This may be the most serious article I ever write, and I am trying to choose my words very carefully because what I am about to write is so very emotional.  I also do not want to misrepresent any facts, so I am not going to give dates, names, or too much detail.  I am simply going to state facts as I know them to be and express my opinions, and anger about the circumstances.

Many years ago, I met a popular, vibrant, energetic red-haired girl who was from the big city of St. Luis, had lived in Rockford, IL. and was, like myself, starting classes at our small local community college.  She and I became friends and she would come pick me up in her big ole truck and we would roam the back roads, and streets of our little towns.  We drove around and talked all night and many times never even spoke to another person but we always had a great time.  We were both “only children” and we became kindred spirits and lifetime friends.

Time went by and we went our separate ways, she married, moved away, and had a child, while I continued to live, and work here in the same little area.  She moved to Texas, at one point, we wrote to each other a few times, but kind of lost each other again.  I remember visiting with her some when her little girl was about 8 or 10 years old, but once again, our paths went in different directions, and we did not see each other for many years.

A few years ago, when I began to do the computer thing and got my own Myspace, and Face book page, she contacted me and we began our friendship again, right where we left off all those years ago.  The only difference was, this time, she had been divorced for several years, her daughter is now 22 years old, and she drives a small car now instead of her big ole truck, but basically, we still like to talk all night, shop, and hang out together.

I am not sure when she found out that she was sick, but, she did not tell me until late in the fall last year.  They found a cancer on the outside of her bronchial tube, and she was undergoing chemo-therapy.  She had already known about this for a while but had not told too many people as she wanted time to deal with it before she told anyone else.  She had already had one chemo treatment, I believe, when she finally told me because her beautiful, long red hair was gone, and her daughter had shaved her head for her to avoid the constant fall-out that would have followed the chemo treatments.

She did great with the chemo.  She did not let it stop her from going to thrift shops, yard sales, and hanging out with me on my days off.  She was a little weak, but she did not lose weight, and she kept a good positive attitude.  The whole time she was going through all this, the doctors told her how well she was doing and how much her tumor was shrinking.  So, at the end of her chemo treatments, they told her the tumor was gone and that she would come back in three months to be checked again but everything was fine and she should get on with her life. The doctor also told her that if she had any problems to contact him and he would be sure to follow-up on her progress.  She tried to do just that, but within a month, she was having trouble breathing, and knew there was something wrong.

She went back to her doctor immediately, who told her she had inflammation and some infection in her bronchial tubes, and both lungs and they gave her antibiotics and steroids, which she took as directed but soon realized she was getting worse not better.  She tried to make another appointment with her cancer doctor, but he referred her to a nurse practitioner instead of actually seeing her as he should have done.  This nurse told her she was still just inflamed and gave her yet more antibiotics.  She tried to explain to this nurse that there was something else going on with her, but they insisted that she would be fine with another round of antibiotics and steroids.   There was also a point during this time, that she had an appointment with or was referred to yet another doctor, who insisted on giving her both a pneumonia shot, and a swine flu shot the same day, one in each arm.  The days passed on and she became sicker and weaker by the day.  She was scheduled for her three month check-up, in January, and had come down to my house to spend the night to be closer to the doctor’s office because she had to be there very early that morning.

Now, as I said before, I may not be completely right about the times, or the chain of events in which this all took place, but the one thing I knew the next time I saw my friend come through my door, I was floored by how sick she had become in such a short time.  I could not understand why the nurse practitioner had not re-checked her for the possibly of the return of her tumor instead of just giving her more meds to take or why her doctor had not done the follow-up with her that he had promised her he would do.  She had been fighting losing her eyesight for about 5 years, and the doctor had told her it was a vascular problem that he would address, once the chemo was over with, but when she had reminded generic amoxil him of that, he told her, to just wait and they would deal with that later.  She and her daughter had been busy getting stuff done at their home, (which they are trying to get ready to sell) they were getting a satellite dish, they had their cats to take care of, and they were trying to go on with life as usual even though she was steadily getting sicker.  The doctors had insisted that there was no sign whatsoever of cancer in her body and she was just fighting a nasty infection, so she was completely unprepared for the events that followed.

That Monday morning she was to report back to the doctor, she could not even walk down the three steps at my house without me 1500 mg depakote and her daughter holding on to her.  We had a wheel chair at the bottom of the steps to ease her into and if we had not had one, I don’t think she could have made it to the car on her own.  She was pale and frail; she could not eat anything, and had not eaten anything in several days because she had coughed until her throat was too raw to swallow.  She also had problems even getting liquid down because her throat would try to close on her, causing her to strangle.  I knew she was in a really bad shape, but, I also knew she had done everything she had been told to do, and had tried to make them understand how sick she was before she got to this point and they had refused to listen to her.  I was really worried about her Sunday night and tried to convince her to go to emergency but she told me that since she had to be there the next morning, she would just wait.  I was afraid she would not make it through the night, but I did not tell her or her daughter my fears.  She would try to cough and it hurt so badly she would sit rocking back and forth crying with a wet wash rag to her face and there was little I could do to help her.  I had to be at work the next morning, early, so I tried to make her comfortable and prayed that she would make it through the night.

