I love this upcoming Holiday the 4th of July. It means so much to me. From my childhood it has represented patriotism, remembrance and family/ friends, cookouts, fireworks etc.
I love the pops on the Esplanade. It does not get any better.
My grand father use to have all of the holiday hats red, white and blue to hand out etc. So, much fun. Garden hose and baloons :), slip and slide. fun stuff 🙂
This song has been just sitting in my draft file waiting to find its use. how true these words are….
We are running around trying to get things done all the while time is rushing on by.
My grandparents and parents had it right. Keep it simple. Not everything needs to be painted like a masterpiece to be one !
Rejoice in the day and savor the important things. The rest will fall into place. Amen.
The older folks are our national treasure, the young children are our hope and we in the middle are the protectors and supporters of both of these demographics. Amen.
It was pouring this morning. Water was washing everything clean and I thought to myself how good the water was for the lawn, trees and plantings.
This song came on my kindle and I thought of my grandparents and my mom specifically. Such a sweet warmth enveloped me. The memories of my grandparents began to play in my head like an old movie.
in life we all have deeply emotional and loving memories come to us. I would like to believe that it is our loved ones in Heaven are actually close to us in that moment.
it was a special time as I lay there thinking and drifting in and out of sleep all the while the rain was pelting the house.
God created such magnificence in us and in nature. here is that song that I spoke of.
Well, as I left off on Monday’s post I was timed out / out of insurance coverage of physical therapy that I have been receiving.
I spent this morning on the phone with different agencies trying to uncover some type of funding assistance to allow me to get into physical therapy at least twice a month to get the left side of my body stretched out and to get supervised weight therapy on that side to stimulate the brain activity to rebuild movement on that side. The therapy is working but not fast enough for my insurer.
A couple of resources that I have come across that are possibilities and that I would like to share with you all is this…..
Dana Farber told me today about the federal 211 service. Dialing 211 connects you locally to a agency who will connect you to many different program and services that may be available in your area. Nonprofits, funding etc.
so, I did just call and the women was very easy on the phone and went through my background story and needs and gave me a few different options that may or may not help my predictament. I was grateful to speak with Leslie and I will dig into the info I was given to see what pans out. I called today and they did not have what I needed specifically but it was a great tool should you need some options.
I also have been looking into the YMCA ‘s Livestrong Program for cancer survivors. This program is 12 weeks and meets twice weekly for 90 minute sessions. This program evaluates each individual to see what needs each has. They then will devise an action plan to move forward with. So, I am waiting for my evaluation call. Again, another possible help to regain my physical capacities and posture.
Please spread the word about these different tools that are available. These options may or may not fit my needs or yours but they will help someone along their life’s walk.
To be perfectly frank yesterday’s letter from my insurer was a black and white kick in my ribs. Not that I blame them. It’s their bottom line not mine. My bottom line is that of human being but that does not make for a good business model I suppose.
But, today is a new day one filled with possibilities and opportunities so I must seek and find what I need.
Do not get discouraged if you get bad news regarding your health or insurance or anything for that matter ! Its not the end !. Get a firm footing, a business mind is needed to keep the emotions in cheque. Devise a forward moving plan . No matter how small there will be a positive effect.
We need to embody a no problem is too big attitude. 😀:)
i just got off the phone with my physical therapist about my note that I received yesterday. They too received the same info so thats that. They are an awesome group of people that I would reccommend to anyone.
I will figure this out soon. 🙂 You know why ? Because Gods got it. 🙂
I love this song I have used it once before in my blog and it is so true.
In this life I have said and we all know that we face adversity and pushback. What dowe do ?
We thank God for what we have.
Israel Kamakawiwo’ole In this life.
And ….
We need to give it up to God and soldier on in the belief that the adversity will somehow be mitigated.
Today, my wife came in from work and was handing the daily mail. She came in the family room and looked at me and said we received a four page letter telling us that your physical therapy is at its limit for your condition and there will be no more coverage for physical therapy.
My wife being the amazing women that she is yesterday sent an email to Dana Farber to see if there were funds available that can help us to get the minimal amount of help to augment the cost out of pocket for me to go and get a visit or two a month to get stretched. She feared this day may come and alas today was the day.
I have been very fortunate to this point getting the medical care that I have needed. It had been 3.5 years of nonstop treatment and care. My treatment started as I said before 3.5 years ago and included the awake brain surgery so they could grade my tumor. They could not remove it. You can only imagine the dollar figure spent with that procedure in itself.
