1) I went
to Oasis of Hope in February for immunotherapy - ONLY immunotherapy; no
supplements, no ozone, no hyperthermia, & no IV’s. Expectedly, I was tired,
as I always am after immunotherapy injections This time it was concentrated,
since the immunotherapy was the ONLY type of treatment I’d received since
January. I forged through the increased exhaustion for about 10 days after our
return, but I hit the bed for a nap on March 5th & remain bedridden to this
day. Still, no supplements, no oral chemo, no vitamins; although I DID try to
get down one more round of oral chemo in late February. But I soon realized
that it was futile. I threw up whatever I tried to eat, quickly lost 20 pounds,
& have NO muscle masses at all! I remained bedridden & wasting away for
the next two months. It was a gastric nightmare, with no end in sight. Various
lab tests & specimens showed nothing alarming - a little out of whack here
& there, but no red flags. It was incredibly frustrating. Plus, I look
fine & have no jaundice - no one
could tell how painful this all was! Finally, I screamed loudly enough to be
heard...
2) ...
which highlighted in me being in the ER last Tuesday, admitted with SEPSIS!
Wait... WHAT??? Amazingly, the admitting ER doc told me that I might not make
it through the night to even get the required tests if we waited until the
morning! Again... WHAT did he say??? Yes, I’d like to shoot him for
over-reacting, but I’ll let it go because he was responding to the information
that he had at the time. The ER immediately started four IV lines per side of
fluids & antibiotics, I had a CT Scan that night, & an Ultrasound the
next morning. We all breathed easier; at last there was something that COULD be
addressed as the culprit! Maybe I could begin to feel better!
3) The next
morning, I was visited by a gastrointernolost whom I know. When he said the
words, “The most we can hope to do at this point is aim for pain management”, I
knew what those words meant. Turn out the lights... the party’s over. A bit
later, a gastro surgeon came by. We talked enough to let him know I could
handle his news, the he asked me if I’d seen the pictures. I hadn’t. I’ll show
you my drawings of the images from both February & April very soon. Your
mouths will drop open, I promise. I showed them to the kiters in Enid last
weekend & fifty mouths dropped open in unison. It’s truly shocking. Once
you see what’s happened over an amazingly short twelve week period, you’ll see
why I think that the doctors are actually being very liberal in both their time
frame & their prognosis.
4) So,
“Sepsis”... in Latin it means “rotten”. YIKES! Can this even BE overcome or is
it just “dealt with” & “managed”??? Regardless, this trip to the hospital
last week saved my life - by running those four IV’s wide open with IV fluids
& various antibiotics for the Sepsis treatment; & for proving to me
that the cancer that’s been the hardest to hold at bay is now taking over. It’s
not a secondary, opportunistic infection... this is end-stage cancer. This is
it. It’s going to kill me - & it’s going to kill me very soon. The initial
lung cancer is subsiding... the secondary lymph node cancer is also
subsiding... but the tertiary liver cancer has taken over & is now
threatening my life. If you were at the South Padre Kite Festival, you saw me
being perfectly fine! If you were at Kite Fest Louisiana, you heard me say,
“This is NOT the beginning of the end; this is just a rut in the road”. I was
wrong. This IS the beginning of the end - & it’s coming ‘round the corner
like a bullet! How long? I won’t see it through to the end of the year. I won’t
make it back to either Dieppe in France or to England’s Jolly- Up in September.
I will probably not make it to the AKA Convention in October (if so, it’ll be
in an extremely diminshed condition!). I was given a new expiration month of
September of this year at the latest - a full year after my original expiration
date of September 2017. This is it. No shit.
Yes, I WILL
search for new Secretary & Elections Chair for the AKA, but give me just a
minute...
