October 3rd, 2019

They say no news is good news, so therefore this must be the best of news.  there really is nothing going on new with my health.  For that, i am extremely thankful.  Yesterday, I had a friend, and co-worker from another department at my office bring over a delicious meal and cake for supper.  She'd been wanting to do something to assist us, and now that things have settled down some, it was a good time to let her know that it was in fact a good time. 

I am so very thankful for my friends, and people i work with.  I cannot state it in enough words. Honestly i just don't have the words for it.  There really are so many good folks out there.  It is like everything in today's day and age though. you never hear about the good, only the bad.  So i'm making it a point to say and thank all of these good folk who have helped me in one way or another along my journey and fight against Cancer. 

I've also recently been following another person who has Cancer.  He founded AR-15.com, a forum that i frequent quite often as it is pertinent to one of my hobbies.  Unfortunately his Cancer is so much worse, he's having to seek treatment in mexico as he's exhausted all treatments that can be given in the States.  From what all the doctors have said, his outlook is pretty grim, and he may not have much time, but he's a fighter.  His attitude is so refreshing and positive it makes me really strive to have a better attitude as well.  I pray for him daily, as i do many of you who i know, for all sorts of things, big and small.  I pray he gets some beneficial treatment with what he's going through in Mexico. 

In other news i've sold our old couch set (the bonded leather set that was flaking off) This is largely because we're redoing the arrangement of our furniture in our lower level.  We're moving from the front open area of the house, by the front door, to the back open room, near the garage door, as it has the fireplace and is a bit more private as its in the back of the home.  Our lower level is really just wide open areas, so there are no defined rooms other than the Kitchen and thats only because of its counters.  I really had no idea how hard it would be to arrange furniture in the back area.  but it is a bit difficult. 

Alex, is getting close to finishing up work on the purple camaro, so my car should be road worthy here shortly hopefully.  Goodness knows I sure am excited about driving it again to a cruise in, or even to my work office for a day just to see what they say lol.


anyways, thats about all i have now that i'm over the Pnuemonia.  

September 28, 2019 - My Charleston Visit and Checkup.

just a quick update, as today @d16man and i went down to charleston for a doctor visit to my bone marrow transplant team. It was a routine check up/check in with them.

long story short, I Got a great review by my doctor in Charleston. My labs are great and I don’t have to come back to Charleston for another checkup here for another six months!! All praise to God. My doctor, Dr. Napoli said that I’m on path for the six to nine month remission plan that he’s seen with some other patients. and he thinks that is what my numbers are trending towards, So we can pray for that!!! Thank you all for your support and prayers, i could not have came this far without all of your support, prayers, and well wishes.  I'm a believer in the power of Prayer, so please keep those coming as they've really been a huge help to me.  I cannot thank you guys enough, everyone who's helped me, large or small, has really humbled me, and just made me be at a loss for words.  Thank you all so much for your kindness support, and prayers. 

Pneumonia and turning 44.

Wow.  It's been like 22 days or more since i posted last. 

It goes to show you how fast time flies, and how much can change in a short amount of time.  Where to start.  On the 31st of August i went to see a movie with my bro Larry.  We went and saw Spider man Far from home.  It was great.  Had a good time.  I felt a little more fatigued and winded more than usual.  All day that day I had worked in my work office, and was hot.  while everyone else was cold in the office.  That should have been the first clue.  I went home after the movie and crashed.  The next morning was a Saturday and i felt like shit.  Finally around 11 am i took my temperature, and it read 102.8.  That was no good at all. I had to immediately call my oncologist, and then my BMT team oncologists in Charleston.   they all came to the same decision, go to the Emergency Room.  So by now its 130 pm and the wife and I are headed to the ER. 

We get to the ER, and thank goodness for the Oncologist, they expedited my arrival, and i went straight back just about.  While there, i had x-rays done of my chest, and had to have an ultrasound used to find a vein to put in the IV in my arm.  Once they did that they filled me with fluids, and IV antibiotics.  They diagnosed me with Community Acquired Pneumonia and prescribed me some antibiotics and sent me home after about 5 hours of being in the ER. I felt better for the most part the rest of that day and night, and all day Sunday.. however Sunday night was horrible, and i was having the chills and sweats and couldn't stop either.  So Monday i called back my oncologist, who looked at what i was prescribed and felt that i needed a stronger antibiotic.  She prescribed one and Emily was kind enough to go to CVS for me as usual and picked it up.  I started the rotation of that antibiotic, per the doctors orders and sometimes i felt fine, sometimes i didn't.  and yet other times i still had the sweats and chills. this went  on till Wednesday when i called back again, and my oncologist said come in to the office.  so that Thursday morning Emily and I went in for an appointment.

Thursday mornings appointment was fairly standard, blood was drawn, and then we saw my oncologist.  After 2 minutes meeting with her, she said I don't pass the eye test, as in i looked horrible and miserable.  She recommended me being admitted to the hospital right then and there.  so i was admitted to the hospital.   It was my first time being in the new wing that was built.  The rooms were big and clean and nice. I had a little anxiety though as i didn't want it to work out like last time where i ended up being in the hospital for over 2 months.   While i was in the hospital they had to do more Xray's of my chest, and since they couldn't find a vein to set an IV in my arms, I had to go to radiology and have a mid line put in my upper arm.  This had two ports on it and was much easier to put fluids in me and Antibiotics in me.  They loaded me up with 5 antibiotics at once on drip and 1 in push as well.  They did this for two days straight, and by the second day i was feeling much better and no longer had the sweats and shakes, I even was able to take a shower  and get cleaned up.  Friday morning the doctor came by and said we could probably go home on Monday.  Seeing that my birthday was coming up on Tuesday, I had previous plans to celebrate with my in laws that weekend and they were coming in from out of state and what not so I really didn't want to stay in the hospital over the weekend.  I asked the Doctor if i felt well enough is there any way i could leave Saturday morning.  She stated that if I felt good enough and the weekend doctor thought that I looked good enough to be discharged i would be able to.    Saturday rolled around, and i felt much better, and the weekend doctor agreed, so I went home. Thank goodness!!!!

I was able to watch the Carolina football game that day, with my family, at home.  While i didn't feel great, I did love having them here with me and being home.  The next few days I didn't do much other than rest, and spend time with my family.  I had a great birthday, on the 10th, had wonderful dinner and presents and more than i could ever ask for honestly. The only one that i'd say was missing was my Dad, but he lives in VA so its hard to make it down.  I would say my mother and sister were missing but unfortunately that relationship still is quite estranged, especially with the mother side of things.  Shes not bothered reaching out to me since her last phone call to me when i was in Charleston for my bone marrow transplant last April. Kinda shitty. actually, not kinda, more like totally.  so be it though.  Until they are clean and sober and sane i cannot deal with them.

The rest of the week was pretty good as i rested and healed as i went to a few doctors appointments and got a clean bill of health from the pneumonia.  That brings us to the rest of this past week.  I've spent my day's working from home.  building my strength and trying to make sure i'm healthy.   Work has been good, although i miss going in to the office to see my colleagues. 

My buddy Alex has been working on my Camaro for the past month or so roughly, and he's been getting very close to being done with it.  Sadly he's found that my carburetor may be a culprit, and that it may be bad.  This is not good as it can be a 600.00 issue or more.  I'm not looking forward to having to spend more money on the car, but i want to have it dependable and it is almost there thanks to Alex.  I'm very excited about that. 

Well that is about it for now, so i'm going to stop here and say until next time.  

Have you ever noticed, nothing's quite as good as the original?

Today, As i came home from my abdominal ultrasound appointment, I saw a newer volklswagon beetle getting off the interstate.  it was bright yellow, and a little grey haired woman was driving it and on the bottom of the door it said in black lettering 'Beetle".  At first i thought nothing of it, until i read the word beetle.  It was then it struck me, thats not a beetle, thats the modern bug, Thats when it hit me.  Nothing, is ever quite as good as the original.

the nostalgia that was invoked thinking about the original beetle will never, be able to be invoked by that 2000s era bug.  Cover bands, while good, are not as good as the original.  Even Journey, with their newish lead singer, as good as he is... is not, steve perry. I imagine this holds true most of the time, but I bet there are some times that the newest version is way way better than the original, but id wager that depends on what you're after.  Performance for instance.  The new corvette is hands down better in every form of performance than the original, but does it invoke the nostalgia and class of the original? of course not. it cant.  Its too new for one. 

ahwell.. just a random thought while driving.  ponder it if you'd like.


p.s.  Ultrasound went well, other than the positions and pressure she had to apply or have me in hurt my back, and im hurting a good bit right now.