So, I will not complain I wonder how many people have not had all that I have had in terms of treatment. True, my wife and I have paid the medical insurer but we got service provided to me. I honesty think that this is the way that medical care is going. In the end Gods got it if I am to continue therapy to any degree then he will make it happen. I will do my due diligence and we will see where this situation goes:)
We all need to keep the chin up and walk on in this life and trust and expect only good things to come our way. offer up all suffering to God for his use Amen !
Two songs have come to mind while I have been writing so, here they are enjoy:)
Elvis Presley, You’ll never walk alone
And the song I live by , it is my cell ring tone it makes me laugh! it is full of the attitude that I truely own. I defy life to keep me down !!!!!!!!!!!
Turn it up and feel it ! This is my belief. God Strong ! God gives us the gift of the Holy Spirit. We are empowered to succeed and overcome. I ‘m Feeling Good !!
Don’t take life too seriously !! 🙂
What ever the problem kick it in the butt and walk it off!!!
18 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth.
I think that love is taken for granted by us all at certain times.
With the marriage of my daughter Stacy to Chris I was reminded again the simplicity of love. They met, they acknowledged the life values that they both had and they began their walk in faith.
Taking the plunge takes faith and guts. Love which is from God himself makes our lives beautiful.
Through the union of Chris and Stacy Janet and I have been ushered into a new dimension in our lives too. We have yet another identity. The possibilities are there for some beautiful new pages of our lives to unfold.
FROM MY NIECES FACEBOOK PAGE. SHE IS GOD STRONG… AMEN.
A little over three years ago my uncle was diagnosed with inoperable stage 4 glioblastoma and was quickly losing his strength on his left side. Despite all the odds by the grace of God he overcame his cancer. Yesterday he got to not only attend his daughter’s wedding to an amazing guy, but he got to walk her down the aisle and have their father daughter dance. It was a beautiful night! Congrats to Stacy Riley and Chris Cucinotto!
Tim McGraw. My little Girl.
ONE LINE IN THIS SONG IS NOT IN AGREEMENT WITH ME. CHRIS WAS THE PERFECT MAN FOR MY DAUGHTER AND MY FAMILY. 🙂
As I have written on this blog we need to celebrate the special God events in this life because there are sorrowful events that transpire as well.
To me a God event is one of those life events that God predestined for our lives per psalm #139.
God blessed my wife and I with eachother and he then gave us our 5 children and finally in this case our daughter Stacy.
Stacy was wed on Saturday to a wonderful man Chris. Chris has a similar family background very faith based so we are thrilled that God brought them together.
This story is about God’s victory in our lives. First of all because after 3.5 years after diagnosis of terminal brain cancer I was able to walk the isle and give my daughters hand in marriage.
How they met: God’s divine will.
Stacy toured a college and Chris was the student who took her group on the tour and that was the extent of their contact for 3 years. Stacy was dating here and there but was not finding what she wanted a person that fitted her values.
She came into the family room one night and I said whats wrong honey ? She said I can’t meet anyone nice 😦 They are all the same.
I got strong with her and said Stacy, did you ask God to bring you someone special ? She said no. I said honey pray and ask God to bring you the person that you desire. He will bring him. God always answers our prayers.
3 weeks later Stacy was all excited that a boy named Chris had found her on facebook that she met briefly years back ( school tour) and began a dialogue with her.They talked for a long while before they got together. My daughter was not one of those girls as she would say.
They met and there was an instant connection. He is exactly what she had prayed for. And guess what he lived in our own home town. They were from different parishes so they never met. God had them meet in his time after they could appreciate who each one was to eachother and in God’s eyes.
God is never wrong if we listen and are led by his Spirit.
This is the song we danced to. ( I used the word dance loosely. I donnot move very well on the dance floor perhaps by my next childs wedding 🙂 LOL
I played this song to all my kids and danced with them when they were little, my son included. lol. I said someday I will dance this with you when you get married.
Stacy did not forget lol
Bob Carlisle Butterfly Kisses with lyrics. it fit the occasion beautifully. Janet and I were sure that God had his rightful place in our home . He is the head of our family trinity.
Without God and prayer in a childs life it makes for a difficult road.
Finally, Mr Doctor , Dr. David Reardon sent this so I put it here for everyone to see.
please help if you can it is a worthy cause. Thank you.
God Bless You !
Danny
Dear Friends
I am writing to ask for your support with a unique opportunity to help us raise research funds for brain cancer.
Cancers that arise or spread to the brain are amongst the most challenging of all malignancies and outcome for our patients remains unacceptably poor. Today, promising therapeutic opportunities are emerging, but funding to support these research efforts, especially for brain cancer patients, is at an all time low. Without funding support, many of these promising efforts are at significant risk of failing to advance.
We critically need to do more for our patients and we need to do it faster.
