Sarcoma Walk

I don't really like to do advertising but this is a unique opportunity!

Bob and I are going to attend the Sarcoma Walk at Piedmont Park Baseball Fields, at 7pm Friday July 24 (his birthday- but he will kill me for annoucing that ). It is a short walk with no registation fee. The will sell tee shirts for $15 that all go to the SE Sarcoma Foundation. This is part of Emory and the doctor that heads the research is Gina D'Amota. When I think of all the big cancer foundations that get well deserved research money, it is amazing to think that a lot of the research that may well save my life is being done right here in Atlanta- and by the woman and her team that would be my chemo doc, heaven forbid I have to go that route again. She is bright, funny and commited to her work. Since there are only 9000 patients in the US that get Sarcoma each year, we do not get a lot of research money like some of the more "popular" cancers.

If by chance you are interested in joing us you can contact Ned Crystal, a volunteer and fellow Sarcoma patient who put the whole foundation together. He is truly amazing and really doing something to save his own life. Ned can be reached at 678-779-8572 or at ned.crystal@gmail.com. You can also pre-order "Walk for Awareness" t-shirts. Afterwards some folks are going to hang out at a local resturant at 12th Street and Peidmont. I know Friday nights are tough, but it is a great cause-one I take pretty personally as you can imagine.

A bit of an update -I have all my pre- surgery tests July 27. They will call me probably tomorrow for a surgery date.

We still have no sign of Robin, our bat friend. We keep all the bedroom doors shut most of the time but we do forget. I make Bob do a "bat check" each night just to make sure he is not sleeping with us and will not appear when all the lights go out. At some point we are going to have to give him up for dead. I cannot image what he is eating or drinking. If he is finding bugs in this house and leaving, I just soon ignore him But there is the part about him maybe having rabies that scares me a bit. We just don't know what to do about it!

Cindy is all set to be my surgery partner once again. She is great in the hospital. She will have the night shift for the first couple of nights till I am not chained to IV's, leg things, cathetres (sp) and Bob takes over during the day. We have a routine down about washing my hair - or my non hair head as the case was last time. There are so many things Bob is great at doing- but I am pretty sure blowdrying my hair is not going to be one of them. And I have to have my hair (or head) washed everyday, no matter what else is going on in my life! I did tell Cindy tonight that she had to change the tone on her cell phone during my hospital stay. While I am a huge Alabama Football Fan, I cannot tolerate the fight song as the cell phone ring, especially when it goes off every 5 minutes. At our family reunion on the 4th of July, we are going to pre-screen the phone rings and select a hospital appropriate tone- vibrate I think. I guess the funny thing about this is that most of you know I cannot go 5 minutes without my Blackberry. So only other peoples' phones drive me crazy.

I have had some painful memories in the last couple of days about my last thorochotamy, so I have been trying to remember the "good times" there! It is easy because there are so few! Emory Crawford Long (or Emory Mid-Town as it is called now) has a great fruit plate on the menu for patients. The staff figured out that was about all I would eat so I got one every meal. I got great care from the staff and doctors - even the chemo staff came to check on me.That may be it for the good times! But I know I am not there for a picnic, and I am sure I could not be in better hands than Dr. Miller. And if you ever need to get a chest tube taken out, his PA Jim is the one for the job. Everyone told me how painful that would be. They remove the epidural first so you do feel the pain of the tubes. Jim had me sort of in a fetal position and it was over before I knew it. That as been my biggest fear of the surgery, so I guess now knowing that will not hurt does help. One last good memory -well I heard about it anyway. While I was in surgery, most of my siblings-Cindy, Syd and Michael, Bob, brother in law Jim, Aunt Rhoda, Uncle Marvin, Cousin Cladys, and heaven knows who else were all in the waiting room. Doc O (who is the leg surgeon, not the lung surgeon) got so excited when he found out I did not have Sarcoma in my lungs he went running out in the waiting room to steal Dr. Miller's thunder and tell everyone it was not cancer. Being the over dramatic family that we are, everyone let out a big scream. The security guards came running up the stairs to the screams, and that just about all got kicked out the hospital. The story later told was hilarious. I think Doc O got hugs and cheers from all sorts of members from my crazy family and lots of other folks in the waiting room were coming over to hear the good news. Doc O made me promise to let him know the date as he wants to be there. Here's hoping he can be the hero and deliver the same good news again!

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