Showing posts with label fight for a cure. Show all posts
Showing posts with label fight for a cure. Show all posts
Monday, November 2, 2009
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Monday, October 19, 2009
Thursday, October 8, 2009
Pink October
By now I bet you all know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I am so impressed with the many organizations that offer there support for the cause. Pink seems to be everywhere you look. I especially love seeing what the NFL is doing. Some players are wearing pink gloves, shoe laces and wrist bands, and stadium banners promote the importance of early detection.While breast cancer awareness is good thing, sometimes hearing about cancer can bring back sad memories. With Tracy's diagnosis happening a year ago in October, we're still sensitive to the subject and probably always will be. Tracy recently stopped watching her favorite show, Brothers & Sisters, after Kitty was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin's lymphoma. She complained that now both of her favorite shows have main characters dealing with cancer (Izzy on Grey's Anatomy). She told me that she simply would have to quit watching "Brothers" since it was on late and broke her no cancer talk after eight o'clock rule. The funny part about all of this was that I was watching one of my favorite shows, The Family Guy, at the time. With perfect timing, Lois on Family Guy found a lump on her breast. That was the topper. I shut off the TV immediately!
In case you are wondering, I did watch the rest of The Family Guy later. Lois saw a doctor and she didn't have cancer. My response... get a second opinion.
Monday, August 3, 2009
2009 Relay for Life!
Over a week has passed since the Relay for Life event at Haymarket Park. I posted some photos in the slideshow for people to look at, but I thought I would share some of my thoughts after going through this fundraiser for the first time.
My impression of Relay is that is a culminating event that concludes the fundraiser itself. Each team is to walk for the duration of the event. The total time that you have to walk varies from place to place, but many events seem to last around 12 hours—from 7pm to 7am, and the walking actually lasts around 11 hours or so. There were lots of recognition ceremonies, music, and entertainment throughout the night.
My favorite event was the Survivor Walk. Watching the Survivor Walk was a powerful experience. To see so many cancer survivors in those purple shirts. I thought about how each one of them has a story. After going through this thing with Tracy, I feel that I can truly empathize with them. I didn’t realize that “care givers” got to walk in the Survivor Walk. So I away from the starting line watching before I was able to find Tracy and join her. Actually walking in the Survivor Walk was even better! Part of me feels that I didn’t deserve to be in the walk, but I am glad that I did. The thing that impressed me the most about walking was seeing so many people lining the sidewalk clapping. I especially appreciate the people who were standing alone giving their applause to each person in the crowd.
As part of the program, my wife’s friend, Tracy Lingwall Harnly, gave a great speech later on in the evening. I can’t remember exactly how she put it, but she said that she has been to Relay for four years and commented that she sees new faces every year. In a way that’s good in that we need as many people involved in the fight against cancer as we can find. But on the other hand, it struck me that it was also a bad thing because new faces mean more cases, as is the case with my wife and I.
Tracy L.H. also commented that it was too bad so many people had left the park. You see, after the relay began, a thunderstorm rolled through. There was lightning, and some entire teams left the relay. It’s tough to say how many left, but my guess would be 60-70% left after the storm and another 20% left before dawn. In her speech, Tracy said that in her own personal battle with cancer she has had many times where she would like to just quit and go home. But for people battling cancer, they have to live with it every day.
And that’s the whole point of relay in my mind. It’s a simulation. It’s a challenge. The point is to make it through the whole night. To take your turn walking and make sure you see things through to the end. The difference as I see it is in staying power. Not everyone has the same amount of invested in the fight against cancer. And that’s O.K. We need all of the help that we can get. Some people probably never planned on staying all night anyway. It’s good enough that they were willing to be there at all. But for those of us who had the most invested, quitting wasn’t an option. People were walking all night long. And that was true of our Hair Raisers team. We had some mighty impressive walkers!
Having said that, I will say that the whole relay is a good attempt at simulating what a cancer patient goes through with the fatigue, soreness, and sleeplessness. But it doesn’t quite get there, of course, because the night was also quite fun! It was great to visit with friends and relatives. The music, food, and activities kept everyone entertained. But it was the next day that I really felt out of it! I went to bed around 8 am, but only slept for an hour or so. I was pretty much a zombie for the next six hours, before I was able to take a good afternoon nap. Tracy and I agreed that the day after relay was maybe a more realistic example of how it feels.
