Allomap testing?

During my most recent biopsy in San Francisco, there was a new step added to the process: Allomap Testing.
The results were rather confusing; the blood test said I was in rejection, yet the actual tissue biopsy was clear, as in no rejection. I'm confused. I guess they're still working out the bugs in the system.
The facility was nice and very close to Cal Pacific Medical Center campus. I walked out to the curb on webster street, got on the shuttle and was in front of the Allomap location in about five minutes.

Not in rejection.

Rare?

Today I had to get a gas cap for my 1977 chevy scottsdale 4x4 which I call "Rock Donkey", because I left it at the pump down at bobby rays chevron guns tackle and beer. I decided that the proper place to do such a thing would be franklin automotive, which is around the corner from the AM/PM, down on churn creek.

I might add that my ever so supportive, wonderful and beautiful wife/life partner/soul mate Robin, loves the truck.

I found my cap very quickly by the ever - so - helpful sales staff at franklin automotive and proceeded to checkout. While waiting in line, I overheard two gentlemen discussing the nessecity of purchasing snow chains for their journey. Just out of curiosity, which is my nature, I asked them where they were headed.

I asked "where're you two headed?".

The taller of the two tall, grey haired, middle aged men with matching harry potter glasses said:

"We are going to Canada, I just bought a house there".

I said "you'e going to need them, they'll come in handy, at least a few times

The shorter of the twins said" I'm new to this, we're from Laguna Beach and honestly I've never put chains on, at least not on a car." he laughed. Sally the check out girl rolled her eyes. I responded: "I know how you feel, I'm from Huntington Beach and it's taken me three years to get used to living here."

Shorty added "We're moving to Canada, the Republicans are ruining this country".

I have an angiogram in San Francisco next week.

I'm so excited!!!!

Finally back after a two month absence!

Two months of weather. Living in Northern Califonia, I still can't get over the extremes in the winter weather. Sun, rain and snow, all in a three day period. Growing up in Southern California it was usually the grey marine layer most of the time (living near the coast) with little chance of rain.
Today is a typical rainy day with strong winds, but tommorrow will be snow.

During my search for an inspirational story to herald my return as blogmaster I found this one in Google news:

