Riding for Roses

In April, the Rolodex effect snowballed.

KLRU filmed Spencer’s rock climbing class, a visit to the oncologist, and came by the house to interview us (Spencer, Rachel, and me). Spencer banished Rachel and me to our bedroom (with his brother Jacob) while he was interviewed so that he would be able to speak without being self-conscious. I was completely unfair to Rachel. She went first, so she got all the mechanical questions about diagnosis and treatment. That inevitably starts to sound a little self pitying. I went second, so my focus was more on recent events and positive things. It may come off sounding like Rachel is a pessimist and I am an optimist, but that is not the full story. I think in the end, all of us are taking away the positive as well as the negative from Spencer’s cancer. I find myself pleasantly surprised to say that the positive is currently winning.

Tuesday, April 4, Jacob was sick with what turned out to be an asthma attack, though we did not fully figure that out until last week. Jacob and I were headed out the door to get Spencer at school when my cell phone rang. It was someone from the LAF calling. She told me they had an urgent need to get a bunch of cancer survivors together for a photo shoot with Lance the following afternoon. It seems Sports Illustrated was planning a big article on Lance’s plans after retiring from cycling and they wanted a photo (possibly for the cover) with Lance and some cancer survivors.

While we at the photo shoot, we talked to some people from Alpheus Media about participating in shooting for a new video for the Livestrong Gala to be held in Austin on May 19. I wrote about the flow of images and emotions from reading the LAF Manifesto earlier. It was an intense and positive emotional experience. Spencer was also in a sequence they were calling “Chemo Kids” shot the same day we did the interviews with KLRU.

At this point, I assumed Spencer’s little media explosion had peaked and we would head back to normal life. Then the phone rang again….