My impression of Relay is that is a culminating event that concludes the fundraiser itself. Each team is to walk for the duration of the event. The total time that you have to walk varies from place to place, but many events seem to last around 12 hours—from 7pm to 7am, and the walking actually lasts around 11 hours or so. There were lots of recognition ceremonies, music, and entertainment throughout the night.
My favorite event was the Survivor Walk. Watching the Survivor Walk was a powerful experience. To see so many cancer survivors in those purple shirts. I thought about how each one of them has a story. After going through this thing with Tracy, I feel that I can truly empathize with them. I didn’t realize that “care givers” got to walk in the Survivor Walk. So I away from the starting line watching before I was able to find Tracy and join her. Actually walking in the Survivor Walk was even better! Part of me feels that I didn’t deserve to be in the walk, but I am glad that I did. The thing that impressed me the most about walking was seeing so many people lining the sidewalk clapping. I especially appreciate the people who were standing alone giving their applause to each person in the crowd.
As part of the program, my wife’s friend, Tracy Lingwall Harnly, gave a great speech later on in the evening. I can’t remember exactly how she put it, but she said that she has been to Relay for four years and commented that she sees new faces every year. In a way that’s good in that we need as many people involved in the fight against cancer as we can find. But on the other hand, it struck me that it was also a bad thing because new faces mean more cases, as is the case with my wife and I.
Tracy L.H. also commented that it was too bad so many people had left the park. You see, after the relay began, a thunderstorm rolled through. There was lightning, and some entire teams left the relay. It’s tough to say how many left, but my guess would be 60-70% left after the storm and another 20% left before dawn. In her speech, Tracy said that in her own personal battle with cancer she has had many times where she would like to just quit and go home. But for people battling cancer, they have to live with it every day.
And that’s the whole point of relay in my mind. It’s a simulation. It’s a challenge. The point is to make it through the whole night. To take your turn walking and make sure you see things through to the end. The difference as I see it is in staying power. Not everyone has the same amount of invested in the fight against cancer. And that’s O.K. We need all of the help that we can get. Some people probably never planned on staying all night anyway. It’s good enough that they were willing to be there at all. But for those of us who had the most invested, quitting wasn’t an option. People were walking all night long. And that was true of our Hair Raisers team. We had some mighty impressive walkers!
Having said that, I will say that the whole relay is a good attempt at simulating what a cancer patient goes through with the fatigue, soreness, and sleeplessness. But it doesn’t quite get there, of course, because the night was also quite fun! It was great to visit with friends and relatives. The music, food, and activities kept everyone entertained. But it was the next day that I really felt out of it! I went to bed around 8 am, but only slept for an hour or so. I was pretty much a zombie for the next six hours, before I was able to take a good afternoon nap. Tracy and I agreed that the day after relay was maybe a more realistic example of how it feels.
Wednesday, July 1, 2009
Never forget
Today my wife has only two radiation treatments left. Her cancer is officially in remission. Radiation is no walk in the park. It has not been easy. We've had some tough times. But it's unlike chemo in that it didn't take her hair. It didn't leave her sick for a week or more at a time. And it's almost over. But to me, the unspoken thought that comes to mind when you hear the word "remission" is that remission may not last forever. We can take comfort in the statistics that indicate it's highly unlikely that the cancer will come back. But to me, the fight against cancer is only beginning. We both have a long fight ahead of us. I read a statistic that said that I personally have a coin flip's chance to get cancer myself. We're going try to do everything we can to "live strong"-- fight cancer, raise money to fight it, live a healthy life style, exercise, educate ourselves. It's already taken too much from us. We can never forget. And we will never forgive. Cancer.
I went with Tracy to the Midwest Cancer clinic on Monday. We were disappointed to learn that she could not get Herceptin because of the decreased function of her heart. That's a serious deal in itself when you're talking about the heart, nothing to be messed with. But everyone expects her to bounce back in three weeks and be able to receive treatment again. And the thing is, we both realized from the people around us that we're lucky to be where we're at in her treatment.
