Scan Week this week

Sorry for such limited posts this month.  Between back to school and my Gold Ribbon campaign I slacked off on the writing.  Things have been going well.  Everyone is finally adjusted to the new school routine and as the weather begins to get a bit cooler I'm already starting to think about counting down to spring:)

Lisa goes for scans this week. I my crossing my toes, fingers, legs...anything I can that we see no new growth since last scans.  She looks so good and this new study of 10 pills a day is soooooooo easy.  I pray and pray and pray it's working because it makes this cancer so much more bearable, yet, my cynical side seriously doubts how 10 little pills a day could do the trick.  We will see know soon enough and I'll be holding my breath until Friday when they can give us results.

Life does go on regardless of cancer and we have pics to prove it:)





Maranda at her first homecoming for Canton HS; next week she goes to her second homecoming. That's the glory of going to "the Park" where there are 3 highschools and 3 homecoming dances you can attend! She goes to another one next week! 





While Maranda was out on the town, we were enjoying the cider mill!



Don't worry Tommy and Chrissy were with us at the Cider Mill, somehow they escaped the camera!

As always, keep praying and live life to the fullest!

THE GOLD RIBBON...What's the big deal?

We are half way through September and in 15 days you will be plagued by a sea of pink as breast cancer awareness takes the stage in October.  I try to figure out what the big deal is and find that I can't quite articulate my point.  So, borrowing from a multitude of parents who have posted on various sites  below is the "deal":

We are seeking to bring the same awareness to Childhood Cancer as the Breast Cancer Foundations has done for their particular cancer. We want Gold to be as well known as Pink. We want a HUGE Gold Ribbon hanging in front of the White House during the Month of September. We want to see gold bats used by the Major League Baseball players used in their game's. We want to see Gold footballs used by the National Football League, as well as the Gold ribbon on their helmet's, shoes, uniform, and goal post's? We want EVERY TV news channel to mention childhood cancer awareness month EVERY DAY in September. We want money donated left and right to childhood cancer so that children can go thru treatment in a matter of months....knowing just what meds have the best chance of working on their type of cancer.....just like Breast cancer warriors.

Many children are subjected to numerous different chemo treatments because there is not enough research/money/funding to know what will really work. Most chemos were not actually designed for childhood cancer, they are things that have worked with different adult cancers. Kids don't have awareness, research money or the drugs they need. There hasn't been a new drug for any of the ped cancers in over 20 years.....WOW....would people be ok if that were the case for breast cancer?? Of course not, and we shouldn't be ok with our kids being left out..and we are not, we are standing up and saying SEPTEMBER IS CHILDHOOD CANCER AWARENESS MONTH!! GO GOLD!

Happy 14th Birthday to Maranda!

Maranda turned 14 today!  This had to be one of the least eventful birthdays ever, but she seemed pretty happy.  Her one present was a laptop (of course that present counts for her birthday, Christmas, and Easter!)  We had a nice dinner out and cake and ice cream at home.

The past week has been filled with celebrating birthdays, starting school and starting Lisa on a new study.  So far so good, all things going smoothly.  All the kids seem happy with their teachers and classes, Lisa is excited to be in first grade (although she spent two of the afternoons sleeping on a cot they set up for her in a side room!).  We will be keeping our fingers crossed that the study she is now on keeps the cancer from progressing.  It is one of the easiest ones ever!!  She takes 5 pills twice a day.  That's it....things could be so easy if this works...let's hope these pills can do the job of beating the beast.

School pics and bday pics coming soon!

Don't forget to keep your gold on... September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month!  A special kudos to Christine Progar....she wrote:

"I thought I would let you know that your blog post on Childhood Cancer Awareness month inspired me. I asked the principal of our school in Romulus, MI to support childhood cancer with our monthly jeans day. Know that Metro Charter Academy is going to donate part of the funds raised this Friday, 9/16 to the Children's Cancer Research Fund. Thank you for all you do for Lisa and other children with cancer. God bless, Christine Progar"

THANK YOU CHRISTINE!!!  Great idea.  What does everyone think?  Are their similar opportunities that you could do at your school or workplace to help raise awareness that September in Childhood Cancer Awareness month...their ribbon is gold...and money is needed for research to find cures for Childhood Cancers!

Birthday - Continued

We celebrated Lisa and Maranda's birthday last weekend on Saturday at the lake with a few folks that stopped by. OK most of you were there because the place was packed! It was a great day and the weather cooperated until the evening when the wind and rain chased everyone inside.

Sunday the kids and I went off to the Saline Community Fair. Animals, rides, and a smash-up-derby mud racing made it a hit. The photo is of Lisa and one of her BFFs enjoying one of the many rides.

