Blanket Seduction

Several of my friends from a local parish made a Prayer Blanket for me to use to remember I am surrounded by prayers. I sat in my recliner after infusion yesterday feeling tired and chilled. I wrapped up in the blanket and spent the rest of the night feeling comforted and warm.

I went to bed last night and wrapped up in the usual fleece blanket that I had. I could immediately feel the warmth of the blanket. My alarm went off this morning and as I got up I heard the blanket call my name and say, "You should stay right here with me." I turned off the alarm and felt the blanket crawl up my shoulder as I fell back to sleep.

An hour later, I woke up and thought I should get up. As I looked over the side of the bed the blanket crept up on my legs and back whispering in my ears, "Stay here old boy." I felt old and in need of some more sleep so I succumbed.

After another hour, I woke up and began to think the blanket was possessed as I tried to get up again. But it just kept calling me back. Once again I gave in. Mary sent me a txt message saying she had hives from her contact with the cat this morning and had to take a benedryl. She was getting sleepy. I wrote her back that my blankets were not letting me out of bed! She wrote back and said, "Rest, those Navy Seals are working hard inside you." I accepted that and feel back to sleep.

I am now eating breakfast which in reality should be lunch but I have no shame, Who knew that stage IV Melanoma would allow someone to succumb to blanket seduction so easily!!!!! I will have to look through my moral theology books to see where blanket seduction fits into the whole pictuer of life........

Second Infusion Day

The day started with the obligatory blood draw to check liver and cell functions before the infusion can begin. Mary and Megan accompanied me today. Megan acted as the note taker as we met with the clinical pharmacist and nurse practitioner. Lots of questions about possible side effects which I do not seem to have. A slight rash and tiredness is all we could really identify. A couple of liver enzymes high indicating liver damage but not extremely high. LDH, which apparently has been identified as a potential indicator of melanoma in the system, is higher than normal confirming the melanoma's presence. These two professionals spent about 90 minutes with us and answered all of our questions. Wonderful people!

Appointments were made for CT scans after my third infusion on June 14th. Luckily these can be done right at the scan center in Canton--one block from my house.

We moved on to the infusion area and the infusion nurse was able to get the IV in my right hand with only one try. Mary and Megan prayed over the Ketruda as it was brought it and then the infusion started. About an hour later, we were back on the road and off to Seva Restaurant in Ann Arbor to get a vegetarian lunch. It was a long day and it is was great having Megan with us as we walked through the various activities.

We have a long time friend who is a researcher at UM and she was able to come to the waiting area to be with Mary and greet us as we came out of infusion. It was great having you there Lydia.

Overall a very successful day. It it is hard to process how sick I really am with the way I feel right now. All your prayers and visits are paying off in that regard. Keep them coming!

An old friend of mine sent me a note to say that visioning is an important part of the fight. He said he envisioned PACMEN attacking his cancer cells. I told him my body is coursing full of fully armed. equipped and trained Navy Seals!!!!!!!

There have been many other thoughts and things to write about over the last three weeks but I will address these in other posts.

First Day of Infusion

May 3, 2017 is Christopher's 30th birthday and my first day of immunotherapy.  Who would have guessed 30 years ago. 

Met with the infusion nurse, social worker and then had my first infusion treatment. All went wonderfully well except for the three needle sticks that needed to happen. I am so very grateful to all the staff at UM Cancer Center who have been so friendly and helpful.

A huge thank you to everyone who called and left messages/texts/emails. Your love and concern has been most gratifying!

Mary told me to image the Keytruda as a spray of scrubbing bubbles going after the cancer cells. I told her I had a different image in my mind. I have always been amazed at the training and dedication of Navy Seals so this is my image of the Keytruda attacking the cancer cells.

Medical overlaps---how do they keep it all straight?

The insurance company has approved the treatment plan with Keytruda and it all starts tomorrow. I met with my internist and her pharmacist yesterday to look at what meds I have been on for my Diabetes II plan. A couple of the oral meds have potential conflicts with the cancer treatment and observation scans. So out with two oral meds and onto an injectable insulin. The treatment for the cancer can cause blood sugar spikes so hopefully the injectable insulin dosage can be modified on a short notice to respond to any spikes. I am constantly amazed at how the doctors/staff can look at such complicated situations and make sense of a treatment plan. Thank God for smart doctors!

