Another step...

Today was a big day for us...  The first step to starting Callum on his 'treatment' for EoE, was to identify one thing that he wasn't allergic to, so that he could live on a formula plus that one food for 3-4 weeks.

So we spent the past week mostly in seclusion while preparing for the test, since he had to be off his anti-histamines for seven days before he could be tested.  We explained to him that he couldn't go out, he couldn't do this, he couldn't do that, ... until today.  He's been good and very understanding about it.

This morning, we all trudged out to NYC... lots of prep work at the Dr's office, and then finally we did Callum's first set of skin-prick tests.   We tested twelve items (plus two controls).  He was positive to ten of the twelve.  Only things he didn't react to was rice and dill-weed.  This is a good sign.  Now we get to try a rice+formula diet on him, to see if there is any improvement to the EoE/EoG.

Next step is to see the dietician to ensure that when we are on this new diet, he doesn't become malnourished.  I suspect she will be telling us how much formula he needs each day.  There may be other products that we may be able to use (from Neocate) that may act as supplements.

The sad part was that he came back positive for Beef, Potato, Corn and most other things we tried.  He also has a really bad reaction to Coriander, and a moderate one to Turmeric (who'd have thought that!) as well as Cumin.  This really sux because he loves 'fried beef' (almost indian style, with some salt+pepper+cumin)... one of his favorite foods.

Anyway... more to come in this saga...

Callum's Diagnosis

This week we found out something new about Callum:  He has been diagnosed with Eosinophilic Esophagitis (EoE, EE) and Eosinophilic Gastritis (EG).

To me and Beena, it represents two different realities.  I've taken the approach that knowing is better than not knowing, but to her, it reaffirms the reality of a life of limitations for Callum.  Thus we differ in our reactions to this diagnosis.  However, in my opinion, a diagnosis does not change who he is or nor does it change our day-to-day realities... it is the same as it was yesterday.

But to know your enemy is to have power over it.  We can now walk a path where we know the reasons and can take an informed direction in dealing with this.

First of all, it is important to understand EoE:  EoE is a disorder in which eosinophils, a type of white blood cell involved in allergic reactions, infiltrate the walls of the esophagus. This eosinophil infiltration leads to inflammation of the esophagus and can cause a change in the cellular structure of the esophagus, and will cause scarring if left untreated.  There is currently no medication for curing EoE, but there are some steroidal treatments for alleviating some of the damage and or symptoms.

Related to this is EG, where the same condition extends to the stomach as well.  Unfortunately, the steroidal treatments do not work in the stomach, so no way to alleviate the symptoms or damage.

So Callum's doctor presented three very different treatment options:

• Off-label use of Flovent, by swallowing the mist -- this would be continued indefinitely, and would help the EE, but not the EG.   This option allows the inflammation to be controlled by reactive treatment, with no proactive effort to control the root cause.
  
• Remove the top 8 allergens and selective elimination of food -- this is a better approach, whereby the most common causes are eliminated, and any other potential allergens are removed as well.  This would be determined by testing him for different foods that he eats, using a skin test to make sure there is no IgE reaction.  Unfortunately, Callum is allergic to all of the top eight, as well as many commonly 'safe' substances as well.  So this option would be slow, and limited in scope.
  
• The last and best option is to eliminate all food, and feed him with Neocate Jr. (Neocate Junior with Prebiotics is a nutritionally complete, powdered amino acid-based medical food for children over the age of one for the dietary management of cow milk allergy, multiple food protein intolerance (MFPI) and food-allergy-associated conditions: gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), eosinophilic esophagitis (EoE), short bowel syndrome (SBS), malabsorption and other GI disorders)  Then we would introduce food items one by one, and try to watch for potential reactions.  For the most part, we do not expect any visible reaction.  Once we've added 3-4 food items, then he will undergo another endoscopy, and if all is well, we will move forward with another 3-4 items, and repeat.  If on the other hand, there is a reaction, we would go backwards and try to figure out what is causing the reaction.

We have chosen option 3, which was also favorable in the doctor's opinion.   Unfortunately, with Callum, this is not an easy road.  He is exhibiting EoE/EG without any of the top eight allergens in his diet.  Further complicating matters is the fact that the bulk of food that Callum eats today is just "lower" on his sensitivity scale, nothing is "not allergic".

So, over the next few weeks, we will be doing more testing to understand what options we have in terms of a food elimination diet.  Hopefully Callum does not end up being a kid who is being tube-fed Neocate for the rest of his life.

We have a long, hard, road ahead.  I do not think it will be easy.  I am not sure how we will convince Callum to have nothing but formula... maybe a MacBook Pro and a mechanic's chest of tools.

www.vanheusden.com - optimizing for MySQL

Nice page on mysql optimization

www.vanheusden.com - optimizing for MySQL:

'via Blog this'

VMWare conversion....