They admitted her to the hospital without much discussion that morning and when they had finally stabilized her, they told her the bad news.  The tumor was back and it had grown to over 2 inches long.  It is located just below her throat and just above her lungs on the cheap without prescription buy online Camagra outside of her bronchial tube, and surrounding area.  They said it has now grown into her lymph nodes, and was not only cutting off oxygen to her lungs, but also cutting off oxygen and blood supply to her brain, and her heart.  She was very lucky that she made it through that few days and they gave her IV after IV of potassium, more antibiotics, and morphine for pain.  They still told her that the cancer is on the outside of her bronchial tubes, and lungs, but that it has grown so rapidly, it was cutting off all her oxygen.  She spent several days in the hospital, set up with a portable oxygen tank, and finally released to the local Annex, where she can remain as an out-patient but still have her radiation treatments, and be near the hospital should she get worse again.

She is better now, but, to add insult to injury, they told her yesterday that she is now considered an “extensive” case. When she questioned them as to what exactly that meant,   she was told that this type of cancer she has, is no longer curable, just treatable.  She is FURIOUS, and rightfully so, and so am I!!  It seems they have decided to put her in a category of “keeping her comfortable” instead of fighting her tumor full force with a chemo, radiation combination to zap the thing.

She asked them time after time during the first few weeks after her chemo, and when she began to feel sick again, if they saw any tumors or cancers in her exams, and they had told her “no”, “you have inflammation and infection”.   So, they led her to believe that she was simply fighting a nasty infection rather than checking her to actually see if her tumor had returned.  They wasted precious time giving her antibiotics and steroids when they could have been giving her chemo, and radiation to shrink that tumor before it got to the 2 inch monster that it is now.

Today, she could barely walk enough to come to my door, but she did, and we talked about this.  I told her she should sue the hell out of whoever was in charge of that nurse practitioner for not checking her thoroughly when she first told them she was having troubles again.  They had given her so many rounds of antibiotics that she got a horrible yeast infection inside her mouths and her mouth had become drawn, sore, and black from the scabs on the sores around her mouth.  She is better for now, but, the fact is, they totally mislead her, lied to her, and did not take her seriously, costing her precious time, which she may not have much left.

She had fought so hard through all of this to be positive and brave, but today; she sat on my couch and cried.   My heart broke for her and I wanted to cry too, but instead, I tried to coach her anger because I know she has got to fight to win this battle ahead of her.  Here is the thing, now that they neglected her and her tumor has grown to the size it is, now they are trying to tell her they have placed her in the “extensive” category, meaning they are no longer trying to kill her cancer, they are trying to “make her more comfortable”.    She got really angry yesterday and told them in no uncertain terms, “yes, we are going to fight this cancer, you do not decide when I die, my God will do that, and you will give me treatments to fight this thing, or I will own you, your clinic, and you home, do we understand each other”?   She said it was at that point that they reluctantly agreed to give her any treatment needed to fight this tumor.  I told her not to give up, give in, or even think about letting them tell her they will not fight that tumor!!

How many people has this happened to?  How many people have doctors told first one story then another to, and mislead, until the patient is so sick that the doctors then decide the only plan left is to “make them comfortable”??    This is just another example of how health care in America is not even close to what it should be, and why every American should fight to get something done about it!!   Why would the doctor not see her for a follow-up after she had chemo, insisting on sending her to the nurse practitioner instead?  And how in the hell did the nurse practitioner look at her x-rays of all the inflammation and infection and not see there was tumor there??  In fact, why didn’t the nurse practitioner send her to emergency or some other agency, the moment she saw her difficulties breathing??

My friend is a fighter, and she is not ready to just give up, lie down, and die.  She deserves a medical team that will do everything they can to help her fight this tumor and give her every opportunity to get the medicine, procedures, or whatever it takes to do fight this thing.  How many of us are going to find ourselves in this situation before something is done to stop it?!!   Why does the medical community jerk and pull us around, lie to us, ignore our complaints, and give us medicine that we do not even need?? When is it going to stop?    This is America: we are supposed to be the most advanced, best country in the world, and yet every day thousands of Americans go through this joke of a health care system being miss-diagnosed, mislead, given the wrong meds, and worst of all completely ignored!!  This is NOT ACCEPTABLE, and I beg you to contact every elected official, every congressman, every senator, and everyone else until this is fixed.

So, to end this emotional piece, let me say this.  Shame on any Republican, Democrat, Independent, or any other party member who is not willing to work together with our President to reform this broken health care system.  How dare you sit in our government and bicker about whether to sneak in your million dollar fighter jet request, or any other ridiculous “pork” project into the health care reform bill, while people are dying from lack of adequate health care!!!  STOP THE CRAP PEOPLE!!  It doesn’t matter which party does what, just DO SOMETHING about health care!!  You are there to work for the American people, start acting like it.  I am mad as hell that my friend has been treated this badly, and the fact is, it could happen to any of us.  It is time to get something done about health care.

I don’t know how much, if any, my words can make, but, I do know I cannot sit here and say nothing when I see such things happen in this world around me.  I ask for your prayers for my friend, and ask that you make your voice heard to our government about such situations.

Jan Ballard

Tags: cancer, chemo-therapy, health care, Jan Ballard