Chemo Round 2, Second cycle.

I'm exhausted.  Flat out Exhausted, still.   even after a weekend that was pretty mild, and full of a good bit of resting.   Last week, i pushed myself pretty hard.  In fact I'm pretty sure i over did it.  What did i do that was so draining you ask?  well I was off Chemo, so that was a big plus for once, however, i ended up getting up early every day except Wednesday, and going in to the office to work.  That's right, i actually went in to the office, and worked the entire day four days last week. 

Monday and Tuesday, Emily and I car-pooled together.  It was awesome.  I really enjoyed our ride to and from work together.  Yes, i had her get to work real early so she had time to kill, and yes, i had to stay late in the parking lot and wait an hour after i got off work, but it was nice being able to car-pool together.  I was very tired each night though, and pretty much just had supper each day and went to bed. Wednesday i stayed home and worked from home, so it wasn't that exciting. 

Thursday I drove my own Truck in to the office, and she drove her car.  I got sent home a little early as it was a slow evening, and i was exhausted and my co-workers could tell.  I fell asleep when i got home promptly at like 330 pm, and didn't wake up until after Emily had finished cooking supper.  I ate supper and went back to sleep till the next morning.  Friday morning we car-pooled again,  This time because at lunch i had to take her car to Jim Hudson GMC for it's 30 day checkup.  All went well with that, except they are ordering a new steering wheel to be installed for it, as the plastic trim on it isn't exactly fitting perfectly.  They'll call me once the new parts are in, and schedule a date for me to bring the car in for repair/replacement.  So after that, i went back to the office and worked the rest of the day.  I left work and went to wait to pick Emily up.  We picked up supper and went home. Ate, and watched some Live PD before bed.   I was dozing mostly during the live PD though, and dont remember much of anything. 

Saturday rolled around, and Emily let me sleep in as much as I could. Unfortunately that is not much because i tend to get headaches if I stay in the bed too long.  I did nap some more on the couch while she did some Grocery shopping and went to Pets mart to get some litter for the cat.  That afternoon we met a guy about a gun, and had a quiet evening.  Emily had really worked hard all morning/ day  cleaning, changing litter, etc.  I did go with her to the dump, so we did do that too.  It was a busy day for her more than me, but I was still exhausted. 

Sunday rolls around, and yet again, Emily and I are exhausted still. I end up sleeping quite a bit, either in bed or on the couch, and she does the same.  She also was kind enough to go to CVS for me and get my medications, while cooking a home made crock pot chicken and dumplings, which were exquisite. I really enjoyed them, and would love to eat them a lot more honestly. but they are so filling that one serving is all you can manage.  It was early to bed for me then too, as I knew i needed my rest considering that i had to work on Monday. 

Monday, today, is the beginning of the week.  I'm working from home again.  After last week's learning of a new ticketing system, which is primarily what i do, I needed to test out how i'd work from home doing what i would now be doing from home as its totally different from what it was last 2 weeks ago.  Luckily half way through the day, it appears to be going well.  I'm still exhausted mind you, and i started chemo again today.  Which is not my happiest thing to do, but so be it.

Later this week, i have a dentist appointment and i have to go get an ultrasound on my abdomen, due to elevated liver enzyme levels at the last time i was in my oncologist office.  This should be a busy week, and I sure hope i can get some meaningful rest.  Time will tell.  I've not decided if or when i'll go back to the office to work.  Maybe i will do one day this week, i am not sure yet.  a lot depends how i feel and what all i have going on with doctor appointments.Anyways, im going to sign off for now, and i'm gonna leave you without any neat photo inserts this time.. just a nice big, wall of text.  Thanks for reading, and please feel free to comment, or donate through my Go-Fund-Me or Paypal. 

The past week and weekend, up through Tuesday August 20th.

Today is August 20th.  I've had quite a few action packed days since the last posting. Last week, I got a DM(direct message) from one of my dear friends Mike Herring.  I haven't seen mike in quite some time, but we talk on occasion, and this random message and subsequent conversation did me good.  I really enjoyed it, and catching up with him is always fun.  He was preparing to go for a good vacation out to Hawaii.  I pray that the trip is as much for him as it was for me when i went, even though i was in severe pain at the time due to having un-diagnosed cancer at that time.   He and I go way back, so much so he was even a groomsman in my wedding.  It did me good to talk with him, i hope he realizes that.  I hope he also can come by sometime soon to visit in person.  I'd love to see him even if all we do is sit on the couch and b.s. to  chit-chat. 

Thursday, Emily and I had a dinner date with Jay and Danielle Corely.  We met them at a restaurant in Lexington and had a wonderful meal along with great conversation.  In all we probably spent 2-3 hours with them talking and just enjoying each others company.  It was well overdue, as we hadn't really sat down with them for a meal ever. We got to talk about all sorts of things from the past car club years to new things like the new Acadia and what not. It was real good to see them and we made an executive decision that next time we go out to eat it'll probably be a Saturday and we'll go to Shealy's Barbecue .Wanna talk about good, man that stuff is to die for...

Friday rolled around and while fairly uneventful for working at home wise, I was able to get my tasks done in time to relax a bit before an old high school / Winn-Dixie alum came by.  Jason Stull.  He and I have been friends over 26 years now we figure, and have forged a life long friendship through our shared experiences through school, work, and outside of both when we were younger.  He's since high school graduated from Clemson University in Mechanical Engineering, and served 4 years in the United States Navy aboard the USS George Washington Carrier.  He has a beautiful family, 2 kids and his wife.  His wife, Sarah, has a family lake house out on Lake Murray, which they vacation to sometimes.  Jason was unable to go with them this year due to work, but Sarah and the kids met up with family and went down the week prior.  Jason was coming through town to pick them up from the end of their vacation, and wanted to stop in to see me.  So we made the arrangements and he came by around 7 pm Friday night.  We had a great time, and as a little surprise for him i arranged for my good friend Jason Parks to drop in as well, (we all went to the same high school, worked at winn-dixie together, etc) so it was like a mini-reunion.  We talked to what musta been close to 11 pm before we decided it was getting too late and he had better get going again as it was still another 25-35 minutes of a drive for him to get out to the lake house, and i was getting darn tired.  Unfortunately with the cancer i tend to not have as much stamina as i used to have. :(   

Reflecting upon our conversations, which were all over the place, it did me real good to see Jason and Jason together with me.  We talked about friends and folks we haven't seen, even some folks whom i would never have thought ended up like they did sadly.  It shows you time is neat, but more so can be cruel.  And it also shows you that not everyone stays the same over time.  People change... and not always for the better.   The good news was, that both Jason's are doing great.  Jason S's wife Sarah had been fighting Breast Cancer for 2 plus years and is in remission, fighting and living well now, and my hat is off to her, that is  one strong woman.  Cancer is no joke, it effects the spouses like Jason and Emily just as much as it effects the person with it, Myself, and Sarah.  But i will tell you this, without a strong marriage partner, you will not survive near as easily in my opinion with cancer.  Jason and Sarah are blessed to have each other, just as I am blessed to have Emily.    Overall however, the visit was great, and I wish i could have a month more days like that to hang out with him and just do whatever like we did that night.

Saturday was just as busy.  Emily's mom and her handy-man Dan came down from rock hill to help out mounting a motion lamp in the back yard, and around 3pm my co-worker Cleve was planned to come by the house.  We also were blessed by having Emily cook her famous Chili for us, which was ready right around 3 pm.  So right as Cleve showed up, we were all finishing off our first bowls of Chili.  Luckily she made more than enough for us all to have multiple bowls of it, and thus Cleve was more than happy to have some when we offered.  Her chili is to die for.  Everyone was quite happy with the food, and we watched some of Jaws II while we hung out.  Shortly afterwards my Mom in law and Dan had to leave, so Cleve and i continued our talks and movie watching well into the night.  by 11 pm he was tired and so was I so he had to leave to head home.  I really enjoyed his visit.  It is good that he and I are as close as we are as i think he's the one person i'm closest with at work.  We talked about everything at work, positions, the future, speculation about both, people, and non work things too like movies our spouses, his kids, the whole 9 yards really.  It was a great evening that just put a crown jewel on the night. 

