Too much diffusion?

The pulmonary condition with which I was diagnosed following an open lung biopsy back in 2000 is known by the acronym DIPNECH: Diffuse Idiopathic Pulmonary NeuroEndocrine Cell Hyperplasia, thought to be a precursor to what are known as carcinoid tumors of the lung. The cancer with which I was diagnosed five years ago is Primary Central Nervous System Lymphoma. It was only this week for the first time that I realized a rather odd connection between these two completely unrelated conditions. Although both cancers and carcinoids can occur as solid lesions that can be surgically excised, in my case both presented in spread out, scattered, dispersed forms not treatable by excision.

This sudden insight came to me as I was chatting with Dr. Michelle Kim, the new physician who has taken over from the long-time carcinoid guru at Mount Sinai, Dr. Richard Warner, who retired last year in his late 80s. As far as Dr. Kim and I could tell, there is absolutely no medical significance to this observation, but as I have continued to think about it I cannot help but wonder whether therein lies some sort of cosmic or spiritual significance. Perhaps my life has not been sufficiently focused to achieve the things of which I might have been capable with more directed effort. Maybe I just needed to be a lot less scatter-brained, so to speak.

I may not have accomplished all I might have been able to do, but I can still enjoy the things I am able to do. And one of those that was quite a lovely surprise was the newly released movie version of “Beauty and the Beast.” Let me first say that despite large numbers of charming little girls in princess dresses at the late Sunday morning matinee, this is absolutely not, in my mind, a movie for young children. Although we all know it has a happy ending, there is a lot of violence along the way. The movie has a PG rating, but I think most parents just ignore that “P” and assume that since it is animated it must be just fine for young children. Our granddaughter Ella (10), saw it Saturday night with her Mom and a friend, and we took Eliana (11) to the early Sunday matinee. Maya, who is 8, did not want to go, and in retrospect we are glad she made that choice.

Having said that, it was really a very good film. I do not believe you have to have children to go and see this – it is even playing on the Luxe Level where patrons must be at least eighteen years old! The movie was done as a live action/digital hybrid, meaning that the human characters are all played by actual actors, while the various inanimate objects that “come to life” as part of the story were obviously done using digital animation. Emma Watson is absolutely charming as Belle, and her father Maurice is warmly played by Kevin Kline. There are quite a few other well-known actors, including Emma Thompson, Audra McDonald, and Stanley Tucci, as well as many unfamiliar names all of whom were superb. Eliana would have been quite happy to sit through a second screening if we could have done so.

But Barry and I had three tickets for the Celtics vs. The Miami Heat: a Chanukah present we had gotten for Joshua. What a game that was! The Celtics had a rather weak first quarter, but sometime during the second quarter they woke up and it was truly neck and neck until the second half of the fourth quarter, when they finally managed to pull ahead by enough points to win the game. I am not much of a sports enthusiast but I have to say that was an exciting match.

We returned to New York on Monday morning, back to the regular grind of doctor appointments and such. We completed most of the Passover preparation in our Sharon apartment and now we are working on getting the house here ready, since we will be spending time in both places again this year.

Right now I will just be happy if the weather improves a bit. I am really tired of the cold!

Love,

Rebecca