Charlie and the jiihadis

Michael Bodey January 05, 2008

ONLY Hollywood could reduce the mid-1980s battle for control of Afghanistan between the Soviet Red Army and rebel mujaheddin to a rollicking entertainment starring a swaggering Tom Hanks and a bikini-clad Julia Roberts.
But the covert involvement of the US in funnelling funds and weaponry to the Afghan rebels, at least as told in George Crile's 2003 book Charlie Wilson's War: The Extraordinary Story of the Largest Covert Operation in History and the new film adapted from it, Charlie Wilson's War, is a tale straight from a boy's own annual.
Charlie Wilson was the party-boy Texan Democratic congressman spurred into action by an influential and rabidly anti-communist Houston socialite, Joanne Herring (played by Roberts). After visiting Pakistan and seeing the plight of Afghan refugees at the border, Wilson was a changed man. He convinced his fellow congressmen on the appropriations committee to divert funds covertly to Afghanistan's "freedom fighters", supplying them with anti-aircraft weaponry that could take down their bete noire, the Soviets' Mi-24D (Hind) attack helicopter.
Until then, Wilson was nothing more than a populist and effective local member who was well-connected but hardly tested. His underhand practice, while not unique, was certainly effective and evolved into the Reagan Doctrine of support for anti-communist movements that contributed to the broad dismantling of communism.
Even so, Wilson is reticent these days to claim credit for defeating the Soviets in Afghanistan. "Well, that's the way the story played out, but of course anyone knows that one guy couldn't do that by himself," he says.
"I must say I was furnishing a lot of the bluster and helping to furnish the money but it was Afghan blood being shed and it was the intense courage of the shepherds and tribesmen of the mountains who defeated the Russians. It wasn't Charlie Wilson."
Wilson, now 74, retired and recovering from heart transplant surgery, says he's very happy with the film despite its brevity. And why wouldn't he be, given he's played by Hanks? "Everybody loves Hanks and, as I say, Hanks makes me look better than I really am," Wilson concedes.
Indeed, the screenplay by The West Wing creator Aaron Sorkin portrays Wilson as a lovable rogue with a heart of gold and a will for action. Yet Sorkin, director Mike Nichols and Hanks, who optioned the book shortly after its publication in 2003, all contend the colourful characters - Wilson, Herring and CIA spy Gust Avrakotos (played hilariously by Philip Seymour Hoffman) - are as unlikely as they are real.
The casting of Hanks and Roberts in a film by the Academy Award-winning director of The Graduate, Silkwood, Closer and the roman a clef of Bill Clinton's first presidential campaign, Primary Colors, separates Charlie Wilson's War from the rush of Hollywood movies questioning US foreign policy in the Middle East. Syriana, Lions For Lambs, Babel, A Mighty Heart, The Kingdom and the soon to be released Rendition and In the Valley of Elah are all, to varying degrees, critical of the US's clumsy interventions in the region. Each of these films contains its quota of stars, from Matt Damon and Angelina Jolie to Tom Cruise and Cate Blanchett.
But unlike the others, Charlie Wilson's War is an entertainment first and a polemic second.
Sorkin's screenplay distances itself from the Iraq quagmire quite deliberately, despite its prescience. Obviously, its '80s timeline separates the film from 2007 but, more strikingly, Charlie Wilson's War doesn't refer to the Taliban or al-Qa'ida at all, despite the uncomfortable fact that the weapons the US smuggled to the Afghan rebels later wound up in the hands of the Taliban and quite possibly al-Qa'ida.
Yet Nichols and Sorkin show Wilson's frustration at his inability to persuade congressional committees to assign funds to the rebuilding of Afghanistan after the Soviet retreat. "Well, that's really the sadness of the whole thing," Wilson says.
"We'd come so far and then, for just a billion or two dollars, had we stayed in we could have avoided the entire Taliban movement, and we didn't do it. We should have done it and we wished we'd done it, and we'll probably have to pay a bigger price to get that done down the line."
Clearly, Wilson believes Afghanistan deserved a better deal than a bloody civil war dominated by local warlords, followed by the Taliban's regressive reign, which was ultimately upended by the US-led invasion in October 2001, following the September 11 attacks in New York and Washington. If only the US had stayed the course and invested in rebuilding the country in the late '80s.
"I don't think it would have been what we in the US call a Jeffersonian democracy, but I think it would have gone back to what it was before the Soviets invaded," he says. "It could have been a peaceful - fairly peaceful - government with a loose confederation in Kabul, and I think we would have given all of the refugees a real hope for coming home.
"We should have rebuilt the roads, we should have done things that America does best, strung the electrical wire, restocked the sheep herds, should have done all those domestic things to give them hope and get them back where they were as shepherds and relatively peaceful tribesmen." Besides, Wilson continues, that would have given the US a "better handle" on the region's narcotics trade.
The film clearly implies that the US should not run away from Iraq, although Wilson sees the two conflicts as "totally different", because "in Iraq, we're the occupiers".
Indeed, Afghanistan would be less of a problem today had the US not diverted most of its attention to Iraq, he adds.
Wilson was a drug-taking, carousing congressman who surprised himself with his effectiveness. The likes of him would not get away with as much, socially or politically, in the US today, particularly in the wake of the Iraq war.
Certainly, Congress would not allow one of its members to funnel hundreds of millions of unassigned dollars into the CIA's "black appropriations".
Wilson contends both sides of the US House of Representatives knew about, and approved of, his and the committee's efforts, although it wasn't an initiative of the Reagan administration. "Today things are so partisan and during our entire effort, which was an immense effort, there was no partisanship ever attempted on this," Wilson says. "Nobody attempted to get any political gain from it and there were no leaks. You just can't imagine that kind of thing happening today with the kind of atmosphere now in Washington."
Public and media attention was focused at the time on other such appropriations to Nicaraguan rebels via Iran that led to the Iran-Contra hullabaloo and distracted journalists from what was becoming a far more effective strategy in Afghanistan.
"It was right there as plain as day but it just never captured the media's imagination or interest," Wilson chuckles. "And it was a great story because it was money that wasn't requested by the administration, it was a congressional war."
Nevertheless, Ronald Reagan made the decision, despite opposition from the State and Defence departments and his joint chiefs of staff, to arm the mujaheddin with the Stinger missile launchers that ultimately turned the war by taking Soviet helicopters out of the sky.
"Fortunately, Reagan took an interest in it and he'll always have my gratitude for that," Wilson says. "But it was a congressional initiative and the press paid no attention and the administration, although they complained and whined a lot about it, never did anything about it, so there you are."
Charlie Wilson's War opens on January 24.

