Relay for Life

Holly and I had the privilege of attending Relay for Life this past Friday night up here in Gwinnett County, Georgia. Supposedly Gwinnett has either the largest or second largest “relay” in the country. This event, sponsored by the American Cancer Society, brought in nearly $2 million dollars from the Gwinnett event alone. I wanted to thank all of you who contributed to Holly’s goal of $1000. She was able to exceed her goal.

I think the most striking part of this event was just the sheer number of people participating in the “survivor lap”, which kicked off the event early in the evening. Seeing that many people, all wearing survivor t-shirts, makes it hard to ignore the epidemic nature of cancer. As recently as last year, both Holly and I were in that group of people who believed that cancer was something that other people get, but certainly not us. I honestly doubt we would have given “Relay for Life” any serious consideration as no one in our immediate family has even had cancer. All I can say is what a difference a year can make . . . and what a year it has been. Our attitudes have certainly been changed through the experience.

Please allow me to share some pictures from the event:

Holly and me (click to enlarge)

Note the caption: “My Chemo SUCKED. How was yours? :)” Irreverent? No -- just trying to be lighthearted (please note the smiley face). Most people laughed, some said “yeah, mine sucked too!” But one person actually told me “mine was fine!” Obviously that person just wasn’t getting enough chemo and should try the “intensive” chemo regime given to sarcoma patients! (click to enlarge)

Holly “deer in headlights” look :) (click to enlarge)

Thank you Nathan Horton for thinking of us when making your custom "Relay for Life" T-Shirts! Cool! (click to enlarge)

Though this was an excellent event (and one I plan to attend every year), the event near and dear to my heart is the “Team Sarcoma Initiative” taking place July 18 – 26, 2009. The Atlanta event for this will be the Walk for Sarcoma Awareness that Friday, July 24th, at 7:00pm. Sarcomas are rare, deadly, and don’t get nearly as much publicity or research funding as other “popular” cancers (such as breast cancer), so awareness is a big issue.

How you doing???

I know I haven’t written much about my status lately, but you can pretty much assume with me that no news is good news. I’ll be wrapping up my physical therapy within the next week or so and both strength and range-of-motion have returned to my leg. The only problem to speak of is that fluid keeps building up in my leg at the surgical site. The problem, as explained to me by Dr. Monson, is that the tumor left a cavity, which my body wants to keep filling. About 2 weeks ago he drained 140 CC’s from that area and since then it has filled up again. He said it’s something they might not be able to fix, but they will try staying on top of it by draining it every 2 weeks for the next month or so. But no guarantees that this will resolve the issue. The good news, though, is that the fluid is causing me no discomfort or real problems (from the best I can tell). It just sort of looks like I have a saline implant in my thigh. :)

Damn . . . Just Damn

Hi folks – sorry to start a new post off with that sort of tone, but I’m not sure there’s really any nicer way of putting it. My wife (and co-editor of this blog) Holly was recently diagnosed with Breast Cancer. A routine mammogram revealed the abnormality a few weeks back but it wasn’t until last week that we got the results of the biopsy, which showed the lump was cancerous.

Yesterday Holly had a lumpectomy at Gwinnett Medical Center, under the care of Dr. Wallace Martin. The surgery went as well as could be expected. The surgeon removed only 3 sentinel lymph nodes (the fewer the better), all of which (at the time) were negative for cancer. The tumor itself was about 2 centimeters in size and was removed along with the surrounding tissue (a.k.a., the margin). No drains were installed, which should make the healing easier or at least less complicated.

The lymph nodes, margins, and the tumor itself were then put though more exhaustive tests in the lab. We got a call back from the doctor’s office this afternoon with the pathology of these tissue samples. The good news is that the margins were negative, though we learned today that the surgeon had to cut into the chest muscle in order to ensure negative margins. The bad news, however, is that the lymph nodes were positive for microscopic cancer cells. As a result, she will need to go back in for a lymph node dissection, where they’ll surgically remove more lymph nodes and then put drains in. This is scheduled for next Tuesday (3/10).

Prior to that, however, we have a follow-up appointment with Dr. Martin on Monday (3/9). It is then that we should learn more about the type of cancer cells we’re dealing with and learn of a proposed treatment plan. All indications are that she will likely undergo radiation therapy, though chemotherapy has not been ruled out.

All I can say is it feels different when the shoe is on the other foot. I’ve accepted the fact that I’m fighting (and I believe winning) my battle with Sarcoma. That was OK with me. But now Holly has breast cancer?!? That really hurts. I guess I never really understood how she felt when she learned of my diagnosis until just yesterday in surgery when her diagnosis began to sink in.

I’m sure many may wonder why this is all happening to us. Some may even speculate various environmental theories as to the cause of a husband and wife within the same household both going through cancer at the same time. Yes this is rare and it’s only natural to think along these lines. However, to be quite frank, I really don’t care why this happening or what the cause might be since nobody can definitely answer such questions. I’ve never seen anything good come out of pondering such topics (especially as a cancer patient), which was one of the themes of my post on 2/23/2009. Instead, I’d much rather focus my energies on beating this thing and being a supportive, compassionate husband.

My next challenge will be to figure out a way to break this news to my two boys (neither know anything beyond the surgery). If I can just manage to hold them off for a few more weeks (until after my surgery), perhaps then it will be easier for them to bear such news (knowing that I’m nearing the end of my battle). But I think I should just stop overanalyzing the situation and take my own “one day at a time” advice here. I just pray that my kids will have the strength to handle such news . . . whenever it comes.

I’m planning for this to be my last post regarding Holly. Hopefully she will start a blog of her own, which I will add to the list of blogs that I follow.