Bull Riding at the Manatee Civic Center on 9/30/06

Bull riding at the Manatee Civic Center, http://www.manateecenter.org/support/events.cfm?ID=618 on September 30, Saturday night at 7:30. If you like bull riding, then don't miss it.

We went to this last year and it was awesome. We sat in seats that were 10 feet from the fence. It's a very big and sturdy fence but the bulls were bouncing off it right in front of us. There are bleacher seats for the less adventurous.

Some of the proceeds from this event are going the Heath's cancer fund.

We'll see you there if you go.

Details:
http://www.manateecenter.org/support/events.cfm
BullBash 2006
When: Saturday 7:30 pm - 10:30 pm, September 30, 2006
Sponsor: Red Hoagland GMC
Admission: Adults $20. Kids $10. (12-6) under 5 yrs. Free
Parking: $5
Contact: Doug Walker
Phone: 941-377-4780
Tickets Sold @ Manatee Civic Center, Alvarez Resturant, Crowder Bros Ace, Cracker Bay Country Store-Hwy 64, Red Hoagland GMC, Fruitville Feed-Sarasota, Come See Come Sav-Bradenton, Big "L"-Ellenton

Boston Trip is scheduled

I believe we are scheduled to fly to Boston on October 4th. Heath has his preliminary appointments on October 5th & 6th. They will be doing some scans as well as measuring him for some kind of mold that he will lay in during the radiation treatments. The purpose of the mold is to keep him stationary during the treatment.

Here is a picture from Massachusetts General

I'm not sure when we are coming back but it looks like Heath, Karis, Allan, and I will stay until the 10th or 11th. We will be looking for a place to stay and learning our way around during our free time. Heath will be starting the radiation on October 18th. I believe the four of us will be flying back up before that. That's it for now.

Last Chemo before Boston

Heath went back into Moffitt last night. They are delaying his chemo until today because his counts are still too low. He will be there until Tuesday night or Wednesday morning. The chemo is the same as the last time: Etoposide that they pump through him in one hour each day for five days and Ifosfamide/Mesna that they pump through in 23 hours each day for five days.

Heath had a couple of unscheduled trips to the hospital after the last time he received this chemo.

First, Two or three days after he came home the last time he went golfing with his friend Quintin. I was home working at my desk when he walked in the door. Allan yelled for me to come out because something was wrong with Heath. He was lying on the floor holding his chest over his heart in serious pain. He said he could barely breathe and he had very strong chest pains. In the next minute I called Karis and then I called 911. The fire department showed up about 30 seconds later (more like 2 minutes but there got here very quickly) and took his vitals. The paramedics showed up a couple of minutes later and did what looked like an EKG. She said that he seemed stable and she could not see any signs of a coronary problem. She then asked Heath which hospital he wanted to go to. He likes Lakewood Ranch so they took him there in the ambulance. The doctors ran his blood work and took a chest x-ray and a bunch of other stuff. I can't remember the exact diagnosis but it was some kind of muscle condition or pleurisy. They let us take him home that afternoon. We had called Dr. Agresta earlier while the paramedics were at the house and he said it was probably caused by his blood counts being too low. Later we found out the Heath's new friend Kyle (who we meant at Moffitt because he has the same cancer in his leg) had gone to the emergency room the day before with the same exact problem. Needless to say the whole thing scared me to death because I thought he was having a heart attack. Thanks to our local fire department and paramedics for their quick response.

Secondly, a couple of days after the fund raiser drawing for the car Heath started running a fever. The doctors told us to monitor it and if it went above 101 to take him to the local hospital to have his blood counts checked. Karis got up every hour on the hour that night to check his temperature. The next day she took him the doctor and his blood counts were very low and they said he had a neutropenic fever. Karis had to take Heath to Moffitt where he was admitted. They started him on IV fluids and I think IV antibiotics. His white and red blood counts were so low that they had to give him platelets and a blood transfusion. I was in Moffitt for 3 days while they monitored his counts.

