September 15, 2021
A man thinks he will live forever.
When one is young he acts in foolish ways; he does things to tempt death because in youth he feels invincible.
In middle age he calms down and looks to his family and their future together. This is truly the best of times. Even a father locked in the Illinois penal system can enjoy this stage of life, for I built a beautiful relationship with family and friends while incarcerated here. I am not ready to let go of these relationships just yet.
I can only speak on my walk of life, and the events that have brought me to a date with the Grim Reaper.
It all started with Governor Blagojevich getting into office in 2003. He was in bed with the Archer Daniel Midland soy bean company. Pay-to-play was the game afoot. Money changed hands and the prison diet changed too. We went from eating beef, pork, chicken, turkey, eggs, to a mix of soy bean sludge mixed with poultry scraps.
I had been an athlete—a pugilist and a biker—as well as a father and a business owner. But fate threw me an ugly curve. So I ended up in prison (for a crime I did not commit) and eating the soy meals served in the Menard Pit.
I had never really been sick in my life. But my body and soy just did not get along.
I started getting sick in 2005. After two years of eating the soy meals I developed Hashimoto’s Thyroiditis Disease.
I fought like hell to get the proper medical treatment.
From December of 2008, until April of 2016, I was issued a medical no-soy diet and so was able to eat right and fight off the disease. I was only able to do this because my friend Sally and my daughter Amanda exposed my life and treatment on social media outlets. My practitioner friend, Karen Lyke, requested my medical records.
But as the old saying goes, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go awry.” In 2016, the IDOC took a new approach. They cancelled my no soy diet.
They used a clever tactic in the Federal Courts. I argued that they exhibited deliberate indifference, which must be shown to win an Eight Amendment claim on cruel and unusual punishment.
It was here the Illinois Attorney General’s Office bested me. They argued that I could eat the soy meals. If I got sick they would treat me. So they were not “deliberately indifferent” to my need for medical treatment when eating soy.
Judge Colin Sterling Bruce said, “Hey, that sounds good to me. So, you can feed him food that makes him sick, but as long as you treat him when he gets sick, all is good legally.”
The Seventh Circuit Court of Appeal upheld that ruling. So no medical no-soy diet for me.
In hindsight I should I filed in the State Court for medical malpractice.
In October of 2016, I hit a rough patch with the Department of Corrections staff. They placed me in the hole—in solitary confinement—the naked house where you go to the jail within the jail. Here I had to eat the soy to survive. It was then I started to bleed out my bowels. (See Harris-v-Calloway & Campbell, 2:17-cv-02075-MMM in the Peoria Federal Courthouse.
I won the First Amendment retaliation claim and would get paid for the segregation placement, the disciplinary transfer, and all the illegal acts used to silence my exposing the way I was treated inside the IDOC. But the damage had been done. I was bleeding from my bowels each day.
Once I was out of segregation and back in general population, I was able to eat real food bought from the prison commissary. The bleeding stopped. Things went well until 2019.
I was again placed in segregation and had to eat the soy to survive. I started bleeding from my bowels again. But this time it did not stop. For colon cancer had started in my bowels. I won the grievance appeal. The ticket and punishment for exposing the constitutional claims of housing at the East Moline C.C, was expunged November 7th, 2019, but now the damage was permanent.
The soy consumption had kicked off the cancer—a secret deep in my body I was not yet aware of.
But I knew bleeding from my bowels daily was not cool or right, so I started fighting to get it addressed by the Wexford medical providers.
My daughter went to war with the IDOC Director Jeffreys. For she does dearly love her old Dad. She got me shipped to the Illinois River C.C. on February 5th, 2020. I immediately went to the health care unit to seek treatment for I had been yelling about it since March of 2017—only to fall on deaf ears that did not care.
Once again I explained my situation to Nurse Practioner Miller. She told me I would be scheduled to go out to see a specialist in a real world hospital. I asked her to examine me, to verify I was bleeding out my bowels. She refused. I asked to be examined by Dr. Osmondson, but he refused. No one working for the Wexford Medical Staff wanted to verify I was bleeding from my bowels daily or put it in my medical file.
