Spring Break - Day 1

April 18, 2011 - Miranda and I left Columbus this morning headed to Jacksonville Beach. It's Miranda's first long distance motorcycle trip. We actually got on the road at 10:30 this morning. Ohio went by pretty quickly and we crossed the Ohio River into Kentucky near Ashland. The Ohio River was ANGRY today. It was really high and moving fast. The ride through the Bluegrass state was pretty uneventful. We rode US-23 "The Country Music Highway" all of the way through the state. After Kentucky we were briefly in Virginia. It ended up being about 6:00PM when we

made it to Tennessee. Miranda and I had a decision to make. We could either call it a day and not quite get to our intended mileage goal (the 10:30am start time was about two hours later than I wanted) or we could hop on Interstate 26 and fast track our way to Asheville, NC. Asheville had been my intended goal. We decided to go ahead and ride the Interstate and I am glad that we did.

Even though I-26 is and Interstate Highway it didn't go through any major metropolitan areas. We still got a really good view of the mountains in TN and NC.

Tomorrow we'll h

ave to adjust our route a little bit but I'm hoping to get an earlier start. We'll see what happens. As I write this I'm really exhausted and ready for bed.

On a personal note, Miranda was an absolute trooper. Not one complaint all day and she's an awesome travelling companion. The only thing that would make the trip better would be Laela on a scooter with Indy in a side car to go with us.

States that we visited today:

Spring Break!

Miranda's spring break starts this afternoon at 2:00! WooHoo! We're really excited because she and I are embarking on an adventure Sunday afternoon. First we're going to celebrate my Mom's birthday by taking her to the Reds vs. Pirates game and dinner. Then on Monday morning, we'll be travelling via motorcycle to spend a few days at Jacksonville Beach, FL. We'll be traipsing through the back roads of Kentucky, Virginia, Tennessee, North Carolina, South Carolina, and Georgia. It should be a fun and interesting time. I'm really looking forward to spending the week with Miranda. We'll be blogging and tweeting from the road so keep an eye out for updates. Look out South, here we come!

39 Reasons Why

39 Reasons Why Laela is awesome

1. Great mother
2. Great wife
3. Cincinnati Reds Fan
4. Loves books
5. Gets my stupid star wars jokes
6. Not afraid to get her hands dirty
7. Beautiful eyes
8. Always willing to lend a hand
9. Wondertwin Powers!
10. She's the first one to call me on my bullsh!t
11. She smells good
12. She's persistant
13. She's empathetic
14. Not afraid to tackle a home project on her own
15. Can quote the Simpsons with the best of them
16. When she's called off, got a sawed off, squeeze the trigger and bodies are hauled off
17. She's one hot scooter mama
18. Always puts others first
19. Can make a great cup of coffee even though she doesn't drink it
20. Loves dogs
21. Hates scary movies
22. If you need anything, she's only a phone call away
23. Hates the Pittsburgh Steelers
24. Always down for a road trip
25. Always upgrades the hotel room
26. She loves Top Gear
27. Her beautiful long hair
28. Not afraid to rock
29. She's a ninja
30. She's bringing Wizard back
31. She IS two tickets to that thing that you love
32. Two words: Story Time
33. She has a projector ;)
34. Loves going to the movies
35. She's creative
36. She's relentless
37. She's thoughtful
38. That dimple on her left cheek when she's smiling really big
39. She's got 39 birthdays under her belt today!

HAPPY BIRTHDAY LAELA!!!!

March 2011 Brief Blog

It's the beginning of another non-treatment week. So far it's been a pretty uneventful month; therefore, there hasn't been much to write about. Treatments are progressing as normal and the doctor is happy with my progress (or more to the point the disease's lack thereof). I'm coming out of the treatment week doldrums so my energy level is coming back up and I'm ready to attack the week with renewed vigor. The last two cycles of treatment have blessed me with a new symptom and I end up looking like this guy only bald and on a bad day.

The spring weather has been pretty kind to me and I've been getting out and walking a couple of miles a day. Indy really seems to appreciate the ambulations. The walking also makes me feel less lazy and give me a chance to be by myself and reflect. I usually go while Laela is working or volunteering. Speaking of Laela, her 39th birthday is Wednesday so make sure to wish her a great big ¡Feliz cumpleaños! if you get a chance.

If you're friends with me on Facebook, you might have noticed an abundance of reading updates lately. First of all, sorry about that. I've changed my goodreads settings to only update when I start a new book rather than every time I update how many pages I've read. Anyway, rather than watching television I've been reading quite a bit. If interested, check out my goodreads.com page for reviews of the following: We All Fall Down, An American Demon: A Memoir, Across America By Motor-Cycle, Detours: Life, Death and Divorce on the Road to Sturgis, Live to Ride, Sh*t My Dad Says, The Portable Henry Rollins, and a few more.

The Details

Yesterday was the start of cycle number five of my current therapy regiment. A new cycle is always preceded by an appointment with the doctor to check on my condition and general health. It was also time to receive the results of my latest CT scan which was performed on Friday.

Three days between the scan and the results were enough to make us really apprehensive about going to the appointment Monday. Lately the CT results haven't been great news. I am happy to report that this time it was positive news; although, we're still trying to take it with a grain of salt because we know how quickly the rug can be pulled out from under you. News regarding my condition has to be extraordinarily remarkable for me to be able to classify it as good news.

An important thing to note about CT results of my condition is that a tie is a win. Meaning that if the latest scan doesn't show up with any new growth but also no reduction in growth of the "areas of interest" it is interpreted as a winning condition. The first thing that my doctor said before he even started discussing the report was "I am quite pleased with the results." (I think I may have noticed a fleeting almost imperceptible grin too.)

Long story short, most of growths are about the same size with a pronounced (1.5 x 0.1 cm) reduction in one of them; however, many of the growths are less consolidated than they were previously which I am give to understand means that they aren't as dense. There are also several lymph nodes which are mildly decreasing in size, but the good news is that there aren't any new ones or enlarging ones.

Here is the most important quote (to me anyway) from the radiologist's report. "No evidence of disease progression." So I'm going to file this away as a good way to start the week. It will make it a little easier to cope with the treatment side effects knowing that it is actually helping me.

Thank you for all of the positive feedback. Knowing that Laela, Miranda, and I have such a supportive network of friends and family to rely on takes a lot off of my mind and helps me to focus on what is really important. Thank you for being there for us.