Randam Adam

  For the last week or so the main side effects that I have been feeling is: Tiredness, soreness, getting hot and feeling flustered very easily, insomnia, dehydration easily, and just a general feeling of weakness and aches.   I haven't had the most energy, but still no major sickness yet.  As you cans see from the pictures I have been having drawn. I have to go twice a week for them to test my count levels and see where im at and how my immune system is.  THIS is very important and determines where I can go and what I can do.

OK, So it is day three after Chemotherapy and I wanted to do just a basic post about what happened and all that I felt and can remember.

Sorry its taken a few days to get this up, I have really been resting and just went out last night for the first time.

  So I arrived at the hospital around 8:40am and I was put into my own room. I will not always have this, just depends on how busy they are, they do have main rooms but like to let you be by yourself your first time so you can have more personal interaction with the nurses and doctors and can ask questions and they keep a closer eye on you.  It was a nice little room with a bathroom that I shared with the patient next door.

  So I was extremely nervous and my blood pressure showed it when they first took it.   But it went back to normal after I relaxed a bit.  Well my dad dropped me off and it was a lot of waiting at first. Then nurses and doctors came in to talk to me and started explaining what they were gonna do. The first thing that was done was that they sterilized my entire chest and the area around when the portacath is at. After that the lovely needle went into my chest.  Seeing as my incisions and the area around it isn't even healed yet this was pretty painful ( I'm told after it heals fully that the area basically becomes numb).  They started me off on a water (or saline drip) that basically starts flushed thru the tubes and make sure everything is going where its supposed to and that all is well inside.

The type of chemotherapy Im on is called "R CHOP" so there are four types of medicines they give me there that day and the fifth part is a pill that I take at home twice a day.

  They say that the first time getting chemo takes a lot longer cause they have to take every medicine super slow at first to make sure that you dont have any major allergic reactions.  So they say that a typical chemo session can be between four to five hours,  I was there for a little over nine. So they said my body did extremely well and had no major reactions.  So nexttime hopefully it will be shorter.

  I would say that the majority of the time I didnt feel anything beside the liquid moving through me, but the third medicine is called a "Direct IV Push" where instead of an IV Drip they have these four needles and they basically squeeze them really quickly into me.  hat one hurt a little bit, kind of a warm burning sensation inside my heart spreading out into my extremities.  It went away after a few minutes though.

My Nurse Gloria.
She was awesome, she checked on me every few minutes to make sure I was ok, and that my body was reacting harshly to the chemo.


So the main things I felt while I was there would be tiredness, soreness and Im not sure if it was my body or the room but I was hot alot of the time.  Besides that it was just alot of lying around. I had my Gameboy DS, newspapers, my web enabeled cell phone, magazines and even a pad and paper.  The only thing I really did was watch some tv and be online and text, I was pretty restless and tired, but its really hard to sleep when there are lights on and its daytime and someone comes in every few minutes to check your vitals and see how you are.
So it was a long day, but I survived, I learned a few things I can do next time, like bring ligt snacks and to wear shorts and maybe a tank top.  I met alot of great and kind nurses there and even some volunteers that were awesome as well.  I am truly blessed thst GOD  helped me find UCI and Doctor Sender and that I feel like I am getting some great care.


   So far the main effects that I am feeling would be: tiredness, a bit of soreness, a little queasy and just a feeling like I am borderline getting the flu.  Ive also had a little bit of a headache for the past few days, but just resting and drinking tons of water.  I'm also talking to people who have gone thru this recently and trying to learn as much as I can about the process and the effects of the chemo and side effects of all of the medicines.

   So please continue to pray, I'm hoping that I don't get really sick, but they say that most part feeling it in the week after the injections.  So time will tell.  If you have any questions or suggestions or just anything at all please leave a comment. I will try to be on every few days to update you guys and keep you up to date!

                                                       GOD Bless,
                                                                         ADP

Sorry Everybody,

   Its been a few days since I had my chemo and I have been just staying down.   So everyone wants to know how I feel and the most basic answer is that I really dont know yet.   I have had a really bad cold for the past few weeks and am still fighting to finally rid myself of that, but I'll just tell ou how I feel at this moment.

   This is gona be a quick summary because I am in the process of getting ready to go out for the first time since chemo to the movies with my parents and my longtime friend Dawnn. We are going to the Irvine Spectrum to see "A Christmas Carol" in IMAX 3D (review to follow).