Second Opinion

We met with the Oncologist at St Joseph Mercy Health and laid out the plan for treatment. He was able to answer several questions for us. Most that my PhD biomedical engineer daughter had thought of. So good to have her as a resource worker! He also brought up the MRI and CT scans to show us the details of the reports. He was very straight forward and concurred that the plan we have at UM Melanoma Clinic appears to be our best option at this point.

So it looks like I start the immunotherapy this coming Wednesday!

Thanks for all the prayers, contacts and visits you have all made to date!

Metastatic Choroidal Melanoma

For the last 11 years I have had annual CT scans, blood work and chest x-rays to see if the choroidal melanoma had spread after the radiation treatment I had for it. Well this year the CT scan showed several highlighted areas in my liver.

After several CT scans, MRIs, blood workups and a liver biopsy, I have been diagnosed with metastatic ocular melanoma with five tumors in my liver and a tumor in a lymph node next to my trachea. My lungs and brain are clear for the moment.

The plan is to start immunotherapy on Wednesday May 3, 2017 with Keytruda at the U of M Melanoma Clinic in Ann Arbor. There is no cure for this condition, but hopefully the treatment will slow or shrink the tumors. While only 13% of patients get a benefit from this treatment, there is the possibility of some clinical trials if I do not respond to this course of treatment.

We have so many friends who have responded with so many prayers and calls and notes. It has been overwhelming to experience this kind of love and care for my family and I. I plan to use this blogspot as a site to keep everyone up to date, so please feel free to log yourself in. I would love to have you send messages and prayers via this site whenever you can. Know that our home is always open for anyone to stop in and spend time chatting. We want to know what is happening in your lives too!

Peace and all good,


Deacon Don Leach

BIC Newsletter Vol. I No. I August 2015

Bridging International Communities Newsletter

Vol. I No. I--August 2015

A Wonderful Young Woman from Kampala

This is the story of my contact with a young woman in Kampala Uganda. Some of it is in my words and some of it is in her words. I offer this story as an example of what we are trying to accomplish through the Diakonos Don Foundation and the House of Jjajja Don.  I met Cissy in 2011 when I was visiting a local college program. She was a student in her final year and took to me as soon as I came into the building. She was studying marketing and had a friend who was an artist who painted large murals. She asked if we would be able to use his services at St Kizito and the medical clinic there. I told her I would check into it and she gave me her phone number

A few months later I called her from the United States and told her that St Kizito was interested in contracting for a mural and that she should call Fr. Yiga about it. She was astounded that I had followed up with her. She was done with school by this time and told me se was looking for work but could not find anything. I gave her my email address and asked her to stay in touch with me.

A few months later we were taking young women into the House of Jjajja Don to learn how to sew and weave uniforms and other clothing items. They wanted to sell them and hoped to be able to come up with a marketing plan.

I returned to Uganda after another year and talked with Fr. Yiga about selling the clothes that the girls were making. I mentioned the contact I had with Cissy and Fr Gerald remembered her. We invited Cissy to meet with us and discussed her coming to work for the house as the Marketing Manger. I promised to fund a portion of her income her for six months at which time we would evaluate how her marketing plan was developing.

A few months after I left, I got a message that Cissy needed to talk to me. I called her and she talked to me about some very personal things she had not told me of earlier. She told me she had a young daughter and did not know where the father was. She was having difficulty with the girls in the house because they said she had not been open and honest with me. I thanked her for telling me about her daughter. I told her it made no difference and that I still wanted her to be the marketing manager for sales. The girls accepted her and ask her to move into the house with them which she did.

Cissy was bale to develop a plan whereby the girls contracted with some of the local schools to sew uniforms and weave sweaters for the students. The girls also were bale to rent a small shop in the neighborhood of the house. Sales did not go well in the shops as many of the locals still have stigmas about the girls who are former prostitutes. Another factor however was that the girls’ products were better and more expensive that what they were used to having available to them.

Cissy called me later and told me that she wanted to have her daughter, Catherine, baptized but did not have anyone who would be the godparents. I had her speak to her pastor and I agreed to be the godfather and a nun there agreed to be her godmother. Catherine was baptized a few months later.