in good company

Poland's Walesa to undergo heart transplant

GDANSK, Poland (Reuters) - Former Polish President and Solidarity movement leader Lech Walesa said on Wednesday he planned to have a heart transplant in the United States.
Walesa, a symbol of the overthrow of the communist regime in Eastern Europe in 1989 and a winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, said his health was worsening and he could die without a transplant.
"I had very bad medical test results last month and quick actions had to be undertaken," Walesa, 64, told reporters in the northern port city of Gdansk, the cradle of Solidarity which helped to trigger the fall of communism.
He said he was not afraid of the surgery, which would be conducted at a centre in the city of Houston, because he feared only "God, and my wife a little bit."
Walesa, who worked as a shipyard electrician in Gdansk, told a Polish newspaper that a transplant was essential.
"If my heart continues to deteriorate as rapidly as it is now, it would only go on for the next two to five years," Walesa, 64, was quoted as saying by daily Dziennik. "It (the transplant) is already decided."
He told reporters that a date for surgery had not yet been decided.
Donald Tusk, Poland's prime minister in-waiting, visited Walesa on Wednesday in his apartment in Gdansk. Tusk wants to involve Walesa in the foreign activities of his incoming government. Walesa was president for five years from 1990.
Newspapers reported on Wednesday that Walesa lacked money for the transplant, which could cost around $100,000.

article courtesy rueters intl.

I just launched http://www.norcaldualsport.com/

wish me luck.

feeling great - my biopsy was a ZERO!!

The old cable tower from the Lemurian Mine on trail 4/12

I've been feeling great for the past couple of weeks and I've had several major milestones in my life occur.

Firstly my son literally blew my mind on a dirt bike ride and rode some trails that were rated black diamond and had a great time doing it. He rode up trail 4 at the shasta/chappie orv area and then went down the famed Lemurian Chute and his little KTM 65sx when we got to the bottom he told me I was going too slow. My intention was to see how far he would go before he would want to turn around. He just blew right through it - he's my hero!!

Here's a link to a description of the trail by an expert mountainbike racer :http://www.mtbr.com/files/data/370.html, the description is from the year Maxx was born, when the trail was last used as major mountainbike downhill race.

Secondly, September 29th marked the anniversary of my 17th year as a heart transplant recipient!! the epic ride with my son took place on this day. Last year was my hike to the top of Mt. Lassen with my son Maxx. I see the start of a trend here.

Thirdly, I didn't die! on this last Tuesday night I went for a solo dirtbike ride at dusk with my ipod. The ride was great, it was a totally rip roarin' zen-blast around my favorite 30 mile loop through shasta/chappie orv. After doing three major climbs and two awesome downhills in the dark (with a headlight) I reached the top of trail 15, a four mile downhill called "the foundation trail". About 100 yards into the very steep and rocky peruvian llama trail I got a flat front tire. All I could do is ride, and that's what I did...for seven miles back to the truck. Trail 15 is not only steep but it has exposed bedrock dropoffs that in some places are 2-3 foot with boulders and softball sized rocks strewn randomly ALL OVER THE TRAIL, for four miles. Needless to say that at 5 miles an hour my wrists were swollen and sore for three days. I'm going to start carrying a front tube and tire levers form now on. I think the ipod saved me - it distracted me from the severity of the situation.

I'm going to try to organize a Tuesday night ride and call it Norcal Trails Association tuesday night ride. We'll see where it goes.