   SO basically a summary is that I am tired, and have what I would normally associate with flu-like symptoms (weakness, overall body soreness, feeling warm or feverish, a tiny headache that has been ing for two days and abit of an upset stomach).  So none of the major side effects yet, im told that they typically are seen in the first seven to ten days so i still have awhile til im there. So we will just have to wait and see.

  Thanks for all of your thoughts, prayers, texts, facebook messages , tweets and just general well wishes.

  I know its totally backwards, but tommorrow I will write a full length post about the my 9 hour day getting chemo and include pictures and all of that fun jazz. I just wanna have time to include as much information as I can.

   So once again thanks all for all of your love and I look forward to hearing from youin on way or another and I will try my best to do all that I can to stay healthy and keep you all informed!

                        GOD Bless,
                                        ADP

Sorry I haven't updated in awhile.  Well I had my 

surgical implantation of the portacath last Weds 

(Oct 28th) it went good. It was a bit more 

intense then i thought it would be.I knew that

they were gonna be cutting open my chest, but 

what I didn't know was that they were gonna be 

making incisions at the bottom of my neck and 

putting tubes down them.  So I was awake for the

surgery, the procedure itself wasn't that painful,

the afterward is!

It feels funny and so far 

its been pretty painful. 

It just hurts to move my 

neck chest or arm because 

they cut thru the muscle. 

I'm sure the thing that hasn't been 

helping is the fact that I started 

getting sick the night before the 

surgery and have had major head,

sinus and chest congestion.I

have been sneezing and coughing 

, which you can imagine 

doesn't feel the greatestto have your chest muscles

flexing when they just cut thru them!

So I really think that this darn cold and all of 

the coughing has seriously slowed down the rate 

at which the incisions are healing. They told me 

that I shouldonly be really sore for a few days

and here a week later I'm still in some major 

pain. But besides that I'm doing all right. I was

told I could take the top bandages off today 

cause they were falling off and they would be 

taking them off tomorrow anyways. So here is what 

I can see now.

They put some sort of glue

on the incision to help it

heal but the problem is that

they didn't wait for it to 

dry and now the sutures and 

part of the bandage are glued

to the incision. So this 

should be interesting and I 

really hope that they can take 

them off without ripping

open the incisions.

OK, so I  am starting chemotherapy tomorrow at

9am at UCI Hospital.  I went and gave      

at the lab this afternoon so they have all of

my starting       counts,and then I went and 

got two of the six medicines that I'll have to

take during each round of chemotherapy and 

I just found out today that there's is a co-pay 

for each one and now this is another bill that

I'm gonna have and I hope I can handle it on

top of everything else that I have right now.

So tomorrows chemo will be a bit longer then

the rest because its my first time and they 

have to take       and give me a lot of

different medicines orally and thru injections

before I start the actual chemo treatment.

They say I should expect to be there 6-8

hours possibly. So I just gotta bring reading 

materials, charge myphone and GAMEBOY DS and 

just be prepare to sit for awhile (now Im 

wishing I had a neck pillow and even one of

those butt doughnut pillow thingies).  Once

again my chemo is called "R-Chop" and I will 

hopefully do an update tomorrow to let you all

know how it went. I'm sure it wont be as long

as this one I promise.  Once again thank you

for all of your thoughts and prayers and I love 

you all!

GOD Bless, 

               ADP

OK, so I heard from the doctor today and they finally have a clear-cut diagnosis for me. After testing my tissue samples for a third time and getting three different specialist opinions they have arrived at a conclusion.

  I have "Diffused Large B-Cell Lymphoma" not Burkitts. So what this means is that I don't have the more rare and potentially dangerous Burkitts. But Burkitts is an easier treatment of chemotherapy that is usually shorter in nature so that sucks! Plus Burkitts also one of the fastest growing Lymphomas is one of the most receptive to chemo as well.


  So Chemo is typically 3 rounds or cycles(2-3 months long) and just to be sure they want 2 do localized radiation treatments on my groin after chemo is done. I was told that they don't anticipate my life should dramatically change while undergoing chemo, but there will be certain times in each cycle where my white cell counts will drop and it is dangerous to be out in crowded public places.  They say because I'm young and am gonna have a shorter round of chemotherapy that I shouldn't have all of the side-effects that is the stigma associated with chemo.

  So a round of chemo consists of getting the chemo on day 1, and then taking medication for the next five days or so. Then you start it all over again 16 days after your done with that and it just repeats that cycle until your done with the recommended rounds. Not sure about the details of the radiation yet, thats a different office that handles that. The type of chemo that I am going to be receiving is called "R-CHOP"


 So now I'm waiting 2 hear back from the hospital my appointment to have the portacath surgically implanted next week. Then I should be in chem by the end of next week or the beginning of the week after that by the latest.