While Cissy was in the house, she learned new skills and passed the state

 Certification test for sewing. One of the primary goals of the house is to get the girls ready to move back out on their own with some better skills and loving supports. Cissy and two other girls moved out of the house to start their own little business. I bought them a sewing machine and have stayed in touch with them since the move.

These are Sissy’s words about her life at the time of these ongoing contacts.

I was born in MAKONDO Rakai district. My parents paid for my education up to a Diploma level. After completing my diploma course in Marketing, I came to Kampala to look for the jobs. It was not possible to get the jobs I studied for. In the circumstances of not having any relative or friend in Kampala and no source of income, I ended up on the street. I hit the street in 2011 after teaming up with other girls who accommodated me in their rented rooms from where we would look for all sorts of jobs ranging from acting as waiters at eating places and bars, as well as street standing. Eventually I got pregnant and delivered a daughter. The boy responsible for the pregnancy abandoned and disappeared from me.  I took my daughter to the village where she stays under the care of

my mother while I remained in Kampala to look for jobs and money.

It is from the street that that Don picked me and adopted me to the house with an assignment of marketing the items produced by the house inmates. During my stay in the house, I learnt skills in tailoring, knitting from the instructors provided by Don.

I would like to further my academic skills in Marketing to attain a Bachelor’s degree in Marketing so that I can support the organization to market its products. In return it will also give me employment to enable me to take care of my daughter.  This will accord me opportunity to gain a decent social status in life.

I am a single mother; I do not know the whereabouts of the father of my daughter. As we stand today, I am still jobless, finding it hard to get food and money for my daughter.

I request DIDOFO for financial support to upgrade my academic skills to graduate level.

Cissy wrote these words as she was leaving the House of Jjajja Don. She has dreams of a better future for her and her daughter. She wants to continue her education. Life for her will be difficult as it is difficult for most young people in Uganda. I believe she has developed a character that shows her how to survive without putting herself at such great risk. I chatted with her on Facebook a few days ago and this is the essence of our conversation.

Facebook Chat with Cissy Nandango on 8-18-2015

Cissy: For sewn goods here at Nantere I Started a group called ‘‘''Agali Awamu Voice Of Youth Dev't Group''’’ In Nantere with 30 youths we started Sewing Activities and I Am Also Active.

Don: Excellent let me know how this all develops!

Cissy: Do you want to know how group members develop?

Don: Yes I would like to hear about what you are doing and accomplishing

Cissy: We Found that we have the same problem of economic empowerment and we started as group of 10 people in the same area with contributing cash round but now we are 30 we save money in the group we have a vision of fighting poverty. Members do tailoring and we also practice farming we do garlic farming; we make nursery bed for some trees like kilotons etc.

Don: Excellent. Who came up with the idea of forming into a group?

Cissy: I My Self

Don: Excellent! I am so proud of you! That is the same strategy I used in getting the girls to start the house. I knew they could not get off the streets alone. They needed each other.

Cissy: Wonderful Statement. You pray for me I Also Pray for you...

I wanted to tell you this story so that you could get a feel for what we are doing to work with these young women on the streets of Kampala. It is a long and involved process with no set course or direction. It can be messy and demanding with no certainty of success. However, it is as joyous as life can be as we see the deep and profound changes that occur in so many of their lives.

I hope this allows you to have little better understanding what we are doing in Uganda.

Donald E. Leach

President

Bridging International Communities

44257 Fair Oaks Dr Canton, MI  48187

Post Script

A report from Kampala Uganda today (August 18, 2015) says there are 8 girls in various primary and secondary schools from the House of Jjajja Don, four more are living in the house learning vocational skills and one girl is now back in her college program. There are five more girls in the pipeline to leave the streets and return to school in January.

We are now dealing with 18 young women who have been taken from the streets of Kampala and removed from commercial sex work. It takes around $3500 a term (three terms per year) to keep the girls in school and provide for them in the house during their breaks from school (which is a critical time since many girls work the streets while on break to earn fees for school). Anything you can do to support us in our efforts to work with these marginalized young women is greatly appreciated. Please pass this message on to your friends and ask them to consider helping us too. Remember to use smile.amazon.com for your Amazon purchases and select Bridging International Communities 46-3971672 as your charity to support with your purchases!!!