On March 11th, 2020, the IDOC penal facilities went on Covid-19 lockdown. By then I was really suffering from a double hernia and continued bleeding. Dr. Osmondson had finally agreed to the double groin and umbilical hernia surgery. But there was a fly in the ointment here. My May 31st blood lab results came up bad. I was anemic and had a low red cell count.
On March 31st, I was moved to the Covid house, Unit Two, to be isolated while I went out to see a hernia surgeon. It was here I first met Dr. Erin Bailey, a truly wonderful person, doctor, and my new best friend. For she wanted to hear about the bleeding from my bowels. She did not like what she heard going on in my bowels, so she requested a colonoscopy. Now she would do battle with Dr. Osmondson over cost and getting the colonoscopy approved by Wexford Health Providers. For cancer treatment is expensive, and they fight to their best to not address or treat it.
But it was the pre-op blood test that gave Dr. Bailey the win. On June 6th I was moved to the Infirmary. I was to start the two-day colon rinse before the colonoscopy was to be done. But another fly hit the ointment. A scheduling error brought me in one day before the rinse.
The colon rinse takes two days to complete before the colonoscopy can be done. I was brought to the health care unit to do the rinse only one day before it was scheduled. So cluster fuck again with my treatment. I was to be sent back to population. But the nurse, who had the dayshift, was not going to let me be sent back to population housing on the top deck again. For I was anemic, and so sick by now, I could hardly do anything without getting sick to my stomach and passing out. I was assigned to Three House C-Wing cell 30 and was issued a medical low-gallery, low-bunk permit, indefinitely.
I would spend the days in C-Wing waiting to be rescheduled, from June 7th until June 19th. Finally, on the 19th I went to the infirmary to do the colon rinse. It was two days of drinking this most offensive liquid called Golytley. An inside joke: it made you flush everything from your bowels. I drank one gallon each day. Monday, June 21st, the colonoscopy was done.
I awoke to see Dr. Bailey’s beautiful face, got the news, and pictures she had were bad. Colon cancer!
I was returned from the Canton, Illinois, Graham Medical Unit to the prison. The next day I was sent back to 3-C-30 cell to wait for the colon cancer surgery. The double hernia was put on hold. Now I would be costing Wexford a bunch of money, but they could not deny me treatment anymore.
On June 29, I was taken out to Moline to have a tumor removed from the inside of my lip. Easy, pesy. In and out in a few hours. Back to my cell the next day.
I would spent July on 3-C-Wing in pain. Some good days, some not so good. I was single-celled during this time, a one-man condo where I could suffer in private. The days were long, so I spent then preparing and filing the Summary Judgment Motion in the East Moline First Amendment retaliation claim case. (See Harris-v- C. Brannon, et all., 4:19-cv-04235-JES in Peoria Federal Court.)
On August 3rd I was returned to the Infirmary to start the colon cleanse for surgery.
So I did the two-day drinking of Golytley. On August 5th Dr. Bailey did the voodoo, that she could do, oh so well. I did not receive a colon bag.
She cut me four small times in my abdomen, then one long cut on the right side of my groin. She took my intestines out of the groin and cut out the cancer. Then she sewed me back together. She is a real blessing to this Canton area community, the best in her field.
I would spend the next five days in the care of the nurses at the Canton Graham Medical Group Hospital. They were the best there—it was a great time. I have not one complaint and the food was pretty good. All around a five-out-of-five star rating. If you have to get worked on, it is the place to go. Great doctors and staff there. All around a great time considering the surgery that put me there.
Then I went back to the prison Infirmary. On August 23rd I was taken out to see Dr. Erin Bailey again. Most times I would like to go see her as she is a great doctor. But it was bad news again this day. The cancer had spread to my lymph nodes. She did not tell me what stage my cancer was in. She told me I would be returned to meet the chemo specialist. I was returned to the Illinois River Infirmary to wait my next appointment and to start the chemo.
