04-09-2020

It has been a while since I last posted anything, so I thought I'd get you up to speed. My throat has chilled out finally, no more bleeding. I do get choked easily and still have a small cough.

My last exam which was yesterday the lady said she wish her blood were that good, all but my sugar was a tad high bout I had eat graham cracker with peanut butter. She laughed and said that explains it.

The KeyTruda was suppose to be on Tuesday but Fed-x had a mishap with their plane and all their chemo got hot so they had to reorder.

I skipped the MRI on my brain Monday, Denise rescheduled it for May, and that is maybe. I saw no reason taking a chance of catching Corna virus, plus my head is still super sore from the Gamma Knife. 30 shots in the head and 4 screws screwed into your skull, and yes, you are awake and aware for the whole thing.

The treatment took it out of me yesterday, I didn't do much. Today I am sowing the last seeds I'm gonna plant. I'm not sure how many each species abut somewhere around 350 plants. I'm going to try it.   

03-16-2020

Had a call about 9pm tonight coming from MHH, said I would be checked before entering the building and visit the doctor after which was suppose to be a KeyTruda infusion, except there will be no infusion this day. This is the same girl that screwed up multiple times already on multiple people. I may just ask that they schedule a time to remove the port since I will not be needing it. 

Dr Rathfoot stretches my throat and does Kenalog Injections

     Well here it is 03-11-2020, and I had my throat worked on again, and it probably will not be the last. That said it is a small, very small price to pay to gain living 20 more years. UT did great from registering, in the prep area, surgical area, and recovery area, they were a team of nice ladies and gentlemen. It was most representative of my care when I had throat cancer, minus the radiation part. Then again, Dr. Rathfoot was the surgeon, a finer doctor you will never meet.

I begged Denise to take me shopping and finally, she did, which led to what she said it would, I became a tad overwhelmed. When that surgical numbing comes off and the steroids, one remembers they are limited and human, lol. Denise said he said something about most people are 50, I assume the diameter in cemeteries or perhaps, then again swelling percent closed or open. I asked twice and Denise was understandable worn out and a bit puffy. While my head was still attached, I remained silent. Perhaps I will ask her another day. I go back for a follow-up next week. I do know he stretched my throat and done several Kenalog Injections in my throat. He said he was worried about the chest radiation after the damage left behind in 2010 throat radiation but was relieved. That credit goes to my radiation doctor, Anderson and staff at Morristown Hamblen Hospital.


   Tonight, my throat is closing off some, I guess I may have done too much and Denise went to bed 3 hours ago. My head is of two feelings, maybe three. The tip-top is still numb while the area where the shots were injected (just below the top), are extremely sore from the 30 shots of lidocaine it too to numb my head enough to drill those 4 screws into my skull. For a moment, maybe a phantom pain, I felt sore about where they used the Gama Knife. The day that happened I had a brief moment of vertigo. I was headed to feed the cows, I had timed it two days after the surgery. I sat on the cattle trailer until I regained most of my balance, about 15-20 minutes, then went on.

   This timing session hasn't gone so well, I messed up planning. I had planned to lay around for a day like I did the brain surgery but I noticed while we came down the road they will be out, probably already are of hay. Tomorrow I have to pay the Insurances then come back and feed the cows. Then I think I will just couch potato it.

   On a serious note: I have no idea why God brings me through this stuff, but so far He has. I am not better than others, probably worse in some ways. I was told I gave strength and hope to others struggling if they see strength in me or hope it is misplaced. God is the Hope for me, for everybody, and if they think I have a strength, that too belongs to God as He has carried me at times, most times though this all. I do not understand why I remain but I do remember that night January 31st, 2005. I remember what I saw, what I felt... and perhaps that is why I have unbreakable faith when I had doubt until that night. I also saw what I was before I was forgiven and that causes me to ask, if not me then who deserves this more than I.

        

No KeyTruda today, except nobody told me the schedule had changed.

   Well, I was supposed to have a KeyTruda infusion today, which is a form of chemo that is supposed to keep away cancer from coming back by arming your T Cells. That didn't happen. It has rained enough to cause flooding here in East Tennessee which is better than Nashville got it. So my wife takes off from work long enough to stay there with me and brings me home. So we take off, drive through flooded streets, get there and are told that it has been canceled until I do a CT scan on the 10th.

