A Sandi Update--Wal-Mart

After being on leave for fourteen months due to a knee injury, a serious stroke, and a brutal battle against two forms of cancer Sandi returns to work at Wal-Mart tomorrow morning. She is thrilled.

Update---PET SCAN Tuesday

Finally back home from the hospital. Sandi's diabetes was better today so they were able to do the PET SCAN. Results Friday Morning. This will tell us if there has to be more chemo--- as expected. Sandi remains strongly optimistic that she is fine and the cancer is gone. Friday we will know.


I'm exhausted. My back  and leg is killing me so I am done for today.


Kevin

PET SCAN Tuesday

In a little while, Sandi and I head over to the hospital for another try at getting the PET SCAN done. Hopefully her diabetes will cooperate and she can do the test today. Each scan costs about 5k and this is her third one since December. Her insurance is being difficult again as they claim, according to the doctor's office, that the scan is "not medically necessary."

Since such a scan is the only way we all have of knowing if the chemo has worked at all I really don't understand that at all.

Of course they also initially denied the first scan. The same scan that told us Sandi had two forms of Non-Hodgkin lymphomas everywhere except for her brain and spinal cord. The scan showed it everywhere and what the two types were. We had to know that , as did the doctor, so it could be determined which form of chemo gave her a chance that the cancer was not terminal. That first scan also was "not medically necessary."

When they did another PET SCAN at the halfway point to see if the chemo was doing anything at all that was also supposedly "not medically necessary."

I guess I should not be surprised. After all these are the same people who denied the claim for the anesthesiologist that worked on Sandi the day before thanksgiving when she underwent 16 biopsies as anesthesia was "not medically necessary" and the doctor was not covered.


It is going to be a long day and I will update as soon as I can........

A Sandi Update

Sandi’s port was checked today after we had concern over the way it was acting and the way she felt with it.  It was time for the monthly flush out anyway so they did that and took a look at things. We are told everything is okay and the symptoms she has been feeling the last few days with it are normal.  Tonight the port is hurting her pretty good as it always does after they access it and do anything so hopefully that will back off in a few days.

Her next appointment as it stands now is next Tuesday, May 1 when she is supposed to have her PET Scan. Then on May 4 we are back to see the doctor to find out what the results of the scan are and where we go from here treatment.  Sandi remains convinced that she is going to beat this damn thing. But, again today while we were waiting for her port to be worked on, we saw somebody who had a much better prognosis back in December when this all started who is now going into hospice tomorrow as the chemo just didn’t work.  That raises the number of folks we directly know to eight who had much better chances of beating what they were dealing with than anyone thought for a second Sandi did.

Believe me, I want to be positive this is all going to work out even if being positive is so not in my nature. But, they told me on Thanksgiving Day she would be gone by this June. I can’t get that out of my head. I have hard time believing she is winning the battle between what I know and what I see.  For every good day she has, she does too much and then suffers horribly for the next several days. Whether the overall trend is going up or down I don’t know. It is all a blur and all way too much.

On behalf of all of us I just want to say thank you again to all those who have donated. It means a lot to us and we very much appreciate it. As you can see over on the “Chip In” widget we are still very far from the goal. Hopefully, we will make it one more time.  Please know that we are not wasting your donations. I promise you we are only doing what we absolutely have to do in order to hold things together here as long as we can. We are truly grateful for your help and it means so much to all of us.

Please keep us in your thoughts, your prayers and your wishes…..

Kevin

Donations Desperately Needed

I truly hate asking but we desperately need your help. As you can see by the donation widget over to the left we are coming up way short this month.  Please know that I am only asking for enough to pay our rent, keep the local phone service on so we have access to the internet, and pay for Sandi’s monthly insurance premiums to keep her cancer treatment going.

Obviously, we don’t know what Sandi’s cancer situation is as everything has now been pushed back thanks to the setback with Sandi’s PET SCAN last Friday.  Hopefully on May 1 when they try again her diabetes numbers will be much lower and they can actually do the scan. If they can, we should know on May 4 after the doctor appointment where she is and what the treatment plan will be the next several months.