                                                   

Come Sunday i was so tired Emily let me sleep in until 10, and i was so tired still i napped on the couch in and out of consciousness until 3:15 pm.  when she wanted to go take our weekly run to the dump.  We did this, and she surprised me with the suggestion of going to rushes for pineapple shakes.  Who am i to complain about this?!?!!  I love their pineapple shakes, so i took her up on that quite quickly.  We then headed home, as I pulled in the yard, Alex Crumpton, who's working on my purple car, texted saying whats going on with the car, so i opted to go on over to his garage to get him what he needs for the car, as well as show him some new stuff i wanted done to the truck.  Alex and his assistant were really making a lot of headway on the car, as well as a massive Diesel truck they had in there in the other bay as well.  Quite an accomplishment.   Alex is truly talented.  I'm excited that he's doing the work on the Purple car, and that he's as meticulous as he is on it. Its reassuring to know that he is that way, as it is how i am too when i work on things. s Which i miss a lot by the way.  The ability to work on ca rs is one of the cruelest things this disease could have took from me and it did.  No, life's not fair at all. 

After a short visit with Alex about the car I was pretty well tapped out energy wise, so i headed back home and crashed on the couch with Emily for a bit, then we went upstairs and lay in bed and was knocked out. before i knew it it was Monday morning, which involved a whole new amount of stress and fatigue, thats right, I went to work in the office.  for the FULL day.  or at least that was my goal.  Im proud to say that i made my goal as well.

  In the morning Emily and I car pooled to her work, and i dropped her off around 745 am so she could go sit outside till 8 am and go into Starbucks on main campus and get her breakfast sandwich and coffee.  She of course loved the Starbucks, and i went on to work.  I worked the whole day at my office.  With out too much pain, of course, as that is the driving factor in my life.  5 pm rolled around and i had made it without too much pain.  Who'd of thought that i was able to do that.  I know I wouldn't have been able to do so but i sure did. So i proceeded to go to the University Health Center to pick up Emily.  after about 45 minutes of waiting in the car she got off work, and we were on our way home.  Once we got home i was so exhausted (as was Emily) we fell asleep on the couch and slept there till about 930, at which time we relocated upstairs, and promptly fell asleep again.  I know i slept like a brick for the rest of he night.  6 am shows up way to fast when you have to go to work in the mornings. 

Today is Tuesday, its almost over at work, i have just 2 hours left, give or take.  I pray i can make it again.  I'm already planning on not going in tomorrow as i have to have my new chemo meds delivered.  That and the fact that im flipping exhausted. So I will plan on trying to work from home tomorrow and see what i can do then. Learning the new system so far has not been trouble at all for me, in fact i think it is a bit easier than the last one, with all of its issues and convoluted ways of doing things.   The new system is much better over all and more intuitive if you ask me.

and that's about it really.  At this time all else is going well, I just wish i had more stamina or energy so that i could maintain my working of every day at the office. but so far being able to do two back to back hasnt been as bad as it could have been.  I've had back pain yes, and stomach pain, and hot flashes as well still, but they haven't been unbearable like they were weeks ago, right now they are just ok, so i'll push through that for the rest of the day if i can. 

Midweek - 8-14-19

So today is Wednesday.  It's been a very busy week so far.  I've had to work of course and that is normal.  Monday and Tuesday I worked from home, but mid day Monday I had to go with Emily to her Doctor appointment.  He checked her out and said she's looking like she has a clean bill of health, but wanted her to start a journal of the times and duration, and activity she was engaged in when  her heart felt slow or fast paced.  That way he can see if there's a pattern to her feeling as she does.  Unfortunately this didn't sit well with Emily, as she tends to think that the doc didn't think there was anything wrong and discounted her complaints, when in reality its not that, its just that he needs more data to see the pattern to know if it is medication related, or otherwise.  I think if she is able to be diligent on the recordings of the variations in her heart rate, the doctor will be able to point us in the right direction .  Doc did also mention it could be medication induced, as some of her meds are a cocktail for slowing down things. 

Then Tuesday rolled around.  Not much change here, except Em started her Fall / Spring schedule of work, which is go in at 9 am and not get home until after 630 pm.  So it was depressing for me because i liked  her getting home by 5:15 every day.

 One thing we've been doing lately since I got back from being in Charleston for the Bone Marrow Transplant is having supper once a week or every couple weeks with my good friend and the man who was my best man in my wedding, Jason Parks.  Jason came by last night with his prepped meal, and cooked for us again.  This time he served Hamburgers, tater tots, and blackberries. He's a good cook, and made a good cheeseburger last night.  I could only eat mine and a few of the blackberries,  unfortunately the Tots were under cooked a little, and well honestly i was so full off the burger i doubt that i could have enjoyed the tots much without becoming totally miserably full.  That is never good so i'm glad i didn't eat them all.  All three of us did however enjoy our time together and our little chats during cooking and eating.  I value these times with Jason more than I've been able to put into words because i'm a guy for one, and for another its just not came up for discussion.  It's very nice to spend time with him though this way.  We've had a pretty much lifelong friendship, and have played an important part in each other's lives throughout the years. I hope he realizes how much his friendship means to me.

Today, Wednesday, I had to go into my work office for the first time in a long time to work. It originally was to be because of some training that i needed to do on a new software package that we are going to be utilizing to log in work orders.  Well like all things that Prisma Health does, they didnt  have the training documents, presentations, or media ready, so they cannot conduct an online training course if you dont have that stuff.  I decided to go into work anyways, because i figured that I should go in and see how long i can last without too much pain.  This is a big deal because my back just doesnt handle being up for too long, its 130 pm now, and i can really feel the pain in my back now, and oddly my stomach has sharp pains in it too.  So I dont know.  I imagine i'll be heading out of here soon to return to the house without too much pain.

The rest of this week is shaping up to being just as busy as the beginning of the week has been.  Thursday night after work Emily has arranged us to meet up with another dear friend of ours Danielle Corley, and her husband Jay, for supper.  We are going to get pizza most likely and enjoy some time with them discussing our lives, and whatever may come up as a topic. We were fortunate to have seen Jay already once this week, last Sunday, he came by the house and weed eated, edged, and trimmed our hedges at the house.  these are the things that Emily cant do, as the tools too heavy for her.  She Mowed last Saturday morning so having the edging and what not done was necessary as the grass and weeds were starting to try to grow up into and under the vinyl siding of the house.  He (Jay) runs his own landscaping company and we've had him out to the house now a few times to actually trim it up for us. 

Friday, I have an old high school buddy of mine named Jason Stull coming by the house in the afternoon.  He lives in Virginia Beach, but he is coming through Columbia Friday and let me know he'd like to be able to drop by. I told him that would be awesome.  I've known Jason Stull almost as long as I've known Jason Parks, and we've had a lifelong friendship since high school / winn-dixie days here as well.  Jason's a great guy, served in the Navy after he graduated from Clemson university, got married and had a buncha kids.  Sadly his wife, Sara, has also had a rough road health wise like me with Cancer.  i should actually reverse that, as she was diagnosed long before I was, and she's been fighting the battle much longer than I have.  Talk about an inspiration.  She is a true warrior.  I pray for her health, and Jason and her often.  Anyways, I look forward to seeing Jason Friday afternoon, as it's been too long since I've seen him last.  Its funny looking back 25 years ago to high school days, and actually saying, 25 years ago, are high school days.  I really wonder where the time has gone. 

Winn-Dixie, my first real Job.

LHS Wildcats for LIFE!

Saturday, Emily's mom will be coming down with her friend/Handy-Man Dan.  Dan's going to put in a Flood light for the back yard, to ensure that we have ample lighting coverage out back as Mary Ann does not think its lit up enough at night as it gets pretty dang dark at the house at times.  If it were up to me, I'd put 2 flood lights in, one on each corner of the back of the house, to illuminate the entire back yard.  I'll suggest it, but I really don't know what Dan's plans are.  Also, Saturday afternoon, my co-worker and dear friend Cleve will be coming by the house in the afternoon. He's been meaning to come by and hang out with me for a while now and we just now have gotten it scheduled so that he can come and hang out.  We will hang out and what not and catch up on what is going on at work and in our own lives.  I look forward to this time with him. 

Sunday aside from church depending on how i feel, i do not think there is anything else that we are planning on doing.  These days our weekends go by so fast, and bless emily's heart she works so hard around the house when shes not at work, taking care of me, the cat, or the house itself, i feel like she never gets a break.  Its one of the reasons i decided to try to see if we could go get the Acadia for her, as i felt she needed to have a reward of some sort, even if she has to pay for it, a reward of what she has wanted for many years, and besides her old pontiac was getting worn down.  So it was time to get her a new car.  I hope she realizes how much i value her, and that she's invaluable to me. I'd be lost without her. 

Friday the 9th of August, and the week preceeding...

Today is Friday. It's been a busy work week, and i have had to visit the doctor yesterday as well.  I'm still having hot flashes, and those don't make me feel very well. I've been having a hard time sleeping lately, at least, getting good sleep.  I wake 2, 3, 4 times a night minimally.  I am not sure what is keeping me from getting a good night sleep, usually, however last night i knew what it was. My stomach was upset severely, and it caused me a lot of pain until about 2 am when it finally worked its way out. 

