Riding for Roses

We had a wonderful time at the TNT Hill Country Hundred. Spencer and I asked to work something we could leave early to get to his rock climbing class, so we manned the first rest stop. This is good and bad. The ride included 25K, 50K, and 100K options. The 50K split before our rest stop and the 25K was out and back with turnaround at our rest stop. None of the 100K riders needed to stop 12.5K (7-3/4 miles) into their ride. Only three riders stopped to turn around. We got to wave and yell a lot before calling the rest stop closed. Then we left the food (to be eaten by any late riders or picked up by another crew) and loaded our Gatorade in the car to go to the next rest stop which was running a little low on Gatorade. After most of the riders were past, we moved on two more rest stops ahead and talked with volunteers, but had to leave for rock climbing before any more cyclists showed up.

I haven’t updated with status on Spencer and his treatment lately. Some of that is because we continue mostly on the plan with the usual unexpected bumps along the way. Some is because the bumps we’ve had have come up fast and been short, leaving me too busy to post until after the tiny crisis is over. The rest is because I’ve found other things to write about.

February 27 was a school holiday for teacher development, so Spencer and I headed down to Enchanted Rock once again. This time, we brought lights so we could go through the cave. It was still pretty wet from recent rains and water was tricking through parts of the cave still, which I gather is an improvement from the usual spider situation. We headed down to the first major opening after the entrance, tried climbing up that, but decided it would be safer to go back through the cave. Next time, we’ll see how far down the cave we can get.

We’ve really only had two mini-crises. The first was bad liver function test results in January which caused the oncologist to reduce Spencer’s chemotherapy dosage until the enzymes were back to normal. That was about 10 days, but it should not affect the schedule. Throughout February, we got calls from the school nurse at Canyon Creek Elementary reporting cases of chicken pox. Finally, on March 6, somebody in his class had it. We were expecting Spencer would need two very painful shots to reduce the effects of chicken pox. Luckily, the oncologist did some research and found that the IVIG infusions Spencer has been getting should be adequate to give him immunity for three weeks since he had a varicella vaccine when he was a baby. Since that disovery, Spencer is getting IVIG every three weeks until we are through the “disease season”.

Spencer had IVIG last week, and his next day surgery (bone marrow aspiration and lumbar puncture) is April 21. All continues on schedule with no major problems.