I'm starting another blog to post my Baja Chronicle stories which is a compilation of my Surf and M/C adventures in Baja from the 1960's to present days. I'll post a link to the right when I get it created.

code of the butterfly

While under a heavy dose of solumedrol I wrote the following back in march fo this year:

The secret of the butterfly
by troy rauh

A warm offshore breeze gently blew down the white sand beach as a turtle emerged from the water. The surge of a small, gentle, foam wave slid the ancient turtle onto the dry beach. The creature dug its fins in the sand. The heavy creature was now earthbound, grounded yet still out of place. The creatures place was in the sea.
The turtle knew this place, for the turtle had been returning to this beach for 100 years. The creature was exhausted from its annual journey, returning again to its ancient nesting grounds in Costa Rica. During the turtles trek up the shallow slope, the warm breeze blew a single solitary yellow butterfly atop the shell of the dutiful olive colored turtle. The turtle stopped, as turtles sometimes do, and thought to itself. As the turtle thought it suddenly realized it had stopped, and suddenly realized it was thinking. Then the ancient creature suddenly realized that in 100 years of this repeated journey a butterfly had never landed on its shell; In 100 years it had never stopped halfway up the beach; in 100 years it had never stopped to think how long it would be making this journey.
The Butterfly spoke to the turtle, “Turtle, why did you stop?” Having not talked for 100 years, the turtle did not know what to say. The butterfly asked again “Turtle, for 100 years you have been making this journey and you have never stopped, why did you stop?” The turtle thought again. The creature searched back through hundreds of thousands of miles it had journeyed during its life, struggling to remember the last words it had spoken. The butterfly spoke again “Turtle, when last you spoke…” The turtle interrupted, “when last I spoke, I spoke to you”.
The turtle, outside of its dutiful mindset, now speaking and thinking clearly, said, “I did not think that butterflies flew for 100 years” The butterfly said, “good, now you are wondering” the turtle asked “why did you land on my shell, stopping me?” the butterfly said, “Good, now you are realizing. I did not stop you, you stopped yourself, I merely awakened you” “But butterfly, I was not sleeping” said the turtle. The butterfly said “this is true, you were not sleeping, but you were not awake, so one would say you were not aware” the turtle asked “what is this “aware?”” the butterfly said “always wondering, always realizing, eternally” The turtle asked “eternally means forever, does it not?” butterfly replied “ yes, forever in time, whether on this level or another one.” Turtle said “butterfly, nothing lasts forever, how can a turtle then be aware?” butterfly said “ no thing lasts forever, but awareness does, and can travel and become one with anything on any level. Turtle, we are all one. I am butterfly and you are turtle, but we are one. I am the same butterfly that spoke to you 1000 years ago to make you aware” “but butterfly” said the turtle, “I have only been making this journey for 100 years” the butterfly spoke softly to the turtle. “Turtle, you have been making this journey for eternity, once you understand that we are all one and are everywhere on all levels then you will be aware”. “Butterfly?” asked the turtle, “I am everything? I am on all levels?” “Yes,” said the butterfly. “Then can I not be anything? Anywhere?” asked the turtle. Again the butterfly said, “Yes”.
The turtle sat silently for several hours as the butterfly hovered about, flittering in the breeze. The turtle finally spoke, “Butterfly, I have been making this journey for an eternity and I am one with everything and can be anything, anywhere, forever. I have thought on this and I wish to be a dragon fly” The butterfly once again landed on the turtles shell and said “I believe you are now aware, swim to the sea and become a dragonfly” “ the turtle slowly and laboriously turned toward the sea as the butterfly flew away. The turtle disappeared into the warm blue Pacific Ocean

A warm offshore breeze gently blew down the white sand beach as a turtle emerged from the water. The surge of a small, gentle, foam wave slid the ancient turtle onto the dry beach. The creature dug its fins in the sand. The heavy creature was now earthbound, grounded yet still out of place. The creatures place was in the sea.
The turtle knew this place, for the turtle had been returning to this beach for 100 years. The creature was exhausted from its annual journey, returning again to its ancient nesting grounds in on this beach in West Africa. During the turtles trek up the shallow slope, the warm breeze blew a single solitary blue dragonfly atop the shell of the dutiful olive colored turtle. The turtle stopped.

heart tansplant webcast

Mt Shasta during the Lemurian landing phase.






OK, you've got to check this out, this is way beyond cool.





I often go to Google news to read various articles related to my areas of interest. This morning when looking through the news results for "heart transplantation" I found a site called "O.R. Live" http://www.or-live.com/montefiore/1871/index.cfm.