In regards to yesterday's doctors appointment, it was a standard visit of lab, and then consult, just for check up.  this is the first since i'd been back on my Chemo regimen.  The visit went well, however my labs had not been back by the time i saw my nurse practitioner so we didn't go over much.  I did get a phone call a bit later after i left, and they stated that they wanted to schedule me for an abdominal ultrasound.  The reasoning was that my liver enzymes were elevated.  I don't know what could have caused the liver enzymes to be elevated, other than i'm on new medication (the chemo) especially when comparing my last labs to the last visit i had been almost a month prior.  So for now pray that it is the new medication, and not anything else bad is going on.  I know i'm a bit worried about it since they want the ultrasound.

After the doctor appointment i left and went by the county courthouse to pay taxes on the purple Camaro, and then to the DMV to turn in license plates, and get a new one for my purple Camaro.  I've done this because my good friend Alex, has been working on the car to get it running right for me. It's been damn near 10 years since it was  on the road running and driving, and it's been that long since it's been tagged.  Now that it's been tagged it will be road legal which is good, as its over due, and once Alex has her fixed up and running reliably i'll be able to drive her on a routine manner.  I'm really excited about this, because it has been so long. The last video alex sent me was this one where he'd gotten the driver door poppers to work again thankfully.

As you can see the popper is working again without issue thankfully.  This makes it easier now to secure the vehicle. Instead of having it to have to be in the garage, it can park outside if i need to, to be able to open it up without having to crawl through the trunk, which in my current health condition i can no longer do truthfully.  He's made a lot of head way with the car from what I've seen and he's even looked into things like the dash lighting which is incredibly dim to be lit up by LED's if need be.  I don't know if hes going to swap them out for me or not but i mentioned that and he said he was already looking at it so for that i too am thankful.   Alex has really been  a big help with the car. I'm going to be forever thankful for his assistance with it. I truly feel that without his help i'd never get it done.  And lets be honest here, call it morbid, or call it whatever you chose to but i don't know how much time I will have here on this planet.  You may say none of us do, but i feel that i know i have even less as each day is a gift with my disease, and as such to be able to have my friend fix my car so that i can drive it again, with my wife, like we used to when we first started dating, is a big blessing.  One that i cant put into enough words to explain to him how much it means that he's doing this for me.

So the above image, "I admire people who choose to shine even after all the storms they've been through." was shared to my facebook wall this morning by my wife.  She also wrote this " Steve Hafner, you are an inspiration...I hope you know how much I love you"    To me this meant the world.  I don't know how she knew that I needed to hear something like this today but she did, and she posted it.  There are a lot of times that I feel a bit down, and while i have a great support system from her, and our family, and friends, I can be a good bit dark.  Her posting this though really helped me today, so that i wasn't that dark in feeling.  between how i feel physically and how i can go dark or sad at any time just sucks.  Lately i've not felt 100% and i attribute that to the new chemo regimen. when i dont feel physically well, i tend to get down and get darker thoughts than normal, which i suppose is not odd given my medical condition and current diagnoses.  I hope that things get better and that i continue to heal, but i dont know what the future will hold, and while that is scary normally, its even more so now to me.  I'm rambling.. so im gonna go for now.

August 5, 2019 and the post weekend recap

Since my last posting here. a weekend has elapsed and I'm back at work once more, working from home of course.  Unfortunately over the weekend I didn't sleep well.  I tended to wake every hour on the hour almost Friday night/Saturday morning, and finally getting up around 7:30 am.  It was good to get up then, as my wife, Emily, had a busy day scheduled for herself.  Saturday was her final appointment with her long time hair dresser, whom resided in Rock Hill.  She had to drive up there to go with her mom to get their hair done, and eyebrows done as well.  Since Rock Hill is a little over an hour drive, she had to leave no later than 830 to be there by 930, so she could get her mom and go to the first appointment at 10:30.  After all this she and her mom had lunch, and went shopping some before her returning home that evening. 

During the day, while Emily was gone, I was able to nap some.  That was able to get me to about 1 pm, which is when my buddy Jason came over and we went up to PSA.   Palmetto was slammed with people, which isn't a surprise because it was a gun show weekend.  Either way, we were able to pickup the lower receivers that we had ordered months ago.  Unfortunately while at PSA, I started to not feel so good.  I felt hot flashes, and some stomach issues as well.  I truly hate having the hot flashes and add stomach issues on top of that it really sucked.  As far as lowers go i'm very pleased with my SPACERIDER one. its SN is #21, and that to me is acceptable.  The minute men lowers however i was not that happy with serial number wise.   I bought 2 of them and had hoped that they would have serial numbers below 100.  Unfortunately they are over 400, to be exact they are 401 and 403, which makes no sense, and even less when you know Jasons is 405.  I never will understand how i get such a  high SN on my lowers when i end up buying them within 15 minutes of them being released.  On average i'd be  happy if my SN was within the first 100 produced. 

Now once we had our lowers in hand  we headed back to my home.  I stopped at Bojangles for some french fries, cause i thought that maybe my stomach issue was due to needing to eat something with more substance than just a pack of M&M's and a minute maid lemonade drink.  And about that time we got back to the house and relaxed a good bit it was close to 5 pm.. Jason had  called his girlfriend right before we got home and she showed up around 530 to pick him up.  Em got home sometime around 6-630 if i'm not mistaken, and we had supper.  After supper we went over to Alex's shop, to check out his progress with the purple car.

Alex had made a lot of headway on the car.  He re-wired the battery to be up front in the car, instead of being in back, and then re-wired the starter, alternator and battery. As you can tell by the video, it makes starting the car much easier.  This is excellent because it was so difficult to always crank, if at all. Now as he continues to work on the car and continues to troubleshoot its problems we are getting into more wiring behind the dashboard and issues there.  He's already found a switch that looked like something melted through it, that he has to replace. see below photo:

One thing that self corrected as soon as he wired the front battery and grounded it correctly was the gas gauge.  By doing the battery up front, it gave a proper 12 volts to everything in the car, thus causing the dashboard lights and gauges to read properly.  Thats right, from here on out the gas gauge read right without having to drop the tank.  thank goodness for that.  I do have to do the third-gen resistor soldier on the factory tachometer board.  It's an easy enough thing to do, and i may already have one done, i just have to find it, as i had done a few back when i had my Convertible 91 Z28. I can only imagine what other wiring nightmares he will uncover behind the dashboard as there had been known issues with wiring regarding the heater / blower motor and radio and other things. 

Alex has also been working on changing the fluids in the car, first the radiator fluid.  He found a bunch of gunk in the heater core, and the hoses, so as he has cleaned it out and cycled the cleaner out of it he also has plans to change the oil, the transmission fluid, and the rear end fluid.  After that he will also tune the car, tune the carb, adjust timing, and adjust the valves. He has so much to do, but yet works so quickly I've been amazed at how fast he works and how thorough he is in his work.  I took Alex a little money for parts and a old battery i had here at the house over to the shop with Emily's help Saturday night.  The car sounded even better in person, and i was impressed with the quality of work i saw being done.  Thanks be to Alex.  I cant thank him enough.

Sunday rolled around, after yet another sleepless night.  Emily and I had a busy day planned because of the lack of productivity around the house on Saturday. First stop was Khols.  Emily wanted to go by there to see if there were any deals on comforters for our spare bedrooms, as the one set of sheets and comforters we had for those rooms were getting pretty worn down.  After Khols, we had to go to CostCo, for our normal once a month shopping trip for household supplies and food. 

While at CostCo, we ran into Lindsie, my boss at work.  I was so glad to see him, we spoke for a good 20-30 minutes there catching up on things, and I was very happy to have had this time with him.  It was really great seeing him.  I really miss spending time with my co-workers and work family.  Even though I work remotely, it is not the same as working in the office.  I just wish my back would hold up to being at work physically better than it does at this point. 

After CostCo we went to Publix, and finished our grocery shopping.  We went home from publix cooked up some left overs, and had lunch.  I had two pieces of leftover home run inn pizza that was pretty good, then i napped the rest of the afternoon.  Emily was able to spend most of the afternoon after her nap doing laundry, and then also cooking her family recipe Baked Muscacholi.  It was an excellent supper, with which we had garlic bread.  YUM! 


