13 ways to combat cancer

The Cincinnati Enquirer ran an article on what you can do to lessen the chances of getting cancer. You can read the article by clcking here.

I'm free!

I was released from the hospital early today and have been enjoying being home with the family. The Doctor liked the continued progression of the abcesess and feels that it will continue to drain until healed on it's own. This now makes two active abcesesses that I have in my body with no explanation as to why. There have been guesses, could it be a internal urinary leak - No, tests ruled that out. I'm just praying that I don't have another one of these things brewing inside me and I'll be able to get more active.

Livestrong,

Andrew

Mammograms Validated as Key in Cancer Fight

An article in today's NY Times shows how critical Mammograms are in the fight against breast cancer. Definitely information that should be shared with your loved ones.

"A study, being published today in The New England Journal of Medicine, concludes that 28 to 65 percent of the sharp decrease in breast cancer deaths from 1990 to 2000 was due to mammograms. The rest was attributed to powerful new drugs to treat breast cancer."

2005 World Champions!!

Thursday, Thursday.....

GO SOX! 4-0 sweep of the Astros!! They looked amazing in this World Series. I wish I was in Sweet Home Chicago, I bet they had a good time last night.

Besides watching the Sox win the series 4-0, I got to lay in bed and express the lovely fluid from abscess. It was accompanied with a lovely bouquet, a real treat for the nose. This was all in an effort to avoid another surgery, albeit a minor one.

And it paid off, this morning my doctor agreed that I would not need the surgery and that the natural draining was sufficient. I am staying today for observation and should be released tomorrow. Amy and I are using the time to try and get caught up with forms and tasks that have built up since the RFTR took over our lives.

Livestrong,

Andrew

Back in the hopsital again

Last night I was running 103 degree fever. When I went to bed, I found a pretty large, uncomfortable lump on my upper thigh. I immediately started to wonder if this was related to the abcess in my abdomen that I got back in July. I called the on-call doctor because the pain was pretty severe. After talking with the on-call we decided to call my oncologist in the morning to see if I could get in to see him. Well, I couldn't get an appointment because he was out of town. Luckily I already had an appointment set up with my local surgeon, Dr. Milsten. Once there, it was determined that we were dealing with an abcess or hematoma. They took a couple of blood samples and did a CT. The CT looked consistent with an abcess, because they could see an air pocket on the film (representing bacteria present). Dr. Milsten had me admitted tonight. I'm receiving platelets through the night (I'm too low for surgery at - 62,000). They scheduled surgery for 8:00am to put in a drain which will help relieve some pressure and give the infected fluid a way out.

GO White Sox!!!

The Chicago White Sox are going to the World Series! If they win, they will be the first Chicago baseball team to do so since 1917 and this is their first appearance since 1959.

I've always been a Sox fan because of my Godfather Jerry who passed away quite a while ago. We would visit regularly on our yearly Chicago vacations and Jerry would always take us to old Comisky to see the White Sox play. That and my brother and father have always been rabid Cub fans so I would enjoy giving them a hard time by rooting for the sox. I know that this is sacrilege in Chicago, but I live in Oklahoma so I think I can get away with it. I just laugh at all the people who feed into the whole North side / South side Cub / Sox arguments.

LIVESTRONG CHI SOX! 2-0 Let's go for 3-0!!!!

Delayed for a week

Well, I went into the outpatient treatment facility today to get my second dose of Gemzar and my first dose of Taxotere. They ran a CBC blood test and it showed my platelets had dropped to 48, on my previous CBC it was 193. So my chemotherapy treatments have been delayed until next week. As long as my platelet count is restored to a reasonable amount everything will be back on schedule (+1 Week).

Yellow team ride

Photos from the Friday morning private ride with Lance. Unfortunately I was sick that morning so I couldn't ride with him but he still met me and the family afterwards so we could still get a pic. The rider with the devilish grin in the yellow Discovery Team Jersey is Robin Williams.

CCC Dinner Group Photo

More Photos from RFTR 2005

More photos from Austin! The first photo is at the Congress "Bat" Bridge, home to millions of bats. Believe it or not there was a massive stream of bats flying out from the bridge, however my camera did a poor job of capturing them. We found a new favorite restaraunt called "The Shady Grove" . It was a good ole southern menu and had the cool atmosphere with the trailers in the grove. I also included a photo of the big guy on one of his first flights (he was very excited to fly).

Photos from RFTR 2005!

These are all photos from the day of the ride at the fairgrounds. As you'll notice I didn't end up riding because I was just too exhausted and in too much pain to handle even a 7-mile ride. I felt good though because my 7 year old Liam rode with my brother Dan, my wife Amy, my Dad (Frank the "Judge" Molenda), and the CCC crew in my honor. You'll also notice a group photo of the CCC crew and my family getting lined up for the start of the ride. We had to take shuttles at 5:15 AM to go to the race! That's why some of the photos look weird.