From New York with Love

Well, just sitting here in bed at the Hope Lodge feeling like a zombie... I haven't been able to sleep the last couple of nights and thought I'd goof around with my blog. I can't wait to get my pills so I can take some Aleve (Naproxen) and get a good nights sleep. I can't take the Naproxen for 5-6 days prior to my New York trip as it causes my already low platelet count to go down even more threatening my ability to stay on the clinical trial. Only a couple hours left until I take my walk up 34th ave. passing the Empire State Building to NYU Langone, yippee!

So, as you probably noticed, I did some sprucing of my blog. It's pretty cool how Google provides tools to customize this thing. I am far from a computer guy and have to say the tools that are provided makes it seem like I know what I'm doing, ha!

I've added a counter at the bottom of the page which shows total number of page views. I was a little shocked to find out this blog has been viewed almost 10,000 times, wow!

Also, this is a little embarrassing but I've finally broken down and put a link up for donations to my clinical trial travel fund. It's tough having to travel to New York every three weeks living on disability. I'm looking into things that will supplement my income but have to be careful not to jeopardize my eligibility for Medicare (and hopefully Medicaid). My situation (or anyone who will have to fight cancer for the rest of their lives after losing their job) is difficult in that I would like to go back to work if I could find a job but who is going to hire someone who has chronic cancer (especially in this economy)? Not to mention, what insurance company is going to carry me? The laws against discriminating against pre-existing conditions don't kick in until 2014. So, for me to go back to work, I'd be taking a huge gamble that quite frankly I can't afford to take.

That said, I am managing ok for now and know that I will continue to manage. I have also been blessed to have such a generous family (thanks Mom and Rich and Karen for the recent gifts :).

Well, I think I'm going to try and shut my eyes for an hour before I have to leave.

I hope everyone who reads this has a fun Halloween (if you celebrate)!

Quick update:

Just got back and my platelets were just over the threshold (51,000) and I can continue on the trial. Dr. O wants to scan next visit and if things are continuing to shrink, he mentioned that I can petition to stretch my visits from every 3 weeks to 6 weeks which would be great. I'm also going for the record of 13 cycles! So far, this will be my 11th. Dr. O said this trial has totally exceeded his expectations and even got cocky by saying this is going to make him "even more famous" and it's going to be even tougher to see him... I guess every doctor has a narcissistic side and as long as things keep going the way they're going, I could honestly care less!