  So its good news, but scary at the same time, so I will keep u posted on any new information that I hear and please leave comments, suggestions or whatever you want and I will answer them.

                                           Thank you and GOD Bless!

                                                               ADP

 Ok, so I got a call from the doctor this morning and the preliminary results from the pathology re-review came back and there are still some uncertainties so they re getting more of the tissue to run different tests and calling in another specialist to get his opinion. They say its peculiar because one test says something & then another hints at something different.

 They have what are called "markers" or "flags" that they look at when they test the tissue samples, and some say intermediate grade lymphoma while others say its the more rare "Burkitts" lymphoma. They of course cannot start any treatment until they are one hundred percent positive of what I have.

  They hope to know something for sure by tomorrow. So we will see on that what happens and if I hear anything back tomorrow.

  I went and had an EKG and Echocardiogram today. Just checking out the general health of my heart and to see how strong it is cause the chemo can effect it and give you problems if your not in good shape to begin with.

 Im still waiting to hear about the portacath being installed in my chest. Thats prpobably the scariest things to me, that they are going to install a device into my chest and attach it to my organs and heart.  They use it to withdraw blood and its where they can administer the chemo drectly into my heart and organs , they can bypass using my arms and not have to damage the tissue or veins.

So I guess thats all 4 now. I will try to update on here as soon as I know anything more. As always thanks for caring enough to read this and I hope to have some more positive and concrete news soon!

            GOD Bless,
                            ADP

  Well I just got the call from Julie at Doctor Senders office in UCI and all three things that I have been waiting for have been approved! The tissue sample was delivered to their pathology lab this morning. They are gonna re-test it and have a clear cut diagnosis by Fri.  Then they are gonna talk to me and set up a chemotherapy plan and their hope is that I will be starting chemotherapy by mid next week.

  Also they are scheduling me for the eco-cardiogram test of my heart and the minor surgical procedure of installing the portacath which is where they administer the chemo and draw blood from.   So although I am happy to finally have this happening it is also a scary thought.   So all prayers are appreciated and I will blog any more as soon as I hear anything about specifics or dates. I just got my appointment time for the ecocardiogram and I'm having it done this Thursday at 2:30pm. If you have any questions or suggestions please leave a comment. As always, thank you so much for caring .

                                                           GOD Bless,
                                                                            ADP

OK, so i didn't write yesterday cause there was sooo much going on and I just could  handle writing cause I was on emotional overload .

  So after the awesome visit that inspired me and filled me with hope on Tuesday i get a call yesterday from Dr Senders office telling me that I need to change my "MEDICAL HOME"  to include their facility. I called MSI and before I even got a callback Dr Senders office called me again and told me that they said that as of September 1st no one can change their medical home.

  Dr Senders office said that without approval to have them be my medical home they cant start any treatments. Well i was making phone calls to everybody that I knew to call.I even called Medi-Cal to check up on my application. So needless to say that by the end of yesterday I was upset and distraught! I had an oncologist that cared for me and is willing to help me out' treat me and is a specialist in my field an then I have an insurance company that wants me to be seen by an oncologist that doesn't care about me and even said that she couldn't even treat me!


  So for the first time since finding out I have cancer I broke down and cried! I DIDN'T KNOW WHAT TO DO BUT CRY OUT to GOD and ask for mercy!  So I put it on my facebook and twitter asking everyone to pray for me and that GOD would intervene and somehow sway the insurance company to change their minds and their new policy.

  This morning I got a call back from the insurance company, just to tell me that I'm not eligible to change doctors til the end of December. I begged and pleaded with them and explained  that the doctor they are trying to send me to told me that she doesn't treat my type of cancer in her facility and they said thats the rules! I get a call back from the same lady from MSI about fifteen minutes after I got off the phone with her saying that Dr Sender himself called the medical director of California and pleaded my case personally and got them to overturn that rule for me and so now I am approved to see Dr Sender and get my treatment and chemotherapy done thru UCI!

  So praises be to GOD, I was literally at the point of despair last night and today I am rejoicing and praising GOD! HE is good and I am seeing his work in this situation.  I still don't really know they "why" behind all of this, but I am amazed and humbled about how he has worked to help the insurance situation.

