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Thanks!

Well, well, well-- My private "Twilight Zone" episode continues, boys and girls.

Just got off the phone with the nurse who finalized that I will be going into Methodist Charlton Medical Center Saturday a 7 AM. I will be there two days while they adjust and dicker with my blood thinning meds so that I do not have a stroke. Then the good doc will run some devices down my throat to see how much cancer there is remaining. Hopefully none but if there is any left, it is either another surgery or back to chemo and radiation treatments.

I must say this had been a daunting month and a half trying to get this done. Both my cancer doctor and the threat guy are good at their jobs but getting them or any one of their staff on the phone is like trying to pull a camel through the eye of a needle. As I have said before, the treatments have been fine but trying to get them on the telephone is a experiment in disgust!

So, maybe things are not looking up and on the mend. Seems I should know what is what on Monday next afternoon but considering how commu8nications have gone so far, it may months of grudging silence--

Re: ...Cathy Areu alleged she was sexually harassed by Sean Hannity, Tucker Carlson, Howard Kurtz, and Gianno Caldwell — all prominent Fox hosts.

Cathy Areu is one of Fox's Democrat rag-mouths and to think that Sean, Tucker or Howard Kurtz would sexually harass her is hard to believe. Yet to her mind, disagreeing with her liberal bent would be sexual harassment--

Lastly, Areu is not attractive at all and the manure that comes out of her mouth would kill any Conservative's sex drive.

Well, for years I haven’t called them Redskins, to me they will always be the Deadskins—

Gadzooks and General Jackson-- Imp, I thought asshat Rodger could not get crazier, but by jingo he did!

I can just imagine what our very own 'one-note & one-note only' Antifaish FR trolls are going to post on our NFL Live Thread if there are waves of players kneeling during the National Anthem with grinning Rodger's consent.

I keep asking "What planet this is?" when I awake to each and every new day, and that does not look to ever be ending and answered--

I am finally back home but the trip here is more surreal than Salvador Dalí ever conceived.

Made it to Dallas Thursday morning and have to say the nurses at Baylor Heart & Vascular Hospital are the best looking group I have ever seen and believe me, I've had more than my share of hospital visits! And they seem to know their jobs and do it with a cheerful competent manner.

I got there are 7:15 AM yet I found out that my slot had been pushed back from 9. Turns out it was noon before I went onto the operating table. When I have had these cardiac catheterizations before, when they gave me the happy juice, I went to by-by land and slept right through the whole megillah.

Well, not this time. I was awake through it all. They gave me some pain meds for my aching back and that took the edge off so when they started I kind'a wondered am I awake or am I dreaming this? I had a huge x-ray machine rght over me face blocking my sight of the going ons but I could hear the two docs taking and snapping out orders to the nurses and so forth, but it was all so damn strange.

Finally they finished and I went to recovery. Turns out I was in recovery for about 6 hours, two hours being c-clamped to the bed to halt the bleeding. Finally about 6:30 PM I got to a room and something to eat after near 24 hours without food.

It was meatloaf but no meatloaf I have ever eaten. I have always made and eaten meatloaf that was made from hamburger meat yet this 'meatloaf' appeared made from a solid slab of meat whose taste was nothing like hamburger. Not beef. Nor pork. I don't know what it was but I ate most of it along with the thin brown gravy covering it. The accompanying mashed potatoes were okay but the gravy on it was called 'Poultry Gravy' AND did not have the taste of chicken nor any other fowl I have ever eaten. It was thin and kinda white.

So yada-yada-yada it is the next morning and around 9 AM the Nurse PA had told me I had to stints installed, how to care for myself the next 10 days, to check in with my local cardiologist ASAP and that I would be free top go at noon.

The hospital said I was be discharged and they would take me down whew them ride people gave me a ETA.

I called for my insured paid ride and there came the rub. I was told it would be up to 3 hours before she could call me back with an estimated time of arrival for my ride. I was used to waiting for these rides, so I said okay, kicked back in my hospital bed and started waiting.

