- Posts tagged Cancer
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Relay For Bots
This coming weekend, the American Cancer Society is hosting it's annual Relay for Life in our home town of Willow Glen. If you aren't familiar with the relay, teams of 8 raise money for cancer research and walk with other cancer survivors, their friends and families for 24 hours.
I'm really excited about it because Holly and I are doing a Survivor Lap prior to the main event kicking off. Unfortunately, a lot of people can't say that.
This year the heads of the event are expecting close to 1,000 people, mostly people from the community, to walk and show their support.
Leading up to the event, Dave Keller, who manages the awesome Willow Glen Extra site, suggested that we build a Twitter bot to help people at the event communicate with one another. With 1,000 people floating around a high school track, sleeping in tents, it will be hard to find people you know in other groups. Twitter for good, so to speak.
The Bot is now live. If you are living in Willow Glen and happen to be at the Relay for Life this weekend, do this:
- Sign up for Twitter
- Follow WGxRelay - To get the most out of this on Saturday, follow by your phone
- Send your updates of where you are to the community by texting @WGxRelay to 40404
Couldn't be simpler.
We are looking forward to seeing you on Saturday night if you are in the area.
If you'd like to make a donation to the Relay for Life, you can do so here. - Thanks!
Totally
Just over a year ago, I wrote a post here entitled 'My Wife Has Cancer'.
Today, I'm happy to report that she is totally cancer free.
Head Shaving Party
Holly shaved her head over the weekend. I watched and made a cool movie about it.
Head Shaving Party - Www.HopeForHolly.com
I Are Hot Member
Me & Hope for Holly got named a Hot Member at MyBlogLog. It is really very cool.
It is also well documented at Hope for Holly.
Thanks, Robyn.
Hair Brained Schemes
As many of you know, my wife was diagnosed with colon cancer earlier this year. One of the questions that comes up immediately after discussing her chemotherapy regimen is about her losing her hair. While we were told that it would thin, we were told that it would be too bad.
Here is my post from her site:
When Holly was first prescribed the adjunct treatment of Xeloda & Oxciliplatin, we were told that her hair would probably thin a bit, but it wouldn't fall out. I think that our definition of 'a bit' and the doctors definition are two different things. While I still think that she looks great, Holly has reached a level of frustration with the thinning. I don't see it, but she is complaining that large chunks are coming out when she brushes. More than anything, though, she doesn't want to let it go too long. In her words, she'd rather rip the band-aid off quickly. She has made the decision to shave her head. It is a way for her to be in control of her cancer and it is a chance to help other people. Her amazing hair will be going to Locks of Love, an organization that uses human hair to make wigs for kids with cancer and other diseases. We recognize that for a lot of women going through cancer, the decision (or lack of decision depending on how forced it is) to shave their head can not be an easy one. Since day one, we've wanted to share our cancer experience in hopes that it will change lives either by education or empathy. This experience will be no different. While the decision to shave is not 100% final yet, it is looking like that will be the plan shortly after her next treatment (1 weeks from tomorrow). I am planning on documenting the process and posting it on this and other sites (youtube, vimeo, Yahoo video, etc.). We'd love to do some unique things around this in raising both awareness and money for colo-rectal cancers. We've thought about selling sponsorships or selling her hair by the inch in a banner ad, but we are really looking for some unique ideas that would help to encourage people to think about this horrible disease. What are your thoughts?Any thoughts or ideas that you can share would be appreciated.
24 Hours A Day
One of the things that you learn when you are building a house, going through an acquisition and have a wife with cancer is how to maximize the entire 24 hours in a day. There hasn't been a whole lot of free time to do blog posts on either site, but I have found how to get the most out of every minute. I don't think that I am doing anything different, it's just you learn to ignore the trivial many.
Good News
We got the results from Holly's CT scan today. No spreading!!!!
We celebrated by eating ice cream and Newman's Ginger-O's.
It is the first bit of good news in a week and a half.
My Wife Has Cancer
January 30, 2007
Everything after the doctor said "I'm sorry, but your wife has colorectal cancer" is a blur. We were doing a nice 70 mph down the highway of life and someone just grabbed the steering wheel and chunked the tranny into reverse at the same time.
Lots of doctor speak and me trying to take notes. Hands shaking. Head spinning.
A surgeon was in the room as Holly was waking up and, while groggy from anaesthesia, she could immediately sense that something was wrong. I had to tell her. That sucked. After some explainable crying we made a vow that we would kick this in the ass, beat this disease and try to educate as many people as possible about this.
We drive home and nap.
