Monday, 29th June.2009.

A very Good day. Lauren is here and we brought the Wii down stairs and hooked it up to the big screen. We have been playing it most of the day. Now that we figured it out some we are going to set up a tournament..We decided to get out of the house and go bowling. We had a blast!!! we need to do indoor stuff because it's a 100 and something degrees out side. No joke! Yesterday Michelle and her friend fried an egg out side in the street!.

My hair loss is at a minimum right now. I had that one morning where I thought that this was the beginning of the fall out.. I was shedding every where. I went to comb my hair and I have never seen so much hair in a comb. Gobs!!. I then showered and watch it go down the drain fully expecting for it all to go! Then it stopped and left me almost as hairy as before. So for those who know me ,a little thinner than before but not bald yet.

I have had trouble sleeping since the infusion day (last Tuesday)and fatigue hit me hard yesterday. This round of Chemo has been bearable but has hit me a little harder than the first round. I seem to have energy in shorter burst and I am learning fast that when I have it, use it!!.

Hair today, gone tommorow.

Saturday morning, June, 27th. 2009.
I am not sure who is shedding the most, Me or my dog. This morning my hair started to come out! I pick up my daughter Lauren this morning so she will get to see me with hair at the start of her visit. How much will I have left when see leaves is anybodys guess. So far it is just the hair on my head. It is a good thing that I like hats!!!

Time for my second fix.



Two weeks later on Tuesday the 23rd June 09. was chemo round number two. This time I was prepared and was able to drive myself to and from chemo no probs! Even took the hot rod! I took my CD player. After they got the juices going I put in my ear plugs, reclined in the recliner and cranked up the tunes.I had just bought a new three Disc compulation album of blues. I let the music in and let my mind go and relaxed for the whole infusion . I was soon on my way home enjoying the rumble of that hot V-8 under the hood of my old Chevy truck and had Stevie Ray Vaughn cranked up loud on the stereo. I just made it a music day. I took things easy and spent most of Wedneday,Thursday and now Friday typing this blog, telling my story. I cleaned house today as well because tomorrow my daughter Lauren arrives from Georgia for a visit. That will do this old man a world of good. I haven't held her in my arms for a long time. Her hugs are like magic. Holding her sooths my soul.

Karyn and David, together again at last.

Saturday the 13th of June My sister Karyn came to visit. It was a true godsend. We had time to reunite and discover a lot of things about each other. We grew closer to each other by the minute. We walked and talked and shared our souls with each other. We opened our hearts and let the love flow. It was exactly what I needed at exactly the right time. She helped me put things into perspective. One thing in paticular. She told me I was fortunate that I have time to put things right, see those I need to see and tie up loose ends. Thanks Sis. It was over way to fast. You have helped to put me at ease. Love ya.

Putting the battle plan into action.

June 9th ,2009 is D-day. This was a Tuesday morning. With my Beautiful wife who is also my very best friend (who is going through this whole awful ordeal with me) at my side we mustered up the courage to go to the chemotherapy department and let the battle commence. 10;45 and we launched our first attack! All the chemicals at our disposal were dispersed . We were there from 10;00am to 3;00 pm. After a very ,very long day of infusions and chemo and instruction and question and answer sessions we finally made our way home. The hospital/ chemo dept is close, only 25 minutes away and is brand new. I was exhausted mostly from stress but now very relieved that the first of at least 8 rounds was over. Well Kind of. I still had to get used to the constant infusion bottle and figure out a way to wear it. Fortunately we had a fanny pack and that worked out well. I even managed to sleep with it with out any problems. Great, things are going good for the first go around. Not as horrific as maybe I had been lead to believe. I can cope with this. Thursday is disconnect day. That's the best day. I had only very minor side affects, sensations really, and nothing to worry about just yet. I was kinda jacked up. I think I was really excited to see my sister Karyn who was coming to visit me soon. The first round was a breeze.I hope all the other treatments are as mild as this and I can tolerate it well. The better I can tolerate this treatment the more I can have.

Calling in the plumber.

It kinda scared the crap out of me when Roto Rooter showed up with two 24" pipe wrenches and an auger to install the port. Oh ,thank God when they realized they were on the wrong job and left muttering obscenities under their breath. Whew, that was close. After that the Dr. put in the port. More good time sleepy juice so I didn't feel a thing and was I home by noon.

