Sigh...hopeless Journey fan here...Steve Perry sighting (UPDATED)

Update (6/6): This week Mr. Perry posted a rare personal message on his fan site about the facial scar in the pic with Martha Quinn -- and something even more personal about his life over the last year. More at the end of the post.

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If you're a Journey fan (and I know there are far too many of them in the closet about it), it can't get much better than this blast-from-the-past reunion of two icons, frontman Steve Perry and MTV VJ Martha Quinn. SP sightings are pretty rare.

The former lead singer/songwriter hasn't been with the band since 1996, and he's much beloved. He probably knows his fans would love to see him record and release the 50+ tunes he says he has in the can.

Glanced up from organic olives at Farmer's Mkt when my eyes fell upon...The Voice. Steve Perry!! #flannelshirts haha! twitter.com/MarthaQuinn/st…
— Martha Quinn (@MarthaQuinn) June 2, 2013

On my bucket list -- being able to have lunch with Mr. Perry. How that could even happen, I don't know (anyone with connections out there???), but it would make me a very a happy woman. Love, love his voice; have so many questions to ask about his compositions and positive experiences singing and songwriting.

One of my favorites, from a collaborative gig that was never released (but bootlegs are everywhere) that Perry and his Journey mates did singing live in studio on a radio show called King Biscuit Super Jam II is amazing.  And it's full of songs from Infinity (1978) and other gem covers, like this one, that gets to emphasize the influence on SP of soul-singer Sam Cooke, something Journey capitalized on very little during its superstar 80s run.

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UPDATE: In a rare public statement about his personal life, Steve Perry explained the scar on his face (melanoma removal; two operations) in the recent photo with MTV VJ Martha Quinn.

Three weeks ago a routine mole was taken off my face and the lab report came back Melanoma skin cancer. I've had two surgeries in two weeks to remove all the cancer cells and I've been told they think they got it all and no other treatments are required.

On Sunday I was a bit depressed because Kellie's birthday was coming up so I went for a drive and ran into Martha Quinn at a street fair. It was so great to see her and in a few short moments I told her most of this story. She asked if I'd take a picture with her and I said, "If you don't mind my face scar." She said, "Not at all." I joked about me and Pirates of the Caribbean and we both laughed.

"Kellie" refers to a woman he began a relationship with two years ago, a psychologist who was participating in a documentary on cancer that he first saw while reviewing footage of the doco with a friend. Kellie was dealing with breast cancer that had been treated, went into remission and had resurfaced as Stage 4 cancer in her lungs and bones. SP goes on to write a moving and unexpected emotional disclosure about meeting her, and the intense love and loss that he experienced over the last year. Click over to read it. It's hard not to feel heartbroken and uplifted at the same time. He notes that encounter with Martha Quinn was therapeutic and Steve thanks her for it in the piece.

As a long-time fan who knows how rare statements by Mr. Perry are about his life -- and those are usually through his site to fans, not the press, what he wrote this week was extraordinarily intimate and revealing about the man whose musical compositions touch so many. And I'm not talking about DSB (Don't Stop Believing) or the myriad harder-edged anthems most casual folks know that he wrote with Journey or during his solo outings.

Many of the mid-tempo compositions (such as "I'll Be Alright Without You") and ballads (Faithfully, Open Arms and a ton of lesser-known pieces that I'm drawn to), in the wake of  how he crafted and shared highly-charged content about what occurred in this relationship reflects how easily these songs flowed from that same personal emotional space years ago. The ability to do so in putting melody and lyrics together serves as a both a therapeutic outlet for to explain experiences and feelings about people and places we'll never know about. The gift is doing it in way that communicated his (deeper-than-we-know) feelings in a universal way -- music -- that is what many of us connect to unconsciously when a Journey or SP song is on. I know it when I sing along...

Come to my reading: 27 Views of Durham: The Bull City in Prose & Poetry

On Thursday I will read from my contribution to the tome 27 Views of Durham: The Bull City in Prose & Poetry.