That pretty much brings us up to Monday morning.  Work commences almost immediately when i get up and get plugged in, so by 730 am this morning i was up and running. I verified i had all the information i needed, all the work orders were clear, and I caught up on emails until the first work orders came in.  This continued throughout the day until about 230-3pm when my friend Judson came by.  He dropped in after being at PSA to pick up his lowers.  He was able to hang out until around 330 before he had to go pick up his daughter from dance.  I was glad for his visit, i enjoy his conversation, and his opinion on so many things. I almost feel like we've not talked much lately and when i do get to see him, its too short of a period of time. Even for today it wasn't long enough.  I worked all day long, from home, and finished up the day just now at 5pm. 

I dont really feel that great, in fact i just had a dizzy spell, and some more heat flashes.  I wish there were something i could do about those but so far i know nothing i can do about them.  I will watch some of the news tonight i'm sure, and be disgusted about the liberal narrative regarding these horrific shootings that have happened over the weekend. I dont know what i'll do for supper, as i'm not that hungry right now, due to the late lunch. Anyways, i'll post more soon, thanks for reading, and for your support.

Steve's Go-Fund-Me

The evening of August 2nd...

She's All loaded up for transport captian!

Wow.. When i finished writing this afternoon i thought i was in for a quiet evening. I was wrong.  After i got off work at 5, I received a text from my buddy Alex.  he said he could come pick up my Purple Camaro today, to be worked on, so that we can get it to be a dependable car.  I've been having Alex work on the car off and on here in my Garage over the past year, year and a half, and since my house's garage is so small it was time to take the car to his shop to get it finished up.  So you know when he called I was super ready for him to get it, and Emily helped me move the cars around, and then empty out the Camaro of any parts or tool that weren't necessary in it in preparation For Alex to come pick her up.  Alex and Tommy showed up with a beautiful rig and trailer, and before you knew it, we had the car loaded up and on the way to his garage.  All that was left was for me and Emily to move the Cavalier from the front yard to into the garage where the purple car once sat. 

Alex Goofing while tying down Purple to the Trailer.

The Rat/king snake that offended Emily

So at this time I get into the Cavalier, and start backing her out of the yard, line her up to back into the garage, and Emily who's guiding me tarts freaking out saying something on the front bumper is moving, and she thinks its a snake!!!  So i pull forward 3/4 the way up the drive way and sure enough this foot and a half long corn or king snake falls out from the front end area onto the driveway.  this freak Emily out of course, she throws me the broom when asked to, and shuts the garage door.  then comes out front with me, and goes and gets our neighbor Chris.  I was going to just sweep him into the gras/bushes, since i didn't think he was poisonous i was just gonna scare him off.  Well, luckily Chris and his father were there for Emily's peace of mind, and they caught the snake, and carried it bare handed to the new phase of our neighborhood and released it. After all that, I was able to back the Cavalier into the garage safely.  Emily popped the hood, and brought in the cover from outside where she had rolled it up.  We then closed up the house, and went to her car, and drove over to Alex's shop, which isn't far from the house, in fact, its about 3 miles away, near Nazareth Church road. 

After the short ride, she's unloaded. 

Once we had got to Alex's shop, we unloaded the car from the trailer, and then put her into the empty bay with the pit.  that way working from below wont be so bad.  Theres quite a bit to be done to the car, to get it in a semi reliable manner, but I have full confidence in Alex, this is child's play compared to him rebuilding an entire C10 truck and swapping frames, LS motors, transmissions, and everything else he's done before.  I don't have much money, but He's going to work with me on it so I'm thankful that he will.  I hope he knows how much this means to me, as with me having cancer now, i tend to feel my own mortality more, and it will be awesome to be able to drive the car again, and remember happier times when Emily and i were just dating, as opposed to now with me having cancer, and not knowing what the future holds or how long it may hold me.  I'm forever thankful to him for helping me like this, it truly mean the world to me. 

New temporary Home over "the pit"

Ready to be worked upon straddling the Pit. 

After she was pushed into place over the pit as seen above, we were pretty much done for the night. I spoke with Alex a bit about what needs to be done, and we decided that I'd make a list of things and send it to him via facebook messenger.  I've got the list here as to what we need to address, now keep in mind this is just a tentative list that gives us general direction on what to start with: 

1 Gas Gauge reading incorrectly.Drop tank and correct.

2 Starter rebuild? Pull starter test, and rebuild if necessary.

3 Grounds to chassis, frame, body, engine

4 Grounds to battery to chassis frame and engine and body

5 Setup front mounted battery. 

6 Check electrical wiring for dash wiring. Heater blower etc.

7 Check radio wiring/fuses/console wiring/fuses for melting wiring.

8 check all dash wiring for ac/heat control to ensure no shorts. 

9 Oil, Coolant, and any other fluid changes that are necessary

10 Tune Carb.

11 Adjust valves, and timing.

12 Ensure electric fans both work, switched fan in console doesn’t last checked.

13 Ensure car starts and shuts off easily each time key turned. 

14 ensure car runs cool, and does not overheat at idle/in traffic/while driving. 

15 Clean engine bay / engine. Make sure shiny is shiny. :) 

16 Change back tires to the two new tires mount and balance. 

17 remove door panels, PB Blast Door poppers, and lubricate and ensure function properly 

                for both doors.

And thats it for now, unless i think of things.  we'll see.  I have complete faith in alex, and know he can get it done without much issue.  With that, ill be signing off now for the day.  4 minutes before the 3rd of august. lol.

August 2, 2019

I honestly cannot believe that today is August 2, 2019.  Time is truly flying faster than I can account for.  I get up each day during the week, go downstairs to my couch, sit down, pull out my lap desk, pickup my work laptop, and mouse and put both on the lap desk.  Each day this happens no later than 720 am usually, if not earlier. I then connect to my VPN, setup my remote sessions into my service desk software applications, pull up my Accounts email account, and begin working.  I manage 2 different software packages for work orders that may be called in each day.  It's my job to sort the work orders, and then delegate them to their proper teams that must be tasked with working on the problems.  I monitor and manage these until 5 pm each day, getting up to use the restroom, get my lunch, which i usually will eat while logged in working.

This would be fine and all, except since I've been back on the maintenance chemo, (which started this past Monday) I've had an increase in my appetite, and a definite increase in my fatigue. I'm so sleepy now its not funny.  I slept a long time last night, from like 10 pm until 7 am, but i still find myself very tired.  to the point of dozing off even at times.  I'm hoping that as my body gets more acclimated to being on the chemo, i'll start to balance out and not be as fatigued and my appetite will return to normal.  I enjoy being a lot thinner now than I used to be, so I do not want to gain a bunch of weight.

I've just received a call stating that some of the lower receivers that I had ordered from PSA have came in, and that i can pick them up at my leisure.  These are specialty "meme" lowers, with special roll mark engravings.  I would probably not build them into full AR's, rather just keep them as a collection piece due to the low number produced of each.  PSA has been producing a lot of these Meme lowers, too many for me to have even one of each really.  there is some i just *Have* to have. and that is a  small number compared to how many different designs they have produced and plan to produce.  One of these lower designs is the F' Cancer lower.  It was designed to express hatred for Cancer in general, and as a popular saying of F*ck Cancer. cause that's what we have got to say and do to it.  The lowers look like this :

While these lowers were being developed on AR15.com (more commonly known as Arfcom) Someone had suggested some proceeds of the lowers sale go to fighting cancer.  Then someone suggested that the proceeds go to someone close to the PSA family, as in a overly rabid fan of their products, Me.  I was shocked and incredibly honored.  I didn't know what to say to it other than thank you.  So they have said that a small amount of each lower will be donated to me to help pay for my bills. This was incredible news, and just made me feel over the moon for the company, and its folks who run it.  I can't speak enough about how honorable and kind PSA as a company has been to me.  It truly has humbled me to be on the receiving end of so much kindness from them, not to mention other folks on Arfcom. 

Lately I've been watching via netflix the Vampire Diaries series.  I had tried to watch this show series when it first aired, but I had so much other stuff being recorded, i couldn't DVR it as well as my other shows due to time slot conflicts.  Anyways, I like paranormal, sci-fi, fantasy, etc, so this seemed to be right up  my alley after a friend of mine reminded me of the series a few weeks ago.  Since then I've watched almost 7 out of 8 complete seasons.  I've learned that in addition to this series, there are two spin off series, one called "the Originals" and another called "Legacies"  the first i imagine to be a prequel of sorts, and the latter a sequel of sorts.   Things I like about the series are the lore of the vampire history, the lore of the witches, the lore of the ware wolfs, and how it all became reality in the series.  It to me is a better take on vampires than the twilight series of sparkling vamps.  Things I do not like is the standard teenage angst/b.s. drama that they had to write in for love stories and all that.  it appears that was the target audience, being early to late high school kids and thus probably why there is that much written into its scripts.  The cast is pretty good, and the acting is not horrible, the special effects are not bad either so it saves the series from being "b-movie" campyness. Anyways, it fills the TV time for me for now.   

