Lukas is picture #8 on this BOSTON news blog! (Picture by the talented Melissa Fullmer).
http://www.boston.com/bigpicture/2008/09/childhood_cancer_awareness_mon.html
Look at the pics and leave a comment thanking the journalist for doing this photo story. It's a HUGE step in the right direction if you ask me!
Tuesday, September 30, 2008
Wednesday, September 24, 2008
$700 Billion or $20,000
That's the difference between a greedy Wall Street Idiot and a child fighting cancer.
Need I say more?
Need I say more?
Wednesday, September 17, 2008
National Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
We are halfway through the month and have yet to see any news or ads or anything honoring this month for our kids other than families and groups that are directly linked to childhood cancer. The only two exceptions I know of are Chili's (eat there Sept. 29th, profits go to St. Jude's for research!) and a Top Rated Article on Forbes, and only because the writers daughter is battling osteosarcoma.
Our kids don't know they don't have cures for most of these pediatric cancers, don't know that one of their 5 cancer friends will die of cancer. People turn away when they hear "childhood cancer" because they don't want to think about the devestation it brings to such young children. Yes the bald heads are cute, but that's all they want to see, not the bone thin skeletons walking around because they are too sick to eat from the poisonous chemicals we are using to kill the poisonous tumors in their little bodies. It's a tough world to live in. Before Lukas was diagnosed, cancer to me was my grandmother's breast cancer, her sister's breast cancer, their other sister's thyroid cancer, my aunt's lung cancer (brought on by decades of smoking), and my dad's throat cancer (and he doesn't smoke!). That was it, my vocabulary didn't include CHILDHOOD cancer. Older people got it. One of my good friends in KS had Melanoma, she's my age, but they caught it and cut it out. Beyond that, I never knew and was pretty much oblivious to children getting cancer and absolutely beyond oblivious to BABIES getting cancer! November 18th changed my life and the way I see the world now..... Kurt and I were told Lukas had a tumor in his head that had most likely been there for months, MONTHS!!! We were rushed to Cook Children's and after agonizing hours in the ER there, moved to our now second home on the 3rd floor-Hemotology/Oncology unit. (Hemotology is for blood disorders, Oncology is for cancer). Since then I have been introduced to the lack of funding and treatments for Lukas and all the other babies and kids battling cancer every day. Here are the cold hard facts.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
*Each school day, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer.
*On the average 12,500 children and teens will be diagnosed with some form of cancer each year in this country.
*One in 330 children will develop cancer by age 20.
*Although the 5 year survival rate is steadily increasing, one quarter of children will die 5 years from the time of diagnosis.
*Cancer remains the #1 disease killer of America's children - more than Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Asthma and AIDS COMBINED!!
*In the U.S. almost 3,000 children do not survive cancer each year.
*Over the past two decades, only ONE new cancer drug has been approved for pediatric use.
*Currently there are between 30-40,000 children undergoing cancer treatment in the U.S.
*As a nation, we spend over $14 BILLION (that's with a B!!!) per year on the space program, but only $35 MILLION on Childhood Cancer Research each year.
*There are 15 children diagnosed with cancer for every one child diagnosed with pediatric AIDS. Yet, the U.S. invests approximately $595,000 for research per victim of pediatric AIDS and only $20,000 for each victim of childhood cancer.
*Research funds are scarce as most money is diverted to well-publicized adult forms of cancer, such as breast and prostate.
Our kids don't know they don't have cures for most of these pediatric cancers, don't know that one of their 5 cancer friends will die of cancer. People turn away when they hear "childhood cancer" because they don't want to think about the devestation it brings to such young children. Yes the bald heads are cute, but that's all they want to see, not the bone thin skeletons walking around because they are too sick to eat from the poisonous chemicals we are using to kill the poisonous tumors in their little bodies. It's a tough world to live in. Before Lukas was diagnosed, cancer to me was my grandmother's breast cancer, her sister's breast cancer, their other sister's thyroid cancer, my aunt's lung cancer (brought on by decades of smoking), and my dad's throat cancer (and he doesn't smoke!). That was it, my vocabulary didn't include CHILDHOOD cancer. Older people got it. One of my good friends in KS had Melanoma, she's my age, but they caught it and cut it out. Beyond that, I never knew and was pretty much oblivious to children getting cancer and absolutely beyond oblivious to BABIES getting cancer! November 18th changed my life and the way I see the world now..... Kurt and I were told Lukas had a tumor in his head that had most likely been there for months, MONTHS!!! We were rushed to Cook Children's and after agonizing hours in the ER there, moved to our now second home on the 3rd floor-Hemotology/Oncology unit. (Hemotology is for blood disorders, Oncology is for cancer). Since then I have been introduced to the lack of funding and treatments for Lukas and all the other babies and kids battling cancer every day. Here are the cold hard facts.
September is Childhood Cancer Awareness Month
*Each school day, 46 children are diagnosed with cancer.
*On the average 12,500 children and teens will be diagnosed with some form of cancer each year in this country.
*One in 330 children will develop cancer by age 20.