An anthology of Durham writers writing about their hometown, 27 Views of Durham creates a literary montage of the Bull City. In essays, poems, short stories, and anthem, the collection creates a sense of place, present and past. Contributors include Ariel Dorfman, Jim Wise, Barry Yeoman, Pierce Freelon, Pam Spaulding, Clyde Edgerton, poet James Applewhite, historian Jean Bradley Anderson, song writer Rebecca Newton, with an introduction by Steve Schewel. This is the latest book in Eno Publishers's 27 Views series that includes local anthologies of North Carolina towns: Hillsborough, Chapel Hill, and Asheville.

My chapter touches on two bits of Durham history and charm:

• The rise and fall of South Square Mall and how it represented change and growth in the Bull City  -- Boom and Bust;
• Working near a downtown "landmark" of sorts -- the train trestle that is regularly assaulted by oversized box trucks that slam into it, captured on video -- Film at 11'8".

If you're in town and have some free time, drop by! The 411:

Steve Schewel, Pam Spaulding, John Valentine and Jim Wise read their views from this anthology of the city known for tobacco, sports, and grit.  Come join in for a lively discussion.

Thursday, June 6, 2013 @ 7 PM
Regulator Bookshop
720 Ninth St.
Durham, NC 27705
919-286-2700
http://www.regulatorbookshop.com/Contact: Laurin Penland: regulatorevents@gmail.com 

The start time (7 PM) is almost past my bedtime these days; hopefully my health meter won't be on empty. Fingers crossed!

Here's a sample of one of those crashes at Pettigrew and Gregson via Juergen Henn:

Night and day (or is it Jekyll/Hyde) battle with chronic RA pain

This whole methotrexate journey to treat my rheumatoid arthritis has been so bizarre. I'm on week 7 now, and I've upped the dose to six 2.5 mg pills once a week after my rheumatologist cleared me because tests showed my liver was tolerating it. Took higher dose on Sat night. It made me so sick, sore all over, with chills and fatigue Sunday (I must have slept 12-14 hours), moody and blue, etc.

And last week was abominable. I only had one good day (Friday) out of 7, and had severe edema (swelling) in both of my legs, always much worse in the left leg. (That leg has always been problematic re: edema since the now-surgically-corrected herniated disc. No one knows why it's occurring -- I asked three different docs.)

So I was asking myself last night -- why do I want to keep on trying this medicine? I have to have patience because it takes 8 weeks or so to kick in, unlike some of the biologics (Enbrel made me sick for two days, but I felt spectacularly better within 5 days).

The good weird news

Anyway, I wake up today and the debilitating bad joint pain has abated (pain level is only around 4 out of 10)! And it's a pretty rotten weather day -- thunderstorms overnight, with rainy, humid weather today. That usually kills my joints, but I feel unusually unaffected. Maybe methotrexate is now kicking in. I can only hope.

If this relief holds through the rest of the week, that will be a good sign. It will mean only about 1.5 days of being sick from the med and the rest of the week with much less pain.

I'm not trusting the med at all yet -- and many people with RA have this love-hate relationship with methotrexate.  I gained some insight and solace from reading the entries at Rheumatoid Arthritis Warrior:

The most commonly reported side effects for the RA-sized doses are digestive irritations. This can range from mild nausea to severe vomiting and diarrhea. Hair loss is also possible, but with lower doses it is less common. Methotrexate can also cause a feeling of weakness which is referred to medically as malaise. I call it that “I’ve been kicked by an elephant” feeling. (I really was kicked by an elephant once… but that’s another story!)

Other common side effects of methotrexate include increased risk with infection and greater chance of sunburn, either of which may also be more severe with methotrexate.

Well, methotrexate side effects do sound harsh, don’t they? However, when was the last time you read a list of the effects of RA? Seriously, the list of Rheumatoid Arthritis symptoms is eerily similar. For the most part, RA is undoubtedly worse.

