<p>My thoughts exactly, Hanna. LTS, I am so sorry about the awful time you’re having right now.</p>
<p>I thought of you often over Memorial Day weekend and I am so sorry you experienced the dark side of the moon at times over the weekend. Just listening to you and your Texas friend talk about what it takes to get through the treatment as a fighter…and what kind of people you need around you to keep up your courage and resolve…The status of hands-on care in our culture is deplorable and unreliable to say the least although I am certain you have many people to thank who have great skill and character. The very thought of you not having someone willing to put down the feet on your w/c is disheartening but the knowledge of your friends at your side steadies.</p>
<p>My dad who was a fighter pilot in the early 50s. On Memorial Day he and his buddies were sending around this video about a reunion of the brave P-51 fighters from WWII. What you said about the right people at your side tipping the balance for you when the treatment was so difficult…made me think of what this pilot said came rushing back to him at the reunion which I think was at Wright Patt in Ohio. When he strapped into his Mustang for another 5-6 hour combat mission with the outcome so unknown each time, he said that his wing officer physically always got up on his wing and through a little talk that was a routine of some kind, his officer talked to him a while before he had to close the hood of the Mustang, initiate take-off and complete his mission solo. He talked about how that man was the last human face he saw each time he took off from Italy for a mission, and it really moved me to hear him talk about how much he relied on that last contact to get himself in the right frame of mind to do his job. You have this kind of resolve and I am sure you would be at the side of any of your friends facing cancer treatment with just the right words and actions.
[Gray</a> Eagles Foundation](<a href=“http://www.grayeagles.org/video.htm]Gray”>http://www.grayeagles.org/video.htm)</p>
<p>and another</p>
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<p>[mary</a> beth sammons’ Amazon Blog](<a href=“http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/AZH0WOL9KLZRB]mary”>http://www.amazon.com/gp/blog/AZH0WOL9KLZRB)</p>
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<p>–Albert Camus</p>
<p>Bummer, bummer, bummer, LTS, and you fight on…our inspiration…and we are cheering mightily. Hugs from many CC fans! Lorelei</p>
<p>Keeping you in my prayers, LTS.</p>
<p>Sorry to hear about the no good, horrible, terrible, awful bad day, LTS. I’ve had days like this and totally sympathize. But there are days when things go well. We tend to take them for granted. Perhaps you can slow down a bit. Not because you are tired, though you are, but just to take the time to enjoy the good days. I am sure they will be there for you.</p>
<p>LTS, This is a marathon. Pace yourself. Even in red heels.</p>
<p>I think we should all start wearing red heels to the doctors’ office! (Epistrophy and ADad, we’ll excuse you from this requirement). ;)</p>
<p>your friends are there for you especially while your daughter is not with you.
I’ve helped friends and families undergoing cancer treatment but have never been the primary caretaker. I am at a loss to figure out how those without close family or friends are able to deal with treatment logistics and daily care.
Hang in there and thinking of you.</p>
<p>LTS- Our family and friends are the things that make each day worth living, embrace them and know you are so blessed to have them. Like someone said it is a marathon, they inspire you to keep going.
While we all know your work is part of your “fight” maybe a little less will allow you to enjoy the good moments and re energize a little bit.
Keep fighting, not that we would expect anything less. All my thoughts with you for a better day.</p>
<p>and another</p>
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<p>[Surviving</a> Cancer - oncologychannel](<a href=“http://livingwith.oncologychannel.com/surviving-cancer/20070626_1146]Surviving”>http://livingwith.oncologychannel.com/surviving-cancer/20070626_1146)</p>
<p>lts–I know your work is important to you, but please do everything you can to make it easier on yourself. Save your strength in the short term, while the obnoxious chemo is affecting you, so you will have strength in the long term.</p>
<p>I hope all your days are better than the one recently described!</p>
<p>Thinking of you today, LTS. Keep up the good fight and feel better as you get through this latest challenge.</p>
<p>LTS,
Just finished watching a segment on the Today Show that featured the three network anchors announcing a joint effort to raise funds for cancer research through a one hour special report in early September. Evidently the networks are underwriting the production costs, so all funds raised will go to research. According to Charlie Gibson, the majority will go to funding what they called “dream teams” who are close to research breakthroughs, while a smaller amount will go to “out of the box” thinkers who often produce important advances as well. Their announced focus was to bring the war on cancer back to the front burner in terms of awareness and funding. Very consistent with what your position has been!