I finally was able to watch Avengers:EndGame, thanks to my brother Bobbie.  he hooked me up with his copy of it, and man is it good.  Quite a tear jerker actually.  After so many years, and so many movies, i'd become quite attached to the characters and man it rally hits ya hard when you loose some of the major ones after 2 decades of movies, and almost as long from back when i used to collect comic books.  I cant wait to see what they are going to do with the next phase of the MCU. Now that Disney owns all of Marvel, including the X-Men and the Fantastic Four.  It should be interesting either way now that it is all joined together as well.

Well I think I've rambled on enough for now, I'll try to write again soon. it's never easy to put my thoughts into words like this.  Heck its taken me 7 hours to do this much off and on today. ..

Thanks again for your prayers and support.

Steve's Go-Fund-Me.(click here)

July 29, 2019

"Today 7/29/19 is Day 1 of the 21 day cycle of my maintenance chemo. The drug is administered in a capsule form, and i have to take it once a day for 21 days, then i have 8 days off, and then it starts all over again. While its a good thing, overall, the maintenance chemo is to keep my Multiple Myeloma at bay. It is supposed to help keep my numbers down, or going down. At this point, It's only making me feel a bit fatigued, and i hope that's all the side effects i experience. being nauseated is to me one of the worse things that Chemo does to oneself, and if this can skip that stage i'd be forever grateful. The loss of appetite that comes along with the Nausea is sometimes welcome for losing weight at least lol. Last Friday, i had an infusion i had to go to. This was a bone strengthener infusion of medication. I got it done in I wanna say 2 -3 hours. basically its an IV drip and once that medication is in i don't have to have another for another three months. My next follow up appointment however is next week i'm sure. Every other week i have follow up appointments with my local oncologist team. my Charleston transplant team only wants to see me again every other month or so, so right now i'm in the clear from any long distance commuting for a while as long as my numbers stay good and that things don't get worse on my end. Please continue with the prayers and support as I need all of it i can get to continue the fight. I cannot thank you all enough for the support you've given me, without y'all's prayers i'd truly be lost. Thank you so much again." ~ Steve H. 

July 30, 2019

Alright, well now you're all caught up with everything that's been going on in my personal life regarding my healthcare, and my cancer treatment. I'm hoping that my numbers will continue to go down, as i proceed to take this maintenance chemo.  So far, even though i'm only 2 days into it, i feel very fatigued, not just tired to say, but like, for lack of better word, heavy. the whole body to lift an arm, or leg, just feels heavy.

As for the rest of life, there has been a ton of things going on in it, aside from my Cancer. My youngest sibling for instance, has had to have open heart surgery at the young age of 25 while i was in the hospital in Charleston SC she was in one in Baltimore MD.  Luckily, now, she's healing well on the up and up, has gotten a good job, and has started to put her life back together. 

I've returned to work, from home that is.  I remote into work from my laptop, and work on work orders from home.  I'd love to go into work, but by the time im up, dressed, and drive into work, get to the office, and setup, i'm pretty much wiped out of energy.  Not to mention the intense pain in my back that i have when i sit in the wrong position or chair for too long. I truly hope that my back gets resolved soon so that i can live somewhat of a normal life again, especially since we've been able to beat this cancer down like we have so far.  

I'm going to try, and yes I know i always say this, but try to post more often here, and keep this up to date.  I do feel that being able to post about my life here is helpful, so perhaps by posting more frequently it'll be more beneficial for my mental health. .. anyways, if you've read all i've posted up in the past day, then kudos to you, and stay tuned!  

2018, through July 29th, 2019. This is a basic recap,.....

So it's been over two years since I've posted last to my blog here. I apologize for the delays for posting. I've had a lot going on, very little energy to do much of anything until the last few months.  I'm slowly getting back to some form of normal, if I will ever be able to get to that again.  I say that, because I've had some major Medical issues that have arisen in the past year and a half to two years since my last post.

Basically, last May, 2018, I was finally properly diagnosed on what was ailing me.  Unfortunately, what that is happens to be something that will stay with me the rest of my life. However long or short it is.  I have been diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma Cancer.  For the long and short of the story, I'm going to copy and paste the story, and my updates from my go-fund me campaign page.  I'll also Include links here to both my Facebook fundraiser as well as my go-fund me page. I apologize in advance for my horrible photos, I don't look all that good in them.

Go-Fund-Me : https://www.gofundme.com/f/stevehafner

Facebook Fundraiser :  https://www.facebook.com/donate/2160338577353193/

Here we go with the Copy and pasted story from my Go-Fund-Me:

     "Last fall I hurt my back (thought it was from lifting a mini frig), and was treating it as directed by a physician using NASID (Motrin, Ibuprophen, etc.) thru August and September. End of September I’m not getting any better and after 3 ER visits, 1 Urgent Care visit and god knows how many visits to my primary care provider I hit the ER one last time and they caught me in a stage 4 kidney failure. At this time they thought it was due to the NSAID’s over time. Early October, I was released as my kidneys were getting somewhat better.  Unfortunately my back wasn’t; even after 2 lumbar steroid epidural injections. I was sent home and as I prepared for a family vacation I broke 2 ribs bending over from my office chair. The back doctor referred me to an endocrinologist finally after the pain management and back doctor couldn’t figure out what was happening (this was now early January of this year).

The Endocrinologist finds multiple deficiencies which included but aren’t limited to severe osteoporosis (I’m 42 and male so this is really odd) and low vitamin D, low Testosterone, severely anemic and what looks like possible Celiacs-Sprew disease (gluten intolerance) at this time I start on the meds he prescribes and he referred me to an oncologist.  The oncologist did more blood work and at the time I didn’t show anything else was wrong. They had performed by this time MRI’s on whole body on my back on my head to ensure no pituitary gland tumor, ultrasounds on my thyroid and parathyroid to ensure no issues with them, and CAT scans as well. Everything started seeming to get better, even my back was better at times . What was even better ... I was able to walk without a cane.

Mid-March of this year (2018) things start going downhill, and my upper body/chest is in pain from strain trying to compensate me walking with the bad back. It had gotten to the point that I couldn’t walk unaided, couldn’t catch a breath because of the chest pain and essentially became bed ridden early to mid April. I now use a walker to get around my bedroom and to the bathroom, which is 10 to 15 feet away from the foot of my bed, takes me a good 30 minutes at this point.
So I had a follow up on April 30th with the endocrinologist and he pretty much called it from the blood work and labs but wanted to be sure so sent me back to the oncologist.  At that visit, the oncologist wanted to do a bone marrow test and because its an ordeal and I mean excruciating painful ordeal for me to get to a doctor at all I opted to do it then and there. Follow up appointment is where it was confirmed from the bone marrow test that I indeed have Multiple Myeloma cancer and it is also possibly the root cause of my back pain as well. After this I had a PET scan which confirmed they see the cancer in my back.  My treatment starts tomorrow with Chemotherapy, Steroids, Radiation and then calcium infusions once a month. These are to last 4-6 months. If all that goes as planned, they will then refer me to a larger cancer center such as Duke, Emory or MUSC to do a bone marrow transplant/refresh. This from what I understand is done with my own existing marrow being extracted, cleaned and then replanted. I’m assuming its some sort of steam cell therapy deal.   I don’t know what stage it is, I asked yesterday and they said it’s more like a chronic cancer because it starts in our plasma which circulates everywhere throughout your body so there is no way to isolate it.  During one of my trips to my oncologist to have chemo treatment, I began to sweat profusely and the oncologist was concerned with the amount of pain I was experiencing and opted to send me to the hospital to be admitted to get the pain under control. This was 3 weeks ago and I have had some setbacks, which included being in the ICU due to breathing difficulties. I am back on the oncology floor hoping I can go home soon.     I don’t know anything more about the prognosis yet, life expectancy, etc. I just don’t know.   I’m still in shock from it all. I partially can’t believe it is what I have. One chemo prescription pill is $20,000 - per dose cycle. I may need 4 – 6 dose cycles.   The doctors are upbeat and my wife has been a God send as she is here each morning before work and after work."  ~ Steve H.

The following update(s), was posted by my wife 13 months ago :

"I can't thank everyone enough for all the prayers for Steve Hafner, today was a huge step for him, he was able to get up and sit in the recliner for several hours til he had to go for radiation. You are doing such an amazing job babe i'm so proud of you, you have shown just how strong you really are and i couldn't be more proud! Please keep the prayers coming we still have a long road ahead"  ~ Emily H. 

