No Place Like Home

What a great trip I had! Six days gone from home and I was able to meet my goal of getting into every state in the northeast United States. It was so action packed that I didn't really have a chance to blog about it. In fact there were three days when I didn't even get out my netbook. I'll try to blog to recap each day over the next week, for now, here are some quick trip statistics:

Total Days: 6

Total Miles: 2204.0

Most Miles in a day: 612

Longest Distance w/o dismounting: 213.9

Total States: 14

Total Provinces: 2

Fuel Stops: 10

Speeding Tickets: 1

Broken Phone Charger: 1

Hotel Stays: 4

Days I ate pizza: 5

Music Festivals: 2

Times I got rained on: 1

Times I put on rain gear: 2

It was SO much fun, but it's true that there is no place like home. After Monday's 16 hour gauntlet of a ride I was really happy to get there.

Areas colored in are where I went on this trip.

Canada and East Coast Trip - Day 1

What a perfect day today was for motorcycling! I spent a lot of time on the backroads of Ohio, Pennsylvania, and New York today. I didn't even use my GPS until near Niagara Falls and the sun had gone down. I had 375 miles exactly on my trip odometer today. Since I got a late start (as usual) I decided to make up for lost time by hopping on I-77 and I-271 to get me up to US-20. I spent a lot of time on on that route cutting across the three states I rode in. It's nice because is close to Lake Erie. I even spent some time on the Lake Erie loop which was just magnificent; however, I paid for my lollygagging later because I ended up spending almost 2 hours riding in the dark.

McDonalds win: While taking a break around 3:00 this afternoon another dude pulled into the lot riding a 2008 BMW GSA. It was one of the most farkled out GSA's I've seen. We had a great conversation about bike trips and motorcycles in general. It was one of the nicest spur of the moment conversations I've had with a total stranger in ages.

McDonalds fail: I was very disappointed, and even Mr. Positive attitude may have overreacted a bit (I guess 10 hours on the bike at that point will do that to you). Here is my version of the patented "Chicken McNugget Freakout": I was tired and cranky and pulled into a McDonalds at about 9:30. I wanted an unsweetened iced tea "We're out of tea and aren't making any more today." is what the rude little clerk said to me with a sneer. I was like "Ok, give me a Coke then." I then went to order a McChicken sandwich to go with it. "We don't have the McChicken sandwich we only have the Spicy McChicken. You can have a McDouble." Me: "I don't WANT a spicy McChicken, I want a regular McChicken! And I don't really want the Coke, I want an unsweetened iced tea! This is McDonalds, your menu is the same EVERYWHERE. You are open 24 hours a day, why on Earth don't you have any iced tea?!?!" She's all "We aren't making any more today." Me: "Fine! I'll have a McDouble and the Coke then." It was not one of my finer moments.

Anyway, I finally made it to the Rainbow Bridge to Canada and broke in my passport for the first time. I got across the bridge and started looking for the first reasonably priced hotel I could find. Voila! The Days Inn on Center St. at the top of Clifton Hill did the job. I got settled in and then went for a walk to the falls. It's beautiful at night. Lot's of folks were all hockey crazy over the Boston Bruins Stanley Cup victory. Clifton Hill is crazy, it's like a little mini Las Vegas strip. It's WAY more interesting than the American side of the falls.

One Year Down

June 8, 2011 - So here it is, June. For me, it's the time of year for graduations, Father's Day, summer cookouts, yard work, and my birthday (40 this year if you are keeping track). This year, it also means that I'm one year removed from my lung cancer diagnosis on June 8, 2010. My big goal at the time was to make it to Miranda's graduation from Clintonville Academy. That milestone has come and gone. I guess I need to figure out another goal now.

It's been an absolutely amazing year. I've experienced kindness and generosity from people on a scale that I've never known. It hasn't mattered if it'sbeen a family member, co-worker, casual acquaintance, one of my very best friends, or a complete stranger. My support system has enabled me to cram a lot of life into a scant three hundred sixty-five days and for that, I thank each and every one of you. I'm very grateful to have been able to take my family on the Bukkit Tour down the east coast, our Chicago trip, my motorcycle trip in October, and my trip to New York City in December. I also had the opportunity to get on stage and sing for my favorite band ever, All.

