D Perrin at MD Anderson

Cancer, Its a beautiful thing!

I sat outside the doctor’s office where I had my MRI done. I opened up the paperwork preparing to see the length of my Hip labral tear and I did get that and so much more. In that same report I got the news that I had cancer. In that same second I got a new perspective on life. 15 minutes after reading the results and letting it sink in I had to pull the car over and reread the report and make sure Derrick Perrin was the name attached to the report.
MRI Results
Yep, it was me on the top of the medical report, and unless the scan of my most inner bits was 100% wrong I have some form of cancer. After the tears stopped I immediately had a new focus. I don’t know how others handle the information but my first question is how long do I have to live. I bypassed the “How bad is it” because I knew it had been hurting me for quite a while wasn’t getting any better.

As I sit today I know its a stage 4 diffused large b cell lymphoma.

When someone has a car wreck or a heart attack and dies they leave us abruptly. They are gone it a flash without a chance of saying thank you or goodby. I’m lucky and see the world through my cancer glasses. The world is so beautiful this way. I’m not sure if other folks can truly understand. Before I was diagnosed I knew a few folks who had cancer and had a perspective that only comes with cancer. I just couldn’t figure it out till I was diagnosed.  Its like a switch went off, or on depending on how you look at it.

I now sit in M.D. Anderson. I’m on day 2 of 5 of chemotherapy. These last 3 weeks have been hard as shit. Be here, be there, come quick, wait long & come back soon. If taking care of cancer was just taking the right medicines I think there would be a higher survival rate. But having a new look on life helps get past the crap easier.

And back to how cancer is a beautiful!

New Living Translation – Psalm 139:16
You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed.

So knowing I don’t really have control helps and brings be comfort. We all know we are going to die sometime. We don’t know if it will be why we sleep or in a car accident or any other way he has chosen. We just know there is no fountain of youth and a day has already been chosen to meet our maker. In my new vision on life I can properly tell folks thank you and what they mean to me in my life. It gives me a chance to say goodby. We don’t know if that goodby is 3 weeks, 3 years, 30 years or longer. I get to share love with everyone who has shared their love with me.  Each passing day I find there are more and more of you out there. If you have reached out I thank you so much and if I don’t get to personally chat with you please know I cherish each and every letter, card, comment, prayer, like, & share. You guys make this fight a lot easier to face. I’m trying to write more often and will be expressing things here. I’m finding a way to fold up the macho man appearance and share whats going on inside.

D Perrin at MD Anderson

Derrick Perrin at the observation deck at M.D. Anderson – Houston, Texas

Thank you for the love and prayers. I appreciate all of you and am thankful I have what I have because I have been shown a greater love than I ever knew was possible.  I’m trying to share that love back. I’m not wishing everyone could get cancer, I just wish everyone could see the world the way I do now.

Back to the fight. I love you all.

Derrick

I’m on the red Kool aid

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I think it’s strawberries and cream. Feeling great today. Today is my 3rd day of good walking. No limp issues today.

This is one of 2 meds in my drip right now. Still feeling really great.

Checked in and ready for chemotherapy

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#vscocam

Sharing the view from my 15th floor penthouse suite here at MD Anderson.. This will be home the next 5 days.

Go hug your kids,
Derrick

PICC line is in

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So from here till January 5th I will have this purple tail hanging from my arm.

Watch “Chemotherapy setup day 1” on YouTube

Beautiful rainy day here in Houston Texas.  My hip is on day 2 of feeling really good. Almost back to walking normal with little effort.

Chemotherapy setup day 1 video: http://youtu.be/oPU9rklNjlE

So today will be long and compounded because of no sleep. We dropped the little ones in Port Lavaca at 5:30. Happy to be off the road and out of the rain.

Love
Derrick

Bone fun

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Today’s fun concludes with pulling bone marrow from both of my hips.  This should conclude staging my cancer. These results will help them choose the right drug for the job. Looks like CHOP or EPOCH-R are the main contenders.

Thursday we will be back here to have my long line put in and start chemotherapy. It will run for 5 days ending next Tuesday. I will have 2 weeks off and then repeat the cycle for 6 trips. Only the first trip will be a hospital stay. The 5 others will be outpatient doping.  I will keep the long line in for the 4 months I have treatments.

The most annoying part is every doctor and any cancer fighting book you read all say the same thing… get rid of stress. It seems like this place has been engineered to add and build stress. So their solution to saving lives is poison and stress. Things just don’t add up.

Freakish question during my PET scan this morning has me wondering about what they saw. They stopped the scan and asked it I had taken chemotherapy or radiation. That made me think it’s getting smaller. That is hopefull thinking. They proceed with a longer scan than originally talked about.

Without my family, crew this place would really suck.

All for now,
God Bless

Sunday, Sunday, Sunday Video Update

Derrick and Benjamin from the tree house.

When looking into my dr notes online I found the answer to a question a lot of you have had. The question is, “Do you have Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma or the Hodgkin’s form of the disease?”
I have diffuse large b-cell lymphoma. This is the most common form of non-Hodgkin lymphoma
The notes also said it had a high proliferation rate. That sounds bad but the folks say that is great because that is the best for chemotherapy to attack. Chemo still scares the hell out of me. I could care less about the fatigue, hair loss, appetite suppression, or any pain it might bring… I just hate killing toxins with toxins.
We will be back in Houston to talk with the doctor and see where we go from here.

God bless
-Derrick

Anti Cancer Tea – Schisandra Berries

Schisandra Berries for Tea

One of the people outside of my family who has really been helping me with this cancer issue is Paula Wyatt. She happens to be our greatest client over the last 10 years. When I stopped in to visit her last week she offered up all the super food she had on hand. This included nuts and berries from all over the world. She has had cancer in the last few years and does a lot of research and nutrition work to make sure she never has it again.

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Everything was great on taste buds but one berrie bag. Bad potpourri is the best way to describe the scent. Extremely bitter is the taste. After reading the health stats and benefits I figured there had to be a way to add this super food to the diet. Eating was just not an option. Someone mentioned making a tea and that worked out to be a great idea.

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Here is the process. I heat a cup of water while a add a 1/2 cup of cold water to a spoon full of berries in my blended. A few pulses splits the berries and makes for quicker brewing. The mix gets poured into the hot water and steps for a few minutes.

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Most of the particular stays on the bottom but strain it off if you don’t want to swallow the floaters.

Next week I’m going to try to mix it with mint and see if I can improve upon what we have here.

Take care
Derrick Perrin.

Watch “09.04.2014 update.” on YouTube

09.04.2014 update.: http://youtu.be/3ReXDYYWqes

We are at MD Anderson today for a round of test. So far blood work and bone scans have been taken care of.

We are getting a little bit of rain and having a good day. Today the on location support staff consist of Kendra, and Mom & Dad. The off location crew is too big to mention.  We thank all of you and keep you in our prayers.

Derrick.

Blending in Bucces

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We are on our way to Houston and had to stop at Buc-ee’s. We always do. This was a different because of my diet. I eat, uh I drink my meals these days. After looking all around the parking lot we had no luck finding a power plug to run the blender. My mom asked and we were granted access to the plug in the center of the store.

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So we blended two smoothies why the customers scratched their heads.

Sorry folks no samples today

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