Finally at 4 PM I called to the ride folks back to see what was was going on. I was told they had done nothing so far as the hospital had not discharged me and until that happened, no an estimated time of arrival for a ride could be given out. I got the hospital person and they said they could not officially discharge me until the ride people told me I had an estimated time of arrival for my ride. I was officially in 'Catch-22 Land!"

So caught right in the middle of a bureaucratic standoff, I called on my trusted best friend, Carey. Even though he had a houseful of company, he got into his car and came to the hospital to rescue me. He them drive me an hour south home to Corsicana. Thank the Lord for the Careys of the world, they keep sanity in control-- barely!

Still somwwhat in the dark and in limbo as to whether I will have my cancer surgery as that will be decided by the results of this procedure as viewed by the cancer surgeon, my local cardiologist and cancer doc in meetings this coming week or so.

So here I am this morning wondering what crazy set of circumstances got me in and through that nutty past two days?

Again, of course, could anybody make this up?

Well, you just cannot make this stuff up, campers—

It seems my present cardiologist is saying that the cardiologist in Dallas that gave me a heart echo test 12 days ago shouldn't have done so because you do not give that test to a patient that has a pacemaker. Ergo, he was wrong to do the test and also wrong in his diagnose of the test results, which BTW was not send down to my cardiologist #1 as promised so he could read the diagnose.

So, this coming Thursday I travel back up to Dallas for some heart catheterizing procedures and if needed, a new pacemaker installed that also has a defibrillator installed for possible cardiac arrest.

And to top this off, my cardiologist #1 is leaving at the end of the month and I will be having a new one—

All this is taking place without any input from my chemo Doc that I am unable to get in touch with via telephone because his answering system is so screwed up.

Never a dull moment, eh?

Gadzooks-- We need some football! I found myself watching s Madden 2020 simulation of my Boy vs Giants on Youtube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O-ZW-CIV4a8&t=2088s

The Cowboys won 14 - 7 but the strange thing was they seem to have the newly drafted players on the roster but still had Jason G as the Dallas coach?????

Re: Wow! Was she a beast?

If you consider 40 pounds overweight in a dress two sizes too small, teeth yellow from chain smoking and she appeared to apply her makeup with a shovel, yeah--

And she must have know where some bodies were buried because she was still a casting agent with the same studio when I happened to see where she had died from lung cancer back in the early 2000s.

I have written off and on a memoir but the truth be told, I don't see a publisher springing for the story my life. I decided in the mid-90s to use my memories for a "Hollywood" novel and got about 300 pages into it before my health cratered. I haven't looked at it since 1995 and even finding it in those boxes of my files in the bedroom closet is more than I could accomplish today.

Maybe my cousin Henry P will do something with it and/or all my screenplays plus other writings of mine as he gets them in the will--

While there is more than a grain of truth in Netflix's "Hollywood" series, there is a ton of liberal gay fantasy all over the place. I watched the entire series and while was entertained somewhat, I found them skirting the pornographic line about as close as you can get without full frontal nudity and actual sex on camera.

In fact, in the 1948ish time frame of the series, there was sexual perversion out and about Hollywood that would probable equal what is shown in the plot yet it was not as public as "Hollywood" offers up. Folks in the industry knew what was going on but they did not do anything to make it public. Matter of fact they spent considerable time, money and effort to keep it out of the public eye. The out and out sex going on was common knowledge but not public knowledge outside the tight knit film community.

Even in my limited time on the Looney Left Coast, most of the sexual proclivities of the stars, directors, producers and studio heads was known even down to the small fry extras. I was offered parts if I would come across, so to speak, yet I was straight and had no interest in performing in gay sex for any payment big or small.

And I was also once offer the same thing by a female casting agent, but passed on it. Now, I will go to my grave wondering if she had been much better looking and better built, would I have given in? Guess we will never know--

So, I would recommend watching the series if you have a strong enough stomach to get past the hard core gay dialogue for if nothing else to see Jim Parsons forever leave Sheldon Cooper in the dust. He give us the most contemptible, disgusting character in his portrayal of real life agent Henry Willson who made Rock Hudson both figurative and literally. I will now always watch Sheldon in "The Big Bang Theory" reruns with one eye cocked for him breaking out in full blown Henry Willson--

Considering what I have gone through and with more upcoming surgery, I guess it is not unusual to think about death. I once wrote an whole screenplay about death titled "A Funeral for Paulie." It had Paulie leaving a CD of songs he wanted played at his funeral that told his life. And as the songs played flashbacks told the story of Paulie's life.

