After over a year of misdiagnosis, Alex was surprised to learn he has Stage 4 Sarcoma. Right now the consensus diagnosis from several institutions is Rhabdomyosarcoma acting like Undifferentiated Pleomorphic Sarcoma. Both are rare, aggressive cancers of unknown cause, and are especially rare for someone at Alex’s age.
The Pancake family has been learning and adjusting to their new journey. Inpatient chemo, many blood draws, scans and appointments are the current path. But they have been working through it together, and with the support of their community through meals and childcare.
They’ve always been independent people who like and want to do everything on their own. But they’re slowly learning how to accept help too. Every bit of support, financial and otherwise, is wholeheartedly appreciated.
I made it back home yesterday after trying to speedrun a lung surgery. I made it in the doors to the James hospital at 10 AM Thursday, was out of surgery and awake by 4 PM and then spent the rest of the next 24 hours trying to power through recovery drugs. Ambi picked me […]
It’s not hard to figure out I’m a federal employee or that I’ve been furloughed. Anyone can observe me mowing my yard in the middle of a work day. What people don’t see is the way I spend most of my time during the government shutdown. From casual observation, it all almost looks like normal. […]
I’ll never forget driving to the hospital today. It was a beautiful, seemingly late Summer day, when the Sun was shining. Tall hospital buildings loomed and caused shadows. As I drove to meet with the lung surgeon, again, I tried to distract myself from what my recent chest scan might show. Even now, sitting in […]
And: Origin Stories I almost gave up trying to fix my firepit tongs. The riveted pin holding the two tongs together had finally rusted through after 5 years of being left outside in the rain and snow. There was now two pieces of unconnected, thick, black iron lying on the ground. I didn’t have the […]
Sometimes in life I wish there were quest titles so I’d know what challenges I was in the middle of. I think this blog is a way for me to try and name times and feelings while I’m in the middle of them. The challenging part is I don’t know what I’ve started or ignored. […]
I took the day off work to go to the zoo in Cincy with my family. The weather has been perfect, if cool, but it rained slightly on us as we ducked into the bird exhibit. We lost Eli for a little as he went out the wrong door. But overall, we enjoyed riding the […]
That was the news from the chest scan I heard from my chemo doctor when she walked in last Tuesday. She knew I’d want her to be direct and cut straight to the important part. She and I talked for 45 minutes about what the news meant and how it made me feel. She hugged […]
I’ve been really convicted by things I’ve read recently about constantly living life in the future or in the past. How do we live life in the moment we’re in right now? With green trees. A seemingly end with summer day. White siding in the house across the street. A little boy asleep for his […]
I spend a lot of my life thinking about things moving through the air. I think about the aircraft as a whole and smaller components of it. I use basic concepts like conservation of energy for a system or conservation of momentum for two bodies (like an airplane and a fluid) interacting. Sometimes the stuff […]
Yesterday was meant to be a routine MRI scan to get something like a baseline for my right leg post-surgery. Overall, it went pretty well. I waited to be stabbed twice because my left port doesn’t always want to play nicely with blood return. I found out that the needles in my port set off […]
