10 lovely years

For the last while, blogging has taken a back seat to a bigger project. I am finally done (at least for now) and have time do a little catching up.

It's been a busy time and there is much to write about but, most importantly, I need to tell you that on May 10, my first born son turned ten years old.

We celebrated him in grand style, with presents, a movie outing, a walk in the tulips, family, Chinese food and still more presents. The next day, we were informed that the only thing he regrets about his birthday is that "it only lasted for twenty four hours." And he slept for eight of them.

It really was a beautiful day and the birth of this child is a wonderful reason to celebrate.

I like to tell the story of the day he was born. He came into the world on Mother's Day, after I had been labouring at home for many, many hours. When our midwife decided that it was time to head to the hospital, we set out along the route we had planned (we were fairly new to the city). We had to find an alternate route in a hurry, though, as our chosen route (and the fastest one) was closed off, due to a "Mother's Day" race. As I moaned in the car beside him, my poor spouse pulled out a map and plotted a new route to our destination, as the runners streamed by.

I also like to remind S. that his birth was a long, hard, drawn out process. But the truth is that it was all worth it. I love him so much and I couldn't be prouder of this smart, loving, creative, funny boy.

10 things S. did this year to make me proud:

1. Helped his little brother to write a series of stories, with titles like, "The Boy Who Got Stuck in the Toilet," and its sequel, "The Boy Who Got Stuck in the Sink." He then directed the movie version of these stories and created the best movie trailer ever.

2. Travelled to London with his mother, where he was mature, flexible, good-humoured, fun, patient, responsible, thoughtful and a terrific companion.

3. Looked out for his little brother, even when the littler one made that very challenging.

4.Learned to knit, demonstrating persistence and patience.

5.Made me laugh out loud, almost every day.

6.Hugged and kissed me whenever he saw me, even in public and even in front of his peers.

7.Proved time and again that he has a compassionate, empathic soul.

8.Learned to forgive and move on.

9.Was true to himself.

10.Gave me glimpses of the man he will become. I will be proud to know him then. I know I will always feel lucky that this terrific human being is my son.

Response from a Legislator

I actually got a response from one of the many legislators I emailed. Peter Visclosky, a Congressional representative, wrote me what seemed to be a personal and not canned email about government funding for the National Cancer Institute. I appreciated that. He said in part "In his Fiscal Year (FY) 2009 budget request, President Bush has allocated $4.8 billion for the National Cancer Institute (NCI). This is an increase of $5 million over the FY 2008 funding level.".

I knew the $4.8 billion number, but the increase of $5 million is not a substantial increase. I cannot understand how we can afford to spend $177 million daily on the war in Iraq while only appropriating an additional $5 million for an entire year to the NCI budget. We spend $7.4 million in a single hour to battle the war against terrorism. I'm not understanding the math.

We need more in the fight against a disease that kills over half a million Americans annually. If we are somehow able to come up with an extra $177 million daily to fight the war on terrorism, can't we come up with more than $5 million additional dollars in entire year to battle a disease that kills more than 500,000 in the US every year, more than 10,000 people every single week, 1500 every single day?

I looked up other causes of death. The homicide rate in the US is usually between 20,000-24000 a year, cancer kills that many in one month. AIDs has killed over half a million people in the USA, but it took 25 years for AIDS to kill that many, cancer does it in only one year. Motor vehicle accidents kill approximately 43,000 a year, cancer kills more than ten times that many annually. Cancer is a much larger threat than any of those killers.

It's not that I don't think we should spend money on our nation's defense, and I truly don't know enough about the war in Iraq or the defense budget to criticize the expenditure there. But when we had what was considered an emergency, the war on terrorism, we were able to find $177 million a day to fight the enemy. We were somehow able to come up with the funding.

Isn't cancer an even bigger threat to our society? Doesn't it deserve emergency funding also? I wonder how many lives would be saved if cancer research received that kind of investment? Would cancer be defeated? If $177 million a day were devoted to beating cancer, maybe even half that much, I truly believe cancer could be forever conquered.

I don't know where to go with all of that information from here, but being around scientists who sound like they are on the edge of something big but who can't pursue their findings further for lack of funding truly had an impact on me. Learning that many of these scientists are leaving the field as they can't get funding for the research they are so passionate about truly saddens me. I wonder how much have we already lost in the war on cancer?

Free Online Seminar: Introduction to Ovarian Cancer

Free Online Seminar: Introduction to Ovarian CancerIn collaboration with the New York State Department of Health OvarianCancer Program, the New York State Nurses Association will be offering abrand-new web seminar: Introduction to Ovarian Cancer.

