Saturday, June 04, 2005

Fox-23 Tulsa Interview

The local Fox station is going to interview me after I get back from D.C. so I can talk about my advocacy trip and the LAF. For those of you who are local, I'll post when it will air so you can watch/record it. I'll get it saved in MPEG format so I can get it on the web in the future. This will be my third interview with them, they have helped me spread the word about cancer survivorship throughout the whole ordeal. I have the other two in MPEG, I just need to get them to my friend Jeff so they can be shown on the net.

Thursday, June 02, 2005

LIVESTRONG DAY! - June 8th - WEAR YELLOW

Reminder, next Wednesday (6/8) is LiveStrong Day! I would like to encourage everyone to wear yellow on that day. I will be wearing yellow and advocating for my fellow cancer survivors in Washington D.C., coincidentally the following Wednesday (6/15) I'll be in Indiana undergoing a radical surgery to remove my third tumor. I'll be wearing yellow that Wednesday too, I'd love it if everyone would do so as well.

Peloton Project Update:

$2,015.00 raised for survivorship, still $5,485.00 from my goal of $7500 for 2005. If you have friends or businesses which you think would be interested in supporting my fundraising, please share this donation link with them

Wednesday, June 01, 2005

Pain Management

This has been the hardest thing for me lately. The tumor is in a location that causes a significant amount of pain, especially when sitting. Initially I was trying to manage it with Lortab, but it was not very effective and the pain was getting unmanageable. I am now taking Oxycontin, a medicine that gets a lot of negative press because people abuse it (almost every pain med is abused by addicts). I was weary of it because of the press it has been given, but now it is really working and I am feeling much better than I was on the Lortab.

I am really just looking forward to getting this thing out of me and moving on with the recovery. Then I can get off of the pain meds, eventually get back to work and a little bit of normalcy. Amy and the kids really deserve it. I'm just hoping and praying that this surgery will be the last and I can finally breath a sigh of relief. Over the past 18 months I've will have had three surgeries and two chemo regimens. I really didn't get any time between this tumor and the one last fall. The stress and anxiety is really starting to wear on everyone. I have faith that this will do the trick and we can all start the healing process.

LIVESTRONG - This phrase gains more meaning and more importance to me and my family as every day passes.