Please know that we are not wasting your donations. We are only doing what we absolutely have to do in order to hold things together here as long as we can. We are truly grateful for your help and it means so much to all of us.

Thank you.

 

Kevin

A Sandi Update

Yesterday was an interesting day. For the first time ever, I cut Sandi's hair.  Back before her fifth round of chemo, despite what everyone had told us, her hair started coming back. Slowly it started coming in all over her head with the most around the edges. So, yesterday after she had cut the boys and me, she handed me the clippers and told me to give it a shot.  Made me a nervous wreck as I was scared to death of nicking her but it went okay.

This was the first time in weeks I had touched her scalp and her hair felt nothing like her hair. Strange stuff that cut weirdly and clumped up when touched. Sandi said it reminded her of "dust bunnies" the way it acted. I wouldn't say that, but I don't know how to explain it. It was flat out weird the way it felt and cut, but that must be due to the chemotherapy.  I never cared if she was bald or not but for Sandi having enough hair to cut was a huge milestone in her recovery. She remains convinced, even though there are big setbacks on some days, that the cancer is gone and she is cured. She says she can feel the cancer is gone.

We won't know that until much later this month after she has another PET Scan and then we see her doctor. Sandi always knew she was pregnant with the boys far earlier than the pregnancy tests ever said she was. I hope she is right about this too.

After seeing so many pictures of her at chemo and not feeling well, when Saturday was a good day for her, I took the picture below.

Sunday Evening---A Sandi Update

A quick update on Sandi this Sunday evening….she is doing okay.  This round of chemo, other than the bad Tuesday night she had, seems to have gone better than the previous rounds. At least at this stage, she is holding her own and hanging in despite what her body has been put through the last several months. Between the strokes last July, the knee surgery in October and then all this since November, I am rather amazed how well she has held up. One gets the sense that maybe, just maybe, she has turned a corner.

Though we have to wait for the PET Scan to be sure of much of anything. That won’t be till the second half of April so we have awhile to go on that.

In the meantime, Sandi has recently started her own blog. I found out about it after she had already done a couple of posts. She is talking about her cancer as well as her various craft projects.  If you go to http://lady-sandra.blogspot.com/ you can see for yourself. 

Sandi's craft store is still at    http://www.ioffer.com/users/sanditipple

Kevin

Finished---CHEMO ROUND SIX

Back home from the hospital where Sandi had her injection to finish round six this morning.  She had new symptoms with this round but we are told everything is okay. That was a relief as we were not sure what was going on--especially as she was in a lot of pain last night from her port in her chest.

The old things are back in vengeance as well--for one example---she can't see much of anything right now at distance or close up. Basically all she can see right now are the outlines of things. That normally happens a day or two later and yet it was how she woke up this morning. The flu like symptoms are raging as well already and normally the first round of that would not hit until late tomorrow.

So, she has gone to bed and is back asleep. Hopefully she will be better when she wakes up.

Home

Sandi had the first long part of round six of chemo today and we are now home. She has gone to bed like normal and is sleeping as I write this brief update. Tomorrow she goes back for the injection  to finish this round of chemo off. Then we wait for a month until the PET Scan which will determine where we go from here.

There are no pictures of her at chemo today. Right now Sandi appears much worse than she did after the fifth round of chemo and she didn't want to scare folks. So, she asked that I not take any pictures today.

Rain, concrete, and a cane do not mix well. I'm really sick of falling--especially in public. Battered and bruised yet again but nothing seems to be broken. It has been a tough day so please excuse the shortness of this post.

On behalf of all of us, thank you for your thoughts, payers, and support.  It truly does mean the world to us.

Kevin

Chemo Round Six--Update on Sandi

Pouring rain, lightening, and building shaking thunder all night long. Nothing severe fortunately as it continues tor rain hard this morning. Heading to the hospital with Sandi in a little while for round six of chemo. This is the long day when we won't get back home until dinnertime tonight or so. Not sure if she can take much more.

Blood Work Done---Update on Sandi

Back home from the hospital where they pulled yet more blood out of Sandi in preparation for chemo tomorrow. This will be round six of her chemo and we hope and pray her final round of it. We won't know that until she has the next PET Scan in late April.

