Vabysmo in My Eye, Birthday, New Cell Service

[Note: This is another blog based on my weekly emails to my family on the mainland.]

5/13/23

 

Aloha All!

 

Yet another wet week here.  Despite the rain, we're in full prep mode for our trip, plus there were a couple of significant changes to the usual routine. First, on Tuesday, as predicted, I got another eyeball jab.  Actually, the scans didn't show much buildup but we went ahead with the plan to stave off any problems during our trip.  However, this time we tried a new drug called "Vabysmo," which sounds more like it should be for indigestion than for eye problems. The generic chemical name is faricimab, which isn't much better.  Do you realize there are people who are actually paid to come up with these names?!  Anyway, Vabysmo is a relatively new drug that is showing promise in controlling retinal edema.  In at least some patients it can extend the time between injections by a month or more over Eylea, which is my current medication.  That could be 4 months between shots if I respond well to Vabysmo.  Anyway, it seemed worth a shot (so to speak), and we'll see how things are when I return from the upcoming trip.  In case you're wondering (I doubt you are, but humor me), the difference between the two drugs is described by Drugs.com as: "Vabysmo is a bispecific antibody that targets both vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) and angiopoietin-2 (Ang-2), whereas Eylea is a recombinant fusion protein that targets VEGF and placental growth factor (PlGF)."  Clear as can be, right?

Another change this week was that I switched cell service providers.  I was using Mint Mobile, which was very good and certainly a bargain at $15 per month for unlimited calls and texts plus 5 GB of cellular data per month.  However, Mint's international data rates are rather steep, and now that we're back to traveling I looked around for an alternative.  I settled on Spectrum Mobile, the same company that is also our internet service provider. It is also low-cost ($14 per month) and has international rates that are 1/10th those of Mint.  I made the switch this week, and it went fairly smoothly, by which I mean just a couple of snafu's that required a chat session with a tech.  It's been a couple of days now and all seems well.  One limitation of Spectrum compared to Mint is the amount of included data -- 5 GB versus 1 GB for Spectrum.  I'll just have to see if that will be enough.  Also, it will be interesting to see how well the service works when we get to France and Italy.  I can, of course switch back to Mint without a major hassle if I want.

We played golf on Thursday.  It was an ok outing but rather rainy, which I'm using as my excuse for not doing as well as last week.  I had some very satisfying shots now and then, so I'm still enjoying it overall.  We may not play next week because that will be rather close to our trip departure, and we will be in full-blown last minute prep mode.

 

Thursday was also Karen's XX (censored) birthday. At her request the "celebration" was low-key, with the main events being our golf outing, a quick stop at Costco, late afternoon pupus at our neighbor's house, and some hulihuli chicken for dinner.  I got her a long-sleeved t-shirt with an island design, but it was the wrong size.  Fortunately it was from one of the stores along the waterfront and she'll be able to exchange it.

Guess that's about it.  Oh, Kilauea volcano is still not erupting, but there are signs it's getting restless.  There has been significant inflation lately, and an increase of earthquake activity that signals magma moving around underneath.  I wouldn't be surprised that something happens while we're gone.  Too bad -- our stretch of vog-free days since March has been very pleasant.

Take care.