The site has live webcasts and a fabulous archive of just about every procedure imaginable. I think this an invaluable as a tool to educate patients about their upcoming procedure. I certainly would like to have seen a heart transplant before having one.


The heart transplant procedure was webcast live on september 19th. You can click into the archive section to check it out or go directly to the link above.





I am truly amazed by the weather in Northern California. In the course of twenty four hours it has instantly become winter. I put my surf trunks away this morning and sat by the pool with my cup of tea and bid a silent farewell to 100 degree afternoons by the pool.


In Southern California winter came on slowly, or compared to Norcal...not at all.


Time to get out the winter cycling gear.

I don't think they had ever seen an Aloha shirt at Whiskeytown!



I've been feeling 23 again.
Last weekend my friend Vic Armijo of Team Bigfoot came to whiskeytown from his hometown of Arcata, to run a mountain bike race called the Whiskeytown Classic. Thursday afternoon I helped Vic mark the course, which used Whiskeytown's water ditch trail network. The water ditches were constructed during the 1870's through 1880's to divert water to the gold mines surrounding the Whiskeytown area. The ditches are smooth level trails with rolling sections, short descents and climbs, where the missing water trestles gapped ravines along the hillsides of Whiskeytown Nation Park.
Vic and I set out with a staple gun, water and a backpack full of trail markers, three hours later we had set up most of the course. Vic planned on setting up the remaining portions of the course on Friday morning.
The race program began with a short track race on Friday afternoon. The short track course was set up with a starting line that led to a narrow "single track trail". The single track descended through trees for about a mile and then opened up onto a half mile gravel road climb that led back up to the trail head of the single track. It was a clockwise route down one side of a creek and then up the other side, perfect for a short mountainbike criterium.
The race for the beginners, sport and pros was six laps. The pros were run in a separate race so there would be no human obstacles for them in the tree section. I decided to race in the six lap beginner race and as the race started I let everyone head into the trees first and then passed four riders out of the ten rider field on the gravel uphill. As we headed onto the trees I was in a good position to see three riders ahead of me. The riders were riding the singletrack slowly so I was able to catch up to them. In the halfway point of the singletrack, there was a short, steep uphill that turned to the right and headed steeply uphill for 20 yards in the middle of the hill, it was wide enough to pass several riders before going back into singletrack at the crest. I figured that if I came into the tight right hand turn at the bottom of the hill I could use my momentum to pass all three riders as they grinded up the hill.
Sure enough, all three riders in single file, laboriously rode to the left of the hill for the clean smooth line. I blasted tight inside and took the rougher line to the right. With speed and momentum, I passed all three riders halfway up the hill, Once at the top of the hill I stood up to grind over the crest of the hill and enter the next roller coaster downhill. As I stood up and cranked with my right foot, there was no resistance. I shot over the handlebars, landed in Manzanita, poison oak and dry oak leaves. The three montainbikers glanced my direction and slowly motored past me. My chain had stepped off the smallest front sprocket and had jammed itself between the bottom bracket and the suspension link. a bad day for old troy boy.
I had to walk my bike back to the top of the hill to be greeted by Maxx asking "What happened Dad?" That's racing, I'm just glad to be alive to do it!!

Saturday was a blast, Vic had me corner marshaling and plucking finishing tags off the riders as they crossed the finish line. After the race I handed out raffle tickets and later the swag that was awarded to the winners after their number was called. I guesss I was the trophy boy.

I was all fired up. After meeting several Redding Moutainbiking club members, and being encouraged by them to go on the Saturday morning club ride, I decided to show up for the ride at the Sunset Market on Hwy. 299.
No one was there.
I showed up at 7:45 and 8:45, but no one was there. I have been in Redding almost three yearsand I finally decide to go for my first group ride... no one is there.
I rode by myself.
Today I rode with Maxx and Robin on Whiskeytown's Oak Bottom water ditch trail - I brought my own club.

Next Biopsy is on Tuesday, October 2nd, and it will be a good one.

green tea and magnesium

All is fine in panda land.

what?

Panda Land is the name given to the post heart transplant environment surrounding the new organ recipient by my friend Jeff.

