Birthday Wishes and Cancer Experimental Treatments...

[caption id="attachment_3767" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Danny Does Chemo - Day One #1[/caption]

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Welcome back My Dearest Readers to The Other Shoe. In just three days I will celebrate my 57^th birthday on this planet, named Earth. Today is Monday November 17^th, 2014 and it will be a day that I remember for, well, the rest of my life. For today is the day that I made a decision that will affect the outcome of the rest of my life. Today I have made the decision to do two things; First – I am applying to every Lymphoma and Cancer financial aid web site I can find Second – I am looking for Experimental Treatments for NHL (Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma) that pay for participants.

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I tried just as hard as I could to raise money… for my family… for the … and I came up wanting… terribly. Yes, I do see a birthday without a single card… a single ‘Well Wisher’… or a single present as, well, a failure. What or Who was it that decided I simply MUST go through;

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1. 1. Degenerative Disc Disease


2. 2. Spinal Stenosis


3. 3. Left Foot Drop


4. 4. Ruptured Cervical Disc at C7-T1


5. 5. Night seats


6. 6. Focal Motor Weakness


7. 7. Back and Cervical Back Pain


8. 8. Muscle Weakness


9. 9. Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma

10. Limited Mobility- Wheelchair/Power Chair Bound

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And who can forget, Chemotherapy! To go through all these… to suffer pain with each and every waking… and to fight against indomitable odds.. My Dear Readers and to do this ALL while living hand-to-mouth each and every day of every week or every month or every year. Poor. Who made this my fate? Why was I chosen to fight these battles…. Empty handed?

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Therefore, My Dear Readers, I am applying for any and all ‘Financial Aid’ that I can qualify. Then I am going to apply for research… opportunities. Somewhere there are experimental treatments for NHL taking place. They need people with NHL for them to run experimental treatments.

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My Dear Readers, I cannot (in good conscience) force my family to live teetering on the edge of poverty any longer. If giving my life to experimental treatments, and make some coin doing it, then that is what I am going to do. I cannot live this way any longer.

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I will make it my effort to keep writing… and I will try to publish, here, too. I hope to be able to publish twice to several times a week, when I it is possible. I have chemotherapy scheduled for next week. However, if I find a paying experimental treatment? I will STOP chemotherapy, and start the experimental treatment THAT PAYS!

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Seems my body is all I have to give. Then I will give it up for those I love. For those that I love to have a better life! So, that when a Christmas comes along… They can have a ‘Nice Christmas’. Yeah, and YES it is a ‘Nice Christmas’ to HAVE presents under the tree. It has always amazed me how ‘some people’ will prattle on about how ‘Christmas isn’t about presents under the tree… it is about _____” Yet, they say these words with a tree with LOTS of presents for their families and loved ones.

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It is SO easy to say “Christmas isn’t about presents” when you have presents under the tree, right? ROFLMFAO My deserves to have a ‘Nice Christmas’ and if I have to let people use my body… to get what I want? Well, it’s not like it is the first time, or anything. Right James?

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So, My Dear Readers, I have come to this decision and I wanted to tell everyone without having recriminations flying. Where else better than to blog it!

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OK, for Upcoming Stories here at The Other Shoe I hope to publish a little one about my most recent trip to L.A. to see my primary care doctor, Dr. Gorlick. I have the images. I have the videos. I have good deal of the story written. So, at some point, in the near to distant future, I will publish ‘Trip to L.A. –November 2014 Edition’ right here at The Other Shoe.

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Well, I have a lot of work ahead of me today… tomorrow.. and on until I find that one experimental Treatment that needs ‘Paid Participants’ then I am golden. As well, I am going to apply for financial assistance through the many foundations and funds that I can find. I seriously doubt that I will have any money in hand before Christmas. However, my success will assure that, at least for my family, this will be that LAST Christmas without cheer.

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Adieu!

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Thank you!

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[caption id="attachment_3777" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Danny in Rolling Hills Estates - Rancho Palos Verdes - PV Medical Group Noember 2014[/caption]

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© 2010 – 2014 Hanning Web Wurx and The Other Shoe

Danny Does Chemo - Day One

 

[caption id="attachment_3767" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Danny Does Chemo - Day One #1[/caption]

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    Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. Welcome to 'Day One' of the main part of this article series, and my current round of chemo. I am writing this article while I receive my chemotherapy treatment. I do so for two reasons; first because I am stuck here for seven to eight hours, and I kind of doubt I will feel up to writing once I get home... tonight about 7:30PM. Make the best use of this time while I can. 

