I thought I'd start a new thread for updates on my cancer treatments and whatever else is going on, since the bad news thread title is misleading now.
My last treatment went better than the previous two and my chest wound is still closed up, which is a good thing. My arm is getting slightly stronger and I hope to resume lifting dumbbells next week. I need to build up my strength again, because I am going back to Denmark in May and I am extremely pumped about that! I'd like to be able to schlepp my own checked bag and not have someone else lifting it for me.
It's going to be a fabulous trip, 6 weeks and a couple of days for me. My brother is going along as well as my friends Chipp and Rod. Chipp is staying close to 3 weeks and has not gone with me over there since 2006 so he is also very pumped to be going. It will be Rod's first trip and he will be there for 2 weeks. I will get to be a tour guide. Also, I am throwing a party in my favorite pub of all, the wonderful, ever-magnificent Irish House in Aalborg on May 7th. The owner and I are friends and he will give me a little discount. We'll have Irish stew and brews in the cellar and I hope to have around 25 family and friends there. I might bill it as the "Fu** Cancer Party." A few months back, I was not sure I'd ever be able to go over to Denmark again or if I'd even be alive, but the cancer hasn't gotten me yet. I'm doing a number on it, instead.
Some other cool things I plan to do when I am back in my ancestral lands include a wine tasting in a castle, touring another castle and the northernmost manor home in the country, and visiting Skagen, the top of Denmark, where you can stand on a little patch of beach and have one foot in one sea and one in another. They also have a brewpub up there I am wanting to check out. I will start and end my trip in Aalborg and spend 5 weeks in an apartment I rent that is very close to the beach. I can hardly wait for May 4th to roll around! [Reply]
Originally Posted by Dagnabit:
That's great, man! Are you going back to the same place?
Yes, I will start out in Aalborg for 5 days, then go to Løkken for 6 weeks and I will go to Scotland during that time for 5 days, then 4 days in Aalborg in June, and the final 5 days in Copenhagen with my cousin, Anne-Marie. She's going to take me to castles! [Reply]
Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO:
My dad was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer 8 years ago, went from golf ball to softball size in 6 weeks.
Told him with a whipple he would last 2 years tops. 8 years later, last Tuesday we were all at the same hospital taking him to visit my step mom who basically raised all of us, she had a small dose of pneumonia. Same doctor pronounced her dead while we sat there after talking to her an hour before. He heart went from 250 bpm to 10 to 275 to nothing...
Who ****ing knows whats gonna happen in this life... It's crazy and it ****ing sucks
That is terrible. We live in a universe where lots of bad, crazy things happen. Sorry for your loss. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
That is terrible. We live in a universe where lots of bad, crazy things happen. Sorry for your loss.
I don't post in this thread because I don't want to say anything negative. My prayers are with you, have fun and have a great time, sending some brotherly love with you always. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Buzz:
I don't post in this thread because I don't want to say anything negative. My prayers are with you, have fun and have a great time, sending some brotherly love with you always.
Thanks, and don't worry if you do post something negative. It's okay and I don't mind. I do mind when people treat me like I can't handle it now. It's like they think I am sick or something! :-) [Reply]
I went to the cancer center today for my final appointment before my trip. They sent me to the 3rd floor for my blood draw, and a tech was there not a nurse, so I could not have blood drawn from my port, but the crook of my elbow instead. I *hate* that! My veins do not tolerate needles well at all, and the last time I had an IV in the hospital, the vein in my hand blew and it felt like someone hit the back of my hand with a ballpeen hammer. It hurt for about 3 weeks. I did not pass out, however, but my palms got very sweaty after the jab in the elbow. It bled a bit more than usual, too, but then since my blood cell counts are low across the board, especially my platelets, it was not a surprise.
Hopefully, my blood cells will get back to normal in the next 5 days. My endurance now is feeble, although my muscle tone is pretty decent. The true test comes on Monday when I have to get my heavy checked bag to the ticket counter in the airport and on Tuesday when I will be getting it on and off a bus in Aalborg then up to my hotel room. The nurse finally came to see me after an hour wait, and we went over things about my trip. My lovely insurance company refuses to pay for my meds to cover my trip, so I have a bottle of 30 pills of xarelto at the moment, which if my math is not faulty, will NOT last me for 2 months.
So, my options are: Cancel the trip. Go with half the meds I need and probably die from the blood clots I have. Pay over 330 dollars myself for another bottle of xa-damned-relto. Have my dad call in the prescription in two weeks, then mail it to me in Denmark (which, I think, is illegal, shipping pills??)