Lisa's scans from last week were "stable" from her previous set and her bone marrows were negative. [Yeah!] Her lab work was improved enough to start treatment so she began treatment after school on Tuesday, 9/6. For the next few weeks she'll have only one appointment each week for infusion and after that labs and scans to determine the effect.

Keep sending her your very best. -Mike

Happy Birthday!

Lisa turned 7 on Wednesday.  I found my self wavering between gratefulness and anger.  Gratefulness that she has doubled the time doctors originally predicted she had to live and anger that she has had to fight so hard for that time.  Then I find myself thinking, thist is the life lesson I am supposed to be learning... to appreciate and be grateful for each and everyday. How many birthdays do I truly appreciate?  How many times do I  actually think about the year that went by and what the person accomplished or lived thru, or how they grew, or appreciate that they still have a decent quality of life?  Probably not enough.  With Lisa, it's easy to always count the blessings; but with myself or my other kids, siblings, parents, friends, I often take for granted that they have got another day, week, year under their belt...that they have grown, and that they still have a very high quality of life.  I was having  a conversation with my dad the other day regarding how he did in the city senior Olympics this year.  He was lamenting that he only took one medal this year...it was bronze....prior years he's always gotten at least  three medals with at least one of them being gold.  I snickered as I realized that next year he would move up to a new age group and there are so few people that compete at that age he would get a medal because he's the only one that shows up!  It struck me....I often fight so hard for the "gold" or to be the best, when will I realize that "just showing up may be good enough".

Enough of my philosophizing.  Lisa had a great birthday and it was made special by many people.  She was scheduled for a day of exams at the hospital.  There was a major complication...there was a flood of all things in the basement of Motts which caused all of the scanners to go down.  Our awesome techs let nothing stand in their way and moved Lisa to the adult side so that she could get her scan done.  They also pulled strings and used all their powers to keep things moving along on time so that she could get out and enjoy her birthday party that evening.  Each department Lisa met with provided her with presents for her special day. She came out of sedation quite quickly this time and mutter to me "Let's go".  When I got her to the car she groggily informed me that she didn't even yell at me or act grumpy waking up this time.  I asked her what was up with that and she said "Chuck E. Cheese".  Hmmm...does this mean I need to go to Chuck E Cheese if I want to avoid the wrath of the waking Lisa...ughh!

We headed home and I was hoping that Lisa would get a little nap in before her party.  No such luck, she was groggy, but ready to go.  We had a wonderful surprise when friends brought by a present for Lisa.  I had posted that I was looking for a "used" DS for her.  They said they had one and brought it over nicely gift wrapped.  When Lisa opened it, I noticed it was in a brand new box.  Their response..."it will be "used" in a few minutes".  I would  love to argue the point or reimburse them, but I'm pretty sure they're not going to let me!  THANK YOU for your generosity!!

Lisa had a great time at Chuck E Cheese.  She had five friends join us and no one could have guessed what Lisa had been thru that day. She got her picture with the mouse, ran and climbed on the equipment, and used all her tokens.  She had a wonderful time and kept on going even after the last friend had left.  We finally went home at 9:30 and she succumbed to the pain from her bone marrow biopsy, asked for a pain pill and headed to bed.

She was up early the next morning and ready to go back to the hospital.  We completed all the tests including repeat bloodwoork and EKG.

Today we received word that finally all the tests came back good enough to start her on the newest antibody study.  So, next week, after her first day in first grade, she will head to the hospital for the new study.  She truly is a warrior.

Tomorrow, Saturday, we are having a big party at the lake.  Any of you in the area who are interested in coming, give us a call.  We will be celebrating Labor Day, end of summer, life and fully appreciating Lisa, Mike and Maranda's birthdays!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY GUYS....I PRAY THERE ARE MANY MORE AND THAT EACH DAY IS LIVED TO THE FULLEST!

Get your GOLD on!

As we quickly approach the beginning of September, I want to remind everyone that September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month.  Since my visit to St Jude last year, I've been on a mission to make sure that the month of September is plastered in GOLD.  Why you may ask?  Because GOLD is the ribbon color for Childhood Cancer and  last September, on my first trip down to St Jude, one of the biggest childhood cancer hospitals in the U.S., I did not see one gold ribbon, shirt or anything that indicated that anyone knew it was Childhood Cancer Awareness month or that they even had a ribbon color!

Not surprisingly, the next month, October, everything was bathed in pink to show support and promote breast cancer awareness.  Even the flight attendants on the plane were wearing jeans if they had on pink shirts!  Everyone seems to know that October is Breast Cancer Awareness month, and if you don't know the color pink everywhere cues you into the fact that something is going on.  Heck, even U of M had a pink ribbon painted on their football!