There have been three amazing benefits held for my family. One at Clintonville Academy organized by Carol Cavanagh and Miriam Naples. One at By Golly's Tavern in Milford, OH organized by my sister Sarah O'Donnell and her husband Mike. And one at the Ravari Room organized by Kristi and Kevin Hittepole. I don't know where to begin to thank all of the people who donated their time, goods, and services for these events but thank you all very much. Please know that your generosity means the world to both me and my family.

There have been some down times too, but overall it hasn't been too bad of a year for having received a such a horrible diagnosis. There's been the hospital stay over Christmas, the utter fatigue of therapy, and the endless stream of needles. The chemotherapy hasn't been fun; however, it hasn't been at all what I expected going into it and all things considered I've tolerated it very well.

If there's one thing that I've learned over the last year, it's not to let your expectations get the best of you. Things are always going to be worse or better than you planned on them being so just get on with it and roll with the punches. Things are going to work out the way they are supposed to.

Stolen Sunday

I decided to take advantage of my time off of therapy and claim Sunday May 22, 2011 as my own. Miranda and Laela were going cake testing for graduation at Sauer Cakes, shoe shopping, and having

an all around "girl's day." I took that as my opportunity to knock a couple of states off of my list and explore some of what Ohio has to offer in terms of fun motorcycling roads. I decided that I'd go grab West Virginia and Pennsylvania since they were the closest states that I hadn't gotten yet and I could get them both in and still sleep in my bed that night.

Saturday night I did some research into good motorcycling roads in Ohio that were close to the route I was taking to West Virginia. I'd read some great reviews of OH-250 and OH-536, so I mapped out my route to include those roads. When I got up on Sunday morning at 7:00 I made a note card denoting the roads I'd be on and the distances I'd be on each. I then made a photocopy of my Ohio atlas, threw it into my tank bag's map pouch and I almost ready to go. Packing for a quick day trip was pretty simple. All I had to do was grab some basic tools, my rain gear, jacket, helmet, a bottle of water, and my phone. It took me longer to determine what music I wanted on my iPod than it did to pack my side case.

So I pulled out of the driveway at about 8:30, gassed up at Speedway and made my way over to US-62 to begin my journey. I sometimes forget how beautiful Ohio is especially in spring with as much rain as we've had. Everything is vibrantly green and lush. As I moved from US-62 to OH-541 my mind cleared and it was just me and the road. Here's my first stop:

While passing through Coshocton, I was jolted out of my tranquility by an elderly woman leaving her Sunday church service in a Dodge Aries. She was pulling out of the parking lot, turning left, and didn't even apply the brakes to slow down she cut right across my bow and missed me by about four feet. I hit my rear brake so hard that the wheel locked up and started skidding. My heart jumped into my throat. it was definitely one of the top five near collisions I've ever had on a motorcycle.

After collecting my senses, I continued on. I stopped in Newcomerstown, OH for lunch at 11:30 and then kept going on to US-250. The beautiful countryside continued. When I got to Tappan Lake I pulled over and took a break. There were many other motorcycle enthusiasts pulled over to take a break there too. I snapped some photos and talked to some folks who were also out for a leisurely Sunday ride. As I ventured onward, I picked up US-40 and crossed the borders of both West Virginia and Pennsylvania. The Ohio/WV border is the Ohio river and the sign was on a bridge so there was no stopping for a photo. I had to grab a pic of the Wheeling sign once I got across the bridge. I also didn't see a sign for the WV/Pennsylvania border but I did see the Visitors Center that is on Interstate 70, so I rolled over there and got a picture in front of the Welcome to Pennsylvania sign. So now I'd gotten all of the pictures I had set out to acquire. The next objective was to hit OH-536. I had read great things online about motorcycling this road. It was described as a mini "Tail of the Dragon" at Deals Gap so I was more than intrigued. Once I got through Hannibal, OH and started on the road I realized that I was way out of my league. It's really twisty, hilly, skinny, gravelly, and pretty. It's also scary. Lots of blind turns and horse poop. Road cracks are filled with tar that gets soft when hot so when you're leaned over and your tires hit it, the bike feels like it's about to tip over. I definitely panicked on a couple of occasions. At that point I decided to just slow down and proceed with caution. After OH-536, OH-78 to Zanesville and the US-40 were picnics.