January 31
The next morning, we go back to the doctor to get a better idea of what we have and what the next steps are. At that point we discover that the doctor is 99.9% sure that it is cancer, so that is good, we have a small chance that maybe it isn't. We also get a better idea of treatment options, which include chemo, radiation & surgery. Because we've clearly won the shit lottery, she's got to go back for me chemo after it is all over.
We get a long list of next steps including doing some blood work, meeting with more docotrs and, lucky her, getting a rectal ultrasound.
Holly goes and gives blood, I go back to work. It is a good form of escapism.
February 2
Rectal ultrasound day. I get a call after the appointment from Holly "I'm tired of people sticking things in my butt." We find out how big the tumor is and how much it has spread on Monday. We also get our results of the biopsy. Holding our breath over the weekend. There is still 0.01% chance that this whole thing could be a false alarm.
February 5
We exhale, but no luck. Holly has stage 3 rectal cancer. We outline our plan of attack on how to fight this, first with our surgeon and then with our oncologist. 6 weeks of chemo & radiation, 6 weeks of rest, surgery, rest, surgery, 4 more months of chemotherapy. Sucks. The second half of the year has to be better than the first.
As bleak as this may sound, we are holding our heads high and vowing to fight and win against this terrible disease.
About Holly
I consider myself the luckiest human being alive because of my wife, mainly because she puts up with me but also because she is smart, strong, wise, caring, funny, compassionate, an incredible woman, a wonderful mother and simply one of the most amazing people I've ever met. She is my best friend. She is someone that I've been in love with since the second I laid eyes on her.
She is also 37 and a vegetarian. She runs 15 - 20 miles per week, she does yoga, kickboxing and Pilate's regularly. She doesn't drink or smoke. She isn't anemic. In fact, she has only one trait that would lead to this and that is, unfortunately, bad genes. Even with this, though, our doctor said that he wouldn't have recommended checking for this for another 15 years.
So it is just bad luck. While most everyone else (myself included) would be curled up in the fetal position crying about this, she is being incredibly strong. She has vowed to fight this disease and win. She is strong and I know that she will.
About Colorectal Cancer (CRC)
You can read the Wikipedia entry, but it is pretty depressing. In short, behind lung cancer, it is the second leading cause of cancer related deaths. No cancer is good cancer. From the Wikipedia entry:
Learn about this colorectal cancer (here, here, or here) and if there is a chance you could be impacted, get checked. No one wants a colonoscopy, but it beats the alternative.
Tell people you know to get checked out. Don't be a Debbie Downer, but bring this up to your friends and family. Holly shouldn't have cancer, but she does and didn't know it until this point. You or someone you love might too.
Link your blog to this site. I will, of course, post Holly's site once we get that up and running. Digg this page, MyWeb it, add it to del.icio.us, etc.
Do you know someone that can help us educate people on a national scale? We would love an introduction.
Have ideas on how we can get the message out in a big way on a little to no budget? We are all ears
Email this page to a friend of loved one by clicking here.
IM this page to a friend (I can't find the code, so hopefully some Yahoo will help me)
Donate to the Colorectal Cancer Network. They are trying to do a really good thing, but clearly need web design help.
Buy a bracelet. Holly wondered why they weren't brown for colorectal cancer. Our ribbons will be brown. If you don't have a sense of humor, what do you have?
Send us inspirational stories. We all know someone that lost their lives to cancer. We don't need it. Send us the stories about people that, like us, looked at this as a challenge and rose to it, fought back and won.
Most of all, just keep us in your thoughts.
So that is what is going on. Who are you going to tell?
Colorectal cancer, also called colon cancer or bowel cancer, includes cancerous growths in the colon, rectum and appendix. It is the third most common form of cancer and the second leading cause of death among cancers in the Western world. Many colorectal cancers are thought to arise from adenomatous polyps in the colon. These mushroom-like growths are usually benign, but some may develop into cancer over time. The majority of the time, the diagnosis of localized colon cancer is through colonoscopy. Therapy is usually through surgery, which in many cases is followed by chemotherapy.Delightful, huh? What can I do? We have been so blessed with a strong support group of friends & family. Everyone, without exception, has asked what they can do to help. We really are thankful for everyone that has reached out to us and I know that we will be racking up the baby sitting credits over the next several months. As I've mentioned and explain to everyone, we really look at this as an opportunity to try to educate as many people as possible about colorectal cancer. We are already kicking around ideas on how to do a major online grass roots campaign, including YouTube video diaries, reaching out to celebrties, leveraging my mom's connections in the Senate and anything else that we can do. So what can you do if you're so inclined:
