Stoopidbot1

Continued... The Medicines: Samantha gets several different types of chemo drugs at different intervals. She has to take all kinds of other things to help her body fight infections and stay strong. One medicine will make her stomach upset, so she gets something to settle it. One medicine makes her constipated, so she gets a laxative. One medicine makes her loose her appetite, so she gets something to make her hungry. She gets antibiotics as all the time to help fight possible infection. Sometimes she has to get an IV at home. At one point during her 3rd hospital stay, she was receiving 15 different drugs through the IV system at once. She also gets steroids from time to time to help her body recover. The treatments can really wipe her out. It has been explained to me what a person getting chemo therapy feels like. Imagine the worst flu you ever had and multiply that by 4. The steroids make her hungry and she eats like crazy, sometimes too much and her little belly swells so much it makes her uncomfortable. Bring on the belly medicines again. The steroids can also work opposite of what most people think. If Samantha is not active while she is taking them, her muscles actually get weaker. After hospital stays when she is bed ridden, it takes her about 2 weeks to start getting strong again and has to be helped to walk or stand up. The Treatments and Tests: Up to this point, Samantha has gone to the Cancer Clinic at least once a week. She gets blood tests every time to check her blood counts. She regularly gets red blood and platelets. Every few weeks she’ll get a spinal tap to make sure the Leukemia is not getting into her spinal fluid and attacking her brain. She has now had about 2 dozen spinal taps. Normally she is sedated for these, but one time was awake through the whole thing and had to be held down by 4 people. And now: As of now, Samantha is doing pretty good. She is in remission, but the chemo treatments will continue for at least 2 more years. If the Leukemia is not treated for a long period of time it could come back, worse than ever. She has lost her beautiful natural curls, and always tells us that she’s going to get them back soon. She loves to play with her princess toys that everyone has given her. We have to be very careful with her when her white blood counts are low because she can get sick very quickly. She can not go out side in the cold weather, or go to public places like the grocery store. Since no one else in the family drives except for my wife and me, she has to go along and stay in the car with one of her sisters when my wife goes to the store during the day. There has to be transportation available to her at all times in case she gets sick. Samantha usually sleeps in the living room with Stephanie because they share a room with Natasha who is constantly coming home from school with a cold. We try to keep Samantha isolated from other family members that might be sick, but with 9 people in the house, it’s hard sometimes. We also have to be careful not to let Samantha into certain parts of the house where molds and mildews are present, which is probably the whole house. We have an air purifier running in the house to try and kill off some of those things. The Support: I can not thank everyone enough for their support. Our Pediatrician ran a food drive for us over the first 3 weeks that Samantha was in the hospital, and even arraigned for a new carpet to be donated for our dining room. Dennis Kuenze, from the Valley ATV Club organized the Ride for Samantha at Lost Trails on the 28th of September. About 150 riders showed up. Through his efforts he collected money enough to help us pay up our utilities and fill up our heating oil. It certainly kept the wolf away from our door temporarily. The Make a Wish foundation is supposed to bring Samantha a new swing/play set in the spring. It is one that is vinyl coated so there are no splinters for her to worry about. The Future: I’m not sure what the future will hold for us. I’m still struggling to keep my head above water, but at least we’re all home together. I still have issues to work out with the mortgage company because we are so far behind and we have some serious issues to deal with around the house. We may still end up liquidating the quads, but for now they are still here. When we get through all this with Samantha, and I pray we do, I hope to organize some things to help others. I hope to get a ride together to benefit the local chapter of Make a Wish, and I’d like to try to set up a network of volunteers to help other struggling families going through this, there are more than you think. I was inspired by a family that did something similar to what I have in mind. Sometimes simple everyday chores go undone when a family is in crisis, like mowing the lawn or grocery shopping. Thanks again for everyone’s support.

