Christmas 2010

I wish everyone a Merry Christmas. We've had a very busy holiday season with three family gatherings to attend and lots of Christmas bargain shopping to do. We had a wonderful time in Garland, Lincoln, and Scribner. I feel blessed to have Tracy feeling so well lately. As she said, this is our first Christmas together with our families and with her feeling well. Last year, she was still recovering from chemo, and while she was feeling pretty good, the two of us didn't spend Christmas with our families. We were in Hawaii, taking our delaying honeymoon! It's hard to believe that a year has passed since we were in Kauai.

The highlight of my weekend was seeing Tracy ride a sled down the hill near my parents' farm. Tracy is afraid of many things, including riding a sled regardless of how slow it is sliding down the hill. In her one and only sled trip down the hill, Tracy actually did get a little more speed going than she normally does. But it couldn't have been too fast because I was able to jog along side her sled halfway down the hill. As she was getting to bottom, she called out to my Dad, "Look out, Lowell!" even though he was still a good 25 yards away from her. Just then, Tracy hit a rock on the road and came to a stop... only about three feet away from the spot that she had yelled out her warning to Dad!

October 28

The sun was shining today. I needed a hair cut. My wife Tracy had a medical appointment and was planning on working out afterward. All of this sounds familiar.

It was exactly two years ago today that Tracy was diagnosed with breast cancer. Our lives were changed forever. It's been a long road back, but the future appears bright. We've been through a lot. But we were lucky her cancer was caught early enough. Stage two, grade two was her diagnosis. She wasn't far from stage three. But fortunately, the cancer did not spread into her lymph nodes. Now, we do what we can to try to minimize the chances of it coming back.

We've raised money for the American Cancer Society through their Relay for Life event. Personally, I have a grudge against cancer. I want to see it gone. I want to see a cure for cancer found. Progress has been made. But much more needs to be done.

I have a lot of bad memories about October 28 and the days that followed. There was so much uncertainty. We were scared. We wanted answers. That's one of the toughest parts of cancer. You have to wait. But with time, lots of prayers, and the comfort of family, things brightened up a bit. We were able to get a string of good news after her initial diagnosis. We had lots of fantastic doctors.

My wife is stubborn. She found the lump on her own and insisted on getting it biopsied even though a Lincoln doctor assured her that it wasn't necessary. She was stubborn in her fight against cancer. And she still is today. Two years later.

Vacation!

We're leaving today on vacation. Exciting stuff. Going to Wisconsin-- Door County. Hoping to spend five relaxing days up there. Things have been going better for Tracy lately on the long road of recovery. She has been able to work out and avoid any injuries and setbacks. That has been pretty cool.

Then when we get home it will be time to gear up for the Relay for Life event at Haymarket Park. Fund raising has been a bit slower this year, but we're hoping to end with a flourish!

One More Thing...

When we were in line to meet Ali Vincent the other day in Famous Footwear, I saw a sign in the store. I read it aloud to Tracy, "Hey, if we buy a pair of shoes, we will get Ali's new book for free. All we need to do is find a pair of shoes to buy. Maybe one of us can..."

I stopped talked because as I stopped reading the sign and turned to where Tracy had been standing, I realized that Tracy was gone. She was already four aisles over looking for a new pair of shoes!

I guess I didn't need to ask her twice! The girl loves shoes.

Meeting Ali Vincent

Yesterday, Tracy and I had the opportunity to meet Ali Vincent, the first female to win on The Biggest Loser reality show. Ali was at Famous Footwear promotion appearing with her mom, Bette Sue. Tracy and I are big fans of the show so it was exciting to meet them. One thing that I realized is that it might be more fun meeting a star from a reality show than a famous actor or actress, because with the reality show star, they are playing themselves whereas the actor or actress may be nothing like the characters they pretend to be.

I told Ali that Tracy had vowed to quit watching the show if another season went by without a woman winning. Ali said that the producers actually were planning on changing the show with separate male and female winners if a woman didn't win during season five. She said she wasn't going to let that happen.

I also commented that she seemed to be a very competitive person and that really helped her on the show. She said that that was one thing that she learned about herself during the process-- that she is an athlete. And going forward, she's always looking for new challenges and different ways to compete.

