Monthly Archives: May 2012

May
29
2012

Relay Wrap Up

Filed under Fund Raising by

A little delayed, but here is the Relay for Life Wrap up.

It was a long, but satifying night.  It was very rewarding and I plan to do it again.  Here’s how the day went.

Friday Night, 10pm:  I had gotten off work a little early and come home to work on some final projects for the relay.  I still had to finish wiring our fund raising game for the event.  There were still some things to get together.  I had put all the supplies in one place in the garage, Danielle had done some shopping for the needed supplies, water, new chairs, sun screen, etc.  She was also finishing up some knitting for the event.  I had to finish wiring the wire loop game we planned to raise some money with.  It needed a relay to latch on when somebody touched the wire with the loop.  The house alarm we used to alert you that you didn’t make it was going off in the garage several times in the middle of the night.

We were finally done by 2 in the morning.

I had to get up by 7am to irrigate, shower and load the car so we could be there by 10am to pitch our tent.  The event officially started at 11am, the survivor walk was at 11:30.  Danielle and I go there right on time.  We had not been at the high school before and didn’t know about the stairs we needed to walk down to get to the field.  We had a bunch of stuff and no cart to move anything.  Luckily there were volunteers from the National Honor Society there to help us move our gear to camp site #6.

Setting up the Tent

The tent was new so we had no idea how to pitch it.  It took us about a half hour to get it up.  During that time Danielle’s parents showed up and gave us a hand with it.  We are really happy with our new tent and plan to use it for actual camping some time in the future.  Danielle also go the chairs set up and I set up the game.

Eleven rolled around and they started calling people to the stage for the opening ceremony.  I walked over there and listened to speeches, saw Bob Beers who was a Nevada State Senator up until 2008, currently he is on the Las Vegas City Council.

Survivors meeting Caregivers.

We lined up for the Survivor lap as my wife and her mom lined up for the caregiver lap.  We headed off in opposite directions and met at the far side of the track where the caregivers turned around and walked with the survivors for the rest of their lap.

At the end of the lap the survivors were led to the survivor tent and given lunch.  People chatted as a young violinist played her violin.  Others remained on the track and continued the relay.

By this time we had already discussed the need to have a canopy in front of our tent to shade the chairs where we would be spending the better part of the day.  During the lunch, Danielle and Diane went out to take care of the dogs, buy ice and the canopy that we were in dire need of.

Once we sere done with lunch, Dana and I walked around the track for a little bit.  Danielle and Diane returned with the ice and canopy and we went right to work pitching it.  It was up in no time and we were relaxing in our new found shade.

The Game!

People would come by over the course of the day and try our game.  We had an early winner.  He won one of Danielle’s water bottle cozies that she knitted for the event.  The game didn’t make a ton of money, but a lot of people stopped by curious at to what it was.  It has encouraged me to build a second game for next year and start having a collection of midway games for people to donate money to play.  We were complimented several times on the uniqueness of our fundraising effort.

It was a very festive atmosphere for most of the day.  The center of the field was fairly empty so people were playing Frisbee and catch.  A couple of people brought their kites out.  The wind was perfect for kite flying that day.

We would go out for a few more laps while the sun was out.  We knew that we would be more active late at night during our normal schedule and it was HOT!  Over the course of the day there were different themed laps.  The organizers were handing out personal fans that had the schedule of events printed on them.  Danielle and Diane handed in the money for the Luminaria and took some time in the survivor tent to decorate and dedicate them.  We then lined up our Luminaria in front of our camp site.

Late afternoon our friend Julie showed up.  She had just gotten back into town that day and wanted to come down.  We walked the track together.  She came across some friends that she had relayed with in the past with.  I met them briefly and we continued on our trek.  She would meet up with them later while we were eating dinner to catch up.

Later that night Julie’s husband Rob, who I work with showed up after work.  He got there shortly before the lighting of the luminaria.  We walked the track together.  Then at 11pm, the lights turned off and a hush came over the field.  People quietly walked around the track as others sat in front of luminaria while still others prayed over each bag.  It was very powerful.  During this time the names of every person listed on every luminaria was read over the public address system.  I walked the track with Danielle and then went up into the bleachers to get the whole field into my view.

I’m not sure how long the lights were off, but it seemed like a long time.  Afterward the lights came back on and we went back to walking, fund raising, and talking.  Sharean and Damien stopped by after work and hung out with us for a while.  My friend and team member Stu also showed up.  The night was winding on.

I found myself walking more during these early hours to help keep me awake.  Lounging in one of the camping chairs would just make me sleepy.  At around 4am I took a shot of 5 Hour Energy to keep going.  Luckily the 5 Hour Energy people were going around and passing them out.

We decided to strike the tent before the sun came up so we wouldn’t have to do it in the sun.  It was light out by time we started.  Metro was sponsoring a pancake breakfast to whoever was interested.  Danielle and I passed because of our diet.

