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reflection |
day in the life
Highlighting
the everyday life of a couple living well with a slow-growing cancer.
Life isn’t
always easy, and there will certainly be sorrows and losses
along the way. But being alive is good. It is very good.
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Monday, June 29, 2009
Happy kind of
exhausted
I’m
exhausted, but what a terrific week! We got home late last night
from New Jersey with side trips into NYC, New Brunswick and
Bethesda – part family vacation and part Cancer Adventure.
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Highlights of
the Cancer Adventure:
- Touring
Gilda’s Club on Houston Street in New York - they are
planning to fit our presentation into their fall line-up of
events.
- Speaking at
the Chordoma Foundation conference
and meeting Josh and Simone Sommer who set out to find a cure for this rare form of
cancer, but somewhere along the line have built a strong community.
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Exploring Princeton campus |
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- Meeting
with Dr. Julia Rowland and her colleagues from the National
Cancer Institute who laughed at all the
right places in our presentation and brainstormed a
bit over how our survivorship/quality of life
message could be of service to them. More to report
as things unfold. |
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Of course the
frosting on the cake was spending time with family. We mixed in
a bit of sight-seeing
– took the ferry out to Liberty Island and meandered through
Princeton campus with its lovely old stone buildings covered in
ivy.
We
read books to grandkids and
cuddled with
them
as much as possible ... because all too soon they're
going to be too big to cuddle with. |
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A
pleasant outdoor
meal - Seinfeld nowhere in sight |
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We played late-night card games with our
kids, even staged a family Wii bowling tourney. I’m talking
serious stuff here where the first round determined the seed and
then the #1 seed played the #8, etc. I moved up in the ranks
from seventh seed to play in the championship game against my
highly competitive son-in-law who would never dream of giving
his mother-in-law a break just to keep on good terms with her.
J |
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Cookie-cutter grandkids! |
And so we had
to get up this morning and trudge off to our day
jobs … and even though I’m exhausted, its a happy kind of exhausted because
there is the hope that someday soon we will
be able to
spend more time doing the things that are closest to our hearts
– hanging
with family ... and speaking encouragement and hope to those dealing
with cancer.
Comment
Saturday, June 20, 2009
4:30am blog
Don't ask me
why I'm writing a blog at 4:30am. We're leaving for the airport
in a half hour and I'm almost packed. We'll meet our son and
daughter-in-law in Philly this evening (they're flying in from Phoenix),
and carpool to our daughter and son-in-law's place in New
Jersey. Our whole family hasn't been together for about 4 years,
so we're obviously looking forward to that.
This is also a
working vacation, and we are grateful for the opportunity to
meet with representatives from cancer organizations in NYC, New
Brunswick and Bethesda, including the National Cancer Institute.
All that makes
it worthwhile to be up at 4:30am!
Comment
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Fat check
marks
It’s Sunday
afternoon and in a few minutes Gary will flip a couple of turkey
burgers to go with the
home fries that are baking in the
oven. Meanwhile, I’m enjoying the lovely temperatures on our
front porch, a Chai tea in hand (notice how prominently Chai
tea plays in these blogs), and thinking about all that needs to
get done before we catch an early morning flight to the East
Coast next Saturday.
I need to
e-mail organizations to confirm our appointments; contact the young
man from Novartis who approached us after our last speaking
opportunity to let him know we’ll be in the area; and finish the
new grant we’re writing since the deadline is coming up soon.
I’ve learned
a few things as we balance full-time jobs with trying to work
our way out of full-time jobs: 1) keeping
a list and checking off at least one
item a day makes
everything much more manageable; 2) don't cancel Friday night
dates, hiking, book-reading just because there’s so much to do;
and 3) it will all eventually get done.
I keep a
daily journal and sometimes when I begin a new month, I look
back a year to see what we were doing.
Invariably, I’m
amazed at what we've been able to accomplish
in the direction of our dreams.
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And so earlier today, we walked the 3-mile
Deschutes River loop
- the river busy with non-motorized boats (at left),
fishermen and waterfowl. We
stopped to purchase small gifts for the grandkids
and books for the cross-country flight—two things
checked off my list, in case you were wondering—and
now this blog is finished, which means one more fat
check mark! |
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Deschutes River at Farewell Bend Park |
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Comment
Sunday, June 7, 2009
One of the benefits
of cancer
Sunday
afternoon has rolled around and we are resting from an
exhausting but exhilarating weekend. Unofficial numbers of
participants in this year’s Heaven Can Wait race to benefit the
Sara Fisher Breast Cancer Project are somewhere between
3,600-3,700 … and at least 3,000 of them came through the Foot
Zone (small downtown athletic apparel/shoe store) yesterday to
pick up their race numbers and purchase sweatshirts, Ts and
hats.
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I’m getting smarter in my old age – instead of
trying to do everything myself, I’m learning to
delegate. With awesome volunteers covering for me
under the big tent this morning, I rambled
through the crowd with camcorder in hand, climbing
scaffolding, shooting participants warming up to
Jazzercise, getting footage of the massage
therapists at work,
hula hoopers doing their thing,
of
runners/walkers taking off and then returning to cross the
finish line.