  I also want to personally thank each and every friend, family member, brothers and sisters in Christ and any strangers who lifted me up in prayer. Its an overwhelming feeling to know that people all over the place are thinking and praying for you!

  I also need to thank Dr Sender and every other person in his office that has gone to bat for me (Dora, Teresa, Linda, Julie, Anna and anyone else that name escapes me at the moment)
I am soo lucky to have found people that actually care if i live or die! thank you soooo much!

  Well i am on my way to Disneyland for my B-Day  so I have to go (don't worry I'm not driving and writing this) LOL. God Bless you all and I pray that I can be as good as a friend and prayer warrior as you guys have been for me!

     An eternally Grateful,
                                       ADP

So I finally got to go see Dr Sender at UCI today. After talking to everyone in their office for the past three or four weeks. I only got approved to see him cause his awesome office put in a lot of calls to the insurance company & pushed them to approve me.

So as soon as I got into the office the entire staff that Ive been talking to for the past few weeks came in and introduced themselves and they all gave me a hug. it was overpoweringly emotional. Its just such of a relief to finally know that there are people out there that truly do care about me and my well being.

So I saw the doctor and he and his physicians assistant discussed the previous test that I have had and what those results were. what it boils down to is that although the surgical biopsy did tell us that it was Non-Hodgkins B-Cell Lymphoma, it said "with possible Burkitts Lymphoma" and Dr Sender says that he doesn't do "possibles" they want an exact diagnosis so they are ordering my tissue samples to be sent to UCI so their world class pathologists can examine them and know for sure if I have Burkitts or not.

I also brought the cd with he PET scan images on it and he is gonna have the radiologist there at the hospital take a look at the images and give a second opinion and maybe a reason why the other lymph nodes did not show up on the scan.

So from the pathological review I am gonna find out if I have intermediate lymphoma or a type of Burkitts, and there are two types that it could be: a inactive lymphoma (if I had it but there is no longer any traceable cancer in my body) or another kind that is active.

The bad news is that all of the above require chemotherapy: depending on what their review of my tissue sample find will just change the type of chemotherapy I get and how long the treatments will be. The shortest one is a few months and the longest one would be around or a little over six months . He didn't give me a ton of information on the chemotherapy cause he said that it would be pointless to flood me with all this information until they have an exact diagnosis.

Dr Sender also discussed with me that he is looking for a young person to blog and or tweet about their experience, so he mentioned to me that maybe I could be that person, that bring this information and all of my experiences to a new generation. He told me that he has a lot of young patients with cancer and it is a very scary thing. So I was thinking "could this be my purpose? My reason for going through this?" who knows but GOD and only time will tell. But just having that thought gave me some new hope and shed some light on my situation. I guess uplifting would be the word for it.

So I think that's all the information I have for now' or all that I can remember at this time. I will be sure to keep you all updated on what I find out. Thanks again for reading and caring about me and please keep the prayers coming!

GOD Bless,
ADP

So as you all know I have been struggling with he insurance company to be approved for the next round of tests & also to see a oncologist that I was told about by my friend Jay at the American Cancer Society. Well I have been in constant contact with this doctors office and they have been talking to me and I have been keeping them abreast of whats going on with the insurance company so they have been calling my primary doctor nd putting pressure on them to do follow up calls and they have also started calling the insurance company and bugging them as well.

So I got a call from Dr. Senders office late his afternoon and they called and yelled at someone and got the insurance company to say yes for me to see hem. Now this is how awesome Dr Senders office is, they are rushing me in to have a consult with the doctor tomorrow afternoon, and its his day out of the office! I am seriously soooo grateful to finally have someone that I feel truly cares for my well being. Its a blessing, a true blessing!


So praise GOD for all of that. Its gonna be a consult and we are gonna go over all of the results from the previous test that I have had done. Were also gonna discuss the next steps and other tests that I need 2 have done. So please continue to pray that those can be approved asap so they can get a clear idea of what I have and how to treat it! Soooo thank you sooo much for all of your thoughts and prayers and I will be sure to blog about what I happen to find out at the doctors appointment tomorrow!

As always GOD Bless and I love You!
ADP

OK, just got the results from the doctor about my PET scan & they said that besides some residue from where they removed the lymph node there were no other indicators of any more cancer anywhere else in my body. Not even the two lymph nodes that were enlarged before and under the one that they had removed.

They still need to do some further testing, but maybe the prayers for healing worked . Its too early 2 tell. But even if not praise GOD that it hasn't spread!

