Ernie Deomampo Jr. Died Peacefully in His Sleep Last Night

There will be a memorial service for Ernie Deomampo, at:

Foundry United Methodist Church
1500 16th Street, NW (at the corner of 16th and P Streets)
Washington, DC

at 6 pm on Thursday, April 22.

It will be followed by a reception at:

Cafe Asia
1720 Eye Street, NW
Washington, DC.

Those attending the memorial and/or reception are encouraged to wear bright colors, as Ernie had wanted.

Ernie's First Blog Entry Transcribed By His Secretary

Woohoo! I'm finally getting to write you.

Sorry for the lack of updates. The past two weeks have been nothing but an emotional and physical roller coaster.

I'll try and sum this up as quickly as possible.

* My vision in the left eye has rapidly declined. I can no longer post blog updates by myself but together with people helping me I can establish some consistency.

* I put my cell phone in the washing machine, and it is now broken. All of your phone numbers are gone except for the ones I have memorized.

* Two weeks ago, I walked two miles in 30 minutes on a treadmill. Now, I can barely walk to the end of the street and back.

It is amazing to see how quickly Leukemia has taken over. Honestly, there are days when I am so sick that all I want to do is fall asleep and never wake up. But I still press on.

When your daily conversation focuses on your end of days, it really changes your perspective about life. Hardly anything matters to me except for spending time with God, my family, and Paul.

I don't know at this point whether I will see some of you, but I do know that you are thinking of and praying for me.

If you did not know me and walked up and asked if I've lived a good life the answer would be an emphatic "Yes!".

I just wish that I was able to respond to all of your kind emails, voicemails, and text messages.

This is not my final blog entry. I will try harder to update as often as possible.

Thank you all for your love."

Does Vuitton or Prada Make A Casket?

Hee hee.

Ladies And Gentlemen,The Grand Finale

From Prada Spring '10, the oh-so-deliciously-soft-and lux suede gabardine sneaker (mine are "arancia" which is Italian for "orange")

Carpe Diem, Start Living Now...

The Bucket List, Live Today As If It's Your Last, Live Like You Were Dyin'...

I went sky diving,
I went Rocky Mountain clumbing,
I went two point seven seconds on a bull named Fu Man Chu,
And I loved deeper and I spoke sweeter,
And I gave forgiveness I'd been denying,
An he said, 'Some day, I hope you get the chance
To live like you were dyin.'"

Does this really work? It certainly means well. But if you were truly dying, you'd have to do things like write a will and a living will, plan your funeral and memorial service, the list goes on. And once that's done, how are you feeling? Are you well enough to do all those things on your "Bucket List"?

When do you stop treatment? Do you buy things and then return home and figure out who's to inherit them?

Every person is different. so what's your definition of a good "quality of life"?

I'm not trying to sound so doom and gloom, but it is certainly food for thought when you're close to dying.

Final Health Details

I get my bloodwork checked every other day. Whenever my platelet count is below 10, my doctor gives me a platelet infusion to get my number up to a safer level.

For the past six days, I've had three bags of platelets pumped into me. I had itchy rashes twice, so now my doctor makes me take Benadryl at the same time to prevent allergic reactions. When I'm done, I go home, sleep, and feel like a zombie for the rest of the day.

There- you're all caught up with my health stuff. Thanks for tuning in.

Pallia-who-what-what?

In regards to palliative care, I've had radiation therapy in my chest area for the past four days to reduce the pain in my chest whenever I coughed, sneezed, laughed, or used muscles in the ribs area to move around. My last session is tomorrow.

Aren't these details boring and tedious?

Additional Details

Many people are asking whether the leukemia can be controlled or reversed. Not really: last week's meeting with the doctor discussed mostly palliative care (how to make this less painful and more peaceful for me) than tertiary care (options that could reverse the spread of the disease.)