The target audience of this seminar is nurses. The participants will learnabout the epidemiology of ovarian cancer, signs, symptoms and risk factorsassociated with this disease, and the important role of nurses inidentifying and managing affected women. In addition, this free onlineseminar provides information on which women are at high risk for ovariancancer as well as resources available in NYS.

The seminar and additional information will be available by April 1, 2008through the end of June. Registration is required. Continuing educationcredits are available. For additional information or to register for theonline seminar, please log onto http://www.nysna.org

Funding for this seminar was made possible by cooperative agreement #U58DP000783-01 from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC)through a grant from the New York State
Comprehensive Cancer ControlProgram.

Claire Qu, MS Ovarian Cancer Program CoordinatorCancer Support and Survivorship Initiatives

NYSDOH Bureau of Chronic Disease Services
Riverview Center150 Broadway, 3rd Floor West Albany, New York 12204
Tel: (518) 474-1222Fax: (518) 473-0642

11th Annual Ovarian Cancer National Alliance Conference- July 8th-10th, Omni Shoreham Hotel, Washington D.C.

Nippity Nip Nip Nip

I'm going to ask for really hard nipples. Some people are grossed out by "high beams," but I love pokies. One dark secret of mine: I used to own this contraption that created pokies for as long as you wanted. It was a little suction bulb, and three pairs of different sizes of rings came with the bulb. You slipped a little rubber ring onto the end of the bulb, stuck your nipple into the bulb, gave the bulb a squeeze (it looked much like those blue snot suckers you use on infants), and as your nip was sucked into the bulb, you slipped the ring onto it. Well, here see for yourself: Nipple Enhancers. Yeah, anyway...so now I can throw my nipple suction bulb away! Wahoo!

My pathology report came back very positive. I had 8 lymph nodes taken out, one of which was positive for carcinoma, but the rest were negative. So it looks like the cancer is history! But there still could be microscopic carcinoma in the chest wall, so I'll have scans every 6 months for the next five years to make sure everything is as it should be. I'll also go through genetic screening this summer for the BRCA-1 and -2 genetic mutation that could be the cancer culprit, in which case I would also be screened for ovarian cancer.

My body is healing quite well. I'm still getting lymphatic massage treatments, acupuncture, and today I had reflexology, which was soooo awesome. I could actually feel lymph fluid draining when the therapist pushed on a certain part of my foot. It was creepy yet cool. I got my Bellisse compression bra, and that's been helping loads too. I just wish someone around here would become a distributor for it, because I think so many women would benefit from having this special bra. I'm going to use my magical powers to make it happen, just wait and see.

Tomorrow I have another follow-up appointment with the plastic surgeon. The first question on my mind is when can I start getting tattooed? I want to get cherry blossoms on the formerly cancerous boob instead of your normal areola (and also still get a really hard nipple), and just have a nice pink areola and nip on the other boob; and also some cherry blossoms and branches where my abdominal scar is running from hip to hip. Now would be a great time since I have zero feeling in those areas, but I suppose I have to take into consideration the fact that the tissue is still healing.

My friend Jeff Chiba Stearns is a filmmaker and animator, and he has an animated character called Super Nip, but I think I might have to talk to Jeff...because a new Super Nip(s) is coming to town!

Softball anyone

Softball pictures from the SouthWest Transplant Alliance Softball Game are below, my wife said I took the game to seriously, now would I do that......

http://www.nbc5i.com/news/16242318/detail.html

Pictures (Feb, March, April 2008)

The TCU women's Bball game (TCU -vs- Air Force) Senior Night

Rolling Carnival at one of the local malls; Raegan and Daddy date (note if you are over 220 don't go on this type of slide with a burlap sac b/c you will wind up on the concrete sliding on your rear.

Another picture from the carnival as we are on the haunted house ride.

Raegan and Ravyn Easter 2008
Raegan and Ravyn Easter Baskets
James hanging out at the Spa (UT SouthWestern Hospital) during my annual evaluation, my bronch and before the fevers 4/10/08
Post bronch the fever is brewing, and I am on the happy medicine (I can not be held accountable for anything I said.

Raegan, Ravyn, and cousin TeTe at the zoo by the elephant exhibit. I was able to walk the whole zoo.

Another zoo shoot, outside the horse / Long Horn pin, I walked the whole zoo but at this point everybody was hot hot hot and bothered.

Another zoo shoot can you guess what exhibit we are near????