Today is September the 8th. I have had many long days in the infirmary since she told me I needed chemo.
First, I was pissed off really bad. I kept thinking, if the Wexford Staff had taken me seriously in 2017, would I be needing chemo? Would I have needed the colon surgery? Because, let me tell you one thing: once you are opened up and have a section of your colon removed, life is never the same again. The relationship with moving your bowels takes a dark turn, believe me. You can live with it, but it is not normal or fun.
In the IDOC the Wexford Medical Providers deny cancer treatment because it is costly. They are here to make money. It is that simple. I was denied for years.
Now I have a date to see the Grim Reaper. Blagojevich introduced the soy diet into the prison system to save money and collect a kickback. He went to prison for it. The pay-to-play king was pardoned by Donald Trump—a Republican President who pardoned a Democrat Governor. A real novelty there. But the damage was done, and still in place.
Eating the soy diet is killing the prisoner population with a slow death of intestinal cancer. For I am not alone here. Is seems anybody with ten years or more on the soy diet is facing a medical problem with their digestive tract.
When I see the chemo specialist, how will it play out? There is a song by Ralph Stanley which I keep hearing in my head: “O Death.” “Oh death, won’t you spare me over for another year. Oh what is this that I can’t see. With ice cold hands taking hold on me. O death, could you wait to call me another day? Oh Death, consider my age, don’ t take me at this stage.”
I was given a sixty-five-year sentence for two counts of armed robbery—not a death sentence as I am almost done with it.
This sentence should raise questions from you.
Will the Grim Reaper rob me of a day to walk out of here? To spend some time with my family and friends? I have a February 27th, 2026 release date. Will the Grim Reaper spare me over for a few more years? Or will this cancer kill me soon?
There is a farm in the East where I just want to spend some time in peace. Will I see that grand dream come to pass? I have a daughter and grandson I want to spend some years with before I finish this walk of life.
I await the next step when I see the chemo specialist. One does not think about death until the Grim Reaper places his icy hand upon your chest! Will I be given a deadline? Or will the Grim Reaper grant me a reprieve?
UPDATE
Today I was taken out to meet with the chemo cancer specialist. The cancer they cut out of my colon was at stage three. If I do not do the chemo treatment it is 50-50 chance that the surgery killed the cancer. If I do the chemo it is 80-85 percent I will be cancer free. So I will do the chemo. Twenty-four weeks of chemo.
I will get the IV inserted into my chest. A pack will hook to the IV. Then they deliver the chemo at a set rate until empty. Then a week off to let it work. Then another dose the next week.
So I have kept the Grim Reaper at bay for awhile yet.
Wish me luck in my fight—“O Death, could you wait to call me another day.” But we must look at the soy diet and the cancer rate running rampant in the IDOC. Any prisoner eating it for ten years or more, is developing intestinal cancer problems. I was the State Lab Rat. Do not let what the soy meals did to me go quietly into the night. We are given a prison sentence, not a slow death by soy consumption.
More later, for I will start treatment soon. They are testing my mettle, but I will endeavor to persevere.
Great news on the fight with the Grim Reaper
We put him down in round three.
Nurse dialed in my nausea medicine and it worked great. I took one pill one hour before I left for chemo treatment and the two hour i v. drip. Then the chemo pack placed on my chest.
This usually makes me pretty sick. But I was able to eat a small meal last night with chemo pack on. A first there.
Today I was given the nausea on the same regiment. Was able to eat lunch. So the grim reaper is down and out. I am eating.
Getting strong again.
So in the future the Grim Reaper will rear his ugly head again. But death has been put on hold for now.
Chemo no longer having me fubar. (Fubar: F—-ed Up Beyond All Recognition)
So great news as I face Nine more rounds of chemo every other week. Once the chemo pack is off I get a two hour rehydrating drip. This on Friday night. Again on Saturday.
So I am feeling really strong again. So to my fellow cancer buddies. Keep your heads up and chest out. I wish you the best. To my readers, I am lean, mean, like the junk yard dog. I will kick this cancer down the road.
Larry 10-28-2021