I ever did the same thing back some fifteen, twenty years ago when I underwent my first serious surgery. I was just at the age my Father had died, so I was sure it was my time, but I didn't go. So as it seems, neither Paulie's nor my CDs got played.

For the best, I guess, as no one wants to sit through 90 minutes of songs. So as if to boil it down to one, if there has to be a song played at my funeral or memorial, I would want it to be "The Rainbow Connection" as the lyrics hit the spot as I see it this day:

“Why are there so many
songs about rainbows
And what's on the other side?
Rainbows are visions,
but only illusions
And rainbows have
nothing to hide
So we've been told,
and some choose to believe it
I know they're wrong,
wait and see
Someday we'll find it,
the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers,
and me

“Who said that every wish
would be heard and answered
When wished on the morning star?
Somebody thought of that,
and someone believed it
Look what it's done so far
What's so amazing
that keeps us stargazing
And what do we think we might see?
Someday we'll find it,
the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers,
and me

“All of us under its spell
We know that it's probably magic

“Have you been half asleep,
and have you heard voices?
I've heard them calling my name
Is this the sweet sound
that calls the young sailors?
The voice might be one and the same
I've heard it too many times to ignore it
It's something that I'm supposed to be
Someday we'll find it,
the rainbow connection
The lovers, the dreamers,
and me--

From Youtube is the video if you had rather hear it at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jS5fTzMP_mg

I have not posted for awhile because I have not felt up to it. I have practically no appetite, no sense of taste, nor any energy to do much of anything except lay around watching TV or sleeping 18 hours a day. I've lost 25 pounds and it keeps going down as I cannot force myself to eat anything that has no taste. I keep hoping it will get better, but so far it stays the same. Still, I shall keep on keeping on--

Take care and God Bless--

Danny

There has been an old proverbial idiom saying "the kettle calling the pot black," of which English versions began back in the first half of the 17th century.

As the years go by I find that it is always being used by a person who is guilty of the very thing of which they accuse another and is thus a prime example of psychological projection, or hypocrisy to the max.

The Democrat have for years made a fine art out of accusing the Trump side of the body politic of committing all the ills and crimes the left does all the time without any guilt nor any notice by their cohorts in the drive by liberal media.

For what it is worth, Sophia Nelson is just another chunk of the manure sprayed out and about these days in blaming Donald Trump for any and every evil, real or imagined, under the sun. And no matter how well she washes, the stink will be on her and her ilk forever.

It was HEB brand six 1,000 sheet rolls

My dear old departed Pappy always had an old saying he used: "Well, mark that on the seat of your pants!" when he saw something strange or something remarkably was said or came to him.

So, let me say, mark that on the seat of your pants, pun intended-- I bought some TOILET PAPER!

Yes sir, re-Bob! Authentic, rolled tissue paper and it was on the rack right there in the HEB right here in Corsicana, Texas, yesterday where previously for the past few weeks there was only an empty stretch of racks on the store's back north wall.

Now that gives me some hope that the very, very worse of the hoarding was beginning to twain. I've also noticed, yet not mentioned, that I have also noticed that distilled water, that I need for my COPD machine, was also now available in HEB whenever I am there.

I am also happy to report that my return to chemo and radiation is still doing well without any major side effects not nausea.

So, if I may say in IMHO all those prayers and support for me has leaked out some extra help to include a softening of the most personal effects of Covid-19 health crisis surrounding all of us.

So my continued thanks and praise for all of y'all who have given freely of your prayers and support for me over my cancer treatment. Keep it up as it is spreading out to do more good than we ever expected!

Take care and God Bless,

Danny

Re: Have you been under a rock for the last 10 weeks?

Considering I do not recall you ever posting to me before on FR, I guess your answer would not be the same rock you evidently have been since 2007 when you joined us here.