"Just to give an update on Steve's progress. He is done with radiation!!!! Finally. Now to keep going on with the chemotherapy. He has been working with physical therapy everyday, he did 260 steps today way to go babe! We are working on getting him off the pain pump so he can then go to a rehab facility to help strengthen his muscles up as he's been in the hospital for a month now. I will update again as things progress. Thank you to everyone who has taken a minute to donate to us we can't thank everyone enough xoxo"  ~ Emily H.

"We are now going on 7 weeks in the hospital. The medical bills just keep pouring in. We are almost set to go into rehab at a facility not to far away from the hospital. Physical and Occupational Therapy will work with Steve everyday in hopes they can transition him to going home. We are very hopeful that with the help of therapy he will be well on his way to recovering. We can't thank everyone enough for the love and support we have gotten . People have gone above and beyond for us. Love you all!"  ~ Emily H. 

"So we were discharged from the hospital Friday to go to the rehab facility. We left about 2:30 on a Friday and got to the facility around 3. From the moment we stepped foot in this place everything went to h*ll. That night came around and my husband had been asking for pain meds. Hour after hour went by. Saturday morning I find out he still hasn't had pain meds. We are now going on 21 hours without pain meds. As most of you can imagine I FLIPPED out in the nurses. I was shaking and crying as I was so upset.  

My husband and I have been together nearly 20 years and never has he seen me like this! He finally got his pain meds at this point hes already going through The next night comes around , we have the same issue for some reason they cant ter him his pain meds on schedule!! I'm to the point of busting him out. He had his appointment for labs/follow up/and chemo treatment Monday. Talked with the Dr. and she was in disbelief. At this point our best option was to take him home and get him out of that h*ll hole. So now we are home and I'm controlling his meds making sure hes getting them on time as he should be. I'll be taking 2 weeks off from work to be with him and help him as he needs. Home health is in process of getting set up to come in and help out with physical/occupational therapy. Anything has to be better than what he was getting or in this case what he wasn't getting. "  ~ Emily H. 

7 months ago, I started to post again on my own. 

"I'd like to take this time to post another update. I've been very busy as of late since my last updates. 

We are now approaching Christmas and I've been fortunate to recover as much as i have. I've been able to return to work in a limited manner somewhat, but the bills keep rolling in, so any help here is greatly appreciated and most definitely needed, especially with the upcoming 1st of the year roll over and my insurance starts all over again. 

I've had 2 bone marrow biopsies since the last update. I spent 2 months at in home care nurses and physical therapy which helped me considerably and at the end of October i was able to start working in a limited manner again. Thank goodness for my co-workers and those folks. they are super understanding and take care of me while im there, ensuring i don't over do it. I tend to get weak fast and suffer from a lot of fatigue quickly, more quickly than i want to admit to be honest. The first bone marrow biopsy stated my bone marrow levels of myeloma went from 90% to 65% and is not enough to move forward with the bone marrow transplant. 

We went to MUSC in Charleston to have our first consultation with the transplant team, and they stated that 65% is not enough. we need more so they changed my chemo regimen to 2 different things. One is called Cytoxen and the other is velcaid. They together are doing good as my 2nd bone marrow biopsy showed as while they tire me out and make me very sick, they brought my myeloma levels down from 65% to 20% roughly. We then had another meeting last week in Charleston at MUSC. My doctor there stated i'm still not low enough and as such he wants me to go onto a third regimen of chemo. this chemo is going to be the strongest yet, and i'm scheduled to start it on Dec. 27th. This is a full inpatient admittance to the hospital in Lexington to take the first dose, so an overnight stay. My anxiety is already high after my last experience in the hospital a few months ago, the last thing i want is to be in the hospital for another period of time at all. Again, more money will be charged and more will spend. I also found out that because of chemo, my teeth have gotten worse. I had just completed 15k of work on my teeth when i got sick with the cancer, and finally had them fine, but now i have another 5k in stuff i need done, including another root canal before i can even go down to Charleston for the bone marrow transplant. the hits just keep coming financially, but i'm still alive, i'm ambulatory, and i'm very very VERY thankful for that, and for all of you who have supported me during this very difficult time of my life. All i can say is if you would please continue to support me, share my go fund me, and help me any way you can, prayers, or other wise, it is greatly appreciated. God knows i can use any help i can get, and it is only through his grace and love will i be able to make it through this. Thank you all for your time in reading this and i'll try to not keep the updates so far apart so its not so much too read next time. Thanks."  ~Steve H. 

"Here's our 2018 Christmas Photo. As you can tell, my back is pretty jacked up. I've learned from the last PET scan that at this time i have a broken rib, and TWO broken vertebrates in my back. the l5 and l7 are fractured as well here in this photo. Im not sure what else is because my nurse practitioner is supposed to call me back soon and has yet to do so. Anyways here's the most current photo i think i have of myself and my primary caregiver, and ultimate awesome loving wife, Emily. Without her i'd be so lost, and i'm more thankful than i can ever express that i have her in my life not just to take care of me but for everything."

"Well, this past Thursday i had to be admitted to the hospital here in Lexington to change up my chemo routine. It was for a 10 hour chemo drip and then to be observed for the remainder of my night in the hospital. I had some anxiety about returning to the hospital after the last time i was there, but overall this visit went just as was planned. In fact it was nice to see many folks that cared for me before, and they were all very kind and glad to see me, which overall made me fell good that they thought i was doing so well. 

Anyways, the Chemo went without much of a hitch although i am experiencing some insomnia and a bit of nausea from time to time. I will next wait for the phone call from my normal chemo nurse to schedule my next chemo appointment as an outpatient as before. from what i understand this should take 5-6 hours to administer per drip per week. I believe it will be on next Thursday that this starts. 

Thank you all for any donations, prayers, or kind thoughts, as I can use them all desperately."     ~ Steve H.

"I've now had 3 treatment of my new chemo drip, and I've also started to take as of yesterday a new chemo pill daily. It is a bit early so far to see how it is effecting me, over the long term with the new pill but as for the Drip it pretty much wipes me out after 2 -3 days of having the infusion. so for example i get the IV drip every Thursday and that takes 6 hours or so. After i have it I'm pretty much wired for sound due to the steroids i think. I have a hard time sleeping for 2 to 3 days, and then by Monday i start to crash, and crash hard. I will have issues keeping my self awake sitting at my desk at work upright in my couch or chair at home, forget it, if i'm even in the slightest bit possibly comfortable i'm going to fall asleep. then slowly it starts to go away, right about Wednesday night, i'm back to normal, just in time for the next infusion on Thursday morning. Now adding the new chemo pill to that, who knows what will happen. I have only 22 more days of pills to take at this time. Oh and did i mention each prescription of this pill chemo is 25,000.00 before insurance and any discounts i can get. So yea, its pricey. Anyways, i'm going to go now, and i'll keep y'all updated keep the prayers and help coming, Its a new year which means all new deductibles to meet and more and more bills :( . God bless you all."  ~ Steve H.

"The latest news is that i am scheduled to go to Charleston on the 24th of this month, for 4 days. This is to harvest my stem cells. The Stem Cell harvest can take anywhere from 1-4 days. they are also going to put in a port for my chest for administering and drawing blood and all that at that time. The other side of things is no one told us that i could go sterile, and most likely will, by the end of the chemo and end of the bone marrow transplant. This is very saddening to us as we want our own children. at this point I'm taking steps to see if my semen is currently viable for banking before the bone marrow transplant, which has also been scheduled for march 13th. If all is well, my semen will be viable and healthy still, i will supply a bankable specimen come the week of the 6-12th. time will tell. That's where we are right now. the anxiety and nervousness is building and a lot is going on, bills are adding up, including a 7k hotel bill that will be for our time in Charleston. thank god for you all, and thank god for my family. without all of them i'd be lost now." ~ Steve H.

5 Months ago roughly :

"Stardate February 24th, 2019; roughly 9: 40pm-ish. 

tonight is the calm before the storm. I go tomorrow morning at 645 to MUSC for a Hickman Catheter to be inserted and installed in my chest . at which time i will then be moved to start the harvest of my stem cells. the goal is to harvest 12000 stem cells or so (maybe more maybe a little less). Once they have gotten their fill of stem cells, they will go ahead and put them on ice or about 2 weeks. I will get to go home until the 13th of March. this of course is all pendant upon them getting enough stem cells in the next 3 days or so . You see i'm down here in Charleston from now until Wednesday at the latest roughly. if they finish up earlier, they will send me home earlier. I've had a ton of support from you all. and I've had a ton of support from my wife's family and for this i will forever be indebted, thankful, and ever so lucky. If it was not for my in-laws, i doubt much of this could happen, or would happen thus far. Every bit of help you guys, my in laws, or anyone else will feel to give helps me exponentially. most folks have no idea, even if its non-monetary, and just a gesture of faith, prayer, or kind words, it helps so much more than i can put into words. Please keep all of those coming, as i will be able to reciprocate them to others who need the help in their lives as well. Thank you all again. From the bottom of my heart, thank you." ~ Steve H

4 Months ago roughly:

"So, Today is the calm before the storm.