Creating a battle plan.

Denise and I went to oncology together on the 12th of May to find out what can be done. We met with Dr. Kengla and discussed Goliath in some length. It was made clear that because he has done so much damage by being mobile and has grown so large and so strong that there is no way to completely eliminate him now! The word used was "incurable." Yet again more stuff I didn't want to hear. So what can we do? There is a treatment aimed at this type of situation. It is called Folfox. If employed and it is effective then we might be able to hold Goliath off for a while, but not forever. The programme is a one week on and one week off of Chemotherapy. The chemo drugs are Advastin, the newest of them and it is a target specific drug that destroys the blood supply to tumors. The others are Oxaliplatin, Leucovorin and 5-FU or Fluorouracil. These drugs try and kill Goliaths cell structure. These are the nondiscriminatory drugs and will kill some of my good cells as well. This is where all the side affects come from. All these drugs are to be infused intravenously. The 5-FU will be infused as all the others and then I will be hooked up to a constant infusion bottle that I will wear in a fanny pack that will continue to pump this drug into me for a constant 48hrs. I need to have a Port-A-Cath implanted before Chemo can begin. Great another small surgery. This is a device that is plumbed directly into a major vein near my heart and implanted in my right upper chest near my right collar bone. It is an access port. This way the treatment will not destroy the veins in my arms. This port also allowes for the connection of the continuous infusion bottle of 5-FU. Yes I even have to sleep with it. Not the kind of mistress I would have chose. Goliath is well beyond surgery now and radiation is not a viable option because of Goliaths mobility. Folfox is the first line defence. There is another program used in Europe and England called Folfury. It is generally less effective and the side affects are harsher but some times it is used in the U.S. as a second line to Folfox. All my treatment is aimed at extending life. Not cure. So we are hoping that I cope well with this treatment and the side affects are minimal and my quality of life can continue.

Goliath isn't back, he never went away!

This news of Goliath having metastasized into my lung and now I find out four lymph nodes is devastating news indeed. He has invaded three para tracheal lymph nodes, right next to my windpipe and one subcarnial lymph node right under the branch where the trachea goes to each lung. These lymph nodes are regional lymph nodes for the lung and the lung is a common place for Goliath to metastasize to but it is odd that those lymph nodes got involved. This now means that Goliath is stage IV Metastatic colon cancer. The pathology report states that the four lymph nodes has been obliterated by Goliath. I now have five tumors all between 20-30 mm or two -three cm. No one is sure how this happened. Obviously that tiny little tumor in my colon way back in o7 turned out to be a nasty little %$^&*& and managed to mobilize and invade distant tissue at a very early stage of development. So now we know. It's time to figure out what's next. How do we deal with this? How does this effect my family? How does this effect my life? Whats the prognosis. Is there anything that can be done? Oncology is next. I am now fully in the grip of Goliath. He has me in a strangle hold and I need to fight my way out!!

The new Beastie is the old Beastie in disguise.

The initial pathology identified the beastie as Adenocarcinoma/colon. Colon?? How the hell could this be colon? Goliath is gone! We eliminated him!! This can't be Goliath!!! Nooo!!!! This can't be Goliath!!!!! Dr. Ashiku doubted the result and had the tissue sent to a pathology lab in San Francisco to do more extensive test called staining. So a sick as it sounds there was a couple of days where we were routing for beastie number two. Please be lung... please be lung, but not Goliath. Dr. Ashiku assured me he would notify me the moment he got any results. He was good to his word. Two days later he called me in the late evening. All the test results were in. There was no doubt. The new beastie is the old beastie. IT'S GOLIATH!!!

April 24th 2009. Lets try this again. What is this new beastie?

Dr. Ashiku decided that the only way to really know for sure was to do a surgical procedure called a mediastienoscopy. This is where he will make a surgical incision at the base of my neck right at the crook of my sternum. They plan to put me under for this. After the bronchoscopy putting me under is definitely the way to go!!! He planned to go in and cut out pieces of tissue the old school way and ensure that good samples were obtained. He was successful and good tissue samples were retrieved and sent to pathology. A couple of steristrips and a two inch new battle wound and I was good to go. Time to wait again.

