Riding for Roses

We’re sitting at home watching “Chasing Lance: The Fans’ Story” on the Travel Channel right now. It strikes me that I might get a little blog traffic, so I am putting up this article to write something about what we see and what has happened since the show finished filming.

It’s over. I loved it. Congratulations [...]

October 2 is the 9th anniversary of Lance Armstrong’s diagnosis with testicular cancer. Lance is a funny guy. He likes to celebrate it

Almost eleven months ago, I agreed to help my son Spencer raise $25,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation to help support cancer survivors. It’s now less than five days to the deadline and we are less than $2200 away. The official total at the LAF is $23,565. In addition, we have a solid commitment for $200, and we know of $985 in donations that were mailed in before the September 6 deadline for postmarks. Counting those, Spencer has $250 to go before he reachs his goal! We could use just a little more in this final push to go over $25,000….

Spencer’s total fundraising for the Lance Armstrong Foundation as of 5 PM CDT is $17,396.36 from 167 different donors. He has officially achieved the Polka Dot Jersey award level. He has achieved the baseline goal and still have a shot at $25,000 and the Yellow Jersey level. Your donations to the LAF support programs that [...]

Spencer is in striking distance of his $15,000 fundraising goal for the Lance Armstrong Foundation. Your donations will support programs for cancer survivors.

I was reminded by my sister Tracy that I haven’t posted in a while and that my (seven at last count) loyal readers tend to begin to think things must be going wrong. Fear not, things are indeed going wrong. It is probably best to summarize and highlight the important bits. I should probably start [...]

Spencer’s immune system continues to be non-existent. His energy is good and lips continue to be fairly red (which indicates hemoglobin is not too low, when it gets low his lips start to get white). Next checkup at the oncologist is Thursday with Dr. Shaffer (Dr. Sharp is out). All that’s in the plan is CBC though it’s possible he’ll need red cells.

Spencer and I have been working seriously on fundraising for the Ride for the Roses for 66 days of our 100 day plan. It’s time for a status report….

Today we had another oncologist visit. The expectation was Spencer would need Neulasta to help with low white counts and platelets to help make sure his blood will clot. The day did not go as planned.

As expected, Spencer needed red cells today. We go back to the oncologist on Wednesday for Neulasta and probably a unit of platelets. He made it through the busy Tour de France viewing event and fundraising apparently without infection or virus. The frequent handwashing and cleaning with Purell possibly helped.