I’m wishing you a day of calm healing and will pray for the same in the days to come.</p>
<p>What a rotten couple of days. I am so sorry, LTS. It is remarkable that having suffered random acts of insensitivity during your treatment this weekend, you emerge thinking of ways to support the caregivers without whom completing basic daily functions would be overwhelming. Your dear friends who are supporting you while you overcome this current challenge have no doubt drawn great strength from you. This would indeed be a good time to take it easy and restore your own strength (work will still be there!). I’ll bet there’s a lush and lovely dose of spring in your neck of the woods that could help restore your spirit if you can find some time to savor it.</p>
<p>on the subject of helping…</p>
<p>I was just directed to Lotsa Helping Hands website by a neighbor. The website is being used to set up a meal preparation schedule to support the family of another neighbor with sudden and severe health issues. It looks like it can be used to schedule other types of support as well. Looking forward to trying it out, hoping it is as great as it should be.</p>
<p>LTS, have a feeling-better kind of day.</p>
<p>Thanks to everyone for all of the supportive posts, it helps a lot. Today is slightly better - yesterday, had my weekly visit with my primary oncologist; we were both overwhelmed from the experience we had over the weekend. He has never been paged for one patient so many times in one day in his career, he said. And I had never been so miserable, or so sick, or so frustrated with the operational issues. So we will probably change the calendar so we don’t ever do this again. I am feeling slightly better today too; one small step at a time, I am recovering. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, the issue of caregivers continues to be the top area of concern for the Texan, and for me. On one of my trips to the hospital via taxi a few weeks ago, for the whole brain radiation, the driver told me his story of his wife’s breast cancer, and how he hid from her his prostate cancer diagnosis until she got through her breast cancer treatment. Once she got into remission he began his treatment, but, it took a year of chemotherapy for him to get into remission as well. He did this because there was no one to care for both of them - their children are grown and live far away. </p>
<p>There are many, many people like this - people who just don’t have anyone, or, help may be available but they do not know how to reach for it. So we are looking hard at this to see what it is that we might be able to do, and if perhaps this could be the one area where we might be impactive. </p>
<p>Meanwhile, I would ask that if anyone knows of someone who is very sick, perhaps, consider reaching out to that person or that family. It doesn’t take much - a kind word or two, a human touch, some gesture of reassurance can go a very long way to impact quality of life as one struggles through a serious illness. Humanity bridges the gap where the doctors and medical science leaves off and I am convinced this is critical to winning a serious battle.</p>
<p>Faline, thank you for that. It’s very true. I find that just the touch of one of my caregivers, I am o.k. Just a telephone call from my daughter sends me into bliss. </p>
<p>I also noticed, in the hospital this weekend, they left the blood pressure cuff on me, and it would go off automatically every 15 minutes or so. My blood pressure would track something like 120/70 etc. like that, what it normally is. But as soon as one of the meaner, more frustrating nurses walked into the room, the top number would shoot up - once as high as 154, which I have never seen before. </p>
<p>Reggie remarked this morning about what wonderful, nice people always come with me for chemotherapy - I don’t even know how we got on the subject. But we need to get more people supporting sick people. We cannot solve health care or the trial system or the FDA’s issues and we certainly cannot stop big tobacco, but maybe we can at least do something to help give a psychological boost to people who are very sick.</p>
<p>Countingdown, thanks for that, lol - I haven’t worn my favorite red shoes since the icky flood - perhaps I will wear them tomorrow!!!</p>
<p>Zipyourlips, this is what we do, but, it’s also a function of what the five year survivor and I have been trying to get our heads around for a while. We have been frustrated with various attempts at trying to reach out to existing programs, start support groups, etc. I had a small fundraiser at Christmas but it took more time that what it yielded. Even as I write this, I am looking at a message on my desk; a husband is in the hospital - blood clots or something, side effect from the chemotherapy; he has been fighting this same cancer for a year, and working full time while doing so. I am wondering if you can imagine that his employer fired him. Today. While he is in the hospital. Worse, his < 20 employee company can refuse to Cobra, so, the man now has no insurance. I wonder if you can imagine this horrible quadruple assault. First, he has a very agressive lung cancer, fewer than 5% of people survive it. Second, he is in the hospital - unhappy scenario for everyone with the exception of the maternity ward patients. Third, his employer fires him - not only loss of income, but also loss of identity, self esteem, etc. Last, he now has no insurance, and, the information I’m getting is that his oncologist is dropping him, and why not? There’s no money to pay the bills, and there are more cancer patients than available oncologists to treat them - in fact, it is projected that there will be a shortage of oncologists in a few years - by 2012. </p>
<p>I wish I could say that this story is unusual, but it isn’t. This sort of thing happens on a daily basis. And there is no silver bullet for it. BUT - blood clots are things that might be able to be prevented, if certain strategies are followed. I am not a doctor, obviously, but, I am certain the risk can be at least minimized. And this is where caregivers come in. The last few days, I have had one in my face, making me eat and drink. She doesn’t take the first three “no thank you” responses as a final answer, either. My daughter is the same way. I am not saying with certainty that such action could have impacted the outcome for this man, but…</p>
<p>Continuing to hold you in my thoughts any prayers, LTS. I’m so sorry to read about all you’ve been through lately - the challenges of the past few weeks would certainly test anyone’s limits. I’m also very glad to hear that you are feeling a bit better today. Hopefully you will never again have to go through anything as horrible as your experience of last weekend - especially the combination of the poor treatment combined with how badly you were feeling to begin with. I get the feeling that we didn’t even hear the half of how awful it was from your end. I’m so glad to hear that so many are in your corner and that you have the support of a large network of friends, family and medical professionals. It is sobering to realize, as you so compellingly describe, how many others have no safety net at all.</p>
<p>LTS, no, I cannot imagine the reality that you describe or the hideous excuse for a human being who could fire someone in the midst of cancer treatment and leave him without insurance. It is simply unimaginable, though I do not doubt for a minute that the scenario is all too common. Achieving a solid bottom line at the expense of someone’s very identity, and perhaps survival, demonstrates a mind-boggling notion of “success”. I read a contrary story the other day on a pizza parlor’s website. The owners of this local company are continuing to pay the salary and benefits of a young woman employee while she undergoes treatment for brain cancer. Thank goodness for the reminders that there are caring and compassionate people – even employers. Of course, such reminders are of no value to those like the man you describe, for whom no evident safety nets exist.</p>
<p>It does not surprise me that you continue to reach out to others and to strategize improvements to the health care and caregiver support systems while fighting your own battles. </p>
<p>I am so glad that today brought you some improvement and that you and your doc have strategized to prevent a repeat of your traumatic weekend. I am cheering for you, along with all of your other CC friends and fans.</p>