The biopsy from hell!

All the procedures leading up to this point had either been painless or tolerable. Even the colectomy was nothing compared to this procedure. In the collective wisdom of the oncology dept. it was thought best to do a bronchoscopy. The procedure is to insert a flexible camera with attached tools down my throat only using local anaesthetic in the form of lidacane which tastes horrendous to start with, not to mention all the gagging as they shove this thing down my throat squirting more lidacane as they go. The intent was to access the lymph nodes by inserting hollow tube needles from the inside of my windpipe and piercing the lymph nodes on the other side of my windpipe to extract tissue. They had to restrain my head and forced my mouth open with a plastic tube inserted in my mouth. I was awake and very much aware of all that was happening. They stabbed me twelve times and dug around each time trying unsuccessfully to get a sample. I have never felt such pain. I was in tears after that. I was trying to be so brave but it felt like I was going to choke to death or die from the stabbing pain of needles being shoved through my windpipe. Please God put a stop to this I can't bear any more! Finally after what felt like hours the procedure was halted and declared a bust! No viable samples were gathered and the Dr. who was performing the procedure said the lymph nodes were very large and very hard unlike normal tissue and he could not penetrate them. Sorry about all the discomfort he said but this was all for nought. Discomfort Hell!! This was torture!! Needles to say my throat was sore and I was horse for a few days but I soon recovered from my ordeal to face yet another biopsy.

A new and diffrent Goliath.

Dr. Ashiku was convinced that Goliath was eliminated and what was in my lung was a new foe, primary lung cancer and that it had spread to lymph nodes. That stages this new beast at stage III Lung cancer with regional lymph node involvement. Not good at all. To say that Denise and I were blown away would be an understatement. We tried our best to put on our bravest faces but the tears did flow. There is no way of describing the crushing ,collapsing feeling when one's world comes tumbling down around them. You find yourself trying to dig your way out of the heavy weight of all that rubble trying to convince yourself that it's all going to be OK when in your heart of hearts you are fearing the worst. A biopsy of the lymph nodes was now called for to identify the type. I asked Dr. Ashiku if maybe this had anything to do with my colon. He believed that the colon issue had been dealt with and all the post test after my colectomy and all the follow up oncology visits along with the followup colonoscopy that I requested to have done in November of 2008 showed that Goliath had been vanquished!! There was no Goliath in my colon at all! This was defiantly a new foe.

Surprise, Surprise, Surprise!!!

In January ,2008 Denise noticed that my hackey cough had gotten worse. I have had a cough for years. All that smoking. I had given up the nasty habit several years earlier but years of sucking down all those toxins left me with a morning cough. Denise had been put on high blood pressure medication a few months earlier and had a a bad reaction to one called Lisinopril. She developed a nasty dry hackey cough and just felt lousy. Her Dr. took her off Linsinopril and she felt better soon after and her cough went away. She suggested that I see my Dr. because I have been on that medication for quite some time now and maybe I was having the same reaction. So I made a Dr. appointment.

That first visit in January resulted in me coming away with prescriptions of nasal sprays and inhalers thinking it was an allergy. To be on the safe side chest X-rays were taken and showed clear. That was not the problem however and a return visit was called for.

The next visit was a couple of months later in March and my Dr. decided to take me off Lisinopril and perscribed Cozzar as an alternative. Wow!!! I felt so much better almost immediately and my cough almost disappeared over night. What a major change. I didn't know I was feeling bad because it had crept up slowly over a long time and I never felt the change. I just thought age was creeping up on me some. I also noticed that I was catching every sniff and sniffle that the kids on my bus had . Just not as strong or tolerant as I used to be. I thought that is normal for working in a mobile bacteria factory like hauling kids around. Anyway my Dr. being thorough sent me for another chest x-ray.

This time the result of the x-ray was not the same. A phone call from Kaiser, my medical provider informed me that a spot showed up in my left lung on this last x-ray and that they wanted to schedule me for a cat scan as soon as possible. Oh boy, that's not good news!!

The cat scan early the next week confirmed the spot as being in my lower left lobe of my left lung near the spine. It had been hiding there for a long time now. The mass measure 24 x 28 mm. The news keep getting worse. A pet scan was the next order of diagnosis.