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[Youtube=http://youtu.be/9s5uR4w9oO0]

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The image, at the top of the page, is of me prior to chemo treatment. I hope to have three to four videos and several stills for the release of this article. Along with the wonderful images and videos, I plan to give you a blow-by-blow of my 'Day One' chemotherapy. It is now 1:15PM on Wednesday November 5th, 2014. You will notice, in the videos, I keep saying it is "November 4th"... it is not, it IS November 5th. I just got up at 5AM so I am a little loopy. 

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So, yes, my day starts with a 5AM wake-up. Allen helps me out of the bed and I grab, a half-awake, Alexander from his cage. Allen is running my bath, while I set out the clothes I will wear for the day. My red 'Tommy Hilfiger' thermal-top and my 'Red Mickey' pajama bottoms. I may have to get chemotherapy, but nothing says I cannot be comfortable while it happens. Alexander is climbing on my shoulders, talking in my ear. 

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He tells me that these 5AM 2 wake-up calls best be rare and infrequent. He no more enjoys being awaken at 5AM than I. I assure Alex this will only happen once every three weeks... and on the 11th when I go see Dr. Gorlick. He is still upset, but satisfied with my answer. He licks my ear, says a few words in 'rat', and settles in for a ride on my shoulders. I finish setting out my clothes, and see that Allen is finished preparing my bath. 

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/48oouRn1w6Q]

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By 6AM I am bathed, shaved and dressed ready for a light breakfast then my ride to the infusion center. I am scheduled for pick-up at 7:30AM for arrival in time for my 9 AM check-in time slot. My pickup time, for my ride home, is 6:30PM to arrive home by 8PM. Oy it is going to be a very long day My Dear Readers. Finished with preparations, I sit in my power chair waiting for the transit bus to arrive. I pass the time reviewing the depressing, but not unexpected, results. 

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'Off-year' elections generally favor the party not in the White house, so this comes as no great shock. Democratic candidates have won a few heatedly contested seats, and a few governor's races. Yet, Republicans take the (non-fillibuster proof) majority in the Senate. Senator Mitch McConnell will soon know the pain Sen. Harry Reid has endured these past six years. During the second commercial break, in the election news, I turn off the television. Now it is time to help Allen prepare our cooler of fluids and snack foods. (Little i did know that 5 hours into treatment everything would taste terrible)

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The transit bus arrives and Allen helps me get settled in. It is now 8:10AM and I will arrive shortly before 9AM. It is an uneventful ride. Several stops, along the way, people getting in and off at their destinations. Finally, about 8:55AM, we arrive at my stop. Allen assists me disembarking from the bus. 

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[caption id="attachment_3768" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Danny Does Chemo - Porta-Cath Ready For Chemoterapy Drugs[/caption]

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First, I want to make mention and sing accolade of the staff and nurses here at the 'Total Care Infusion Center' of the Los Alamitos Medical Center. Ruby, Toncy (my incredible nurses and support staff) and Mary. These women showed me great kindness and wonderful support. My thanks and kudos to Dr. Curti and the entire staff at his office and here at the Total Care Infusion Center. If I must have chemotherapy, I cannot imagine a better place or a more wonderfully supportive staff. It is now 2:30PM. I am taking a short break from writing. 

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Shortly after I took the (indicated) break… well, things got a little sketchy for Dan. Yes, I am writing this Thursday morning while preparing to leave for my injection of Neulasta at my Oncologist’s office. The fun just never seems to stop, here in the land of Danny’s Chemo Adventure! So, what changed? I started having increasingly worse lower back pain, everything I drank or ate tasted like aluminum metal, and I had difficulty getting out of the recliner and up to go to the bathroom. Weakness, dizziness and headaches soon accompanied the cacophony of symptoms that now plagued yours truly.

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[caption id="attachment_3769" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Danny Does Chemo - Day One – Blood Red Chemo Drug[/caption]

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I relayed the symptoms to the very supportive nursing staff, but did my best to marshal on without complaint, just like a good ‘Little Texas Boy’. In the last still images, and the last video, of this article you can see the Ariamycin/Doxrubacin medication going into my body. Yes, it is a blood red medication… and it is one of the most toxic chemicals in mankind’s modern day chemotherapy arsenal. My oncologist is bringing out the ‘Big Guns’ to fight this bodily invader. Kudos Dr. Curti!