I had racked up a little less than nine miles around the track by this time and I decided I wanted to get a full 10 miles in.  So I got back on the track.  There were only a few people walking at this point.  I could probably count the number of walkers on one hand.  Most were striking their camp sites or grabbing breakfast.  I had at least five laps to do to get to 10 miles so I kept going.

10 Miles!

Our tent was struck and all our stuff was ready for the car.  I was coming up on my last lap and decided to jog it.  I hadn’t run in years but I felt good enough to jog the quarter mile to the finish line.  I made it around that last lap and did a cool down lap with Dana to finish my participation in the relay.

Danielle and Diane moved the cars to a location that didn’t require steps to get to and we packed up our cars.  The organizers did the closing ceremony at 8am a we went home.  It was an amazing event that I plan to do again next year.  Don’t be surprised to see me nagging you for support in 8 to 9 months!

May
15
2012

Colostomy… Yes, it is kind of funny…

Filed under Cancer, Humor by

RECTUM??!!….  IT NEARLY KILLED HIM!!

Have most of you heard this joke? I first saw it almost 20 years ago.  It wasn’t told to me, it showed up on a computer screen at work that was booting up.  Back in the day somebody had altered the AUTOEXEC.BAT file on a DOS machine to display it on the monitor as the computer was booting up.  So there is was, as I was preparing to do some AutoCAD work, this joke displayed itself for just the right amount of time before it cleared and the computer continued to boot up.

I didn’t think much of the joke at the time.  A little potty humor and then it was gone.  Little did I know it would be profetic seventeen years later.  Now I think the joke is kind of funny.

I was reminded of the joke from a book I just finished reading.  It’s called, “I’d Like to Buy a Bowel Please”.  It is a collection of “funny” stories collected by a woman who went through the same thing I did.  She needed an ostomy because of colon cancer.  She’s had her ostomy much longer than I had and had written another book about fighting cancer.

The purpose of the book is to say that yes, you may have issues with your ostomy, but life goes on.  For me it showed that other people have gone through the same things I’ve had to deal with.  For others it may give an understanding of what we go through.  I think what does come across is that with many issues, a little humor goes a long way.  I know it has for me.

Then you have these guys.  They wrote a song about Colorectal surgeons and have been performing it for years.


I guess the thing is, before I had the ostomy it seem like such a taboo subject.  In my mind it was certainly the worst case scenario of how my cancer could have turned out.  Now that isn’t true.  The worst case would be that I’m not around anymore and my wife is a widow.  Looking at it that way the ostomy doesn’t seem like much to bitch about.

It is something that has made many people’s lives better and nothing at all like I thought it would be.  It is certainly nothing I am ashamed of.  You might even hear me crack a joke about it if your around me.  The thing is, if you’re curious and have a question, ask, I will happily answer.

May
02
2012

Mike Brown Said it First

Filed under Cancer, Thoughts by

“Winning the lottery nobody wants to win”.  That’s how I started this blog with my very first post.  I did not come up with the quote.  As I mentioned in my first post it was how getting cancer was described to me.  The person that said it first was Mike Brown.

Mike passed away on April 25th.  Even though I didn’t personally know Mike, I felt like I knew him through a mutual friend, Rob.  Over the past eighteen months Rob and I would talk and I would get to know Mike. I would hear about his successes and his setbacks.  I didn’t know Mike but I felt like I did.  I felt like I was going through many of the things he was going through.

We were both fighting cancer in our early forties.  By that standard we were both pretty young to have this kind of disease.  We both felt a need to talk about our situation.  I’ve been reading Mike’s blog these past few days and we really did see things the same way.  Even though I didn’t know Mike, I feel like I’m getting to know him through his blog and the more I read the more I wish I knew him.

I didn’t know Mike, but the way he writes about chemo, radiation, courage, strength, surgery and of course, cancer, I feel like we are the same.  “Winning a lotto I didn’t enter” is his blog.  He didn’t know it, but that description was what inspired me to start my blog.  I would encourage you to visit his blog and get to know the kind of man Mike was.

On May 19th and 20th, I will be walking at an American Cancer Society Relay for Life event.  I’d like to walk in remembrance and celebration of Mike Brown’s life.  I’m going to ask you to donate too.  Not to me and the relay.  I’d like you to go to A Sound Cause for Mike Brown and consider giving to the cause.  From the web site:

The very best we can do for Mike is to honor him by taking care of his family. This was the thing he was most concerned about. What we are doing here for him is healthy and productive for all the right reasons.

I didn’t know Mike, but he had an impact on my life.  I would love to hear more.  The comments section of this blog is open (there will be a delay for first time posters, but it be posted).  I’d love hear stories about him.  I didn’t know Mike, but I would like to.