Entries Tagged 'General Interest' ↓

An interesting article today on Chronic Myeloid Leukemia, the disease my wife has in remission thanks to Gleevec.

CML in its chronic phase can be treated with Gleevec and most patients respond well to it. But unfortunately, some do not. The disease can progress to what is called ‘blast phase’ where things go from bad to worse in a hurry.

Today’s article has to do with an apparent discovery of the cause for the transition from chronic to blast phase. Here it is:

They found that chronic myeloid leukemia (CML) progresses when immature white blood cells lose a molecule called miR-328.

That’s it. The white blood cells lose ONE MOLECULE. (The disease is initially caused by a mutation resulting from one part of one chromosome breaking off and reattaching itself to the DNA in a different spot on the chain.)

That isn’t much of a big deal to kill you, eh? One chromosome mutates and soon you have a chronic and life threatening disease. Left untreated, after some time, one white blood cell loses ONE molecule (and then many follow), and suddenly you are in blast phase. And shortly after that, if untreated, you are gone from this world.

A couple of observations:

1. Are their any good mutations? How can anyone believe that chance can produce any beneficial change in any organism that is then perpetuated to new generations? Every part of our body is essential. All it takes to kill you is one chromosome change and one molecule loss. Mutations are not good.
2. What a mighty God we serve! He designed us, in all our complexity, to live as we do in a complex, interdependent world. His mind conceived it all. Though the struggle with cancer can be daunting and is often tragic, it ought to remind us of how great God is.

P.S., I am working on an article to follow up my ‘godliness’ post a few days ago. It is getting longer and longer as I work. Maybe it should be more than one post. It will definitely become a series in our Bible Study time at our church. I think the idea of godliness (godly living) is vital for Christians in our world. So more is coming… in the meantime I am putting up links to things that interest me…

We’ve been enjoying the Spring Olympics out here on the Wet Coast. Of course, that means the sporting events are interrupted by commercials.

One commercial we have been seeing over and over up here is promoting Tim Horton’s coffee shops, almost a national institution up here. It is one of those very few commercials that you don’t get tired of, so I thought my American readers might enjoy seeing it:

The screen here in Canada says it is based on a true story, but I haven’t been able to find any background on it.

I did find this discussion of it, which I think helps capture the emotion of the spot… and the ‘Canadian-ness’ of it as well.

Our family is very grateful for targeted cancer medication. The New York Times is running a series of articles on research about an anti-melanoma drug. It is quite moving – the people going through the trials have to be dealing with many ups and downs emotionally.

Here is the first article, “A Roller Coaster Chase for a Cure”

Here is the second, “After Long Fight, Drug Gives Sudden Reprieve”

UPDATE: Here is the third and last article in the frustrating fight against melanoma, “A Drug Trial Cycle: Recovery, Relapse, Reinvention”

An interesting article at Christianity Today regarding the over-emphasis and over-indulgence in sports that plagues many Christians.

Sports Fanatics

I don’t endorse CT, but post this link as a matter of interest. Considering the source, the article ought to speak volumes to Christians of a more conservative persuasion.

I have several comments in the queue for the previous post. I haven’t gotten around to digesting them or dealing with them because of a little medical emergency. I won’t go into gory details (it was gory) but I ended up in the hospital for the weekend after experiencing my first ambulance ride.

The docs were great, I am now fine, under strict orders to hopefully prevent a reoccurrence.

I do appreciate each of you (about 5) who have comments in the queue that I need to deal with. I hope you will be patient as I will get to them in due time.

A few observations from the experience:

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I just got an e-mail notification of a resource put out by Zondervan, the Zondervan Illustrated Bible Backgrounds Commentary: Old Testament. It looks like a fascinating source of information.

Readers should note that such publications often support liberal views on Biblical dates and tend to minimize the miraculous. Nevertheless, if read with discernment, such resources can provide valuable background material for studying and teaching the Bible.

A sample is offered where you can read the Ezra-Nehemiah section and see what is offered in this set.

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A quote from a pretty good article by Zig Ziglar. “Zig On…When the Motive Is Love. I’m sure I can find areas where I disagree with Ziglar, but I think the general philosophy he expresses in this article is very similar to my own. The homes of our nation are in disarray, including many Christian homes. May our mothers and fathers learn to be parents and fulfill all their Biblical responsibilities.

An interview in the New York Times reminds me of a great blessing from God our family received a little over six years ago.

I have written about this before, but I just want to again give praise to the Lord for the gifts he gives to men.

Six and a half years ago, my wife began to lose weight rapidly and was bruising easily. She was becoming more and more exhausted each day. (She was enjoying the weight loss part!) We called our doctor who immediately got the ball rolling in our health care system, no small feat. The diagnosis was Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). Our hematologist was very upbeat, however. The new therapy for this disease was a drug called Gleevec, just approved for CML treatment two years previously. We haven’t looked back. Gleevec has very minimal side-effects (we haven’t really noticed any). My wife is living a normal life.

The interview with Bryan Druker, the doctor in charge of developing Gleevec reminded me of how close my dear wife was to death’s door:

The problem [with a CML diagnosis] was that the death rate in the first year was 25 to 50 percent.

The life expectancy after diagnosis before Gleevec was about 5 years. And the previous treatments would make those years pretty miserable.

This interview gives you a bit of insight into the persistence and dedication of Dr. Druker in bringing Gleevec into production. It is now approved for ten different forms of cancer, but is most successful with CML, I believe.

My wife takes a couple of little orange pills every morning and God has given her six and a half years of normal life. If there is a drawback, as I was commenting to a friend, is that she would have been in heaven these last five years or so … instead, she gets to live with me.

Maybe there is a purgatory?

An astonishing discussion is happening here, here, and here concerning Christian schools and rules. Dave Doran comments on it here and offers a two part article on legalism as a partial response. The article is well worth reading (follow the links at Dave’s site), although I don’t entirely accept his conclusions about Pharisaism at the end of the article. The bulk of the argument against the verbal hand grenade, ‘legalism’, is excellent.

The author of the SI articles sums up his thesis this way:

While there are doubtless many fine Christian schools which do not operate in a legalistic fashion, I believe the majority of Christian schools operate with these three fallacious legalistic premises prominent in their thinking.

1. Man-made rules that prevent violations of God’s rules have inherent spiritual value (which I will address here in Part 1).
2. Rules promote godliness, in that behavior change leads to heart change.
3. Enforcement of righteousness is valid and valuable as a first step to sanctification.

This thesis can be summed up like this: The majority of Christian schools use rules illegitimately as a means for achieving the spiritual goal of sanctification.

Is this true? Is sanctification the rationale behind the ‘code of conduct’ in any school? Should it be?

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The popular crowd is missing the point about elitism! Maybe Bauder is right, after all. See the discussion at SI regarding Bauder’s article #4. You have to start about here for the pertinent discussion.

And in the discussion from my revised article, it appears that at least one of my readers is missing the point also. (I am going to use some material from one of my comments on that post for the content of this one.)

What is NOT elitism?

Elitism isn’t about the possession of fine art, fine clothes, fine cars, fine educations, or even a fine vocabulary. Elitism isn’t about having expertise. Elitism isn’t about one’s opinions carrying extra weight in an area where you have expertise.

OF COURSE someone who is an expert has more authority in the area he has gained expertise! A doctor simply knows more about medicine, a trained musician simply knows more about music, a theologian (in theory) simply knows more about theology. That knowledge tends to carry weight, and it should.

I am not arguing against differences in authority, expertise, taste, what have you, when I am arguing against elitism.

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