Month: December 2014

Setting up for Christmas

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#vscocam

We are on chemo break and about to be on Christmas break, and we are not taking anything too serious.  Well Kendra has plans for home made chocolate covered cherries and that is serous business.

For our business, Big Box Pro Video Productions, we have completed a few commercial shoots and wrapping up a wedding for the perfect stocking stuffer.

We have been praying for everyone’s safe travels and for people to keep the birth of Jesus the center of attention. I know how hard it can be to be distracted by a fat man in a red suit.

Hope you have a great week. Don’t take it too serious, we are not.
Derrick

Today’s labs

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Coming in at a whopping 3 times the normal limit, my white blood cells are at 30.5.  This is down from 70 plus on Wednesday.  As my W.B.C. count drops I feel better and better. That might also coincide with getting a few days away from chemotherapy.

So labs are going good. My hip has a little pan but I think it’s muscle sourness.

Headded into the weekend with a lot of family Christmas activities on our plate plus a wedding shoot on Saturday afternoon.

Have a blessed weekend
Derrick

End of Round 5

Kendra and I just made it in from round 5 of chemotherapy. We had a good time in Houston considering the cancer and chemotherapy gig. In this video I outline some of the things going on between round 4 and round 5.

Thanks again for all the prayers and support,

Derrick Perrin

Patrick is in our prayers

I wrapped up chemo round 5 today at MD Anderson.

Derrick Perrin at MD Anderson

 

On the way to pickup the family I stopped in for a naughty snack at Chick-fil-A. The sweet lady who handed me my order asked how I was doing at the hospital. I quickly noticed I was still sporting my plastic arm band. I’m guessing the chrome dome was another dead giveaway.

She wanted to know what I have and let me know her 10 year old son also has cancer. Not 10 minutes drive down the road this lady’s son was sitting in Texas Children’s Hospital fighting off leukemia. He has has it for 3 years. I didn’t know what to say. I have been fighting for 3 months and unless something strange pops up it looks like I’m in the clear for a while.  I didn’t know if I should hug this stranger, cry, or run out the door. We traded names for prayer list and parted ways. For some reason the day I complete a chemotherapy round is always an emotional one. Patrick’s story got to me today.

So today I add 10 year old Patrick to the prayer list. He is up there with old buddy Andy Peal who is getting setup for head surgery in January.

Prayers,
Derrick

This girl

My little Sophie is getting big. She started walking this week.

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We are just about done with chemotherapy round 5. Even though we have excellent child care available we are thankful we have the opportunity to have our little ones with us. Sure they can be a pain in the rear but they bring so much more joy into our world.

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This morning Grason and I did some home school work before little monster Ben Ben woke up.

After breakfast the boys and I snuck out of the house and ran up to the donut shop on our bikes. Mama and Sophie took advantage of a quiet house and rested.

The boys took some time and figured out the gears on the bikes.

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Benjamin has a style all his own.

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So life on Chemotherapy sucks, but life one chemotherapy with loved ones around makes it all better. I get a constant reminder why I’m putting myself through this.

Now that my girl is walking I need to do everything in my power to be there when she is ready to walk down the isle. And a note to the guy at the end of the isle… If I’m not around there will be folks like Jeff Durrwachter and Kevin Hill that will put the hurt on you if you care to screw up.

We’ll back to work for now. I’m completing a big law firm video project today. Tonight after my chemotherapy disconnect I get a bag of Cyclophosphamide and hate life for 36 hours. Good news is the break before round 5 and 6 will be 5 days longer. I always start to feel really good 2 days before the next round.  Looks like I will get a week of “really good” this break.

dP

Fara Coffee – Austin TX trial

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It’s coffee, it’s swiss water decaffeinated and it’s on trial around here.

When  you limit yourself to 8 to 16 ounces of coffee per day you get selective of how good taste. It’s like beer, the less you drink, the more you are willing to spend per ounce.

We will let you know how good it is.
About to areopress some coffee now.

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-Derrick

Information I had to hear, but didn’t want to.

Quick answer – I will be back to complete my last 2 rounds of chemotherapy starting next week

This week Kendra and I have been on a fact finding mission. We are trying to find out what is best for our family. I tracked down some of the best natural / holistic / unorthodox cancer fighting docs I had access to. These are amazingly bright and gifted doctors. I was surprised at what they had to say.