As my my present condition is well known through his thread and a few others, I do not feel further evidence need be attached--

However, those with me on this thread and, I supposed that same rock you have me under, have been more than generous with their prayers and support. Therefore, while I continue to thank them and God for their actions, I guess you do not need any further comment nor notice--

Take care and God Bless,

Danny

April Fool's update-- No joke, those shots worked and while the past week's aches and pains while feeling more than lousy side effects were not pleasant at all, it seems they have gone away but did the job of raising my white blood count. That is according to my blood work lab Tuesday.

I was okayed to resume radiation yesterday and it was really a chore as my lower back was acting up enough on its own to make my residing on my back in the atomic atomizer machine for about 20-25 minute a real effort. I hope today's goes better--

I also resume chemo today, so knock on wood, campers. Maybe I will still be nausea and chemo side effects free.

Again my many thanks for all y'all for your prayers and support. Wish I could give each and every one of y'all a big hug! From 6 feet away, that is--

Take care and God Bless,

Danny

Friday update-- The side effects of the shots are showing their wrath. Besides the acid reflux, the aches and pains in my neck, back, hips and knees are there like like I was suffering the flu when I awoke this early this morning. My generic Ben-Gay helped some, but walking around home I needed my quadcane. I feel lousy but my temp is below normal, 97.6--

I was called by the radiation folks telling me to not come in today for treatment. They want me to have a blood test Monday morning before they put me back in the machine. Anywho-- I had to bite the bullet at 8:30 AM and drove myself up to Waxahachie for my third shot this morning. The old Camry did perfect, getting me there and back in one piece. Back in the Big C I made my Post Office stop and then on to HEB where I picked up my new prescription Eliquis 5mg.

Then home noonish feeling ever so tired, I snacked a bit and them popped on the COPD mask for a long nap. Snoozed for about 4 hours and awoke feeling some what better. The aches and pains are much less so sat down and wrote this.

I have a bunch of old TCM films on mu DVR to pass the weekend, so until next time same, bat channel, y'all all take care and God Bless,

Danny

Thursday Update-- Whirlwind day, boys and girls! Started at 8 AM at my cardiologist who will be changing my blood thinner medications to keep me from having a stroke down the pike.

Next a trip north to the Texas town of Waxahachie (Reputed to be in the language of the Kiowa Tribe of Indians to say "You stepped in Buffalo.. eh... droppings!") for my second of five shots to get my white blood count elevated. Many, many, many thanks to Jill Collier, my buddy Brian's lovely wife who chauffeured me up and back in a delightful manner.

The second shot seems to set off a side effect of aches and pains or my age old rheumatoid arthritis wants back in on the action. Either way some BenGay will do the trick or the heating pad will. Knock on wood--

Back in the Big C, I than made my daily trip to the Post Office and HEB, then off to wilds of radiation-land to once more be bombarded by left over bits of Little Boy or Fat Man to stamp out my cancer cells.

Finally, I drove to Wallyworld's gas station for a fill up of my old Toyota in case I have to go it alone tomorrow back to Waxahachie for shot number three if Greg is indisposed by his abscessed tooth. BTW Walmart unleaded was $1.829 and that was the cheapest I've seen it in a blue moon or nine.

So, home again, home again with more old films from TCM and Amazon to while away the hours.

Now, all y'all take care and God Bless,

Danny

Update-- I got the call to come in for the shot but it is not just one. The shot is one of a series of Filgrastim (zarxio) 480 injections to increase my white blood count so that I may start again my chemo treatment. Now, according to the insurance form I signed and got a copy of, the cost is $312.00.

The nurse who gave me the shot also made appointments for me to have another shot tomorrow, one on Friday, then one Monday and the fifth on Tuesday. She did not know if that was the cost of the series of 5 shots or if that was the cost of each. Anyway, I am so happy to have two good insurances that made my co-pay zero.

The nurse also told me to watch for side effects of flu like aches and pains but if my temp should get up to 100.5, to call the doc day or night. So far, my temp is normal and no pains or aches, knock on wood.

Y'all take care and God Bless,

Danny