The pet scan was done a few days latter. I am now being rushed through diagnosis and I am grateful that they are moving quickly to find out what this thing is but it is scaring me because they wouldn't move that fast if they didn't think this was serious.

April 6Th, 2009.

Only six days shy of being two years to the day that I first meet Goliath with the result of that colonoscopy, scared, uncertain and worried both Denise and I put our best foot forward and bravely went to consult with Dr. Ashiku a Thoracic Surgeon no less to discuss the findings of the pet scan.

The images were crystal clear and there were lots of them ,from many different angles. The scan showed every thing from the testes to the chin. There was four very bright yellow, large glowing masses in every view. One in my lower left lung and three around the wind pipe in my chest above the lung.

Say hello to Goliath again!

Moving on. Life after Goliath and all is good.



Things couldn't be any better. Home, family, work ,health, all was going great! I was working part time driving school bus , Denise's carear was moving a little faster than she planned and was now Chief Business Offical of Antioch School District. The same school district she attended all her school years. Wow, am I proud of her!! My youngest Michelle is doing good in middle school,and my three adult childern all college grads thanks to thier efforts. Rachael , Curtis and Lauren are all settled, married ,hard working moral adults. A father could not be more proud of his offspring as I am of mine. Rachael and Curtis are now parents and I have five wonderful Grandkids. Three girls and two boys. The only drawback is we are spread all over the world. Rachael in Norwich England,Curtis in Plant City ,Flordia and Lauren in Agusta, Georgia. Vacations are allways with the kids. I never see them enough.



Working part time gave ample time to be the at home parent and do all the domestic chores. I even managed to Coach Michelle's soccer team. Girl's u-14 . The girl's named the team the Panthers. It was hard work but a whole lot of fun!!! The rest of 2007 and all of 2008 turned out great and this is what life at this stage is ment to be. I was enjoying life at it best, feeling really good ,keeping busy,spending a lot of time with family, enjoying my extended family. I have become close to Denise's folks Parker and Judy and her brother Doug and his kids Zachary ,Skylar and Bailee and his wife Kishla over the years and enjoy spending time with them. It was all good.

Where do we go from here? Whats the plan?

It soon became clear that all hope was not lost and that Goliath had been found very early and if dealt with now the prognosis was cheery indeed. Goliath was staged as 0-1 carcinoma in situ. Surgery was required. I was assured that I didn't need all of my colon and could function quite well with a bowel resection. I am so full of it any way a little less would do me no harm. Goliath was found in my ascending colon very near the junction with my small intestine. It was decided to remove my ascending colon along with my appendix and surrounding regional lymph nodes with the hope that all of Goliath would be removed from my body as well. The procedure would be done laprascopicly This was decided in July ,2007. We now have a plan and I am feeling much better about my future. This little skirmish with Goliath would be a minor one and I would soon be back in the game.






Time to put the plan into action. August 8th.2007.



Surgery was a breeze for me. I sleep through the whole thing. A good thing to because I didn't get much sleep the four day's I was in hospital. I tell you those nurses have it down to a science that every time you drift off you are nudged awake with it's time for your meds or wakie, wakie need to check your blood pressure. Dagnabit lady if you keep waken me up you'll see my blood pressure go through the roof!! I was some what sore to say the least but a small price to pay to to get rid of Goliath. My being released from this captivity all depended on me having a bowel movement. The hospital fare as far as food goes is not that scrumptious and the portions were small for what I ,David the chow hound could put away. I was supposed to produce a BM on a cup of watery cream of wheat, a cup of jello, green no less and a packet of crackers! Ah come on at least let me down a double in and out burger and fries. That 'll do the trick. Oh yea don't forget the shake!!!. Four whole days of pacing the hallways planning my escape. Trying to figure out a way of gettin some good grub past the guards. Think they would notice if my wife brought in a steamin hot platter of enchiladas with verdi sauce and a couple of chervasis? Throw in a few chili peppers and some hot sauce and we will get things moving! In the early hours of day four I had a bowel movement. A very small one but majorly important one. This could grant my release!!! I ran down the hall way to the nurses station, well shuffled more like and announced with great gusto that I had just took a dump! Do you want to come and see! I was like a kid who had done it for the first time and was so proud that I wanted to share my great achievement! I ensured my release by having one more small movement prior to the Dr.'s visit.