When I was first diagnosed and fast tracked through the back halls of MD Anderson I felt rushed and pushed and at times like I was being kicked into something I didn’t have time to think about. I know the big pharmaceutical business plan and it was hard to not see it around ever corner. When insurance has a hick-up and you find yourself faced with over rides, extensions, and swiping cards to pay out of pocket expenses the Big Pharma machine looks evil. At that time a lot of folks were praying for healing and I also reached out for prayers that my medical team would have the knowledge and the  care to direct me properly. There have been some hurdles along the way. Twice the hospital missed giving me the right medication at the right time. There was also the morning I woke up laying in chemotherapy. That was not a cool morning, trust me you want the chemo in you and not on you.

So there I sat jumping into chemotherapy when everything I was reading told me to stay the hell away from the drug. Things changed a bit when the clinic PA walked in and explained Lymphoma to us. She saw there is some cancer in my family tree and informed us this cancer is not like any of those. She said the tumor is not like a regular cancer tumor. We went over all the nasty side effects and started running the EPOCH-R chemotherapy protocol.

After 3 runs of chemo I had a PET scan come back clean. Great, right? Not really. The doctor came back with upping my dose and wanting to hurt me even more. I was not a happy camper and had to question what he was doing. Dr’s don’t typically like that. We ran round 4 and came up with a plan to visit other doctors for 2nd opinions. Wednesday we were in Austin and Thursday Houston. Both alternative approach doctors sat down and explained things better than my MDA doctor had done.

The information given to me was not the information I wanted to hear. I wanted a maverick to set up and say “I have seen this before. Your chemotherapy is killing you. Please stop it now. Here is plan ‘B’ and plan ‘B’ is very successful”

Not even the doctor who was put on trial by the FDA want me to vary from my chemotherapy regiment. His oncologist was surprised at  the cocktail. He was also happy with the results. It seems like the prayers for guidance have been working.

I’m where I need to be and will be continuing on with upping my chemotherapy starting next Thursday. I’m not happy about it and someone might have to handcuff and drag me into MD Anderson next week, but I now know that is where I need to be.

This concludes my loose ramble about this weeks road trip. Later I will break down each doctors visit and the information I was able to gain. My Austin doctor has some very positive diet and supplement directives that will help this next round of chemotherapy. I will post on that soon.

Thanks for the prayers and the continued support.

-d Perrin

New day, New doctor.

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Today was great. I will elaborate more later but just wanted to let everyone know we are talking with doctors this week and coming up with cancer action plans.
I didn’t hear what I wanted to hear today, but I did hear what I needed to hear today.
I’m going to get some real world work done and should have a video for you on Thursday.

Take care now
Derrick

Texas Road Trip & Sugar Problems

So sweets are a problem….  a seriously huge problem. Plain sugar, sugar substitutes or anything that has a huge glycemic index will cause you problems.  So choose your poision in the form of sugar or sugar substitute, they will kill you.

There off my soap box now.

This week’s forecast is set for travel with a chance for answers:

Tuesday – We drop off our little crew with family in Port Lavaca.  They are amazing and the kiddos love it there. So thankful we have them in our life and our kids are so loved by so many.

Wednesday – Austin, Texas is the home of N4H Research.  Glen R. Luepnitz, Ph.D. is the man with the plan. He holds a doctorate in Nutritional Counseling and that is really cool. I’m going in to pick his brain on nutritional oncology. That would be the type of oncology that does not involve chemotherapy.

Thursday – The Burzynski Clinic in Houston, Texas will be our destination.  Stanislaw R. Burzynski, M.D., Ph.D. is a cancer mad man. This is a good thing. 10 years before I was born he  identified naturally occurring peptides in the human body which he concluded control cancer growth. He found that there is a marked deficiency of these peptides in cancer patients. My M.D. Anderson oncologist doesn’t care what causes cancer and only has one way to fix it…. Chemotherapy.

Friday – Well that is up in the air. We are hoping to get into Dr Hammond’s office in Dallas.  He reads the RGCC Blood test and dissects what works best in the body.  I had blood sent to Greece in September and it was tested against a board of chemos and natural substances that kill the cancer in my body.

I’m really looking forward to getting into Hammond’s office. His office has real promise in my world.

We will keep you posted on what is going on this week and how the travels are going.

Take care,

Derrick Perrin

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