I'm just in shock that the other two didn't even show up as irregular on the scan. I am asking for a copy of the film for a second opinion. I'm still waiting for the approval to see the specialist at UCI & for the next round of tests to be done. But thank you for all of your prayers and I will make sue that I keep updating my blog.

GOD Bless,
ADP

Well i was at the doctors all this morning (my regular primary care physician)and it was just a basic check in with them, they haven't seen me since my diagnosis and wanted to talk to me and see where im at and what i know. So the bad news is that i don't qualify for the immediate coverage of Medi-Cal that i spoke of before,there is a very short lost of who does, so they wouldn't fill out that form for me.
But some slightly better news is that i talked to them and told them how it sounded like my oncologist was waiting for me to get approved on Medi-Cal to do the next step (which is a p.e.t. scan and bone marrow testing) and they said they they knew of a few places that do it and take MSI, so they have a call in to talk to the oncologist and they called the insurance company to ask for authorization for the p.e.t. scan. (From what i know the p.e.t. scan is where they inject your body with a particular kind of radioactive substance that goes thru your body and is attracted to cancerous cells and when they do the full body scan it lights up the area the cancer is and will tell them if its spread,or how large it is).
So now i have to go through my room and find all of the paperwork from the last two and a half years and on the forms i have to turn into Medi-Cal and social security i have to list every doctor that Ive seen, every treatment/surgery/procedure/test Ive done and their office locations, doctors names, phone numbers addresses and all of that. Its probably gonna take me a few days to gather up all of that information.
I just wanted to thank everybody who so promptly responded to my e-mail that i sent out,sorry if u didn't get it, that means i don't have your current e-mail address. thanks for all of your thoughts and prayers and please if u have any suggestions or tips or know of a place i can go or call for help please leave it in a comment on my blog. Or if u have a question that u want me to answer or something to address leave it as well, and as always...

GOD Bless,
ADP

So I have to find a place to apply for Medi-Cal insurance asap, but i don't wanna do it at the social security office, cause i heard it takes all day and then u have to wait a month to get accepted. i don't have that kind of time. I think im gonna call the American Cancer Society since they have a 24 hour helpline. I have to go get blood tests sometime today. The oncologist want to check for blood diseases or other stuff that is associated with this type of lymphoma.
I am starting to get scared and nervous, not about the cancer per-se but just about the process and if im gonna get all of the tests done that i need now asap! I just want to know all of the details good or bad, not knowing the specifics like: What Stage is it at? Has it spread?and all of that. For now i just gotta focus on getting the insurance i need and the tests done that the oncologist wants to do.
On a some what good note im going to a special screening tonight of "9" the new Tim Burton animated movie, looks good and have been waiting to see this 4 awhile. I just gotta get going and do the stuff that needs to get done so i can go to see this 2night. Please if u have any suggestions or comments for me please leave them. Talk to you all later.
ADP

Well i guess i should start with the main reason i started this blog. I HAVE CANCER! I know, are u as shocked as i am by reading that? LOL
Well just a few days ago i was told that i have Non-Hodgkins B-Cell Lymphoma with possible Burkitts Lymphoma. I don't have a lot of details as of now cause they have more tests to run, but i do know that i had three very enlarged lymph nodes in my groin that i discovered in March of this year. I didn't know what it was then, everybody thought it was a hernia due to my back injury,but when the finally got around to testing it, it wasn't. So then i had a few more tests done and they thought the three lumps were cysts or tumors, so i had a needle biopsy done about a month and a half ago and although we learned that they were lymph nodes the rest of the results were inconclusive. So i had to wait another month to have a full surgical biopsy where they removed the top and largest lymph node and thats how i was diagnosed.
The worst part is that im on workmans-comp cause of a very serious back injury that has had me out of work for over 2 years now, and i had to have 2 spinal surgeries & hardware drilled into my spine! Since im not working i cant afford private health care so im on MSI (a government assistance program for medical things) and my oncologist wants me to get treated at UCI Medical Center for my chemotherapy im gonna have to do, but guess what? They dont take MSI, so now i have to go apply for another form of assistance, Medi-Cal cause they take that,but its a long and complicated process with lots of paperwork that i need to fill out, and documents of my own that i need to find and collect. So here i am with cancer needing to get tested asap to find out some vital information about it and im stuck behind a wall of lines, forms and government formalities! So please keep me in prayer that i can find some way to be rushed thru the application process.
I will come on as much as possible to write everything out and please comment and ask questions and ill try to answer them the best that i can. I will b talking to you all soon!
GOD Bless,
ADP