G'day diannep52 There are many reasons people join a site like this and it is not always to respond to others. I joined as in another life time I belonged to a similar site and found it very helpful. What characterised that site, this one, and I believe most similar sites, is that there is a core of people who work the site, put up there issues and respond to others. There are people who interact for a while, come and go as their need suggests. therre are others, who lurl on the site, watch what is going on and very occasionally contribute. cheers Sailor ... View more

In response to recent spam There’s a wonderful family called O Belinda, and Cliff and Milo Are they all bunk? With a website of Junk? To what purpose I really don’t know! Cheers Sailor A sailor is an artist whose medium is the wind. Webb Chiles

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Hi Maddie86 The 'fox' stands for Folfox - there are several variations on this theme, the most common one is Folfox6. It is a combination chemotherapy regime and the agents used are Leucovorin (also know as Folinic Acid - hence the Fol), Flurouracil (the F) and Oxaliplatinum (the Ox) - hence FolFOx. It is a full on regime with quite a few side effects, but fortunately seems to be fairly effective. Yes, if your boyfriend found stuff that he felt his body wanted and that worked for him then that really was fantastic. You appear to have done a great job in looking after him. Cheers Sailor You cannot change the direction of the wind. You can, however, trim your sails. Anon ... View more

G'day people As long as it doesn't do you any harm and it helps you to manage things then go for it. However, don;t go off the conventional medicine - that has had to pass a lot of tests and hurdles to establish that it actually does work. Me - clearly I am doing something wrong - I don't take herbs, Chinese, European or whatever. I don't meditate, I don't do yoga, kinesiology, reiki, naturopathy, myotherapy, Gawler Foundation, or any of those things - yet I am well past my expected use by date. Clearly I am doing something wrong. Cheers Sailor He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast. Leonardo da Vinci ... View more

G'day DPC, It's me again! Again with a word of caution. In the early days of my treatment I was physically very fit and being fit helped me deal with the treatment and my recovery. My gym instructors had read up on the treatment I was to have and prepared a regime for me in the weeks leading up to the treatment, so I would recommend being physically fit. The caution - don't get obsessive about it, there is more to a good quality life than being physically fit. Several years ago things got to the stage where it was difficult for me to get to the gym and IU started to feel guilty about this. It coincided with some other situations that meant I finally went to see a psychologist. At the same time I needed some other procedures done and talking to the nurse in recovery I mentioned that I was concerned about the weight I had put on and that I was not getting to the gym. She quietly said "Haven't you got more important things to worry about?" Since then I have had a much more relaxed attitude to life and have enjoyed life a lot more. Cheers Sailor But to every sailor comes time to drop anchor Haul in the sails and make the lines fast You deep-water dreamer your journey is over You’re safe in the harbour at last. Eric Bogle, Safe in the Harbour ... View more

G'day megan elizabeth Love the picture. I assume it is you hand feeding the kid. Elsewhere on this site we have had a bit to say about goats - I'll leave Jules2 to bring you up to speed, but welcome to another goat person. Drinking and chemo? Talk to your treating specialist. It will depend on what chemo you are on and the side effects. I understand that many people find that a drink helps their appetite and if you are feeling yuk and off food then that is a good thing. If it makes you feel better then go for it. cheers Sailor Boats, like whiskey, are all good. R. D. Culler ... View more

Hi Jules I think there has to be a postgraduate thesis, most likely a PhD, in research into why a blog on hair loss attracts so much spam. Any ideas? Cheers Sailor ... View more

Hi DPC I do not have the time, energy or inclination to go into a dissertation on evidence, validity of evidence and above all the need to read a complete paper. You have directed me to a table from a paper by Professor Andrew Noymer from the University of California at Irvine. As he points out in his more complete paper in 2009 (Noymer, Andrew,Testing the influenza–tuberculosis selective mortality hypothesis with Union Army data", Soc Sci Med. 68(9): 1599–1608.), he is interested the the interplay between tuberculosis and influenza. He comments on the the Spanish Flue epidemic that swept the Western World in 1918. His hypothesis is that those with pre-existing tuberculosis were more susceptible to the influenza infection and so that there was a decline in tuberculosis infection in the subsequent years. His data for life expectancy shows a similar increase over a century as there is for Australia - 46.3 - 78.6 years for males and 48.3 - 79.5 years for females. Professor Otto Warburg lived from 1883 to 1970 and was indeed a Nobel prize winning biochemist, receiving the Nobel prize for medicine in 1931 for his work on cellular respiration. I would hope that our understanding of the causes of cancer has advanced somewhat since the pioneering work of Otto Warburg! My point is simply that as cancer is understood to be associated with aging and as we live longer, then there will be an increase in the incidence of cancer. We do not have to postulate other causes such as refined carbohydrates in diet, modern lifestyle events etc. Remember, one of the fundamental principles of science is Occam's Razor - loosely translated as the simplest explanation consistent with the facts is the one to be chosen. More correctly translated as "entities must not be multiplied beyond necessity" (entia non sunt multiplicanda praeter necessitatem). I have no intention of continuing this exchange of ideas . It is getting nowehere and I do not have time energy or inclination to do so. Regards Sailor If one does not know to which port one is sailing, no wind is favorable. Lucius Annaeus Seneca ... View more