Tomorrow 3/13/19 is the day that I go to start my Bone Marrow Transplant. I will begin in tomorrow morning at MUSC and have a really high level chemo dose to basically kill my immune system. Then Friday, 3/15 i'll be receiving my stem cells back, to jump start my Immune System.

They say the first 14 days are the most critical, and if i can make it through those without a fever, and without much difficulty I should be good to go. The entire process should take about 30 days. To say im not nervous would be a lie. Hopefully this will go as according to plan as it can, and hopefully it will work out positively in the long run in putting my cancer to remission or getting me cancer free. Either would be a godsend. Thank you all for your support of me in the past, your prayers, and any support and prayers you offer me in the future. I still have my go-fund me, and i have a paypal (GamecockOperator @ gmail dot com as a gift) you can gift if need be. The bills are becoming astronomic.

thanks again, God bless." ~ Steve H.

3 Months ago roughly:

"At this time I have returned home from my bone marrow transplant. I am quite happy to be home as you might imagine. So lets see, since march 15th, I've been in Charleston SC for the Bone marrow Transplant. First thing they did was have me get some shots, one of which was nulasta. that stuff hurt. like a ton. it made my bones produce more white cells they say, but it made it feel like my bones were growing from the inside out and it was excruciating pain. thank god it only lasted about 4 days. During that, they zapped me with a heavy dose of chemo, called melphalan. This was the chemo that was heavy duty. It made me very sick, and fatigued, and also made me loose most of my hair, which has yet to grow back as well. two days after the melphalan, i was given back my stem cells that were taken from me a week earlier. this process was pretty simple, and i just sat there with a drip going of the iv of my own stem cells. The next week i caught a bit of Pneumonia, which made me spike a slight fever. They had told me there at the BMT clinic that if i had a fever of anything over 100.4 i needed to go to the ER immediately, so with the pneumonia i did spike that, and thus had to be admitted to the hospital there at MUSC. I was admitted for a week. During that week i was able to be monitored and on antibiotics so it kept me from getting worse, and more importantly it got me better. After the week, they released me out to the hotel we were staying at again. 

The hotel we had rented was a residence inn, it was in west Ashley, so it was really close to the hospital. We were lucky to have had it, and it was a 2 bedroom suite, so my father in law and wife and i were able to stay there comfortably but the overall bill was darn near 7000.00 for the month, plus the week before when we were down to donate the stem cells. Nothing is cheap, and compared to the treatments that was a small price to pay and luckily the fund raisers are helping some with that, even though they cant cover it fully. So after i was released back to the hotel, we spent 2-3 weeks going in every day, being checked out, and having things like my magnesium and potassium levels filled because they were not high enough. Luckily those things were easy fix's with the IV drip, and then last Thursday a week ago they finally said i could go home. 

I have to do checkups for the remaining month of April. This means i have to drive down to Charleston so far once a week. I went this past Monday, and luckily all checked out. my labs were very good they said, and while they are concerned with my nausea issues which have been persistent for the past two weeks, they are overall pleased. Next week i have to go back on Wednesday for another checkup. Luckily for me a good friend is going to drive me as my wife has to work and my in-laws have all gone home. Anyways, that's where we are with things right now." ~ Steve H.
Hey guys, i figured i'd give yall an update. These past few weeks have been a roller coaster ride for me of emotions. June 23, 2019 was my 100 day anniversary since i began my bone marrow transplant. As many of you will recall i had to stay in a hotel for a month in Charleston (including the week that i was admitted for pneumonia). The bone marrow transplant went well overall, minus the Pneumonia of course, but they were able to take care of me and get me over that. At 31 days they released me from having to be local, which is great, because after having to spend 7400.00 for the hotel alone we were getting pretty tapped out cash wise, and we returned home to Lexington. Once in

Lexington i had to stay out of work for two to three weeks, before i returned. Just because i was soo weak. I've been in and out of work since then, but luckily my work has been very understanding and helpful with this and they've let me work from home. So fast forward to my 100 day checkup which took place 4 days after the actual 100th day. They did my blood work and what not and thank God, i had a partial response! My numbers were going down fast, and were way low (which is a very good thing) basically the way its done is this:

Myeloma response criteria is: 
- complete response (no myeloma detected on labs/ blood work/ bone marrow) 
- very good partial response (90% of the myeloma is gone) 
- partial response (50-89% of the myeloma is gone) 
- stable disease ( numbers do not meet criteria for partial response or progressive disease) 
- progressive disease (numbers are increasing). 

The IMWG is who made this criteria (International Myeloma Working Group) 

The good news also is that not only am I in partial Response, but my numbers may continue to go down as i continue on my maintenance program of a chemo drug. so i'm very happy with those results thus far. So much so that my wife planned and executed a very nice 100 day celebration party for me on the 29th of June. It was a great time, and i was glad to see many of you my friends, show up to celebrate with me. However, this past weekend i got some very bad and sad news.

You see when i was diagnosed in May of 2018, i found out that a high schoolmate of mine named Denise was also diagnosed with the very same cancer i was, Multiple Myeloma. As i fought my battle she fought hers, and we talked via Facebook fairly often about how each of our battles were going. Around January she told me that she was in remission, and was able to be there solely by having underwent chemo therapy and radiation. I was envious as i was ramping up to go to Charleston, for my BMT(bone marrow transplant). I had been undergoing Chemo treatment for 3/4th a year by this time, and had LONG been done with my radiation therapy. I had had some issues with the chemo, in fact they had to change my type three times before it really started to make a dent to drop my counts and get me ready for the BMT. You can imagine how anxious i was at this time waiting for the date of the BMT to come, as that was a real big event, and i was worried about the side effects. And finding out that Denise had been lucky enough to get into remission without having to do a Bone Marrow Transplant made me very envious/jealous.

Nevertheless, Multiple Myeloma effects each person differently. Denise had a lot of other issues than i had, from the Cancer. where i was broken vertebrae's left and right, and breaking ribs, and a broken sternum, and things like that, Denise not only had broken bones but she also had became partially paralyzed as well i was told. So while i was healing and able to move, and even though Denise was in remission, she couldn't return to her normal life. When i had came out of my BMT and returned home Denise was still being treated and i was healing up. Then about two or so weeks ago Denise told me that she's been having more difficulties, and that she's stopped having any reaction her chemo treatments and her radiation treatments. But the worst part of it, was the doctors told her she had only about 8 or so weeks left to live. This really was a sad thing to hear, and i continued to try to be brave for her by being positive when we talked, and also i continued to pray more for her.

Well this past Sunday sadly Denise lost her battle with Multiple Myeloma Cancer. I cannot believe she's gone so fast, and i cannot believe that she went so quickly compared to what the doctors gave her. To know that I'm fighting the same fight, no matter how different it effects us as individuals, really has been messing with me since she passed last Sunday. I am comforted knowing she is in a better place with her savior Jesus Christ, but at the same time i know a great person has left this world just a bit dimmer, and a bit more sadder. The reality is, it could have just as easily have been me, in her shoes, and that too truly bothers me. I will continue to try to be as positive as i can, and I will continue to try to fight this evil disease as much as i can, but the fact remains that I have it, and until it's gone that is all i can do, Fight it.

I truly appreciate all of my support system, family, friends, and Pastor, without them i'd be lost. Also, I couldn't have made it this far without you guys having supported me as much as you have in the past, and currently with your prayers, positive vibes, and the donations you all have donated to me. Some folks have asked how they can help me, and how to donate to me, and while I have this GoFundMe, I also can still accept donations at my Paypal as gift. My Email for that is GamecockOperator @gmail.com (without the space. I also can accept donations from my Facebook fundraiser page as well. If you want to use those routes, please feel free and hopefully i'm not violating any gofundme rules by mentioning them. Mostly, please continue with your positive vibes, positive thoughts, and Prayers for me. Without those, I wouldn't be so successful with this battle as i have been thus far. Thank you all again. and please if you don't mind send up a little prayer for my friend Denise and her family, may she rest in peace. She's finally without pain now, and truly without this evil Cancer.

p.s. sorry for the wall of text." ~ Steve H.