Will my RA meds and travel by air kick my @ss?

My rheumatologist called yesterday evening. She's a gem; always responsive. We discussed the labs, which did indicate that I'm doing fine on the Methotrexatate (aside from the onerous side effects), and can go up to six pills (@2.5 mg, all in one dose) weekly. We talked about possibly going to the injectable route to avoid the stomach pain and nausea, but I only have that for a day or so.

My primary issues are the flu-like symptoms -- all-over body and joint aches, unnatural fatigue. Those last about 3 days. Then I have relief -- very little joint pain. The issue is whether over time I will have less days of side effects and more days of relief. I think this is week 7, so it's still a bit early to tell. I don't think I'll go the needle route for now. It's old school -- in a vial -- which makes it more annoying to deal with. I take my insulin and other injectables (Victoza, Lantus) via pen, which is much easier to deal with. At 4-5 shots a day, I'm already a human pin cushion. I'd like to avoid more if possible.

Anyway, the doctor also said that if MTX doesn't give me more relief after another month (I have to do labs again to monitor its effects on the liver for the first few months), I can try adding Enbrel back. That's another biologic sledgehammer drug. It gave me about 5 days of relief. Apparently together these drugs have been proven to be more effective than alone. But it means a real whammy those first two days on the combo.

Joint pain has been so bad this week that I've had to wear my wrist wraps even at night. My knees have been on fire. Only on Friday did I have anything resembling pain below a 4. It's been a steady 6 all week.

Ah, life with RA. Never simple, never pain-free. It's where things are.

I'm looking forward to going to NYC for my birthday (July); I hope that these med adjustments allow me to do a relatively pain-free walk across the Brooklyn Bridge. I may need to alter when I take them (I usually dose on Saturday evenings), so that I am not sick as a dog for the Sunday walk.

I think this was taken in 2007; on that day Kate, my brother Tim and I walked across to Manhattan and all the way up to Union Square. All that was possible before the fibromyalgia and the rheumatoid arthritis.

I also don't know how the air travel will affect me. Since the RA really started escalating in 2011, flying and the barometric pressure changes really hurt my joints and cause edema in my legs as well. I almost always experience a flare of bad fatigue and increased joint pain. This trip will be the first time flying since, hmmm, a long while, so I don't know what to expect. At least the herniated disc has been taken care of. Kate will have to handle the baggage, and I'll have to travel light; thankfully it's a direct and relatively short flight.

But I will do it. I have to.

Looks like I'm good to go with Methotrexate...for now.

10:30 AM: Off to the rheumatologist for joint exam and to check up on the tests from last week re: methotrexate and any harm to my liver. From what I can read, the labs look good. The large bruise on left arm from the bad phlebotomist incident is still hideous; it's just starting to fade, lol. Fingers crossed.

Noon: Back from rheumatologist. Sore from joint manipulation (geez, everything hurts when she tested). Liver tests OK, though. Will let me know whether to up the MTX dose to 6 tabs/once a week from 4. Will consider injectable if side effects are worse in the first couple of days than normal. If this doesn't improve my joint pain after a few weeks, then it's on to the next trial and error drug. I suggested a MTX/Enbrel combo since that seems to bring relief for more people. Of course I don't know if that means double the side effects for 3 days. Who knows. They are all sledgehammer drugs.

Anyway, it's back to work; not a great day to have to give a presentation to a large group of staff (in about an hour). I really feel like lying down right now.

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Today is my cousin Julie's birthday. She hits 50 six weeks before I do, lol. Happy birthday, cuz!

Getting by after a month on Methotrexate for my RA

Happy-ish Friday! Have been offline, working hard, getting by, never enough sleep. Now I want to crawl into the memory foam and go unconscious to rest the bones. And it's only 7:15 PM. Sad. But that's life when all energy has to go into just being able to be effective at work for those few hours -- and then you're spent.