If, by some miracle she comes back clear on that, I think the plan is for another scan about three months later. I'm really not sure what would happen as we have never all talked about it. It has been too much to hope for---especially when she started this process so gravely ill.

The more likely scenario is hopefully the cancer has retreated a little more which would be a sign the chemo is working. If that happens, then there would be another set of chemo sessions. The number and frequency to be determined based on where hse is as compared to the last scan.

In the meantime, assuming we emerge from this today's threat of severe weather unscathed, we have chemo in the morning and go from there.


Kevin

Reviews and Other Thoughts

I rarely plug my own fiction stuff, but that is precisely what I did yesterday. I know what it is like to want your own project to do well. While many copies were sent out (over thirty print copies paid out of my own pocket) reviews have been few and far between.  I learned a hard lesson that some folks --if they can’t love every single thing in a book---won’t say a word. Others had too much going on and the Carpathian Shadows 2 anthology got lost in the shuffle.  I certainly always understood that and even more so now. Since Sandi’s strokes last July, her knee surgery in October and rehab, the sudden multi-week hospitalization in November with the brutal diagnosis on Thanksgiving Day of her cancer, the days have been a blur. Not to mention  my own worsening health (speech to text software is a VERY frustrating process), the constant financial stress (begging again and again for help here and elsewhere), and a host of other issues and events that have been covered here the last few months, I very well understand why things get lost in the shuffle.

Still, when a review comes in, I am thrilled to get it. So, I thank authors Chester Campbell and Victor J. Banis for following through and doing exactly what they said they would. Both reviewed the book--despite the fact it was not their kind of thing--- and I am very grateful.

“I had some qualms about it when this book was given me to review. I'm not a fan of the paranormal or the fantasy story. It requires too much suspension of disbelief to enjoy the antics of vampires and werewolves and zombies. But I had accepted the book, so I read it. All of the stories are based around the premise of vacationers visiting an old castle in the Transylvania area of Romania (Dracula country). One or more of the characters in each story gets caught up in some kind of mysterious action involving ghosts and other-wordly creatures. I found the stories mostly well written and suspenseful. The characters were fully developed and quite believable until they slipped into the realm of the paranormal. I enjoyed the stories that didn't get too far out. A few got into areas that were more than I could take, but if you're a fan of this genre, you'd probably love `em. It isn't a large book but would provide an evening of exciting reading. Don't read it by yourself in a dark room, however.” Chester Campbell

“First, let me say up front, this bills itself as Volume 2. Having not read Volume 1, I can state with certainty that this book works as a stand alone, in case anyone worries about that.

This is a theme-anthology, horror stories with a bit of a twist. The visitors to the Cornifu Hotel, deep in the Carpathians Mountains of Transylvania, are individually invited for a free one day bus excursion to nearby Erdely Castle, said to be haunted. Each story is about a different group of travelers to visit the castle. And with that setting and that common theme, one can rightly expect vampires and ghosts and werewolves--just about all those things that go bump in the night show up here.

As in any anthology of stories by different writers, the quality of the writing varies--and, of course, readers' tastes are different, which is to say what one likes, another may not. I did not find any real clunkers here, but I did find some that I preferred over others.

To my tastes, one of the standouts in the book would have to be The Scholar by author Seana Graham. Most of the tales here are focused on the supernatural, as is to be expected, but this is really a well written story of a mismatched marriage and "the other man," with the scary stuff more of the frosting on the cake. It's a bit less fanciful than some and not particularly horrific (though not without a creepy moment or two), but it compensates with well sketched characters and believable interactions.

Kristin Johnson's vampire story, Divine Curse, seemed a bit murky to me, but that in itself is not altogether inappropriate to the genre. A bit of ambiguity can be an asset in spooky fiction. This is, after all, a genre that dispenses with conventional reality. And, this tale stands out for its gay elements, not usually found in horror collections. So, I give it a passing grade, but not without some reservations.

