Riding for Roses

Every once in a while, I like to tell the story from the beginning. It helps me figure out what the highlights are. It gives me a chance to cry and as I have said before, that release is empowering. It also gives me a chance to tell the story to new visitors to this blog. I expect some new people these days with the Tour Watch 2005 event in full swing and my brother says they will be discussing this blog on WGN Radio tonight. Plus, with all the illegal fireworks popping off in my neighborhood, I am not really ready to sleep now anyway.

This is the third day of the third time we’ve had chemotherapy at home. The process is simple, but disturbing. Friday, we went in to the oncologist and Spencer had a procedure, chemotherapy, and they left a needle in his chest hooking his port to a tube we can use for IV access. I get [...]

We are filling in context material for the Discovery Network show by taping key events during the Tour de France. They wanted some footage of us watching the mountain days so I made sure Spencer came with me both Saturday and Sunday to Central Market for Tour Watch 2005—Saturday was bit of a bust with rain reducing the crowd and limiting taping chances. Sunday was perfect and Spencer milked it.

Spencer’s counts looked good on Tuesday, so we anticipated going forward with chemotherapy today. We did that, though as it turns out his official counts are a little below the checkpoint requirement. Today the fun begins. Here is how today played out.

Lance took the yellow jersey decisively today, while Spencer got a green jersey of a different support. Thanks to generous donations from all over, Spencer cross the $7500 (and $8000) barrier in the last few days and qualified for a Peloton Project Green Jersey. That means he is over half way to getting the Polka Dot Jersey he is on track to get, and about one third of the way to the yellow jersey he wants to get.

At the oncologist on Friday, I commented to Spencer’s nurse, Jennifer, that Spencer’s hair wasn’t so much attached to his head as it was resting peacefully. Yesterday afternoon Spencer wanted to go for a swim and we wound up proving those words.

Delayed Intensification has a built-in one week pause in the middle to allow for the possibility of low counts. Last week, Spencer had low platelets and severely low ANC at 300. This week the platelets are recovering and are up to 120,000 which is above the minimum to proceed. However, his ANC is 195 and [...]

As I mentioned in my podcast yesterday, most stages of the Tour de France have intermediate sprints. They are fun to watch and, sadly, not always covered by the US television coverage of the Tour. As the riders approach the intermediate checkpoint they jockey for position and there can be a lot of politics if a breakaway group is heading toward a checkpoint—stronger riders may let other riders win to build temporary coalitions. Spencer is in facing an intermediate sprint right now. He has raised $7,187.88 towards his $25,000 goal. We are within striking distance of the next fundraising level of $7,500 (the Green Jersey award). Please help Spencer win his Green Jersey by donating to support cancer survivors and Spencer’s Ride for the Roses.

I had the opportunity to chat with former Mayor of Austin Kirk Watson for a few minutes. We talked about Lance Armstrong, the Tour de France, Kirk’s experience with cancer, and the Tour Watch 2005 event. Kirk has some great advice for people living with cancer as a survivor or caregiver. You can listen to Conversation with Rob: Kirk Watson or subscribe to my podcast RSS feed to listen to all of my podcasts.

Today the Discovery Network Travel Channel is leaving Austin. They are creating a TV show about Lance Armstrong fans. They’ve been in Austin taping since Monday night and they’ve spent some of that time following me and my family around, doing some interviews, and capturing our lives both as Lance fans and a family dealing with childhood leukemia. It has been an interesting week of mostly fun and only minor inconvenience. I am looking forward to seeing the show on the Travel Channel, tentatively in September.