I was released after being told that the surgery went well and that all of Goliath had been removed and that 15 surrounding regional lymph nodes were removed as well. The surrounding tissue and the lymph nodes showed negative of any advancement and that Goliath was localized to that one small tumor and he has been eliminated!!! I went home with jubilation!! I was Goliath free and had my whole wonderful life still ahead of me! The relieve was immeasurable. Back home at last and time to heal. I was in very good spirits and healed quickly and back to work in only four weeks. I had a new lease on life and a new attitude. I fully understood how fortunate I was ! It was a life changing experience and I was very grateful to my maker. Time to move on.

My introduction to Goliath.
My primary care provider requested I get a sigmoidoscopy. A fancy way of saying we are going to stick a camera up where the sun don't shine. She wanted to check things out cause I turned that certian age. Really an ego booster!

The sigmoidoscopy was not to bad and I was told that my sigmoid was healthy except for two small polips. Little did we know at the time that those little polips were really Goliaths forward scouts. I was told that a colonoscopy was required to remove the polips. After a short time in the fart room I was given an all clear and I beat a hasty retreat blowin gas like a turbo jet.

That was January 30, 2007.





My colonoscopy was on April 12,2007. My Dads birthday.
The colonoscopy wasn't too bad, at least they gave me a little happy juice. As I was being wheeled out of the operating room and into the fart room I was told all went well. As I was in recovery My wife and daughter who was only 11 at the time, joined me and were standing at the foot of my bed when in burst the Dr. that performed the proceedure and blurted out "I found a growth and I think you have CANCER!!!"
We drove home from the hospital in stuned silence. All of us too scared to talk about it. We were dumbfounded.

The waiting..................................and waiting.............................and waiting. Do I or Don't I ? He said he thinks I do but I have to wait for labs. Whats happining? A million thoughts racing through my mind. Am I going to die? What now? What about Denise my wife and my baby girl at home ? Aww shucks (clean version) She had to hear the Doc say the "C"word. Life was in turmoil.

Then the phone call three days later. I am sorry Mr. Porterfield but the biopsy shows positive,you have meet Goliath.

Hello all.

This is my personal story of my battle with Goliath.
Great military minds know that to build a winning army one must muster massive troops, have a constant reserve to increase one's numbers, train them well, supply them well and feed them well. Next comes strategy and tactics. A well planed and executed attack can win many battles. So can deception. Great strategist try to employ the element of surprise. To catch one's foe's off guard, unprepared to put up any defence and then overwhelm them and to deliver a crushing blow with the hopes that your efforts turn into a conquest that your enemies will never recover from. This is the thinking of the Japanese when without provocation launched a massive and brutal attack at Pearl Harbor. The attack caught the whole U.S. Pacific Fleet at anchor. The attack was horrific!!! Their intent was to destroy us and eliminate any return threat all in one mighty blow. They carried out the plan to great victory. Or did they? As the Japanese aircraft returned to their carriers and the celebrations and congratulations began Fleet Admiral Yamamoto of the Japanese Imperial Navy was quoted in saying "I believe we have awakened a sleeping giant and installed in him a terrible resolve." He was right, as a few days earlier four U.S. aircraft carriers slipped out of port and were instrumental in turning the tide at the battle of Midway and became our saviors. We all know the out come of that conflict.

Goliath has employed the same stratgy. He has built his army in great mass. They are highly mobil and invasive. He has invaded my body with stealth and surprise. He has attacked me twice, both times with surprise. I was unprepared each time. The first time we were able to repel the attack and defeated him, or so we thought. The second attack was devestating. He was able to mobilze with out detection and to entrench himself in distant organs and heavaly fortify is posistion. He is still on the move!

The arsenel available to me is limited. Because he is so mobile the only wepon we can use is chemical. We have launched a full scale chemical counter attack. We have one target specific chemical we have utilized as well, it's target is Goliath's supply line. The other chemicals are aimed at killing troops on mass. However these chemicals are nondiscrimatory and kill our troops as well. This is a major battle of attrition. The one who can withstand the onslaught the longest will be the victor.

Goliath is a formidable foe. He has the advantage. I don't know if we can stop him.