Isn't Life Delicious?

I believe it was 1990 (give or take a year) and we were living up in Orange County, NY in the village of Washingtonville. It was a gorgeous spring day and I was doing some kind of yard work while the neighborhood kids were busy playing on our swingset. I remember taking a break for a deep breath of the crisp country air while I enjoyed our view of the rolling hills and a brilliant blue sky. Hanging nearby was Jamie, a pudgy freckle-faced kid from up the street, and as I expressed how beautiful the day was he came back with one of those “out of the mouths of babes” quotes that has stuck with me to this day.

Jamie hit me with “yes, isn’t life delicious?”. He couldn't have been more then 4 or 5 and when I say this kid was pudgy and freckle-faced I mean he was pudgy and freckle-faced. So at the time I thought that what he had to say was mostly hilarious but I’ve always remembered that moment and lately Jamie has come to mind more and more often.

This past Saturday was much colder and a whole lot windier then I’d like for a bike ride but Dan, Stephanie, and I did get out for a 24.5 mile ride nonetheless. And yes, it was delicious. So too was the similarly chilly ride 2 weeks back but these rides never fail in making me feel vibrant and alive. I wish more of our group would come out to ride with us. With treatment on a 2-week cycle it’s impossible for me to get out on my bike more frequently but I sure do appreciate simple pleasures such as bike riding more and more.

Yep, treatment is tomorrow.

I’ll be taking a few decadron tonight and again tomorrow morning to see if that doesn’t take the edge off of treatment day. This will be on top of the variety of pre-meds that I get via IV as part of the treatment but for some reason this protocol has been tough on treatment day so I hope this is even a small step in the right direction.

I know that It’s a full 5 months away but our Mintz’s Mentschen team effort is getting off to a slow start so I can't end this blog post without mentioning it again. We only have 7 registered riders at the moment so please consider joining us. Our goal is to have 30 riders. All are welcome! Remember that our team motto is “start slow and ease up” so please take that as an indication that you should not be intimidated if you’ve never done this type of thing. We have 5 months to train you and to teach you the finer points of road cycling. Send me an email with questions or click here to register for our team effort at Philly LiveSTRONG on August, 21^st.

Wednesday, March 23rd

As last weekend rolled around following treatment last Tuesday, 3/15 I had one word in mind, “woof!!”. I’ve had it tougher but now that I’m through 4 treatments the cumulative aspect of chemo is starting to present itself. All in all I’m feeling “ok” at this point and hope to get in my usual every other weekend bike ride this weekend.

My white blood count was down to 3.6 for this treatment and we continue to watch it. My guess is that it will be even a bit lower come next Tuesday and that we’ll be introducing neulasta to the routine again. Not a problem from my perspective as it will keep me out of the hospital. We’re also going to be changing my pre-treatment meds a little to try and make treatment day itself a bit easier.

Sasha is on her way as I type to visit Bailey in Bloomington for a long weekend. That is in lieu of her being able to join us there in early May for Bailey’s graduation since she’ll be just starting her finals week then. The excitement for Bailey’s graduation and her transition to grad school in Miami is definitely building. The Mintz’s will be hopping around the country in May-June to get Bailey situated as well as to help Sasha in her move off campus out in Fort Collins, CO.

It’s been a slow start but the wheels continue to turn for Mintz’s Mentschen 2011 and our participation in the Philly LiveSTRONG event in August. In recent years my fundraising has happened kind of organically and as you all know I’ve been deeply moved by your support and generosity. This year, however, I’m going to try and kick things up a notch by sending an email blast to a large distribution. This will be a way for me to reconnect with old friends that I have lost touch with and will hopefully attract more donations and Mentschen team members.

As usual, here’s a link to my LiveSTRONG fundraising page. Click here.

Oh, and something else that has been on my mind lately... as my new normal enters it's 4th year I'm definitely feeling the challenges from a different perspective. Please know that the cards, email, Facebook msgs, etc. that you all send me really does help to lift my spirits. They bring a smile to my face and quite often also a tear to my eye.

Thank you all.

Treatment time again

As is usual on the eve before treatment my thoughts are bouncing in many different directions. It starts with the checklist of mundane day-to-day tasks that I run through to make sure that I’ve taken care of as much as possible before I enter my multi-day fog of not wanting to do too much more then I absolutely need to. And then there is the nervous anticipation of the treatment itself but that is closely followed with lots of positive thoughts that this will have me back in remission. Hopefully soon enough to pound hard on the summer months with lots of outdoor activity.

The eve before treatment also usually brings that cold slap in the face that I haven’t made a blog post in a while.

When I had the pump removed after my last treatment I had the nice surprise of seeing my old friend Lana at Dr. Richards office. Lana is the nurse that in 2008 would come here to the house to remove my pump. This year for some reason the pump doesn’t require a home visit so it was fun to have our paths cross and to be able to say hello to her.

I keep impressing my Mentschen friends with what I’m able to do on the bike while riding only once every 2 weeks. I kind of surprise myself too but I’m not complaining at all since even these short rides are a terrific mental and physical release. We did 26 miles yesterday and although I started to fade toward the end it was exactly the type of physical effort I needed. Another plus was that I was there to help christen Grace’s new ride!!

These rides are the beginning of our group training for the Philly Livestrong Challenge in August and hopefully the many other events that I’ll be able to participate in over the coming months. This also means that fundraising kicks in big time. Please know that Mintz’s Mentschen is open to all comers. Just email me if you'd like to give it a whirl. If cycling isn’t up your ally it would be greatly appreciated if you could consider a small donation. Click here to access my fundraising page for Livestrong. We're looking to make a big push this year to grow our numbers. I'm very proud that we've been able to raise over $105,000 these past 3 years.

Wednesday, March 2nd

Thank goodness I was able to squeeze in a bike ride this past weekend. I needed it very badly and even though the weather was a bit different then had been forecasted (imagine that!?) Stephanie Tobler joined me for a short, COLD, and absolutely heavenly bike ride. I feel so alive riding on a day like that no matter how many miles we cover. We rode only 20 miles but by the time we got back to my house we had each experienced more than enough cold weather cycling for one day. The temperature during the ride was in the mid-30’s and as luck would have it the cloud cover broke into bright blue sky not long after we finished.

The key to riding last weekend is that chemo treatment #3 was yesterday and I won’t be back on the bike for two weeks. The treatment itself was uneventful but of mild concern is that my white blood cell count was down to 3.8. Normal range is 4-11. We’ll be watching that closely as I’d rather avoid another extended stay at hotel St. Peter’s University Hospital.

At the moment I'm feeling OK but as this works things will probably deteriorate a bit over the next couple of days. Mostly I’m just looking forward to getting the 5FU pump removed tomorrow afternoon.