It's very ironic but the day of the drawing for the car Dr. D'Amato talked to the crowd and told them that by looking a Heath that day you wouldn't know how sick he was but he is still very sick and all the crap that he is having to go through to try and cure him is very hard on his body. Like I said before, the trick is to poison his body enough where is kills the cancer without doing too much damage to the rest of him. Someday with places like Moffit discovering better treatments, people with cancer will not have to endure what Heath is going through. It is better today than it was ten years ago. But he is hanging in there pretty good and is staying positive which is all we ask.

The winning ticket

Congradulations to Mr. Kipp for winning the raffle. I believe the winning ticket number was 0012 which was draw by an employee of Red Hoagland Pontiac in front of ~150 people.

Karis commented that "Mr. Kipp has always given to others through community support, friends and family. When he read the flyer about Heath he immediately bought (3) tickets and his daughter bought tickets as well. He didn't think that we would win the car, but considered the cause. He says that he has never won anything before. He is so excited that everywhere he goes he shows the flyer."

We would like to thank everyone for helping out with this fund raiser. We would like to give special thanks to:

• everyone that bought and sold tickets
• Manatee River Community Bank for there endless support
• Red Hoagland Pontiac
• Larry and Donnas Arrasmith
• Sean Murphy of Arrow Fence
• Silent partner who didn't want their name mentioned
• Melody and Ralph
• Spotlight Graphics
• The Kileva Band (see pictures below)
• Eric Von Hanmann and Todd Cook for playing music
• Checkers the Clown
• Pyrates of the Gulf Coast of Bradenton
• Beth Frappier for all of the cans she decorated
• Doug Walker and the Bullbash Rodeo
• Dr. Gina D'Amato for all of her support
• Kim Zink with the Manatee County Sheriff's Department
• First Baptist Church of Palmetto and Buck & Vera Jo's Sunday School Class

The Heath Sammons Cancer Fund Drawing is today, 9-9-06

Join us at Red Hoagland Pontiac in Bradenton for the drawing of the car. The drawing will be at 1PM.


We will have free food and entertainment:

• Heath's band will be there to play a couple of their favorite classic rock songs.
• Eric VonHahmann's band has donated their time and they will be playing country music.
• Pyrates of the Gulf Coast make a special appearance and they will be there passing out beads to kids.
• Checkers the Clown will be there making ballons for the kids.
• Free hotdogs will be supplied by Red Hoagland Pontiac.

There are still a few tickets available so call Melody at 941-518-4047 or show up early if you would like to purchase a ticket.

Back at Moffitt on 8-31-06

Heath is back in Moffitt for more chemo. They have changed his protocol again. Instead of getting the Ifosfamide by itself they are going to give him another type of chemo at the same time called Etoposide.

He will be getting 5 full days of chemo. They started him on fluids last night at about 9PM. They started him on the Etoposide around 10:30PM. They pump that through him in one hour. Immediately following that, they start him on the Ifosfamide and pump that through him in 23 hours. This process is repeated four more times. They also give him Mesna which is mixed in with the Ifosfamide. It is supposed to counter one of the side affects of the Ifosfamide which can cause damage to the bladder.

The trick as we have learned for treating this type of cancer as well as many others is to basically poison the body enough to kill the cancer but not enough to cause too much damage to the rest of the body. The fact is that it does cause some damage. Keep praying that the doctors find the perfect balance.

In my previous post I did not mention something that the doctors told us. They said not to worry too much about the protocol change. However, if some of his previous symptoms with the nerve pain in the leg or foot returned then he would be more concerned. Last Thursday night Heath told us that he started feeling numbness in his foot again. We told the doctors and they wanted him admitted on Friday for more tests. So after being out for one day, Heath had to spend two more nights at Moffitt. They did a complete MRI, with and without contrast, on his pelvic and spine region. We are still waiting for the Radiologist to give us a full report on the scans. The intermediate results did not give us too much cause for concern. Heath did tell us that the numbness has come and gone since the beginning so we don't know if it is related to the tumor growing or not.