The Pan Mass Challenge (PMC) is a remarkable event to raise awareness and support for cancer research at the Dana-Farber. Brain cancer has never had a major supporter at the PMC until this year. Rick Kaitz and his team Erica’s Entourage have raised significant DFCI research funding for several years through the PMC. This year, Rick and Erica’s Entourage have agreed to direct a portion of the money they raise to the Center for Neuro-Oncology at the Dana-Farber. Specifically, research dollars generated this year will fund critical lab and clinic studies evaluating immunotherapy and precision medicine approaches for brain cancer. To do my part on behalf of this noteworthy effort, I will be riding the PMC (192 miles on August 1-2, 2015) as a member of Erica’s Entourage. My personal goal is to raise $100,000 for brain cancer research and with your help, I hope to raise much more.
In addition to helping our current and future patients, my ride also honors and serves tribute to the many patients who have passed away from these devastating tumors.
In order to help us move closer to finding a cure for primary and metastatic brain cancers, please visit my PMC webpage. Simply google “David Reardon and PMC” or go to http://www2.pmc.org/profile/DR0211. Any and all contributions are gratefully appreciated. Just as importantly please spread the word to your friends, families and colleagues to urge them to help us as well.
On behalf of our patients and their families, we are most grateful.
My heart feels such gratitude for so many things in this moment. The small things in life are evening out the imperfections along the daily journey. The small moments of connections with friends and family are so healing.:)
I went to my dad’s today and as always his wit was with him. He is 87 but does not act it with me. He has a great sense of humor. So, he lifts my day up every time.
I headed home and thought you know what, I am going to visit the chapel for a few minutes so I did. It was very peaceful and I saw a neighbor who was sitting there in prayer. I walked out with J and we talked for a bit. She asked me to pray for her nephew who is having emotional difficulties. So please pray for J’ s nephew God knows who you are praying for. It was a very beautiful encounter today because I heard God becon me in that moment to visit that chapel. If I had gone ever 15 minutes later I would not have seen J and I would not have known about her nephews need for prayers. We now all can pray for his needs.
We are all connected so we need to listen to the Spirit of God’s voice and act on what our hearts call us to.
Lastly,
I am very grateful to my doctors and all of the medical personal that I have had. God has and is useing them to help me and so many others who are living with a cancer diagnosis and its complications.
I was thinking about this doctor, my Dr. Who is such a wonderfully compassionate man. I also have been blessed to see him in two very dynamic ways. As a patient number one and as a witness as he spoke to a patient that he was consulting. I wrote about this encounter on my blog months ago.
It must be very hard to be a doctor and to be on a battlefield with an adversary such as cancer. Could you imagine going to work on daily basis greeting people who are sick, afraid and in most cases are unaware of what they are in for.
Dr. Reardon knelt by my wheelchair and basically begged me to stay and have tests done to try to get me to treatment. I was so sick at that time I wanted to just go home I was too tired to cope and he stayed with me until I said okay !!! A special man indeed.
For Dr. Reardon…. thank you. 🙂
The doctor has to break the news to them and their families like my doctor did for us here. They also need to relay a sense of hope as well even in the most dire of circumstances Theses doctors and nurses are given such an incredible gift from God.
Without further adieu I wanted to introduce my doctor from Dana Faber . He is only one of the many people who have been so wonderful and Christ like in their daily dealing with me, my family and others around them . They are truely special people and healers of men by Gods design. So, I will begin to high light these people in the coming months.
His demeanor is always the same just wonderfully peaceful.
Just about 3 years ago after my diagnosis I found myself being helped up to the countertop of my jeweler Swansons in Arlington. My family has known them for years and they were my clients too. I haved worked in their home over the years, plus I decorated their showroom.
Well, back on point 🙂 My brother brought me in that day because steroid from treatment caused my entire body to bloat. My ring was so tight that my finger was turning color. So, Mr. Swanson looked so compassionalely at me as my brother held my hand in place and he had to cut it into 2 peices to get it off. They even had to use two sets of plyers to get it off of my finger. They were so careful not to hurt me. Beautiful people, and my older brother is a saint.
The two halves have been in the little jewelry bag for 3 years. Well 2 weeks ago I took a covert operations trip there to Swansons all by my onesies and left it with them for repair. Today, I picked it up after its repair and tonight I will have my wife slip it back onto my finger 🙂 It almost our 29 wedding anniversary so I felt it would make for a beautiful moment. I am a blessed man.
That little gold ring represents something totally irreplaceable. It represents my commitment to my greatest God given gift. It also serves as a reminder of what true unselfish love and sacrafice looks like. God in action. My beautiful wife Janet. Amen!
Just Danny Speaks 