Honey, I'm home....

Well as most of you already know, I came home a couple days ago (Might of been Tuesday, I can't remember).
The whole experience really sucked. I don't mean that in anyway derogatory toward the staff at St Francis who were wonderful, but just the whole package in general.
They ended up taking out a chunk of colon and 15 lymph nodes.
First few days laying in bed next to people I don't know and only able to eat ice chips made me reach for the pain button quite a bit..lol.
After a few days they took me off the pain stuff, but I still wasn't passing anything "down there" so i was forced to stay there eating chicken broth and jello (god, I hope to never eat that crap again).
The worst was night time when you're "sober" . You don't realize how much noise the normal day to day shuffle drowns out the "unpleasantries".
When you're not all doped up you hear every machine, every bed alarm, every moan from pain and every crying family member who comes in the middle of the night with his/her sick relative.
Spent the last two night there just trying to cry myself to sleep or just aimlessly walking around the hospital at 1:30 in the morning.
Finally we were able to get me help with the sleeping, but by then the damage was done. I was a beaten man at that point.
Well anyways, they found the cancer has attacked my lymph nodes (10 of 15... those are pretty crappy odds) so a pretty aggressive chemo program starts in a few weeks. We spoke to the doctor about it and he threw around alot of medical terms and stuff but at that point I was just ready to go and didn't care about the next step.
Spent most of Tuesday in a haze and fog over the whole experince and my insanely strong wife kept me focused and helped me realize I need to be strong to beat this so that's the way it's going to half to be....
Hit up Dick's Sporting Goods and got my Livestrong Sweatshirt so now I'm ready.
The crappy thing is that having staples like this, wearing pants really sucks...and they just don't make cool bed shirts for men... At least not ones I can wear out to drop Luke off to school in...lol

Well this is it...

Barring any problems, this will be last post for a fews days. Tomorrow is the day. All said, I'm pretty freaking nervous and scared. Don't know really what to expect.
In about 20 minutes I get to begin the wonderful colon cleansing process. That combined with only really able to eat Jello and Broth, makes this a pretty crappy day.
My parents made it up to say hi today. I think they're going to wait a day or two before they come and see me, frankly I can't blame them. i would too. (Be strong Dad)
Ran over to Central Wheel to grab a cyclocross magazine and chatted with one of the guys about a new frame. $500.. ughh. Maybe next time.
Got offered a little sponsorship package from the Hayes Group for brakes and a fork. 40% off, but it's still cheaper to just buy the stuff mail order. Nothing works out, does it?
I'll hit some companies up when I get home again. Maybe Bristol-Meyers Sqibb and Dunkin' Donuts or some one. Right now tired of the rejection.
Well I'll try to post as much as I can but it won't be for a week or so at least.
See you all later!

It Itches!

Well I bet alot of you are asking yourselves, "Gee Todd, How did you know to get checked?"

Good question, But be warned, it might get a tad gross. It started about a year and a half ago when my anus started itching like crazy. I would get these "spells" where it would burn for about 20 minutes. Nothing I would worked to help stop it. And then, every time I wiped, there was a bit of blood.
Finally got the over the embarrassment and went to see our doctor. He then referred me to a proctologist.

He asked a few of the standard questions and chalked it up as an anal fissure due to constipation. "Start eating more fruit (which I hate, ask my wife) and stay away from caffine (and I love my Diet Pepsi, ask my wife again)" Great, make my day harder... Armed with that advice and some cream, I was feeling good.

Well over the time the itching came back and more blood apperared. This last bout had literally dibilitating itching spells (so much my 7 year old thought he had to call 911 once) and alot of mucusy blood.

Went back to the doctor and the flag went up... time for a colonoscopy.
Those are really fun... I'll tell you about that next time.

Lessons you all should learn from? Any itching or blood, get it looked at.

A few thoughts...

Well last night was my first real breakdown. I don't know why, but all of a sudden the thought of the operation is scaring the crap out of me. The thought of waking up in a hospital bed with a tube down my through scares the piss out of me.
I know it will all be ok, just very unerving not knowing. Funny, the cancer doesn't scare me, just the operation and the recovery.

Well last few days I've been scrambling trying to get "The Initiative" up and some semblence of running. Alot of friends and family have stepped up to offer to help with fundraisers and web stuff. Thanks everyone! We'll make this happen.
I sent out a few sponsor request forms for some racing equipment and got alot of "Good luck. Wish we could help but our sponsorship dollars are tapped out"
I love these companies that say "results aren't everything, we want great ambassadors and grassroots riders" but then can't help out people by offering some help with product because their big race teams ate their "budget". OK rant is over.
If anyone out there knows of a shop or comapny willing to donate stuff, let me know. I'm in the need of an XL 29er frame...

Later today I'll post about what got me into the doctor.

Well here we go.

Well as the title says, I've been diagnosed with colon cancer. I want to use this blog to show others that everyone can deal with, recover from, and continue to live a healthy life despite, this really crappy disease (no pun intended). I hope I can do this with a bit of levity so everyone feels comfortable asking for and getting the help they need.

April 10th is the first race of the Root 66 race series...Hopbrook Dam in Middlebury, CT. I plan on being there ready to go. Maybe even a cool race kit set up and a tent with info and other goodies. Look for me.

Word of warning, I'm going to be perfectly blunt on what happened, symptoms and the cure. You may not want to eat while reading some of this...lol.

One other word of warning, I'm really no good at this computer crap, so pics and such might be a bit slow to come.

Tommorrow I'll tell you all a bedside story on what lead me to get checked...it'll be really exciting!