Most of you will remember a few months back, the rally across the country for a little girl that is sick and a family facing hard times. Well this is an update from Samantha's father, BigcatDave. The Diagnosis: Samantha is the second youngest of our 7 children. She is 3 years old. In April of this year (2008), my wife noticed that she was not acting like her normal energetic, bubbly self. She was very pale and lethargic. My wife took Samantha in to our pediatrician, Dr. Rice, who took one look at her and immediately summoned an ambulance. She was admitted to Lehigh Valley Pediatric Intensive care unit, where they immediately started doing tests and giving her blood transfusions. After a few days, the tests concluded that she had a form of childhood Leukemia called Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia, which is a cancer of the white blood cells. Basically, her white blood cells that normally should be cleaning her body of things that don’t belong there, were attacking her red blood cells. The doctors assured us that this is the most common form of Leukemia in children and they had a good understanding of how to cure it, although there are no guarantees. Obviously we were devastated. My wife at one point asked why it had to be Samantha, and all I could tell her was that it was because Samantha was so loved by everyone and all that love would pull her through. Hospital Visits: Samantha was moved to the regular Pediatric ward where she stayed for nearly a month. She began chemotherapy there and underwent daily blood tests. During that month, Sabrina and Stephanie took time off from school to stay with her as much as they could. During the day, my wife would stay with her and Preston (our youngest) would play in his playpen in the room. After work, I would go home get the other kids that were being taken care of by Natalie (2nd oldest), bring them in to the hospital for a short visit, and then run home with half the kids to feed them and get them to bed. My wife would stay till around 10pm, leave Sabrina and Stephanie there, and then come home to sleep and get the kids off to school so I could go to work as much as possible. Once they kids were on the bus, she would return to the hospital with Preston and start the routine all over again. If they needed something during the day, I would have to leave work to get it for them or run them somewhere. Sabrina and Stephanie lost so much time at school that Sabrina nearly didn’t graduate and Stephanie struggled to catch up. When Samantha was finally allowed to come home, it took 3 wagon loads of stuffed animals and belongings to get everyone and everything to the car. On the last load, Samantha helped load all her stuffed animals in the wagon and then clung to Stephanie because she didn’t want to be left behind. It was great to see her walk off the elevator and go to the car. When Samantha got home she was very weak and had to be carried up steps. She was sent home with a “pick line” in her arm to get her IV medicines and blood transfusions. She had to go to the cancer clinic twice a week for those treatments, and got a home nurse in between to check on her. She then got a “port” put in her chest, which is a small receptacle under her skin with a line attached to an artery in her neck. This is a little easier that sticking her little arms with a needle every time. The port will remain there for the entire two to three year period that she will undergo treatments. Around the end of June, Samantha scraped her knee. The wound became infected and spread to other parts of her body. She went back to the hospital for another 2 ½ weeks. She got massive doses of antibiotics to kill the infections and we fell into our hospital routine of back and forth to the house again. On September 27th, the day before her big ride, Samantha got a fever and again went to the hospital. When she arrived, the doctors found that her blood pressure was low and she was in “septic shock” which is a bad blood infection. They began giving her fluids to get her pressure up when she started taking fluid into her lungs and started struggling to breath. She was rushed into the Intensive Care unit where the doctors began rescue breathing and inserted a tube into her lungs to breath for her and suck out the fluids. At that time a hospital chaplain was called in because they weren’t sure she would make it. We were told later that we were probably within an hour or two of loosing her when we brought her in. Samantha remained sedated and on a breathing machine for 8 days. During that time, my wife stayed by her side constantly. We couldn’t bring all the family in at one time, but the older kids all visited. Sometimes Samantha would come around a little bit, open her eyes and tears would come. This was too much for me to see. When they finally removed the breathing machine, it was great just to hear Samantha cry, I hadn’t heard her in over a week. After another week and a half of recovery, she was allowed to come home where she finally got to see her new Power Wheels Prowler that the Zone Riders got for her. About a week after coming home, Samantha stated exhibiting the same behavior as just before the last hospital visit, so she was admitted for 3 days as a precaution, but what ever was going on got caught in time.

You gotta be a super guy!:laugh:I think he is claustrophobic, he can't be on tight trails!

It's my pleasure, do you have an idea of what brand you would want?

For 4500 bucks you can find something at a dealership that is used. You will have the dealer backing you on your purchase, if something does break, the parts are available. Before a dealer sells a machine they go over it bumper to bumper. You will know what you are getting.

The last thing I would ever want to do is to scare someone away from buying the ride they want. I will never bash anyone for what they ride or what they can afford. I just don't want you to take that chunk of change, and get something that will break in 2 months. Then you spent your 1500 or 2000, whatever the case may be on a big paperweight because you can't get a new part. Look around at local shops for used rides. Craigslist.com in your area. There are lot's of different places to look. The fact that no one has heard of the company is what is kind of weird. What kind of budget are you on? We can get you on a good ride that will last you a good 10 years or more.

I would truly look for something used from a major company. The problem with the Chinese models, is that there is no quality control coming out of China. It is rarely the motor that gives way. Welds break, brackets fall off, bolts are missing. These are all common mishaps with the Chinese brands. There is RARELY any support from the company in case of something happening and replacement parts are scarce. How much are these going for new?

Exactly, tastefully done!

I think he was Cesar's mechanic! J/K we love you Mr.8

I personally think this one is ok. He did it tastefully, most of the talk is about the machine.

When you have been around as long as this guy, you have plenty of names to drop!

That's why he has the BIG key ring!

You should just pop in with your trike buddies and and run circles around them! LOL

Welcome to the site, this looks familiar!

I moved your post, it will get better responses here. Welcome to the site, we'll get you going again.

Welcome to the site, even if you are the slowest in the group or just a beginner, 100% of the riders I know will wait at any difficult spots to help you through or will wait at any spot that you might get heading the wrong way. If a rider doesn't do what they can to help out any beginner, not just a female, they are a chump in my book. I could care less if someone was riding 10mph with me, I will hang and give pointers along with confidence boosters. Keep on riding, speed comes with time. Be safe.

Of course!

I have a Blingstar Grab Bar with number plate. The bar is chrome for the 04/05 TRX450R. Brand new, never mounted. $33.95 new, I will part with it for 20 plus shipping.

Those meats are huge!

Come on Georgia boy, you race there. Spit out more than just D-Town. Although I have heard amazing things about that place.

I moved your thread in here because I feel it will get better responses here. Try this website. Georgia ATV Trails

I would love to see some pics of the Bronco.

Can't wait to see some pics! I want to get some MGC arms.

A trike would be extremely interesting on the trails I ride. The front end would be up in the air the whole time.

Back on topic, anyone have any stories on how their bumper works? I was on some NASTY trail and I came to a spot that was a near vertical drop of about 20 feet. So I got off my quad to look for a safe way down. I finally found one and right as I turn around my quad starts rolling down the drop off. My bars were cocked to the side so my quad rolled down at an angle. My quad hit a tree square on the bumper and stopped. Not a single mark or bend in the bumper. That is what I call strong.