Hear No Evil, Speak No Evil by Donna Amato is likewise ambiguous, particularly in its ending, and the cast of characters occasionally seems to be tripping over one another, but the writer manages to make the implausible reasonably plausible, which is as much as one can fairly ask of horror fiction. Let's face it, parts of Dean Koontz's books make no sense at all. The real question is whether the writer can carry the reader along, and Ms. Amato does that admirably.

A Visitor From the Past by Carol A. Cole is somewhat of a time travel, or maybe, more correctly, dimensional-travel. Anna has been short-tempered with her husband, Rob, since returning from a trip to Germany months earlier, and this trip is intended to rekindle their relationship, but the results are not what Rob expected. Many of these stories have downer endings. This one is more bitter sweet. I found that it lingered with me after I had finished reading.

The other standout, for me, is Kevin Tipple's By the Light of the Moon. While most of the stories in the book follow a quickly familiar plot line--the busload of tourists comes to the castle, a storm strands them there, and mysterious events follow--this one distinguishes itself by going its own way. To be sure, there is the bus, and tourists at the castle and eerie doings, but Tipple sets his story elsewhere and afterward, and we hear about the events at the castle in flashback narratives. It's a tricky sort of structure but he pulls it off neatly.

In short, this is not great literature--it surely wasn't intended to be--but if horror is your cup of tea, I can heartily recommend this for a couple of hours of goose-bump reading.” Victor J. Banis

I have always said my story “By The Light Of The Moon” was not horror though it may have a creepy crawly element or two to it. I think of my story as a fantasy piece with mystery. It is very different than the normal kind of thing and as a result almost didn’t make the book. I am very glad it did. Nothing of mine has made it anywhere since.

Not that I have submitted that much.  Beyond the physical issues with writing, the idea vault is bare. I literally have nothing at all on anything. The novel has been stopped dead for over two years now, a half dozen short stories are locked down as well, and there simply is nothing happening from a writing angle other than the reviewers. So it isn’t surprising that somebody on one of the lists I am on recently said he had no idea I had ever written anything that was ever published anywhere.  He thought of me solely as a reviewer--not as a writer.

Ironic as I had originally gotten into doing reviews back in 1998 as a way of getting my name out there a bit in order to help with my fiction efforts.  More than two decades later, there are well over 1000 reviews and a whopping twelve or so published fiction pieces.

Sandi is pushing strongly, as she has for over a month now, that I need to get back to working on my own stuff. To put out in e-book form the stuff that went to this magazine or that --all dead deals now--so that my stories that have not seen the light of day in a very long time would be back out there again.  To get back to work on a mystery novel that she thinks has potential as do folks in my local writing group. To get back to work on creating new stuff, to submit pieces to markets, and to again put a high priority on my own writing.

Considering everything here, I really don’t see how I can….and I don’t know that I even want to try.

Update On Sandi

Just wanted to let all know she is doing okay. I think the positive effects of the transfusion have now completely worn off as the last 48 hours or so she has been back to where she was pre-transfusion. The flu like symptoms she gets along with the shakes and the extreme cold are all back in full force and making it hard on her. She is also back to sleeping most hours of the day and night just like she was before they did it.

Despite all of this, she is still here and very positive she is going to beat this crap.

This coming week is Spring Break and that means Scott will be home and able to spend some time with her.

The following week is round six of chemo---blood work permitting---and that would be the last round of this cycle. Then we would wait for late April and the next PET Scan. That test will tell us--one way or another----a lot about what we face in the coming weeks.

Obviously things are still not good at all but they could be so very much worse. We thank you all again for your donations, your prayers, your notes of encouragement. It all means so very much to us and far more than we can say.


Kevin

Update on Sandi

Tuesday was a long day as Sandi had the first part of the fifth round of chemo. This occurred after the Doctor went over her blood-work and very strongly recommended Sandi have a blood transfusion as soon as possible.

So far it would appear the transfusion on Wednesday has helped Sandi a bit. She has had a bit more energy today than expected and is feeling a little bit better. She was able to sit up a large part of the afternoon and even stay awake for the first time in months so that was a good sign.

Round six of chemo is scheduled in late March. After that, we wait a long month and then she has another PET SCAN to assess where the cancers are and what should be done next. The waiting is the hardest part.