The picnic ended in Licking county though. As soon as I got there the skies to the south blackened, the wind picked up and lightning started draping the sky like spider webs. It was about 7:30 when the drizzle actually started. I pulled over into a Kroger parking lot, donned my rain gear, and crossed my fingers. I was really regretting not having my full faced helmet now. They skies unleashed and the rain mercilessly pelted my face. I was reduced to travelling at about 30MPH and this kept up for the better part of an hour. It wasn't until I was in Reynoldsburg that it finally let up.

I eventually pulled into my garage at 9:15 wet and exhausted. Other than the rain the day was perfect and the rain certainly didn't put a damper on my spirits. I've heard it said that the only difference between an adventure and an ordeal is your attitude. Last Sunday was definitely an adventure and one I was glad to be able to do. In retrospect I'm thinking that I should have picked up Maryland too. It was under two hours away from where I was in Pennsylvania. Oh well, I'll have to go get it on another day.

Final trip odometer reading for the day:

Changing Directions

May 16, 2011 - I haven't been blogging about my health much lately as there hasn't been a whole lot to tell medically speaking. The disease has pretty much stayed in check and things have been status quo for a while. Last Friday I had a CT scan and the doctor revealed the results to us today. Essentially there has still been no change. A couple the tumors have slightly increased in circumference (0.1-0.3 cm); however, the areas seem to be less dense.

The goal for chemotherapy is to stay on it until the patient has reached maximum benefit with the drug. Since the tumors are no longer shrinking, it appears that point has been reached with Alimta. I have been on my current it for eight cycles. The oncologist stated that most patients are on it for six or seven cycles. Since maximum benefit seems to have been reached I have several options:

1. I could continue the current course of action with Alimta
2. I could take a break from chemotherapy
3. I could switch to a third line of chemotherapy drug

I ruled out continuing with Alimta for the now because I'm to the point that there is no appreciable benefit at this time. It has done it's job by shrinking and then holding the tumor sizes at bay since December. I also ruled out switching to a third line drug for now because there are only so many drugs available to treat bronchoalveolar carcinoma. I don't want to burn through all of them at this point. So that leaves choice number two, taking a break from chemotherapy for a while. I'll continue to see the oncologist every four weeks and after eight weeks I'll have another CT scan to see where I stand. Since Alimta hasn't failed outright yet, it is an option to go back to due to the fact that I tolerate it well.

I am not really viewing this as good or bad news. It still feels neutral to me. The cancer isn't metastasizing any further, my symptoms aren't getting worse. I think it may be a good time to take a little break. The first part of the summer is going to be really busy with Miranda graduating from Clintonville Academy, I have a trip or two I'd like to take if possible and these things may be easier to do without chemotherapy thrown into the mix.

Taking a break is not throwing in the towel, it's just taking things in a different direction. There's an ebb and flow to the whole process of this disease. It's not a time to panic or get bummed out. I'm coming up on the one year anniversary of being diagnosed. At the time I thought I'd have one foot in the grave by now. My big goal was to make it to Miranda's graduation. Not only am I going to make it but aside from fatigue and shortness of breath I don't feel terrible or that I'm at death's door. That in and of itself to me is a big victory.

I think the most important thing to do right now is not get wrapped up in it emotionally, take the information as it comes, and make decisions that I believe are right for me and my family and given today's information I think that's exactly what I've done. I feel like right now that what's important is the quality of life that I have, not the quantity.