My goal , as the website Gold: The New Pink explains,"is not to take away from the efforts that have been made to advance the cause of breast cancer awareness or to suggest that breast cancer awareness is not as important, but rather to elevate the cause of childhood cancer to equal stature. So much more funding is given to adult cancers than for childhood cancer. The parents of children stricken by cancer want to level the playing field."

Do you know that:


The National Cancer Institues' federal budget was over $3 billion dollars.  Breast cancer received more than 20% for funding, while all the major groups of childhood cancers received less than 3%.

The American Cancer Society put more than 11% of their funding towards Breast cancer which was identified in the "Society Priority Areas of Research", and  Childhood Cancer which was listed in "Other Research Areas" again received less than 3% of the money.

In the past 20 years the FDA has initially approved only one drug for any childhood cancer • 1/2 of all chemotherapies used for children’s cancers are over 25 years old. • Research and development for new drugs from pharmaceutical companies comprises 60% of funding for adult cancer drugs and close to zero for childhood cancers. • However, the NCI spends 96% of its budget on adult cancers and only 4% of its budget on children’s cancers.


Again, the website Gold: The New Pink explains it well: "As a society, we like to say that “children are our future.” If we truly believe children are our future; why do we sit idly by while more than 12,000 children in the United States are ravaged by this disease each year, and approximately 3,000 die from it each year? Worldwide, 80,000 to 100,000 children die from a form of childhood cancer every year. EVERY YEAR! If we truly believed that children were our future, and our future was being threatened by this evil, would we not do something? We commit billions of dollars each year to protecting our country, and yet do so little to protect the generation to come from a disease that comes silently and kills so many."


So...I'm seeking to do my best to build awareness that CHILDREN GET CANCER TOO and they need funding, research, new treatments,new protocols!!  All this comes first by making people aware and with that awareness comes action and funding.

Here's what I ask of you...three things....

1). Spread the word!! September, the month that many kids go back to school, is also the month to remember the many children who are fighting cancer.  

2). Get your GOLD on!  Wear something gold!  The ribbon color for Childhood Cancer is GOLD because gold is a precious metal and the color symbolizes our precious children. Let's bathe the world in GOLD in September; you can switch to pink for October! 

3).  Continue to pray....many childhood cancer warriors are fighting a battle with few weapons...there are not currently cures for their disease so each day is truly a gift and your prayers buoy the children and their families along.

Have a wonderful Monday and for those of you who need some GOLD to wear, feel free to check out our BLASTnb website where we still have t-shirts and other BLAST items for sale.

We returned home on Wednesday

We had a wonderful vacation on our beloved Topsail Island, NC.  As always, I found the vacation far too short. Original plan had been for two weeks, then it was cut down to one week so we could return for Lisa's treatment, then it was bumped to 10 days to allow us a few extra days of vacation while still qualifying Lisa for a new study.  Unfortunately, when we had her blood tested down in NC, her counts were not high enough to qualify her for a spot in the study and our U of M team had to let that spot go.  The good part is that meant we could stay for a whole two weeks; the bad part meant more time goes by without Lisa's cancer being treated.

We opted to come home on Wednesday because Maranda wanted to be home "with her family" when she went for her high school orientation.  While a small and simple request, it really reminded me how much we arrange our schedules around friggin cancer but downplay or overlook other important life moments.  While leaving Topsail is never easy for me to do, knowing that Maranda is getting ready to embark on the great adventure of high school made it much easier to pack up.  That and the fact that Irene was coming and I had already enjoyed 10 fabulous days at the beach and didn't need to end it with the frantic evacuation that will take place tomorrow.

So, we are home.  The kids "hung out" with their friends today and I did absolutely nothing.  I find I am once again suffering from Topsailitis and having trouble getting into the swing of things and actually having to "do" anything besides sit and read.  I know the moment will be short lived.  I've already started filling out the dreaded school forms AND trying to get a mental hold on next steps for Lisa.  They've rescheduled her for scans next week so they can try and qualify her for one of the three remaining spots in the new study.  While this sounds promising, my mind whirs with questions.  Such as, shouldn't we have blood work done first to make sure her counts have improved?  Can we sneak in a round of chemo before the study to try and beat back the disease before putting her on new study? What will we do if these scans show an increase in growth?  It's only been three weeks, but Lisa has been more tired and having more aches and pains and this always makes me worry.

I'm sure my Topsailitis symptoms will subside and soon I will be at  running top speed again.  I only hope I can find a few remnants of sand in my shoes to remind me to stay focused on living each day fully and appreciating each step on the path of life..whether it be a big or small moment!