Dose #5 of methotrexate for my RA this weekend; seems it makes me sick for 2.5 days, and the rest of the week is better, joint-pain wise, but it's definitely no magic bullet yet. At least there is some improvement even after a month; doc said 6-8 weeks to get a good view of its effectiveness. Nausea and GI issues are getting a bit better as well. Will see the rheumatologist next week to find out if my liver is doing well enough to continue this therapy, or I have to chuck it and try another biologic.

At least I don't have to deal with that damn herniated disc now! Back is doing well. Walking is fine, though I'm slow and still limp at times because of the RA f'ing up my left hip and knees faster than I'd hoped. Still looking forward to the Brooklyn Bridge walk in July. It will be slow going, but I know I can do it.

Still avoiding lifting more than 10 lbs through the 9 month recovery from the L5-S1 bilateral discectomy in January. Otherwise no problems bending or twisting. The surgery was sanity-saving/life-altering, Laurel. I had no idea how much the back pain was affecting my ability to cope (from any perspective). I could easily see how people might be afraid of spinal surgery, but for me, there was no alternative. I couldn't cope with sciatica pain plus the RA. I was starting to lose it re: pain tolerance. Mine's pretty high, but I hit the wall on this one.

Back surgery gone wrong is a nightmare -- my particular surgery has a high "success" rate (~95%), but the definition of success is quite specific -- relief of the acute pain. There's no guarantee that nerve damage that causes numbness will go away, but that's livable. Some people have full recovery from that as well, but that's months down the road before you can know. I already had unrelated permanent nerve damage/neuropathy in my feet, so my expectations in that area were realistic -- as in no chance that was going away. So from my POV the surgery did what was accomplished with no serious complications.

As I mentioned, the remaining issues affecting walking (speed, mostly), for instance, are related to RA, and that's progressive/degenerative. Just have to do my best to slow it down.

Methotrexate:

Methotrexate is used to treat severe psoriasis (a skin disease in which red, scaly patches form on some areas of the body) that cannot be controlled by other treatments. Methotrexate is also used along with rest, physical therapy and sometimes other medications to treat severe active rheumatoid arthritis (RA; a condition in which the body attacks its own joints, causing pain, swelling, and loss of function) that cannot be controlled by certain other medications. Methotrexate is also used to treat certain types of cancer including cancers that begin in the tissues that form around a fertilized egg in the uterus, breast cancer, lung cancer, certain cancers of the head and neck, certain types of lymphoma, and leukemia (cancer that begins in the white blood cells). Methotrexate is in a class of medications called antimetabolites. Methotrexate treats cancer by slowing the growth of cancer cells. Methotrexate treats psoriasis by slowing the growth of skin cells to stop scales from forming. Methotrexate may treat rheumatoid arthritis by decreasing the activity of the immune system.

There's nothing like bad phlebotomy...

How about this fun -- went very early this AM to get blood drawn for labs re: methotrexate effects on my liver. They take 3 tubes of blood (took 2 tries in my left arm, bruising it a lot), then the doc office calls this afternoon to say I have to come in again in the AM tmw to do it b/c something was wrong with the tubes they drew. Geezus. My arm still hurts from the bad phlebotemy.

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An update on the nausea-inducing phlebotomy experience -- something was wrong with the tubes of blood from the draw so I had to come back to do it again this AM!).

Anyway, as you can see from the photo, the bruising and swelling from the vampire-level work on Monday was unpleasant and left my arm hurting quite a bit. However, since I wasn't about to let them draw from my dominant right arm (which sux anyway, it has rolling veins) today, it was back to the left arm. This nurse was successful in getting the blood out of a vein in my hand; I left with it wrapped up to hopefully avoid what happened on my forearm.

(The wrap on my wrist is unrelated; I need those on both wrists for joint support while typing because of inflammation/damage already caused by RA.)