Ignoring health issues almost cost me; my journey goes on (update)

[grampahol]

Not to derail your thread Millhouse. I wish you nothing but success and best of luck with this.
I've decided to make major changes to my diet and other aspects of my life, the biggest is consumption of sugar. I get plenty in foods with none added so I'm cutting out anything with added sugar which is nearly all processed foods. Sugar is linked not only to diabetes and obesity , but dementia and even Alzheimers disease as well as many forms of cancers. I'm getting too old to keep rolling the dice and believe me folks..You ARE getting old whether you like it or not..
Anyway, take a looksee at
https://youtu.be/PxYI8QdfJ7g The Secrets of Sugar from The Fifth Estate..
Secrets of Sugar
Kind of scary the shit industries keep hidden from the public..

[grampahol]

(08-04-2021, 12:50 PM)Deacon Wrote: Processed foods are awful, grapahol. Good on you, sir.

I hope you're on your way to finding yourself happier and healthier!

Almost everything is a process so saying processed foods are bad is a bit like saying anything that ever happens is bad for you. It highly depends on the process. Adding sugar is a process just as picking a tomato is a process.. Big difference between picking and adding though..
Anyway, watch the stuff that goes in your pie hole folks.

[grampahol]

(08-04-2021, 02:19 PM)Deacon Wrote: You're so correct, and the clarification is good. Thank you for correcting that. 
I was referring to heavily processed foods with the added sugars you were referring to, excess salt, undigestible bulking agents to make one feel full. But you are very very correct that aside from pure produce (and even some of that is questionable these days, yikes), pretty much everything is processed in some way.

I know what you're referring to, but some folks take everything to far or to heart a bit too much.

[fredtoast]

(08-04-2021, 12:32 PM)grampahol Wrote: Not to derail your thread Millhouse. I wish you nothing but success and best of luck with this.
I've decided to make major changes to my diet and other aspects of my life, the biggest is consumption of sugar. I get plenty in foods with none added so I'm cutting out anything with added sugar which is nearly all processed foods. Sugar is linked not only to diabetes and obesity , but dementia and even Alzheimers disease as well as many forms of cancers. I'm getting too old to keep rolling the dice and believe me folks..You ARE getting old whether you like it or not..
Anyway, take a looksee at
https://youtu.be/PxYI8QdfJ7g The Secrets of Sugar from The Fifth Estate..
Secrets of Sugar
Kind of scary the shit industries keep hidden from the public..

When "fat" was the big boogeyman companies started making "low fat" versions of everything.  And if you look you will find that they often added more sugar or sweetener to the "low fat" items.

[kalibengal]

(07-14-2021, 04:32 PM)Millhouse Wrote: I do want to say thank you to everyone posting and may post. But that wasn't my intent in posting this. We all have troubles of all kinds, some more than others, and I don't want to come across as looking for a bunch of 'get well soons', as much as I appreciate it. Most, if not everyone, reading this at some point in your life will have a medical condition, hopefully much later on like we are supposed to (so to speak).

But I have heard so many stories these last few months from other patients and online Leukimia/cancer sites, its pretty effing nuts some of the stuff I have heard. So if this can help one person out here, whether helping them directly or someone they know & love, by not ignoring issues and not ignoring their health insurance, it's worth it then.

We all spend our time on this message board tallking, griping about this team but this is real life shit that ALL of us deal with in way or another.
Pray for a good outcome for you and to be able to post on this board for a long long time and see a Superbowl Win! 

[Millhouse]

(08-04-2021, 12:32 PM)grampahol Wrote: Not to derail your thread Millhouse. I wish you nothing but success and best of luck with this.
I've decided to make major changes to my diet and other aspects of my life, the biggest is consumption of sugar. I get plenty in foods with none added so I'm cutting out anything with added sugar which is nearly all processed foods. Sugar is linked not only to diabetes and obesity , but dementia and even Alzheimers disease as well as many forms of cancers. I'm getting too old to keep rolling the dice and believe me folks..You ARE getting old whether you like it or not..
Anyway, take a looksee at
https://youtu.be/PxYI8QdfJ7g The Secrets of Sugar from The Fifth Estate..
Secrets of Sugar
Kind of scary the shit industries keep hidden from the public..

One of the first things I have done these last few months is cut out regular and diet pop, white breads, sugary snacks & desserts. Now when I get out of here hopefully next week or the following week, I may have to celebrate with a regular Mt. Dew with my homemade smoked ribs for one of my first meals lol. 

But going forward generally speaking, much of my diet will be of more fresh produce, home cooked meats & fish, etc. Im going to try to stay away from deli processed meats, or anytthing processed in general. That doesnt mean I wont go out for dinner to get unhealthy stuff once a week or two, but just general mindset change on. Lol after literally having near a million dropped in me to keep me going, im not going to muck it up because of eating crap.

[Millhouse]

(08-04-2021, 11:25 AM)Deacon Wrote: You're not the only that's fallen behind on the boards! 

Congrats on getting through those full body blasts, and so glad to hear that things are currently looking promising. I'll keep on hoping and praying for you (if that doesn't at all infringe on your personal beliefs)!

I'm finishing up this current round of rituximab/prednisone/cyclophosphamide, myself. Two more weeks and they'll be letting me recover. Though I'm not going through a fraction of the hell you are. Hat's off to you - you are one TOUGH AS NAILS human being.

Thanks!

But no, the tough as nails ones out there are the kids going through what we and other adults go through. Whenever I donate any money in the future for cancer something, it will pretty much always goes towards places like St. Judes or anything to do with children.

