Riding for Roses

It might seem that it would be difficult to give thanks when my son was diagnosed with cancer a month ago, but it is actually quite simple. My life is filled with riches, both physical and spiritual, some of which I’ve worked very hard for and others which seem to show up for no particular [...]

Cancer has touched my life in many ways, so I’m a supporter of the Lance Armstrong Foundation and for 2004, I raised over $5000 as a Peloton Project member; Spencer was very disappointed that I only got one guest pass (for $100) to the Peloton Appreciation Dinner and invited Rachel instead of him. Spencer has [...]

Spencer’s ANC was good on Friday, so after clearing it with the oncologist we made plans to restart his Tukong martial arts class at Master Yi’s studio on 183 near Burnet in Austin. Monday, we had a short one-on-one lesson with Master Ali Brown to assess Spencer’s status. He’s been out of class, not getting [...]

When I first set this blog up, it was basically my training log for the 2004 Ride for the Roses. I’d done public training logs on charity rides before, but always hosted them elsewhere. Finally got around to using this domain for something useful since I was hosting it on a machine where I had [...]

I have a theme channel on my ReplayTV that records shows that mention the word “Zevon” in their title, actors, or descriptions. A while back it stumbled upon David Letterman with Jordan Zevon and the Wallflowers as musical guests. I watched the recording and quickly discovered that Jordan had put together Enjoy Every Sandwich an [...]

I believe I’ve mentioned The Deal. The first day I started talking with Spencer about side-effects of chemotherapy, we made a deal that I would shave my head after his hair started falling out before he was totally bald. Once his hair started falling out, I posted an email to the mailing list for [...]

Ben’s Game is a totally awesome computer game (for Mac and PC) that is available free from the Make-A-Wish Foundation. It was created based on the wish of Ben Duskin by LucasArts programmer Eric Johnston. In the game, you fight seven monsters (one on each game level) to get seven shields to protect you from [...]

We’re totally numb. We just got news that Rachel’s Mom, Diane Brimmer, appears to have a second cancer. No firm diagnosis, but it appears to be in the liver. She’s apparently got pneumonia so they aren’t doing a biopsy, but CBC with liver function points at the liver and X-ray shows lesions, so even without [...]

We’ve settled into an almost routine. With low ANC (100 at last test), we spend most of the day at home, but go out for a walk, playground, or bicycle ride. At home, we watch shows and do projects. Scooby Doo and Pooh are favorties, though we are branching out to “Out of the Box” [...]

The test results from Friday’s procedures are back and very positive. We got the news that Spencer is a rapid responder, less than 1% of the cells in the bone marrow aspiration were leukemia cells. This means he is officially in remission; the standard treatment is still three years and two months of chemotherapy, but [...]