FINALLY - BACK TO HOUSTON

I finally finished my chemotherapy in Albuquerque - I think. Got a message today to remind me of an appointment with New Mexico Oncology on next Monday to review everything and consider the possibility of more chemotherapy. Sorry folks - I ain't a gonna be here and if I was going to be here I would find some other reason for not being able to come. The last chemo session on the 10th was the easiest by far but just the accumulation of all the chemicals has made me feel pretty bad until today. I decided I was going to die as soon as I got feeling good enough to do so. But Monday I will be back at MD Anderson in Houston, so forget about talking to me about any more chemotherapy.

In addition to not feeling very good, I have worked as much as I could and have been up late every night working on an appeal to both Presbyterian and a firm called Maximus in New York. Presbyterian is required to file a statement with Maximus if the refuse a request for a referral and then Presbyterian is required to notify me that I can make an appeal to Maximus and they are bound by whatever decision Maximus makes. I spent a lot of time creating this appeal and ended up spending the evening up to midnight several nights trying to put it together and use the right words. Unfortunately my temper got in the way of my good sense a number of times and I would have to go back and redo pieces and parts. When I finally finished, my wife took a brief look at it and rejected it, my son didn't like it and my daughter-in-law offered many changes, so the committee took over. They re-wrote the letter using parts of my initial offering and sent it off. They used the "Dear Sir or Madam" at the top and my name and claim number and "Sincerely" and my name at the bottom and a few of my words in between. At least I guess it is good to know they care.

There are Angels flying above me all the time. In addition to the letter, a lady called and left me a voice message. I have no idea who this lady is, how she heard about me, or knew what my problems were, but her message told me that I needed an Advocate to run interference for me and deal with the doctors and other parts of the medical provider services. She gave me a number to her direct line and told me to call her. I finally got around to calling her and reminded her of her call and told her maybe I needed an Advocate. She immediately told me she would act as my Advocate and she got some information from me and said she would start contacting all parties involved. Within a couple days, I received a letter from my Oncologist, on the letterhead stationary of New Mexico Oncology Hematology Consultants, LTD - with all the doctors names listed, stating that I had finished my chemotherapy treatments and he did recommend me for surgery and recommended that all remaining work, including surgery, be done at MD Anderson in Houston.

I received this letter at home on Friday. First thing the following Monday morning I called MD Anderson in Houston and asked them to request a referral from Presbyterian. I told them I had a letter from Dr. Liebmann suggesting that I needed the restaging exams and surgery at MD Anderson. The lady at MD Anderson replied; "I know - I have that letter right in front of me."
She said she would request the referral. As soon as I got off the phone, my phone rang and it was a lady from Presbyterian calling to tell me they were going to approve my trip to Houston this next week and it would be covered. This is a lady who was assigned to me when I first started having problems with Presbyterian. She is somewhat an advocate and she has been helpful, but she is still on Presbyterian's payroll and a big part of her job is to pacify me and keep me from causing trouble. The fact that she called and gave me approval will make it very difficult for Presbyterian to back out now.

One month ago I had this exact same visit planned and I got it approved ten days before I was to go down. Two days before I was to leave, Presbyterian called and said it wasn't approved and caused me to run all over town to different doctors to get approximately the same exams - not nearly as extensive and thorough. Now Presbyterian is going to pay for me to go and do these exams. This has delayed my treatment by at least one month and it has cost them more money as they did have to pay for these exams in Albuquerque.

As I said, the last chemo sessions was the easiest. In fact it was so easy I went to the Healthplex the next day and walked three miles and did a light workout on the upper body machines. The next day I felt horrible - not from the exercise but from a sick feeling throughout my whole body. That has hung with me for about ten days and finally today I felt almost human again.
The bad thing is that I have lost about eighteen pounds since I first went down to Houston and about thirty eight since a year ago. The thought of any kind of food was nauseating. All of a sudden I have my appetite back. I am like a Hoover sweeper going through the house sucking up almost anything - like sweet rolls, french fries, potato chips, hamburgers, etc. I still don't have an appetite for celery, lettuce, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli. The doctors will be happy I am gaining weight as long as I don't tell them how.

New Mexico Oncology is a very nice new facility in a very nice area. Things got so bad that when I went down Jefferson street and got close to their facility, I would get nauseated. I mentioned this to the doctor and he said this was common. It is called anticipatory nausea.