*Although the 5 year survival rate is steadily increasing, one quarter of children will die 5 years from the time of diagnosis.
*Cancer remains the #1 disease killer of America's children - more than Cystic Fibrosis, Muscular Dystrophy, Asthma and AIDS COMBINED!!
*In the U.S. almost 3,000 children do not survive cancer each year.
*Over the past two decades, only ONE new cancer drug has been approved for pediatric use.
*Currently there are between 30-40,000 children undergoing cancer treatment in the U.S.
*As a nation, we spend over $14 BILLION (that's with a B!!!) per year on the space program, but only $35 MILLION on Childhood Cancer Research each year.
*There are 15 children diagnosed with cancer for every one child diagnosed with pediatric AIDS. Yet, the U.S. invests approximately $595,000 for research per victim of pediatric AIDS and only $20,000 for each victim of childhood cancer.
*Research funds are scarce as most money is diverted to well-publicized adult forms of cancer, such as breast and prostate.
*Right now, this second, somewhere in America, there are 7 children fighting for their lives who won't live through the day.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Sorry, this is a little old...
Lukas has spent the last 2 Sunday's in NURSERY!!! How cool is that? Now I get to go to my classes! Don't get me wrong, I like our empromtu Mommy time in the foyer with the other moms that can't get their baby's to fall asleep so they can go to Sunday School or Relief Society, but man it's so NICE to be able to sit through those last 2 hours and actually get something out of it!
Our ward is on the 1-4 schedule this year and for some reason, we seem to be cutting it WAY close every week to get there on time! Nice, huh?! Anyway, our usual routine is to go to church and then go home and get changed and head down to Debbie's for the rest of the day. Well, Kurt didn't have to work last Monday (Labor Day) so we spent an extra long time down there this weekend. We were playing our weekly game of Boom Blox and by the time we realized what time it way, it was already midnight! If you have ever come over on Sunday's you know how competitive and crazy it gets. Anyway we packed up really fast, got the boys loaded in the truck and head out. When we got to the light at 67 off ramp and 1382 the light was red so we sat there. This girl came speeding up to the light and then slammed on her brakes and almost went into the intersection in the left turn lane next to us! Yes, I made a rude comment about her being drunk... And then the light turned green. We were in the middle lane (turns left or goes straight) and we turned left, we didn't even make it into the turn before that same girl t-boned us.... GREAT!!! She hit us going pretty slow so we were all fine, just frustrated, so we pulled onto the shoulder and waited for her to pull over. Instead she straightened out and started driving off! So Kurt got behind her and I called the police. This was about 12:30am. She proceeded to drive away through neighborhoods and we followed with the police dispatch on the line. About 10 minutes later she finally pulled over and got out of her car. Another car was behind us, he had witnessed the whole thing and had followed with us. He came over to our truck and the girl started apologizing and saying she was upset, just broke up with her boyfriend. I wanted to jump out the window and tackle her, but I just said (yes very mean toned) that we weren't talking until the police showed up. 4 cruisers pulled up behind us about a minute later and the circus started. They took Kurt, the girl and the witness and started questioning them while the other 3 police checked on the cars. I had just gotten out when our cop came to check on me, I told him we had babies in the car, you could tell he was upset about that! He was really nice, Theron was so excited to see a police up close! And, of course everyone stares at Lukas scar on his head, so I had to explain that. He stayed with the boys and let Theron chat him up for a bit while I went over to talk to the cop questioning Kurt. I had to tell him the whole story in my words. I heard another cop ask the girl if she was intoxicated while we were talking and then a minute later heard the cuffs clink! Nice... I went back to the boys and the cop with them. Theron was telling him all about baseball and his Marimo (mario) game and anything else the cop would listen to. I got called back to Kurt a minute later and they asked us if we wanted to press charges because she had failed her field sobriety test miserably. Yes we are pressing charges. The rest of the next couple hours was getting insurance info, victim (us in the truck) info and witness statements. We didn't get home until around 3am. The girl got hauled off to jail for a hit and run and DUI or DWI, not sure which one... They guy that followed us was really nice, he stayed and gave his witness statement. And the poor cops, Cedar Hill cops, had all been working overtime and had already had a really bloody drunk driving weekend. We were VERY lucky to have gotten out of this with little damage to the truck and all of us intact! If she had been driving any faster, with her car so low, she would have flipped the truck and this wouldn't have been such a good outcome.
Before we left the cop staying with the boys said that the drunk girl was put in his car and she was throwing a pity party for herself and he told her to SHUT UP and get over her princess pity party, she could have just killed a whole family in one blow, he told her Lukas, a baby, had just gotten done fighting cancer and she could have just killed him, and she shut up right away. He was a really great guy.
So that was a nice start to our Labor Day! Thankfully the rest of our holiday was nice. We went to the Currier's, had some pasta and grilled chicken, played some Super Mario Slugger and then got to go outside while Ethan and Theron played T-ball for the rest of the evening. Let me just tell you, those two have some talent. For them to throw and hit the ball as well as they do, so young, I can't wait to see them in a few years!
So here are some pics, enjoy!
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