   For all the great people working there, why I left UT, this Rachelle lady and her buddy are the broken cogs in the wheel. She left me in the system, scheduled the CT Scan and never told us about any of the changes. This is NOT her first time doing this stuff. She said she had left a message yet my cell phone didn't have any messages, the home phone didn't have a message, and the alternate phone number wasn't even in Tennessee! She must be either kin or sleeping with someone there to remain in her job because there are other patients that warned us of her and another girl she works with. To add to that she has the personality of a rock, feeling high and mighty and superior to everybody else.

  Why a hospital would employ such inept people I have no idea. This reflects on the hospital and between that and not being able to keep an Oncologist are beginning to look bad. It has made me rethink things. Luckily for MHH, UT sucks with billing and Tenova is even worse. That said, my next surgery will be at UT.

2-28-2020 New Surgery

  We set a date today for another surgery, I knew this was coming and thank God they knock me out, lol. This one is to stretch my throat. It will be in a couple of weeks and I've had to have this done a few times due to radiation damage. In this, I'll be on a breathing machine and God willing I'll wake up with no extra holes.

The top of my head is still numb while I would like for the holes where the screws were installed to be numb too, but it doesn't seem to work that way. I have some nerve damage to the right side of my head, I can touch the hole and a shooting pain goes straight up my head. Hopefully, that will pass and if it doesn't it will still have been worth it. I timed everything right to where I stayed in the day of surgery and the next day, then come Thursday it was time to feed the cows, sheep, and donkeys. 

Tumors Burnt Out

   Well here it is 02-27-2020, and I have the Gamma Knife done 2 days ago. This time was different, the tumors were still there, except they had not grown any bigger and 1 tumor had vanished. The guys and gals at Thompson Cancer Survival Center done an excellent job.

  My head is still extremely tender even today, the top completely numb still. The worse part of the Gamma Knife is the preparations for it, as soon as you go into the area with the Gamma Knife it is a totally different world. I took a CD of Mercy Me in, they played it and I heard it.

I have to go back for another MRI again but should something show up the will wait until 3 months later and do another MRI. They said they didn't want to put me through it. I'm guessing there were 30 shots to numb my skull enough to put 4 self-threading screws in.

 I still have 1 more operation coming, just not sure when to stretch my throat again.

The 3rd MRI

   The date is 1-27-2020 and today was my 3rd MRI on the brain. We were hopeful that they would not see anything again, but that was just hopeful. I had 2 doctor appointments after the MRI to discuss the results, and they were now what we'd hoped for.

I have 3 tumors that showed up, 2 small and 1 large. The smaller ones they do not know what they are but the bigger one they said was cancer. They gave me the option of waiting 6 weeks to see if it is still there but if I did there was no guarantee it could be removed with the Gamma Knife, it may have grown too large. So we made the decision to go ahead with the surgery.

  There are 3 doctors that must have an opening in order to run the machine, so a date has not been set yet. It will mean wearing that brace the screws into your skull. They numb you pretty good but you can feel the pressure and hear the bones in your skull being drilled into, it is scary. The real pain sets in afterward, for many days. I will update this again when it is done.   

UT & Billing

   Well, back to the drawing board I guess. I got a letter from a Collecting Agency Saturday on the now 542 dollar charge. I will call Humana first to see what they think and how I should proceed. They called about a month ago and said I had not paid one of the Co-Pays and I needed to pay them 40.00. I asked if that would settle the account, and they said it would.

  I asked if they took a check over the phone, most places will, but they said they don't. I ran an Online Farm & Pet Store for years and I did. They said they needed a Credit Card or Debit Card. I had this bad feeling about giving them anything they could charge more than once, or what they wanted to charge. I paid them just to get them off my back, but I mailed a check to them after they sent me a bill. A month later this thing comes and it says they will be charging 10% interest, which is illegal, so now I am questioning just how reputable these doctors are and who they deal with, and work under. I know them charging more than Medicare pays is wrong, especially since they double-billed some things, coded other things wrong, and attempt to charge what they wanted to instead of what the agreed plan.

   This also brings into question not only their reputation and ethics at University Pathologists but UT as well. One has to wonder, does UT not know these guys are damaging their credibility? They already lost them a patient with their sloppy work. I never thought I'd say this, but I am so glad that I chose Morristown Hamblen Hospital and the Covenant Health System. We have had no billing issues there and great service. Even the name says they will try to make you survive cancer. UT is just the Cancer Center while Covenant has named theirs Thompson Survival Cancer Center.