See the panda walk, watch the panda take his meds, make sure the panda has enough to eat, take the panda to biopsy, ignore the panda's prednisone induced irrational behavior, listen to the panda's crazy prednisone induced babel.

I think it's safe to say that after nine months with my new heart, I am once again out of panda land. All of the ideas and conversations are once again making sense and all of the crazy delusions of grandeur have ceased. I'm down to 5mg. of prednisone, and I have my brain back thank you.

I think that what really got me through the panda phase was the green tea and magnesium. Green Tea is great for calming the nerves and is a powerful antioxidant. I highly recommend loose leaf tea from china. My favorites are blue tea (despite the name it's still considered green tea) and jasmine pearl. A great black tea is the pu-erh tea, which is great for the cardio vascular system. Believe me, being immunosuppresed I have done hours and hours of research on tea to decide if I should drink it.

I get my tea from a direct importer in San Francisco called Vital tea leaf. The guys there are great! If you're ever in the city you have to stop there, the shop is set up like a wine tasting bar. You sit down and without a word the men behind the bar start serving up shots of fantastic tasting tea. I highly recommend vital tea leaf to anyone visiting the city.

Magnesium: I am magnesium deficient, I don't know why, my doctors don't know why, but without it I am a mess. I am stressed out, can't focus and have lessened energy. I found another great product called Ionic Fizz that has tons of calcium and magnesium and mixes very easily with water. And...it tastes great too. Check it out.

magnesium facts

and the verdict is....

biopsy results: 1a...no rejection.

"alpine" Helen, Georgia

The trip to San Francisco was fantastic. Not a cloud in the sky, the wind minimal, the temperature was around 75. The traffic was light also, making the trip very enjoyable. On the way back, I took a detour from my normal route, and decided to find an alternate path. Not being too familiar with the bay area, I took the 24 north through Walnut Creek, and then went North on the 680 to the meet the 80 east. I shaved about 20 minutes off my normal time.

I love a road trip.

I think one of the best road trips I ever took, was a trip with my friend and kidney recipient Shannon Woods. In 1995, Shannon and I formed a mountainbike race team which we called Team Transplant. Our goal as mountainbiking transplant ambassadors, was to increase donor awareness and demonstrate the success of organ transplantation.

The first stop for the NORBA tour that year was in Helen, Georgia, a quaint little alpine town in the northern mountains of Georgia. Shannon and I rented a van, packed all our bikes, meds and a few clothes, and hit the road. I drove most of the way - I love to drive. Most of the drive east was uneventful with the exception of seeing my first high speed chase through the streets of Albuquerque, N.M. We also went for a mountainbike ride at Sandia Mountain.

We spent the night in Texas, and then had several stops in Louisiana. Besides the race I think the most memorable part of the trip was a stop near Tallulah, Louisiana at a roadside crab restaurant. On the front porch, outside the restaurant, sat a girl in a wheelchair. The girl's face was so round and full and pink that I thought to myself, "prednisone, it's gotta be prednisone". Well if you really know me, you won't bet against me to walk up and talk to just about anyone.

Without a word to Shannon, I walked up to the girl with her parents sitting beside her on a bench and asked "How far out are you". The parents of the girl, and the girl both gave me this shocked look and said "what?" I explained that we were transplant recipients and I recognize someone on prednisone. They all smiled and then explained that the girl, 14 years old at the time (if my memory is correct) had undergone a double lung transplant. INCREDIBLE!!!!!

We sat and talked with the family, sharing stories, medication lists and also the gift of organ transplantation.

The race was great, Shannon and I both raced the cross country race and the downhill, which was held at the ski area. We had a great practice ride in which Shannon and I both met Bob Roll, Outdoor Network commentator of the Tour De France, and we had a great dinner with downhill legends Missy Giove and Myles Rockwell.

Troy Lee also let us use part of his booth for our donor awareness pamphlets, buttons and literature. We had a blast.

The ride home was just as great, with frequent stops for gas, we met more people on the road and shared our stories with complete strangers.

Our last great ride stop was at Tombstone, AZ, where we unpacked the mountainbikes, and rode the town at midnight during a full moon. Tombstone was a little out of the way, but I knew that someday I would have a son and this would be a great story to tell him.

My son likes it.

bob roll with lance armstrong

missy giove








myles rockwell
troy lee