April is.....

Cancer Control Screening Month

Testicular Cancer Awareness Week (1st Week)

National Cancer Fatigue Awareness Day (April 3rd)

National Oral, Head and Neck Cancer Awareness Week (2nd Week)

National Lymphoma Awareness Week (3rd Week)

National Minority Cancer Awareness Week (3rd Week)


Remember that 1 out of every 3 people will develop cancer in their lifetime, and 3 out of every 3 people will have their lives touched by cancer in their lifetime. Cancer awareness is critical to encourage people to be proactive and increase the likelihood that it will be detected early. And early detection has a direct relation to survival rates.

Livestrong,

Andrew

Hello Everybody!

For all you Simpsons Fans, imagine Dr. Nick's voice for the title.

Andrew Update:

I just wanted to update everyone. I'm feeling really good physically since the chemo ended, but the mental and psychological effects are getting harder to deal with for myself and for Amy. It's probably hardest on Amy right now. I'm not really able to help her since I'm so wrapped up in all the doubt, anxiety, and stress involved in being me. But rest assured we're both strong individuals, and this is nothing that we can't handle, just a bump in the road.

I said it before and it is still true. The time spent on chemo and recovering from surgery is physically tougher, but the surveillance and post treatment phase is much more mentally exhausting. And it affects not only the cancer survivor, but their entire family.

Not to be morbid, in fact in an exercise to relieve some stress, I'm working on writing down my last wishes in the event of my death. So far I've picked out some songs (Tim Finnegan's Wake, Do You Realize), I'm sure that I want a traditional Irish wake with a full bar, bagpipes at the funeral ceremony, and I'm going to choose cremation over burial. I just don't want to live in denial and leave Amy trying to figure out what I would have wanted.

The reason for cremation is that I want to have a diamond created from my ashes. There is a company that does this by extracting the carbon. LifeGem is the company.


PELOTON PROJECT UPDATE:

I've started getting cell phones, and I appreciate everyone's generosity. Keep'em coming. A friend of mine at work, who is also a survivor, has decided to join the Peloton and we're going to organize a fundraising event at WilTel. I'm also going to start sending out some direct mail this weekend, wish me luck! And of course nothing is better than word of mouth, if you know people who would be willing to help the LAF and cancer survivorship, send them my way.

Lyrical Excerpts:

Do You Realize by the Flaming Lips
Do You Realize - that you have the most beautiful face
Do You Realize - we're floating in space -
Do You Realize - that happiness makes you cry
Do You Realize - that everyone you know someday will die

And instead of saying all of your goodbyes - let them know
You realize that life goes fast
It's hard to make the good things last
You realize the sun doesn't go down
It's just an illusion caused by the world spinning round

Tim Finnegan's Wake an Irish Folk Song
Mickey Maloney ducked his head
when a bucket of whiskey flew at him
It missed, and falling on the bed,
the liquor scattered over Tim
Now the spirits new life gave the corpse, my joy!
Tim jumped like a Trojan from the bed
Cryin will ye walup each girl and boy,
t'underin' Jaysus, do ye think I'm dead?"