So.... I am going through a VMWare conversion process at iTouchPoint.   This involves converting legacy app, and sometimes legacy servers, to run under VM's.


It's been a learning experience to say the least.

• Overcommitting memory is fine, so long as you don't end up swapping to a SATA disk :-)
• OpenFiler as an iSCSI device running 3 SATA drives that are short-stroked will give you amazing performance: we're doing > 4000 IOPS, which is all we needed, I don't quite know what this box is capable of
• LAN LAN LAN => iPerf is very useful when it comes to figuring out that your LAN stinks!  200MB/*minute* on a 1GB LAN???? Come on!!!

JBOSS ... nightmares...

So... I decided to use JB 6 for a new project I'm working on, and decided to move over some VERY STABLE code that has been under Spring IoC control.   All I can say is 24+ hours of wasted time later, I decided to give it a shot in GlassFish.  It worked like a charm...

It seems that JB6 has some strange assumptions about activating singletons and EJB injections that do not make sense.... and it was starting up things before dependencies were deployed and then complaining about JNDI resolution failures.

Later on... in the server logs, you can see that it deploys the EJB's in question.  So... I wonder why it couldn't identify the dependencies and deploy them as needed... since GlassFish is able to do it...

Strange...

I Too

Just saw a poem that Annamaria was studying for her reading:

I too, by Langston Hughes

http://www.poetryarchive.org/poetryarchive/singlePoem.do?poemId=1552

Sounds like a pretty good admin tool

Seems to work across platforms, and provide a comprehensive suite of features.

in reference to: Webmin (view on Google Sidewiki)

Pixel Qi Skips Shows You How to Bolt a Power-Saving Screen Into Your Laptop, Sidesteps Manufacturer | Technomix | Fast Company

Pixel Qi Skips Shows You How to Bolt a Power-Saving Screen Into Your Laptop, Sidesteps Manufacturer | Technomix | Fast Company

How Facebook Was Founded

How Facebook Was Founded

Pretty scary article about the origins of FaceBook, and more importantly the ethics involved....

How to fix PPTP MiniPort driver on XP, win2k, NT

I had the misfortune of having to install the FortiGate VPN client recently. It worked perfectly, but managed to screw up my PPTP to the point where I couldn't use PPTP any more... It somehow even deleted my Verizon Wireless card driver as well.

After much hunting, I came across this solution which fixed it:

HELP NEEDED: how to restore WAN Miniport (PPTP) device - Windows NT / 2000 / XP

Just in case it gets removed, the actual relevant section is:

1. Download devcon.exe from some Microsoft site. You can google for it.

2. Open netrasa.inf in c:\windows\inf (c:\winnt\inf on win2k I guess)

3. Look for the section [Msft.NTx86]

4. In the DeviceID column, you can see the installable devices.

5. Run this command to install the WAN Miniport (PPTP):
devcon.exe install c:\windows\inf\netrasa.inf MS_PptpMiniport

6. You can install the other devices similarly. I think you will need MS_L2tpMiniport, MS_PtiMiniport, MS_NdisWanIp, MS_PppoeMiniport additionally

In my case, only the PPTP miniport was required.

My car-buying experience of 2010.

So... after having 4 kids, you realize that the good ole' US of A is meant for the family of 4.8 (or whatever the new census comes up with).  This leads to the perpetual problem of finding a good family vehicle that can meet your daily needs, but doesn't quite approach the Partridge Family Edition.

Anyway, I started out looking at mini-vans... to me they are too cramped once the third row is up.  Especially for us, we can barely fit the kids, strollers, porta-potty and stuff into the Expedition that we have.  Not to mention shopping trips where kids are holding items that won't fit.  Of course Beena was sold on the idea of a mini-van (which I had to point out is really the idea of my family & friends who only have 1 or 2 kids).  Just do the math... 7 seats, 3 to 4 people... somewhere between 40-60% free space.

I then landed on the idea of a Ford E series (econoline) or Chevy Express...  Of course each has its advantages and disadvantages.  To add to the confusion, we were thinking of getting a travel-trailer (yet another saga).

I ended up getting a Chevy Express, which while not as well-appointed as our previous vehicles (Explorer Limited, LR3, Expedition Eddie Bauer), is something that was priced right, and meets our major needs.  In addition, it has side air-bags (just for the windows, but definitely better than none), and All Wheel Drive.  I figured that as our family vehicle, this outweighed the lack of the niceties.