Other things we learned for her and Bette Sue:

• Ali has a sister who is married to someone taller than I am (6'11")
• Weigh-ins on the show take place every 6-8 days
• Testing is done to prevent weight loss supplements or other cheating from taking place
• The trainers work with the contestants every day for four hours. Each contestant gets about 45 minutes alone with a trainer.
• Bette Sue hated being on the show. She hates to work out. But she's lost 30 more pounds since being on the show. Her secret is she eats "lots of small meals". She said she used to not eat much all day long, work all day, then have a big meal in the evening.
• They don't work out on the weigh-in days.
• Filming for the weigh-ins takes about three hours.
• They weigh-in before filming in a separate room with witnesses and show producers. The scale on the show is just for show.
• I asked if the producers call them up to weigh-in based on what would create the most drama. Bette Sue said she didn't know, but that she wouldn't doubt it because it is a show and they want it to be interesting.
  

Spring Fling 2010

Spring Fling II took place on May 22. It's Tracy's big Relay for Life fund raiser for the season. The weather was hot and windy, but we were very pleased with the turn out. Overall, I think the amount raised was close to what it was last year, coming in at slightly less than $1,500.

We had a number of great items donated including a football signed by the Husker football team, toys donated by Fat Brain Toys, and a large amount of pork tenderloin by Farmland of Crete. Guests were able to bid on the items in our silent auction. We also had wine tasting and food. And, of course, the Dirt Hill Rockers once again rocked the neighborhood with four hours of music.

With about a month and a half left before the Relay, our team has raised about half of our goal. So we have a long way to go, but we are very pleased with the generosity that we've seen so far.

Hoops Against Cancer

My big fundraiser for the year was the Hoops Against Cancer 3 on 3 basketball tournament on April 24. This was the 2nd year running the tourney. I tried to improve it over last year, and I think we did so in many ways. We had 18 teams this year over the five we had in year one. The biggest change that was made is that I was able to find some excellent helpers. Ricky Woods, Chad Turner, and Brandan Turner joined me to form a "committee" to run the tourney.

Ricky got on to local radio station Froggy 98 to promote the tourney and get some free publicity. At one point, the radio personalities were going to have a team, but their plans fell through. Ricky also secured many donations including a football signed by over 30 Huskers. We're actually going to auction that off this Saturday at our Spring Fling party. Ricky also had a team in the tourney.

Chad also secured many donations from local businesses. He has a lot of contacts through his CD Warehouse store. The highlight of his contribution might have been securing four rounds of free golf with two carts at Hill Crest Country Club ($260 value). Chad also helped officiate at the tourney.

We wound up raising over $1,300 this year. We were very pleased. The day went smoothly. We had three divisions this year including five teams in a women's division. Everyone seemed to have a great time. And we were able to raise good money for a great cause.

Raising Awareness

The cause of fighting against cancer needs spokespeople and one way that we've been able to fight back is by getting involved with public speaking opportunities. Tracy is particularly good with telling her story. Recently, we were asked to speak at Waverly High School as part of their "Purple Week" to raise awareness of the dangers with cancer. As usual, Tracy did a great job telling her story. On the other hand, I found out that following Tracy and speaking about personal issues are not easy for me to do. I always get a little emotional listening to Tracy speak. And I was out of my comfort zone talking about our experiences with cancer in front of so many former students.

We were very impressed with the turnout of students who came to the Purple Rally. We'd like to thank the committee for asking us to speak!

A familar story

UNL student battles breast cancer. Her story sounds very familiar.

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Kick Off Meeting

Tracy had her annual kick-off meeting for our Relay for Life fundraiser yesterday. The meeting was well attended with good food, good friends, and lots of great ideas shared for raising money in the fight against cancer. Last year, our Hair Raisers team raised over $11,000 and earned "Rookie Team of the Year" for the Haymarket Park Relay event. So we have set a high bar for ourselves, but I am excited about the potential of our team this year. We have some returning members who did very well last year and some new members with new ideas.

The area of focus for me will be online donations again this year. Last year, I was touched by the generosity that I saw as donations started to come in. I could tell that cancer has cast a wide net as far as affecting the lives of so many people. Friends, co-workers, family, and neighbors alike donated money online and sent in checks to help us in the fight against cancer.

This is a fight that we can win. This is a fight we have to win.

March Madness

As a life-long basketball junkie, this is one of my favorite times of the year-- March Madness, the NCAA basketball tournament. I love the excitement of each game as the best teams in college basketball participate in the one loss and you're out tournament. The fact that March Madness comes at a time of year when days are getting longer and weather is warming up only makes it that much better.

One team that I will be pulling for is BYU. I did pick the Cougars to win a few games in the tourney so that's a reason for rooting for them. But the other reason is their coach, Dave Rose, who is currently winning in his battle with pancreatic cancer. He was diagnosed last year and was fortunate enough (if I could use the word "fortunate" and pancreatic cancer in the same sentence) to have a rare type of pancreatic cancer that actually progresses more slowly. And Rose appears to be winning, even getting a clean cancer scan last fall. Coach Rose is an inspiration to BYU fans everywhere and I'm going to be pulling for his team this month.

