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September 30th ,2024

Today the dreaded statement arrived from our county. It was the Lien notice to our home.  I called the county but they honestly do not care.  I have asked if we can make monthly time payments, and they do not do that.   We just wanted to remain in the house through the winter and John recovered after treatments.

We are working with a disability group called Taconic Resources to assist John in reapplying” for SSI or SSDI. He was denied last year.

Update:Septemeber 26th, 2024

Today was John’s 13th of 28 treatments. John still has side effects of stomach bloating, nausea, feeling fatigue, and stomach distress.

We are trying to apply for SSI for John, however, he was denied last year for not having enough work credits, and he is 11 credits short.  The Taconic Resources who work with the disabled are trying to assist us with that.

Our Property and School tax bills are building penalties for being late so as of right now, the amount owed to The Town Tax Assessor is $14,000. They do not accept monthly payments unfortunately, they want the entire amount to avoid foreclosure.

We are grateful for everything that all of you have done thus far.

Update: September 20th, 2024

Today was Day 9 of radiation.  He is having nausea, stomach cramps, and other stomach ailments.  The Pros Oncology Center was beneficial in setting up nutritional shakes to be delivered to the home, They are from a company called Kate Farms.

Update: September 16th, 2024

Today was John’s 5th day of treatment.  His insurance will not cover his nutritional supplement shakes.  His BMI is not 18 or under.  The radiation is causing stomach distress and cramping, he feels heated as if he had been in the sun.  The oncologist.  sent us home with a few Ensure drinks so he can at least drink that if he is too nauseous and doesn’t want solid food.  

Update: September 12th, 2024

John started his radiation on 9/10/24.  He is three days in.  The PROS Center was kind and generous and sent us home with samples of Ensure Protein drinks.  John has been experiencing nausea so his appetite is not that good.  The shakes are so helpful to him.

Update: September 6th, 2024

John met with an oncology nutritionist today and provided samples of Ensure Protein Shakes and an anti-nausea candy called Queasy Drops. He is also taking Zofran to prevent nausea. He starts radiation on Tuesday, September the 10th.  He is also being treated for a blood clot in his lung by his oncologist.

The nutritionist brought her therapy dog, Lily, for us to meet.

Update: August 30th, 2024

John received tattoo markings to use as a marker for radiation. He also had a CAT Scan. This happened yesterday.  They just called to inform us that they need to redo the CAT Scan because the one they performed yesterday didn’t show enough of the bladder.  We have to go back this afternoon so they can redo the CAT Scan.  His radiation therapy begins on September 10th.

Update: August 28th, 2024

We go to Mid Hudson Regional Cancer Center tomorrow, the 29th. The PROS Cancer Center will sit down with both of us and answer any questions regarding the radiation treatments he will be receiving starting next week.

Update:  August 22, 2024

Hello all, I wanted to come on here and update everyone.

John had his Spacer implanted to prepare him for radiation therapy starting in about ten days.  He is in good spirits, but the procedure was very uncomfortable.  His insurance denied him to be placed under anesthesia for it. They injected lidocaine and he said the injections to numb the area were excruciating and honestly didn’t numb it completely. He knew he had no choice, no thanks to his insurance.

Also, I wanted to express our gratitude to all of you who have donated and shared this link in hopes of spreading the word.

To  read his entire story, please scroll down,

Hello,

I am John’s wife, Donna.  I wanted to share John’s health journey.

In 2017 my husband had his first spinal surgery that didn’t go well and led to spinal fluid leakage and several blood transfusions. In the months after he still had excruciating pain and felt something was loose. With every follow-up visit, he would tell the surgeon what he felt. The doctor was hesitant to believe him.  Several months later the surgeon had no choice but to believe John and order an MRI.  In the surgeon’s findings, the screws in John’s back were indeed loose.  Another surgery was done to replace the hardware.  In that second spinal surgery came more complications, Leaving John in constant pain and leg numbness.  Still, after a year of John having more pain, we noticed John’s posture was bowing where he was walking bent over. The original surgeon didn’t want to touch his back anymore.

We found a new surgeon who ordered a new MRI and was willing to look to see what could be done.  His findings were horrifying, John’s back was bending over because all of the screws were pulling out of the spine.

The surgeon explained there was a surgery but this would be the last procedure that could be done. In March of 2024, John went under for about twelve hours. This surgery also led him to receive several more blood transfusions.  They did a CAT scan and discovered a blood clot in his lungs, they placed him on Eliquis (a blood thinner)-

John also has diabetes and high blood pressure so regulating these two diseases during this entire time was tricky. His heart rate would speed up and his blood pressure would spike so high then plummet causing him to pass out many times while in the hospital.

His wound was having tremendous difficulty with the bleeding slowing down due to the blood thinner they placed him on. He was also hooked up to a Foley Bag to void into.

18 days later, he came back home, and the hospital assigned nurses, Occupational Therapy, and Physical Therapy. He still could not void on his own, so the hospital sent him home with a supply of Foley’s to change out.

At that point, we noticed the bandages were soaking through with blood and the bleeding was not thickening, as it should due to the Eliquis for the blood clot in his lung.

Being rushed back to the hospital, they took a biopsy and discovered a bacteria called Pseudomonas had colonized the new hardware of his spine. They were forcing the surgeon to perform another surgery to try and flush out the bacteria performing a muscle flap surgery.  This caused a PICC line to be placed into John’s arm. To be treated with heavy antibiotics to fight the bacteria. The infectious disease specialist came in to tell my husband this is a lifelong treatment. The PICC line would be in for two months and I would give him an IV treatment every day, three times a day.

Still unable to void on his own, The hospital told him to see a urologist.  We had several appointments back and forth with the urologist doing trial runs for a few hours without the foley and still being unable to void. The Urologist scheduled two tests to be done two weeks apart. the first test would be a Urodynamics test and two weeks later a cystoscopy.  After the cystoscopy was done, the urologist suggested a procedure named TURP. to shave the prostate down.  That surgery was scheduled and he spent the night in the hospital.   This procedure came with its share of complications.  He came home on a Thursday, Friday, and Saturday, and on Sunday we were at the local emergency room because his Foley was not allowing him to void. The Emergency room flushed him out with a saline solution. By Monday we were back in the Urologist’s office to get flushed again and they showed us how to do this at home.  Two weeks later the foley was removed and he started to void on his own without the foley.

Three weeks after the TURP surgery, we received a call on a Friday at 5 pm telling us that the surgeon needed to see John on Monday morning.  We knew it wasn’t good news. That Monday came and that’s when we found out that John has prostate cancer.  We were urged to see an oncologist for treatment options.  They gave us paperwork to head over to the hospital where the oncologist has his office out of.

John has to get radiation but before that, he is getting another surgical procedure done on August 22nd to have a Spacer surgically implanted to protect the rectum and colon when the radiation treatments begin.

We are grateful for all of you who have donated and ask if you cannot donate if you would be so kind as to share our campaign.

I will update  John’s progress in a few days as we know more.

Thank you,

Donna and John Bischoff

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