While shopping around, I got a contact from Country Chevrolet in Warwick, NY.  I responded and asked for test-drive... the folks were pleasant and scheduled a time for me to come in and test the van.  When I got there, they didn't do the whole (copy of license/credit check scam).... they simply let me drive the van.   What a concept!  To top that off, after the test-drive, they asked if I had any questions... and since I didn't, they let me be on my way.  ABSOLUTELY NO PRESSURE!

After that, it was simply a matter of trying to figure out whether to custom order what we WANTED, or taking something that was available.  In the end, we decided to take something off dealer inventory... and again, Country Chevrolet came through!

So... then came the financing.  I had secured credit via my current bank, which gave me a very good rate based on all of my accounts with them.  Country provided almost an identical rate, without requiring me to do auto-pay!

I've bought several cars over the years, and have had three really bad experiences, a couple of okay experiences, and one or two EXCELLENT ones with different dealerships.

Country Chevrolet is definitely in the EXCELLENT category, with Schultz Ford-Lincoln-Mercury being the other.

Kevin Goodwin - White Plains Lincoln Mercury

I just spoke to him after several years... nice guy, if you're looking for a Lincoln or Mercury vehicle.

Awesome, lightweight C# converter for JSON

Excellent tool!

in reference to:

"jsonexserializer"
- jsonexserializer - Project Hosting on Google Code (view on Google Sidewiki)

Bailout, Sellout, and The American Way...

So... the American Dream -- what the "huddled masses" have strived towards for generations has now come down to this:

1. Create a business that makes no sense
2. Have hundreds of millions of dollars pumped into it from innocent people who are being lied to
3. Run the business into the ground
4. Get the government to bail it out (with more money from the same people who's money was lost)
5. Keep taking home huge salaries and bonuses for PERFORMANCE.

So... how does one go about doing this?

Join the Mafia, take over a small city:
This approach, while very practical and easy to do, has not worked well for maybe 30-50 years or so.

Or.... do it the "AIG WAY" as evidenced in this article:

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/07/AR2008100702604.html?sid=ST2008100702063&s_pos=

I personally never supported the bailout of the banks -- I think that money should have been given to the people who's homes were in jeopardy of being foreclosed. That would have actually bolstered our economy -- let people stay in their homes, keep their jobs, eased tensions about their investments (potentially allowing them to keep money in the markets).

But then again, such a move would be less advantageous to the over-privileged, lobbyists, and the crooks ... I mean "execs" that power these big businesses.

I think the American Politician has become a sellout to the interest of whichever person or group can provide them with bribes.. err.. oh right... I mean incentives -- we are Americans, we don't take bribes...

Lost and found...

So... somehow my wife decided to login to my gmail account and tie it to her blog... and given my memory (or lack of it), I couldn't figure out what my blog was... anyway, to make a long story short, I finally "found" my blog again :-)

Yet another day...

Life has a tendency to throw you a curve-ball every once in a while. Sometimes you catch it, and sometimes it catches you. Regardless, it's a tough world out there.

Work -- we work to live, and yet end up living to work. Such is the place we're in today. It is a kind of pathetic existence when we end up at that state. However, if we didn't have the ability to hope for a better tomorrow, what would life be? So, I go on hoping...

So.. I sit here pondering life, friendship and work..

I've heard a quote that says "If you want to lose a friend, go into business with him".

I personally have always taken the stance that it couldn't be right. My version of the quote goes something like "A friendship that can survive business is a friendship indeed."

To many, this may not make any sense at all, however, it is pretty evident (from several years of hard-work) that you throw a mix of money, personalities, greed, pride, and friendship into a bowl, stir up the mixture, and pretty soon you end up with either a bunch of good friends, or a rotten business.

To me, I've realized that most people are like the rustling reeds by a river bank, swaying in the wind. They sound really nice, however, they're always swaying this way or the other -- depends on which way the wind blows.

Speaking of rotten business, how does one judge a business to be rotten? Pretty simple: If every day, you don't wake up feeling excited about the possibilities ahead, well, then it's pretty rotten. It's even worse when you wake up every day dreading it.

I've realized that after many years of sweat, no sleep and no time with my family, the bottom line is that unless it costs a buck, most people don't know how to quantify it. Of course one looks at the world today and wonder what's wrong with it. It's pretty simple; Money...

On that note, a piece of advice for those of you who are young entrepreneurs; Telecommuting doesn't cut the mustard, if you want to be in control of your company. So... beware the dangers of "office politics" or in more PC words "personnel dynamics".

Anyway... enough rambling for now...

Finally -- I started blogging too...

My rather pesky friend Vinit convinced me to start blogging... All I asked him was how to setup a journal to share my thoughts...

This kid is annoying, I tell you... but... his parents are charming folks, so we put up with him.

This is going to be fun, and I can assure you that I will not die alone... all my friends... who shall soon no more be... will be there stabbing or shooting me (or both).

THANK YOU VINIT!