How's Tracy?

I came back from basketball last night and all of the furniture downstairs had been rearranged.

The "Busy Body" is back. When the oncologist said that they were going to be "aggressive" with their treatment, my natural reaction was "good, let's get this cancer." But what I didn't realize is how long it would take for Tracy to recover. The example I use is hair growth. Just as I takes hair a long time to grow back, it takes the rest of the body just as long.

Yesterday was the best evidence that I have had to date that Tracy is getting back to her old self. We went to the early church service and had lunch at her Mom's house. She walked/ran three or four miles at the gym, cleaned the house for several hours, and rearranged the furniture. My busy body wife is officially back. The most telling sign was her being able to work out without feeling ill or some sort of physical ailment.

I get asked about her all the time. Many people have prayed for us and kept her in their thoughts. It's a long road back. But we are getting there!

Surgery goes well

We journeyed to Omaha early last Friday to have Tracy's power port removed. This was the 5th (and hopefully final) surgery that Tracy has had, and it proved to be the easiest. The surgery took around 45 minutes with the actual removal of the port taking only 10 minutes. After getting home, Tracy took it easy for the rest of the day. But she was pretty active on Saturday, slowing down to rest on the couch several times.

With the weather improving and days getting longer, I can't help but feel that the improving weather mirrors our outlook on Tracy's health. The future looks brighter. We look forward to having a more active spring together. One thing that we are now gearing up for is this year's Relay for Life. We're getting some final details in place for our fund raising efforts for this year.

There will be no shortage of motivation for fund raising this year. We continue to see the effects of cancer all around us. Saturday, I attended the funeral of a cousin who passed away after battling late stage pancreatic cancer. He had already lost his wife nine years ago, and they leave behind a 13-year old son and 11-year old daughter.

It is time to find a cure.

What I Learned... in Kauai

In keeping with an earlier theme of this blog, I thought I would reflect on what I learned from my experiences in Kauai. The first thing I noticed was that a spouse's morning crabbiness can exist even in the Hawaiian Pacific time zone. That's four hours of difference, folks. Theoretically, 7:30 am in Kauai is almost noon in the Midwest! I had hypothesized that no crabbiness would exist, but the test proved my hypothesis to be false! Morning crabbiness can travel across land and sea!

I also discovered that my wife is has world class ability in the area of packing and organization. We haven't had the opportunity to travel since the diagnosis and I had heard her allude to her packing prowess, but I admit that I was skeptical. But I am now a true believer. I was amazed at how much she was able to fit in her travel bags!

And one last thing, there are a lot of chickens on Kauai. I'm not sure how they got there. I don't believe they are native to the island. But there are no predators to the chicken on the entire island so you can find chickens everywhere-- in forests, on mountain tops, and in parking lots.

Good news

We had some great news last week. Tracy's mammogram didn't show any cancer. This was a tremendous relief for us. We weren't expecting any bad news but, you know how it goes-- hope for the best and prepare for the worst.

Tomorrow will be Tracy's final herceptin treatment. I'm sure Tracy will miss the friendly faces at the clinic, but this is a milestone for us. We're going to go out and celebrate tomorrow night!

Back From Hawaii

We were finally able to go on our honeymoon. And we both agreed that it was worth the wait. Since I'm a teacher, we decided to take the trip over holiday break and then, of course, Tracy's cancer diagnosis interrupted all of that. So we spent the holidays this year on the island of Kauai. It's known as the Garden Island. It's the northern most island and has the least commercial development. Neither of us had been there before and it was an experience we thought we could share together. We didn't do much research in advance about the island. Instead, we planned on discovering the island together and plan our days one day at a time. We didn't plan on going to any other islands, and I have to say I am glad that we planned it that way as Kauai has more than enough things to do and places to see. Plus, it's kinda nice to just relax on the beach.

The weather was great-- high of 80 or so every day. No bugs. Some rain, but that's no surprise since much of Kauai is a rain forest. Kauai is known as being the friendliest island and also the one with the most "Old Hawaiian feel". And I have to say that I agree. The drivers were incredibly polite. There is only one main highway on the island and natives are always ready to yield to other drivers.

The landscape is breath taking with a majestic view seemingly around every corner. I'm going to try to post a slide show to give you guys a look at some of the sights we saw on Kauai. I'm just amazed at how much the island had to offer. Tracy and I will have memories that we will keep with us for the rest of our lives.