I am hoping she did not overdue it today. Tomorrow is our Saturday at the local food bank and we both have to be there in order to receive assistance. Hopefully, Sandi will be up to going in the morning.

It is a horrible Friday evening weather wise across a large part of the country.....please stay safe and take care.


Kevin

Transfusion Done

We are finally back home after another incredibly long day at the Hospital. After they gave her the injection shot to finish off the fifth round of chemo we were sent over to "day surgery" for the blood transfusion.

Much like chemo, this required additional tests to confirm various things, saline drips, and assorted meds to prevent reactions. So, that took a couple of hours before they could actually start the transfusion of two units into her. They had to run it at a very slow rate as if they did it too fast it could trigger a heart attack in someone with Sandi's cardiac history.

So, it took the day and we are finally home. Exhausted but home.  Sandi is doing okay though she is very tired.

I have a very swollen and discolored leg as happens to me now when I have been up on it way too much these two days. I also have over 250 e-mails at this point so please be patient as I will work on things tomorrow. I just can't do anything more as I am worn out and in mind boggling pain.
 

Kevin

ChipIn Widget Problems

Earlier today I was alerted by a friend to the fact that the ChipIn Widget was malfunctioning in a way neither she nor I had ever seen before. When one clicked out it, one got an alert saying the connection was not trusted and then all sorts of increasingly strident warning information after that. I checked and the same thing happened to me.

I deleted the old widget and removed it from the blog. I made a brand new one and tried again--only to have the exact same thing happen. Clearly something is very wrong at ChipIn.  So, I deleted the new widget and closed the current donation deal at ChipIn as neither one could be trusted to work properly.

As you can see over to the left, I have moved up the standard PAYPAL donation button that has worked day in and day out on the blog. I have tested it several times today and at this point everything still seems fine with it. So, if you would like to make a donation I believe you can safely do so.

As always, if you would prefer not to use PAYPAL---and many folks feel that way including me---by all means drop me an e-mail at kevinrtipple@verizon.net and I will gladly provide our home mailing address.

Thank you again on behalf of all of us for all of your continuing support. Hopefully the recent news on Sandi that the chemo has started working a little bit and the thyroid is not a new problem means there is hope regarding her cancer fight. 

I keep thinking that if we can hang in just a little bit longer things have to get better.

Kevin

Sandi's Thyroid---The Update Finally!

Very late yesterday afternoon we finally got the call we had been worrying about since we first learned the PET Scan had showed a new problem now with Sandi’s thyroid. Her cancer doctor wanted her to have a thyroid ultrasound to check some things and that was done a week ago yesterday.  Then the waiting for the results began.

Finally, late yesterday afternoon a nurse from the cancer doc just called and they think the thyroid is NOT a new problem. They could see it on the ultrasound much better than they could in the past because apparently some of the cancer that was around it is no longer there. Not only does this confirm that the chemo is making a little progress against both of the Non-Hodgkin’s Lymphomas that were everywhere in her body, the test seems to confirm that nothing has changed with her thyroid. Thankfully this latest scare is nothing more than the same issue she has lived with for more than a decade now.

To make absolutely sure nothing new has started they will do some sort of thyroid panel during her blood work prior to the planned next round of chemo later this month. Assuming that shows what they expect, nothing more will be done about this thyroid issue until she has finished chemo and stabilized a bit so she can do follow-up work with an endocrinologist. It is the best possible news we could have gotten on it and hopefully this won’t change later with new information.

That is yet another thing that makes this process so hard. Information gets updated and changes and just when you think everything is going one way, something happens and all that is out the window as things head in another way.

In the meantime, Sandi continues to make crochet “chemo hats” which are a huge hit at the treatment center. 

 

Despite having huge issues with her vision---another side effect of chemo apparently---she is able to keep making the hats in various colors and styles as she does a lot of the work these days more by feel than by vision. Depending on size (she is making adult and children hats) she can get 3 to 4 hats out of each skein on yarn. Folks love them! 

 

So, as long as she can, Sandi plans to keep making and donating the hats to her fellow patients. In the meantime, she has marked down things again at http://www.ioffer.com/users/sanditipple  to get some money so please stop by and take a look.

Kevin