Damn you, insurance company, which is touted as the "best" in the area. [Reply]
Originally Posted by JASONSAUTO:
I don't think mailing yourself your pills would be illegal but I'm not the best person to say...
I have little choice in the matter. It's a pity I can't make Blue Cr-, er I mean, my unnamed insurance company pay for the shipping. I'd go for the most expensive option FedEx has if that were the case. [Reply]
If it comes down to either not going on your trip, or coming up with $330, please let me know. I'll see to it that, that doesn't keep you from your big trip. [Reply]
Originally Posted by IA_Chiefs_fan:
If it comes down to either not going on your trip, or coming up with $330, please let me know. I'll see to it that, that doesn't keep you from your big trip.
Thanks very much! I am not cancelling no matter what. Either I go over there or my ashes do! I'm going to the post office tomorrow to buy a little box to ship the meds over in, legal or not. I'll give my dad some bubble wrap and that should keep them quiet in the package. I will have him ship them to my cousin's daughter Helle, whom I hang out with often there, so I will be sure to get them. [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
I went to the cancer center today for my final appointment before my trip. They sent me to the 3rd floor for my blood draw, and a tech was there not a nurse, so I could not have blood drawn from my port, but the crook of my elbow instead. I *hate* that! My veins do not tolerate needles well at all, and the last time I had an IV in the hospital, the vein in my hand blew and it felt like someone hit the back of my hand with a ballpeen hammer. It hurt for about 3 weeks. I did not pass out, however, but my palms got very sweaty after the jab in the elbow. It bled a bit more than usual, too, but then since my blood cell counts are low across the board, especially my platelets, it was not a surprise.
Hopefully, my blood cells will get back to normal in the next 5 days. My endurance now is feeble, although my muscle tone is pretty decent. The true test comes on Monday when I have to get my heavy checked bag to the ticket counter in the airport and on Tuesday when I will be getting it on and off a bus in Aalborg then up to my hotel room. The nurse finally came to see me after an hour wait, and we went over things about my trip. My lovely insurance company refuses to pay for my meds to cover my trip, so I have a bottle of 30 pills of xarelto at the moment, which if my math is not faulty, will NOT last me for 2 months.
So, my options are: Cancel the trip. Go with half the meds I need and probably die from the blood clots I have. Pay over 330 dollars myself for another bottle of xa-damned-relto. Have my dad call in the prescription in two weeks, then mail it to me in Denmark (which, I think, is illegal, shipping pills??)
Damn you, insurance company, which is touted as the "best" in the area.
Can't you get some kind of mail order option for your prescriptions and just have them shipped over to where you'll be? [Reply]
Originally Posted by Lonewolf Ed:
I went to the cancer center today for my final appointment before my trip. They sent me to the 3rd floor for my blood draw, and a tech was there not a nurse, so I could not have blood drawn from my port, but the crook of my elbow instead. I *hate* that! My veins do not tolerate needles well at all, and the last time I had an IV in the hospital, the vein in my hand blew and it felt like someone hit the back of my hand with a ballpeen hammer. It hurt for about 3 weeks. I did not pass out, however, but my palms got very sweaty after the jab in the elbow. It bled a bit more than usual, too, but then since my blood cell counts are low across the board, especially my platelets, it was not a surprise.
Hopefully, my blood cells will get back to normal in the next 5 days. My endurance now is feeble, although my muscle tone is pretty decent. The true test comes on Monday when I have to get my heavy checked bag to the ticket counter in the airport and on Tuesday when I will be getting it on and off a bus in Aalborg then up to my hotel room. The nurse finally came to see me after an hour wait, and we went over things about my trip. My lovely insurance company refuses to pay for my meds to cover my trip, so I have a bottle of 30 pills of xarelto at the moment, which if my math is not faulty, will NOT last me for 2 months.
So, my options are: Cancel the trip. Go with half the meds I need and probably die from the blood clots I have. Pay over 330 dollars myself for another bottle of xa-damned-relto. Have my dad call in the prescription in two weeks, then mail it to me in Denmark (which, I think, is illegal, shipping pills??)
Damn you, insurance company, which is touted as the "best" in the area.
Ed, have you actually explained your trip situation to your insurance carrier? I cannot believe that they won't provide some option for you to ensure that you get your required meds. Have you talked to them directly? Have you appealed? Have you had your doctor call them?
Heck, I'm sure you're all over this thing and have MUCH more knowledge of this kind of thing than I do; but, man, surely this sort of situation can be remedied.
In any event, have a GREAT TRIP and please keep us posted as you meander throughout Europe......pics would help (especially of Miss LongLegs)!!!