I'll share one story that I heard while I was in a waiting room Monday. Three people were sharing their cancer story with each other when one man said, "You know, you can work hard your whole life. Pay off the house. Get your kids through college. Retire. And then when you're ready to live the good life, you get cancer." He later said that he was 56 when he was diagnosed and from the sound of things, his prognosis is not good.
They shared their philosophies with each other on how they deal with cancer. One lady, said her husband was diagnosed when he was 65, simply said, "we don't let it bother us", explaining that they try to have as many good days as they can.
One woman shared the story of how she finally convinced her husband to go to the hospital after she finally would not take "I'm fine" as an answer as she watched her husband struggle with pain.
The whole experience made me sad. But it also made me a little angry. It just re-energizes me as we continue our fight against cancer. My feeling is captured in the Livestrong video that is posted above. I will not forget what cancer did and what it's doing to my wife and I. I will not forget what it's done to others that I've met. There's a resolve there. We've got to find a cure.
I went with Tracy to the Midwest Cancer clinic on Monday. We were disappointed to learn that she could not get Herceptin because of the decreased function of her heart. That's a serious deal in itself when you're talking about the heart, nothing to be messed with. But everyone expects her to bounce back in three weeks and be able to receive treatment again. And the thing is, we both realized from the people around us that we're lucky to be where we're at in her treatment.
I'll share one story that I heard while I was in a waiting room Monday. Three people were sharing their cancer story with each other when one man said, "You know, you can work hard your whole life. Pay off the house. Get your kids through college. Retire. And then when you're ready to live the good life, you get cancer." He later said that he was 56 when he was diagnosed and from the sound of things, his prognosis is not good.
They shared their philosophies with each other on how they deal with cancer. One lady, said her husband was diagnosed when he was 65, simply said, "we don't let it bother us", explaining that they try to have as many good days as they can.
One woman shared the story of how she finally convinced her husband to go to the hospital after she finally would not take "I'm fine" as an answer as she watched her husband struggle with pain.
The whole experience made me sad. But it also made me a little angry. It just re-energizes me as we continue our fight against cancer. My feeling is captured in the Livestrong video that is posted above. I will not forget what cancer did and what it's doing to my wife and I. I will not forget what it's done to others that I've met. There's a resolve there. We've got to find a cure.
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Saturday, June 6, 2009
Sunday, May 10, 2009
The Hair Raisers
The response to our fund raising efforts from family, co-workers, friends, and neighbors has been tremendous thus far. As of today, the Hair Raisers Relay for Life team sits on top of the standings for the Lincoln Haymarket Park Relay. After our first fund raising event, the garage sale, Tracy also reached the $1,000 mark. One thing that is cool about getting to one thousand is that they give you a t-shirt in recognition for getting there.
While we're proud to have reached that amount, we both know how we got there. The vast majority of the money I've raised so far has come strictly from donations made by friends and faculty members from our middle school and high school. There are still others who have said they plan to donate. I'm proud to know so many generous people. I also know from messages that they have given that a number of them have lost loved ones to cancer. Donations have been made in their name. Their donations come from the heart.
We made over $400 from yesterday's garage sale. Much of it came from the sale of smaller items. I would guess that over half of the items at the garage sale were donated by co-workers and neighbors. Tracy's mom raised some money toward her own goal by making some kolaches and cinnamon rolls to sell. That went over very well as well. And we had two neighbors on our cul-de-sac that had garage sales of their own. All of this contributed to yesterday's success. But the major thing that stood out was the willingness of the general public to help out in the fight against cancer.
There is still a long way to go. Our goal is to raise $10,000. But we've got a great team and several fund raisers still in the planning stages. We've got a shot to get there. I doubt that we'll stay very high in the rankings for much longer as many teams are just getting started in their efforts. And getting passed by many teams would be just fine with me! This is about finding a cure for a dreadful disease that is breaking hearts and taking lives every day. It feels good to be fighting back and it feels even better to have friends at our side in this fight.
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