Triple Witching

For most of 2022, the only significance of June 17th was that it was triple witching day.  A friend told me that triple witching is now quadruple witching, but since 2022, when single stock futures were delisted, quadruple witching reverted to triple witching.   Triple witching is the quarterly third Friday where exchange traded stock index futures, stock market index options and stock options all expire.  It is often the funnest day of the quarter in which option traders trade last minute volatility (called gamma) and there are many interesting positions to be had. 

I'm sad I will miss it today.  Surprisingly sad.  Options have been a constant part of my life since I taught myself how to understand them in 1987 at Merrill Lynch on the trading floor that most of Wall Street had expected to collapse, physically, due to the weight of the machines on the floor,  Thankfully it never collapsed.  

Now June 17 is the day in which I am going to be flooded with approximately 2 million stem cells with the hope that they can undo the damage that yesterday's Melphalan did to my healthy cells.  Side effects are expected to be nausea and bone pain. The first 18 hours with the Melphalan have been manageable.  

Yesterday I sucked on ice chips in a form of cryotherapy for the mouth and throat, for an hour and a half. This is a preventative measure to prevent mucositis, or damage to mucous membranes during the flood of chemo.  There is a higher concentration of cells in one's mucous membranes than there are elsewhere in the body so the Melphalan does proportionally more damage there than elsewhere.  The Cryotherapy is expected to reduce the damage.  

As a night owl, it was fascinating to be up at 5 30 this am this morning.  I felt compelled to put on my robe and start doing laps around the hall.  Walking helps distribute chemo through one's system better, so I was trying to do my part.  There was a man, maybe 20 years my senior, doing laps with his pole at the same time.  He was in good shape, had many more muscles than I do.  We were walking in opposite directions and passing each other was a complicated dance as one of us would duck into a doorway to allow the other to pass.  After doing this twice I figured that if I just followed him we would never have to do that again.  After 40 minutes I was out of energy, so I turned around to face him when we passed next.  I wished him good health and he told me that he was leaving today.  He was so happy.  We wished each other many strong years ahead.  I just heard clapping from a large audience which was the staff and the nurses cheering for him and wishing him well as he walked out the door.  It was very touching. 

As his hospital chapter ends, mine begins.  Today I'm also trying to muster the courage to shave my head.  My nurse, Ridhi, is very sweet and I want her to be the one to give me the buzz cut if I get the nerve.  Shorter hair will prepare me for the inevitability, and when the time comes to lose my hair, it will be less of a traumatizing mess.  I think.  

I wish you peace and good health.  Thank you for reading this. Please keep the texts and emails flowing, it helps me so much.   I am so grateful to have you in my life.  Thank you. 



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