Also plz dont discount what you are going thru as less of what I am. Everyone is effected differently, even by the same treatments. Some take it well, some are recliner ridden covered in blankets for a few days, or worse with nausae etc. Now the 6 full radiation blasts did kick me the nads pretty hard, I wont lie there, but the effects are letting up finally though I had to shave my head again. Otherwise this is my 'Endgame' phase and it could be going much worse for me. As I type this I am listening to YouTube via xbox hooked up to their TV in the wall, and on my laptop sittin here in a recliner. 

[jfkbengals]

(08-05-2021, 02:15 PM)Millhouse Wrote: Thanks!

But no, the tough as nails ones out there are the kids going through what we and other adults go through. Whenever I donate any money in the future for cancer something, it will pretty much always goes towards places like St. Judes or anything to do with children.

Also plz dont discount what you are going thru as less of what I am. Everyone is effected differently, even by the same treatments. Some take it well, some are recliner ridden covered in blankets for a few days, or worse with nausae etc. Now the 6 full radiation blasts did kick me the nads pretty hard, I wont lie there, but the effects are letting up finally though I had to shave my head again. Otherwise this is my 'Endgame' phase and it could be going much worse for me. As I type this I am listening to YouTube via xbox hooked up to their TV in the wall, and on my laptop sittin here in a recliner. 

I've actually said many a times, purely driven by what I have seen from their commercials, that if I ever come across a substantial sum of money (think lottery jackpot) Shriner's Children's Hospital and St. Jude's would each get 12.5% of the haul as soon as I could cover the check.

[Millhouse]

I wanted to give an update on how things are going on my 'journey' with the fight against the big C.

Looking back before the transplant, I was told by my transplant team that everything I had been through up until that point was regular season. The transplant and months and years after is the playoffs. Initially I shrugged it off, like "Ok, what do you know?" sort of attitude. Well, they knew lol, and were 100% right. I can say since the transplant in late July 2021, it is definitely not what I expected.

Up until this July of this year, it was basically a 1 step forward, 2 steps back for that entire year. Back at Easter of this year for example, I was in the hospital for a week from a rare fungal pneumonia I developed from a little cough a few weeks prior. As my Doctor said, I'll always be a (bone marrow) transplant patient, meaning my immune system will always be a weak one. It took me about 3 months to recover from that, using walker at times and a cane, but a cool cane though, not an old man cane.

Nowadays I am in the longest stretch of relatively good health since the pneumonia. I still cant get my baby shots again, at least until I have been stable for a longer period of time. The original baby vaccines got wiped out by the transplant process. I do wear a mask when Im around a lot of strangers, like in grocery stores. I do however go out to ear, but at select times when it wont be as crowded. It's just the way it is for someone that has to take penicillin twice a day for the rest of the their life.

Last but not least to make this post relevant, I am on some pretty pricey medicine. I have pills shipped to me from another city that cost about $16,000 a month. Insane. But they are to fight the GvHD going on. GvHD is Graft vs Host Disease. Basically its a DNA warzone going on between my donor's cells and mine that didn't match. And if left unchecked can become fatal in one way or another. So morale of the story is, make sure your health insurance is always up to date! I'm now roughly a $2 million dollar patient since all this began.

At some point I think I may write about my journey in a more proper fashion. I am just getting back to the point where I can do it. My postings on The Board here plummeted in the last 20 months, so this is why.

So yeah, don't take anything too lightly with your health. If it's out of the ordinary and/or not going away, go see your doctor. One thing I have learned is there are almost an infinite amount of things that can go wrong with us as any given time. Take care and thanks for all the comments!


(Basic recap since diagnosis)
- 9 total weeks in hospital
- countless chemo infusions and a few blood infusions in first 5 months.
- 9 bone marrow biopsies, and a liver biopsy through the neck
- 2 lumbar injections in lower spine
- 3 months of weekly phlebotomies
- numerous CT scans
- forgot more prescriptions that I was on than I can remember
- was a type 2 diabetic for many many months due to the steroid prednisone, so insulin shots daily smh

[treee]

Glad you're still kicking Millhouse. My old man had a bone marrow biopsy back in the day and said it was one of the most painful things he ever experienced. I hope things continue to improve for you. I worry about cancer being around the corner almost every day. I don't know if that's just part of getting old or me being paranoid. I hope on your good days you continue to stop back by the boards.

[Millhouse]

(11-03-2022, 10:07 PM)treee Wrote: Glad you're still kicking Millhouse. My old man had a bone marrow biopsy back in the day and said it was one of the most painful things he ever experienced. I hope things continue to improve for you. I worry about cancer being around the corner almost every day. I don't know if that's just part of getting old or me being paranoid. I hope on your good days you continue to stop back by the boards.

Hey I'm glad too! Nowadays bone marrow biopsies are easy. They give a sedative and something else that causes temporary amnesia basically. So its over before you know it and pain free. 

In regards to the big C being around the corner, it could be anything like a heart disease issue, which still outranks cancer here in the U.S. And that is why I wrote about this topic. I'm in my mid 40s now, and I never once for a million years thought something like this would happen this soon. I figured this is the kind of thing or another big health issue would hit me in my 70s or 80s if it hits at all. And because it blindsided me like it did, I ignored the symptons happening because something like this was never even crossed my mind as a possible cause. 

So now looking back in armchair quarterback hindsight, all we can do is to just live life without worrying what could happen the next day but at the same time if things out of the ordinary start happening, be quick to get it checked out and then go from there.

[Housh]

I go to the doctor for the 1st time since what has to be 7 years on the 11th.

I am very guilty of ignoring symptoms and I’m really afraid but i know i have to go



Hope it works out for you