac at Respectful Insolence with a number of reader comments.

Specialist says cancer services behind in NSW

Professor Chris O’Brien is a former cancer specialist who is now fighting cancer himself. He has written an article in the Sydney Morning Herald decrying the state of cancer treatment in New South Wales.

He also was interviewed on radio by Adam Spencer on the ABC Sydney breakfast program (interview available in mp3).