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/CvTBiNrfp2g]

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Much to my glee, the chemotherapy treatments end precisely as the OCTA transit bus arrives to take me home. I leave the Total Care Infusion Center @ 6PM, to arrive (finally) at home at 7:45PM. Ready to hurl chunks, head throbbing, back aching, and stomach churning I come home to great an anxiously awaiting Alexander R. Hanning Rat. He is quite happy to see Daddy Danny and Daddy Allen.

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He immediately pries open my mouth, to discern where Daddy has been and what have my fellow humans done to me over the past ten hours. I pull him away from my mouth, only allowing him to smell my breath. He immediately coughs and spits… yes, right into Daddy’s mouth. Well, it’s my son’s spit.. so I laugh and explain to him where I have been and what he smelled. He accompanies me to the bathroom where Allen is running my bath.

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[caption id="attachment_3770" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Danny Does Chemo - Day One Another Blood Red Chemo Shot![/caption]

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Allen helps me get ready to bathe and change out my Fentanyl pain patch. It is really late for the patch change, and I am feeling the waning of its effect. While I am soaking away, some, of my back pain and much of the smell of that day’s chemical infusions, Allen is preparing a frozen pizza in the kitchen. It is nearly 9PM when I, finally, sit down in my bed to eat and rest,

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I manage to eat one piece of pizza before falling asleep while having dinner and watching television. I awake at 1AM to extreme nausea, where, I deposit the recently eaten pizza into… well that is TMI. I return to bed, to discover that Alexander was sleeping with me all this time. I return my sleepy little rat buddy to his warm and comfy cage. Then I collapse into the waiting bed. I awake several more times, over the night and into the wee hours of the morning. Seems my stomach is competing with my headache to see just which one will/ can give me the most grief. When the wrenching of my neck, puking, adds to my headache with growing shooting pains in my neck and arm… well, the headache and neck pain beat out the nausea soundly.

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Thus, My Dear Readers, was the entirety of ‘Danny Does Chemo – Day One’. I hope that you have enjoyed reading nearly as much as I have enjoyed sharing and telling. I am not too sure just how much I am going to have written, over the weekend. I want to relax and recover. I know that all of you, My Dear Readers, will understand.

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Thank you for all your kindness and support during this difficult and trying time of my… newest battle with misfortune. I will write again, soon. Take care!

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.The single MO$T disturbing part or yesterday? Well, what I WASN'T told. One the paperwork, when I get admitted to Total Care  Los Alamitos I ALWAYS get a 'Share of Costs' page FILLED OUT! Yesterday, I was given a BLANK PAGE to sign, agreeing I would "Pay all "thereNon-Covered" charges. Meaning ANYTHING Medicare decides NOT to cover I MUST PAY to continue getting treatment. This has NEVER happened before... did 'The Other Shoe' just drop (again) in my life? I can barely pay rent, food and bills... THIS was the WHOLE reason behind the 'Cancer Treatment Fund' campaign. Not a great time for financial fears... on top of cancer concerns... and the holidays right around the corner... 

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Adieu!

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Thank YOU!

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[caption id="attachment_3755" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Arival at the Oncologist's Office[/caption]

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© 2010 – 2014
Hanning Web Wurx and The Other Shoe

Danny Does Chemo - Prelude

[caption id="attachment_3752" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Danny Does Chemo Leaving for Oncologist[/caption]

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Welcome back My Dear Readers to The Other Shoe. The picture, above, is my most recent picture. Taken this Wednesday as I prepared to head to my oncologist. This article is a diary of that journey, and the beginning of another journey that will last for the next eighteen weeks. But, let’s not get ahead of ourselves, My Dear Readers. Let’s take this one-step at a time, one day at a time, and one event at a time. First, let’s take the oncologist appointment that changed my life.

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The day, Wednesday, started out like any other day I have an appointment. I wake-up early to get bathed, dressed and ready for a long day of; crowded transit rides, sitting and waiting for drivers, and rushing from appointments that ran long to catch my ride home. Allen gets up and helps me out of bed and into the bathtub. I sit there, in the warm water, thinking of how my life will change in just the next few hours. Below is my video before I leave for my oncologist appointment.

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/2sL4RQdg_h4]

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You see, My Dear Readers, I have already talked with my Oncologist on the phone. Yes, I have a doctor that actually calls his patients with any and all ‘news’. It was late the previous Friday evening when Dr. Curti called me. It was imperative that we start chemotherapy just as soon as possible. This decision was based on information from my last scan, and discussions that he engaged in with oncologists at the ‘City of Hope’.