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It struck me
today seeing so many people
we know –
my co-workers
from the hospital, volunteers for the various events we've put
on, and especially our cancer community friends
–
how
enriched
our lives are because of them.
Which is one
of the benefits of cancer.
We are
grateful for what is transpiring – grateful for new perspective
and vision and passion, and especially grateful for the
incredible people that we otherwise would never have met.
Comment
Friday, June 5, 2009
Calm before the
storm
It’s mid-afternoon on a Friday. I’m at home, enjoying a
Chai tea and the calm before the storm. The storm is
Heaven Can Wait, a 5K Walk/Run to benefit the Sara Fisher Breast
Cancer Project of the
St. Charles Cancer Program.
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2008 Heaven Can Wait
crowd |
This year’s walk/run—an event founded by
Charlene Levesque, breast cancer survivor—marks the tenth
birthday of what has become Central Oregon’s premier sporting
event in terms of participation. There were 3,400 participants
in 2008, and already we are ahead of last year’s
numbers in registrations.
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This evening,
my trusty assistant (that would be Gary) and I will help set up
for tomorrow’s registration/packet pick-up and merchandise
sales at the Foot Zone. Tomorrow, my trusty assistant and I will
work the Foot Zone all day. And then on Sunday, my trusty
assistant and I will be at the park by 6:30am to help set up
under the big tent. Oh, the benefits of being married to me.
Preparation
began last December with our first mailing to potential
sponsors. And we’ve been mailing and meeting and organizing ever
since. It’s a great event supported by an incredible community,
and I’m glad to be part of it … but my trusty assistant and I
will be so relieved when
1:00 Sunday afternoon rolls around!
Comment
Tuesday, June 2, 2009
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Big
picture thinking
Dr. Simone Sommer called a couple weeks ago. She is
the mother of Josh Sommer, a Duke University student
who has chordoma, a rare form of cancer. Josh and
Simone established the Chordoma Foundation with the
intent of finding a cure – of getting all the
brilliant minds together in one room to share their
findings, of establishing a bio bank so there would
be chordoma cells for research.
Amazingly, in the few short years of this non-profit’s
existence, Simone and Josh have done just that … and
more.
We’ve been invited to be part of their community event in
Bethesda, MD, at the end of June. I can’t tell you how much we’re looking forward to meeting
the Sommers; it's almost as if we know them already.
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Dr.
Simone Sommer and son, Josh |
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Simone and I brainstormed a little over promotional
efforts. Could I pitch a story to our local newspaper, she
asked, that could be picked up off the AP wires by someone in
their area – Oregon couple dealing with cancer to meet people
featured in their book of cancer heroes, including Josh and Simone Sommer of the Chordoma
Foundation. Kind of a long headline, but you get the
picture.
She said maybe we could get all the people in our book
together – “Oprah and Ellen DeGeneres do this sort of thing,”
she reminded me. So I went online to Oprah.com and submitted an
idea for a show: a “reunion” of sorts, only between people who
have never met each other and the couple
who researched and wrote their stories.
I know, I know … a long shot. But Simone—who has managed to
gather scientific minds from around the world into one room
listening to each other, all in the name of finding a cure for
her son’s rare cancer—has that big picture effect on me.
Comment
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May 2009
Back to the real world
Quick trip to the EC
Audacious living
Connecticut adventure
April 2009
Flat Stanley in Ory-gun
Baby steps
Four-day weekend
Soaring on wings
Sunbathing
C.O. style
Real men wear pink
Fun in the CTC
March 2009
Live like you were dying
Day jobs
Connected
CAN Cancer
The power of one
February 2009
It's official
Fun with the medical professionals
To my valentine
Moments in Jersey
January 2009
Leaving on a
jet plane
Scans ordered
Welcome to life
Insane residents
Back in high school
Engaged crowd
Out of the mouths of babes
Divine intervention
December 2008
Christmas
via webcam
A merry little
Christmas
Somewhere on purpose
Adventure and
romance
Celebrate life
Imagine
Men and menopause
November 2008
My Thanksgiving list
Thanksgiving
Eve
Roundabouts
How Starbucks
saved my life
Training for
Switzerland
Radio interview
Super colon
Thoughts on
being invisible
The speed of a turtle
October 2008
Obligation of
the cured
Cancer Adventures – the book
Blue and orange town
Hope Couture
First snow
Simple
pleasures are the best
128 quilts
September 2008
Whale watching
and kite flying
The new and relaxed Gary
The scenic
route
Packing the essentials
One step at a
time
PSA count celebration
August 2008
Frost in August
Reading list
Soaring Spirits
Checking in
9:30am rock band
Lingering
July 2008
Grand for a reason
Mickey Mouse
pancakes
Survivorship is all the rage
Follow your dreams
Birthday weekend
Only in America
Unrelated goose incident
June 2008
Geese
Road trip
Friday night date
Tough day on the job
Best dad
Confession
Light bulb moment
Homesick
Amazing volunteers
May
2008
Countdown
Extended family
Testing the limits
Trailblazers
The last lecture
Mother’s Day thoughts
Welcome to our world, Lydia
Personal touch
April 2008
Dispensing goodness
Cancer community – Part II
Cancer community
Barn
door analogies
Homemade soup day
Mice and tumors
Waiting room magazines
Weekend date
First entry
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