At my last session, an elderly gentleman next to me had the same experience that I had on my previous visit. The needle came out of his vein and started pumping the liquid directly into his hand. However, they caught it right away and it didn't do nearly the damage that it did to me. The nurse told him he was lucky because at that point all they were giving him was saline solution. She said it could have been dangerous if they were giving him chemo at that point.
KINGS-X, TIME OUT, INSTANT REPLAY - HELLO! I called the nurse over and repeated what she had just said and told her they had pumped chemo into my hand and arm the week before and both got tremendously swollen and they still hurt two weeks later. She kind of dismissed me and my one sided conversation and left to do something else. Now, three weeks later, the swelling has gone down but it is still swollen and it still hurts some.

Only one more day at CarMax for awhile and it can't be too soon. Late yesterday I had a young man in his early twenties come in and wanted a test drive in a $35,000 Mercedes convertible coupe. It has a retractable hard top so nothing would do but we had to put the top down even though it was cold and the wind was blowing. As soon as we got out on the Interstate it started raining. First thing this morning I had a couple of guys come in who looked like they were still in high school and they wanted to look at every car on the lot, which is somewhere around 350. The policy is that you have to stay with your customer even if they are just looking around or killing time. These guys used up a good part of my morning. Then I had something happen that has never happened before. A van from a nursing home pulled up in the parking lot and this older gentleman with a white cane got out and came in. He wasn't totally blind, but his sight was poor. He said he wanted to buy a car. I put him on the golf cart and took him around very slow and finally he held up this bag he was carrying and told me he had 4500 one dollar bills in the bag. I think he probably meant he had 45 one hundred dollar bills, but in any event he had $4,500 in his bag. I apologized and told the man that we didn't have any cars in that price range - most of them don't meet our inspection standards. The least expensive would probably be at least twice that amount. Then I found out he didn't even have a drivers license and explained to him that we couldn't even sell him a car without a drivers license - that is a state law. I felt sorry for the old guy and suggested that maybe he should talk to his banker to see if it was wise for him to try to buy a car, and waited for his nursing home to come and pick him up. Another chunk out of my morning. This afternoon I had a man, wife and three children come in and they wanted a pickup truck. They needed one with a back seat and we found one they liked. It had a dead battery so we decided to take a similar one for a test drive. I told them someone would have to stay there as there were only five seat belts. The lady reminded me there were only five of them. She got a little upset when I said I had to come too, so she and the kids decided they would stay there. Then the man gives me a Mexican drivers license. You can't drive one of our cars unless you have an American issued drivers license. She had a New Mexico drivers license, so we decided to use her license. Then I said, if we were using her license she would have to come and she would have to be the one to drive. She is upset again. Finally we decided the husband and I would go on the test drive but I would do all the driving. I kept asking him questions on the test drive and he would nod and say; "Yah". I thought he wanted a Spanish station on the radio so I found him one and finally figured out he wanted to know how to turn up the air conditioner. I still haven't figured out how I figured that out, but he did say; "Yah" - so I think I must have done the right thing. We got back and through some motions and "Yahs" I finally figured out he still wanted to drive the truck with the dead battery. So, I went back up to the show room and got a battery charger - and walked back across the lot with this heavy thing and jumped the battery so we could go for a drive. Now I think this guy really wanted to buy a truck - it was a good customer. But I was getting exasperated when I had this wonderful thought. How bad do I want to make a sale? Not bad enough! We have a new sales person who is a wonderful person, does a great job - and he is from Mexico. Wham - brainstorm is coming!!
I run back into the showroom - "Ernesto - Ernesto - where are you?" "My wonderful friend, my distinguished colleague, my honorable associate and flawless friend - how would you like to have a gift, a gift of a truck sale with no strings attached - if you can just answer "Yah"?

Now this is bad - but this kind of thing has happened frequently since I started chemotherapy. I am going along great - when all of a sudden I hit this wall. At this point, I just flat don't care. Just let me out of here immediately, if not sooner. This is a time, I have learned, when I just immediately get dead tired, become angry, become sensitive over nothing, and in short become a jerk at times. I have also learned to get out of whatever I am doing immediately and forget it. I love cars, I enjoy selling cars, I love the people and there is a competitive aspect to it also. In the past I have stayed til midnight a few times when we close at 9:00 pm, just to make sure the customer is happy and satisfied. Not now - I will excuse myself and give away a sale rather than try to do something I can't do. However - it is all going to get better after I get past this cancer thing. I will sell cars to people who speak nothing but Japanese, Chinese, or even West Texas when I get through this surgery. I will so overwhelm them with my magnificent personality - they will be speechless and I won't need to understand their language.

We will get back to you after Houston - God Bless you and the very best to all of you!!!!

Albuquerque Al