Riding for Roses

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.

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 [...]

Today was stage 1 at the Tour Watch 2005 event at Central Market North in Austin. Being the first day of the event, we didn’t really know how it was going to go until it happened. It was a great day of conversation with visitors to the Tour Watch and other event participants. We raised a little money and hope we will keep building momentum.

Spencer was in at the oncologist today with our Discovery Network entourage to tape some of it. Unfortunately, his complete blood count was not everything we hoped. His absolute neutrophil count is 300 which qualifies as severe neutropenia, and means he is at high risk for a bacterial infection. We are going to go ahead and have him attend the first day of Tour Watch but we’ll have to keep him home at least until July 8 and maybe another week. In order to attend the Tour Watch, we have anti-bacterial precautions in place

This blog has been all Rob’s gonna be on TV, come to Tour Watch, and “donate to support cancer survivors lately. What about Spencer? Spencer is in for his third week of intensive chemotherapy tomorrow. So far, he’s taking it like a champ, both physically and mentally.

The Lance Armstrong Foundation has kicked off their “Seven for Survivors” program. It is built around the number 7: Lance’s bid for Tour de France victory number 7, a 7 million dollar goal for the 2005 Ride for the Roses, 7 facts about cancer, 7 things the LAF does to help people living with cancer, and 7 stories about people living with cancer. I am one of this people

Sometimes odd things come from blogging. Two serendipitous contacts due to my blog have somewhat snowballed. The first, which I have mentioned before, is the Tour Watch 2005 Tour de France viewing event at Central Market. It will include large screen viewing of the Tour, interviews with local cycling fans, interviews with people at the Tour, opportunities to create your own podcast, cancer surivor information, fundraising for Spencer’s Ride for the Roses, and other stuff to be announced. The second is stranger and yet related. The Discovery Channel is sending a filming crew to Austin and they want to follow me around for a couple of days and film “typical” activities.

Today was one of those awesome breaks from routine that make life a lot easier. I volunteer at the Lance Armstrong Foundation and today was another picnic for the LAF staff and volunteers.

Today we are back from our vacation and Spencer started his second cycle of delayed intensification. The good news is that after eight more weeks of this, he should be on maintenance for the remainder of his treatment which will be in late 2007 or early 2008. The bad news is he has eight weeks of intense chemotherapy and a resulting immune system crash to end his summer, which had barely begun.

I don’t think I actually wrote about this on my blog since I did not want to curse it. We are on vacation. A quick taste of what’s up with the possibility that I will elaborate later. We had dinner with His Majesty King Abdullah II of Jordan and Spencer gave him a few liveStrong wrist bands. We attended my 25 year Deerfield Academy reunion and delivered thanks to my Deerfield classmates who, so far, have donated over $1500 to the Lance Armstrong Foundation. We had a family reunion on Sunday in Stuyvesant Falls, NY. We are now getting ready for bed while I quickly catch up on email at the Harding House guest house in Cambridge.