Helping Doug Update June 21

This is not an appeal for more donations.

Though several thousand dollars have been contributed by generous people like you, the fact is that Doug's medical bills are now up around $30,000. The good news is that creative, hard working people are coming up with a plan to raise more funds.

Meanwhile, the Social Security system has given Doug the "business as usual" treatment. After suffering hours of hold time and information collection, then not calling back when they said they would, they've lost his file and suggested that Doug needs to start from scratch in this process that takes months in the best of circumstances. At one point, a person whose expertise is negotiating this morass was working with Doug, but that person has mysteriously dropped out of the picture.

Here is what Doug really needs at the moment:

1. Someone to advise him on how to manage the mounting medical bills. Strategies for maintaining solvency for as long as possible.

2. Someone to help him with the process of getting Social Security Disability benefits. To be relentless in staying on the bureaucrats that seem to care little of his plight. Doug's ability to cope with this is directly related to his ability to breathe , and he's having a rough time of it.

Paul

Good news

The biopsy from surgery identified my cancer as "poorly differentiated non-small cell adenocarcinoma", and I have qualified to participate in a chemotherapy research trial which I will begin this Tuesday, June 23. The pharmaceutical company provides the drugs and I pay for the scans every three week cycle to determine its effectiveness. These are ct scans of my brain, chest and abdomen, to see if the cancer has spread. To qualify for the trial, these had to be negative.

I'm a little disappointed that I don't have cancer in my brain, since this seemed like an ideal way of avoiding responsibility.