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So, My Dear Readers, I already know just what I am about to face, and hear, on this day. That I must start chemotherapy as soon as possible. Already, I understand that this means I will be dealing with the battle that is chemotherapy will trying to beat a deepening depression due to the upcoming ‘holidays’. You see, My Dear Readers, it (my depression) always takes a nose-dive around the ‘holidays’.

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[caption id="attachment_3755" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Arival at the Oncologist's Office[/caption]

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As with any ‘American Male’ I desperately want to give a nice Christmas to the person most important in my life. For the past several years I have taken to accepting no ‘gifts’ in lieu of making sure that Allen has the clothes, and personal items he needs to work comfortably. This will be true, this year, too. It is just that… well, I would give anything to actually have a ‘Nice Christmas’ and dealing with chemotherapy… too. Well, lets to dwell on just how dark it will be in the coming months. Let me focus on this visit.

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My Dear Readers, I had Allen take a video of me on the lift getting on to the OCTA transit bus. This is the first time that I have ever allowed this to happen. I really do not enjoy having my picture taken… in these situations. For me, it is kind of like having my picture taken while I am in the bath. Anyway, below is a short video of me being raised on a lift into the transit bus. This was the beginning of a very eventful day… and a journey that will span the next 18 weeks.

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/AFHk0ftJJzU]

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That, My Dear Readers, is me in my power chair getting on to an OCYA transit buss to ride to my oncologist appointment. That begins a day that will, by its end, change my life it ways that I never imagined. Then again, I guess at this point in my life… one would think that I would be used to my life ‘changing in ways I never imagined”. It just hasn’t happened… yet.

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So, once my power chair is fastened into place and I am belted to the floor. I sit in my chair and wait over an hour as the other people on the bus are taken to their appointments. My appointment is at 2PM, and we arrive at the medical center at 1:57PM. Allen and I rush to the elevator and up to my oncologist’s office. By the time I get to the office it is already after 2, and when they check me in… my heart rate is 90 bpm, and my blood pressure is 130 over 97. I usually have a heart rate of about 60 to 70 with a blood pressure of 120 over 80.

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[caption id="attachment_3756" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Danny After his Oncologist's Appointment[/caption]

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My Dear Readers, I do my very best to make all appointments on time. I do my very best to never complain, and to keep positive and remain a good example of patient facing adversity with grace and honor. That is how I was raised, and it is always my goal to make good on my upbringing. Some days… it is just much more difficult than others. Today, just happens to be one of those days. I sit in the room waiting for Dr. Curti to show up. Allen is with me… Allen… I lay awake nights praying that somehow… someday I can… show… reward him for all he has done for me… and all he is about to do.

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The next two hours I meet with; my oncologist, the chemotherapy nurse, their business manager, and my oncologist… again. It is now 4PM and my ride home is about to arrive downstairs. I am told that, for the next 18 weeks, I will be undergoing chemotherapy ever three weeks for a course of six treatments. After which they will run all their scans, again, and make the decision. I agree and the decision is made that I will undergo my chemotherapy not in the office but at the Infusion Center across the street.

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My Dear Readers, I leave the medical center in the same rush that I arrived. I al lifted into another OCTA bus, where I wait another hour and a half to everyone else to be left off and I am taken home. I, finally, arrive home at 4PM. One visit to one oncologist… takes me from 10AM until 4PM. What I wouldn’t give for my own transportation… and an once of dignity while I face my cancer. You see, My Dear Readers that was all I ever asked for… all I ever wanted.

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[youtube=http://youtu.be/bLqGRBmEK84]

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Today, I started this all news series here at The Other Shoe. I know that I have not been here as much or as often as in the past. My Dear Readers, this diagnosis… and, the following battle to get and obtain treatment for my Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphoma has taken a toll on me. A toll unlike any previous in my lifetime. I am not a man that can see into the future. I do not know IF I will live to see the end of this treatment. I will do everything in my power to not only finish this treatment but to go on and beat/meet my goal of becoming a published writer.

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Until then, I will be HERE My Dear Readers, and I will take you along for the next 18 weeks. Be sure to come back, often, and tell all your fiends, family, co-workers, and acquaintances about my journey through cancer chemotherapy.

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Adieu!

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Thank you!

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[caption id="attachment_3512" align="aligncenter" width="630"] Danny[/caption]

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© 2010 – 2014
Hanning Web Wurx and The Other Shoe