Many outdoor activities were planned even though the weather didn't cooperate. It was cold and wet Saturday for the many benefit walks scheduled; the HAWS Pet Walk-a-Thon, RiverWalk for Breast Cancer and the one I was on, Parkwalk for Cancer in Mukwonago. It was also opening day of fishing, Art Crawl...

Yeah it was cold and wet yesterday, but probably not as cold and wet as it was for the two young women caught skinny-dipping in Pewaukee Lake Thursday morning after bars closed. And I'm presuming no one in Waukesha took part in World Naked Gardening Day Saturday? At least I didn't see any freezing gardeners in my neighborhood. 

I joined Tim's team, Walking With Tim, for a little fund-raising walk in the rain:

 It was my first time at Mukwonago Park and I enjoyed what I saw from under an umbrella. It was also the first time seeing Tim and his family since his dad left my workplace. It was good to meet his extended family and friends. He seems to have a good support group and was in a good mood despite the weather.

The light rain didn't do too much to dampen spirits yesterday. Everyone still enjoyed the walk.

Use the comment feature below to let us know what you did on Saturday. Did you do a walk or catch any fish?

How was your Valentine's Day? Mine was nothing special. Worked during the day and had a meeting at night.

Tim had hip surgery on Valentine's Day. His mom wrote about the experience.

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SATURDAY, FEBRUARY 16, 2008 02:11 PM, CST

Tim is finally home!. Me too! I stayed with Tim his whole stay in the hospital. Surgery went well. The left hip had more damage than the right hip. They had to scrape more bone and chisel away more dead bone. They did the nerve block again but this time the medicine worked like an epidural and numbed him from chest down. So he ended up staying in recovery for three hours until his right leg woke up. It appeared that the nerve block was working pretty good in the recovery room. He got to his room and ate two bagels with cream cheese and then he fell asleep. When he woke up, he was in a lot of pain. Then all hell (excuse my language) broke loose. They couldn't get him a PCA machine because all of the machine's at Froedtert were being used. Unbelievable! A hospital runs out of necessary equipment. So they gave him his normal pain medication that he is on everyday of his life. This did nothing considering he just had major surgery. Tim was crying in his pillow for hours. His body began to shake. He hyperventilated so bad that his legs got tingly and his upper lip felt tingly. They finally gave him torridal(?) and later a sleeping pill. His back was hurting terribly and Tim asked for a heating pad. The nurse came back and said that they were all being used in the hospital. None were available. I think Froedtert had better look at supply and demand and order more equipment. If I have my way, no one in my family will ever have surgery at Froedtert again. Miss communication and lack of equipment just doesn't cut it. I had been so proactive about his pain this time. I spoke to everyone, specifically requested a PCA machine a month prior, again the day before, and when I saw Dr. King after surgery. I know some of you have experience watching loved ones go through horrendous amounts of pain and discomfort. I can tell you it takes years off of your life. You try to get the best for your children and then when it falls through you feel like you failed them. I was the brunt of his irritability and the poor nurse was the brunt of my frustration. I did apologize to her and acknowledged that it wasn't her fault but something had to be done. The solution to his pain was ridiculous. With today's modern medicine, no one should have to be in that much pain ever. On a pain scale from 1 to 10, Tim was 25.

As crazy as it sounds, I've often been tempted to jump into Lake Michigan on New Year's Day. A quick in and out and you're done. You want crazy? How about those fools at Packer games who go shirtless when the wind chill is below zero. Besides, I've seen the pictures of the Polar Bears in the media and they all look like they're having a good time. 

If I were to go in, I'd have to have family or friends there to support me (hold the blanket and Thermos) and verify that I did indeed go in. And once again, I couldn't even pay anyone to go with me. As a matter of fact, one member of my family said anyone who jumps in the lake in winter is a moron . . . plus they'd never talk to me again.

It wasn't that bad, Mom. It was still 23 degrees away from zero. I know you think I just did it as a stunt for my blog, and you're right! I joined thousands of other morons at noon on frozen Bradford Beach for the annual party. Maybe we could write to each other instead?

I learned this morning that an 18 year old I knew was going to take his first dip also. Could I possibly meet up with his family for mutual support and encouragement?  Tim is the young man I've mentioned once or twice before, and I was looking forward to seeing him and his parents again. If a young athlete with leukemia felt he could jump in, surely I, a middle-aged, out of shape blogger could join in the fun? Actually, I think a little extra body fat is preferable in this sport.

There must have been a thousand cold bodies there, half to watch and take pictures, and the other half going in. There were some tents and campfires but most people didn't use them. I parked almost a mile away at McKinley Marina and worked up such a sweat walking there that I was about ready to cool off in the lake anyway. Never found Tim and parents among the throng, though talking to him later by phone he did verify that he went in. 

I wore nothing but my swim trunks and went all the way under. Because I did a lot of barefoot walking on snow and ice, the only thing that got really cold were my toes.

The Polar Plunge is a huge party atmosphere, lots of "morons" there to watch. I'd go again, but would leave earlier to find better parking.

  

  

If you attempted to donate blood last week after I mentioned the extremely low supply, I thank you. A lot more blood is needed for leukemia patients than you'd think. I'm so thankful no one in my family suffers from leukemia.

I suppose Tim, the 18 year old leukemia patient I've mentioned several times, is fortunate he is still alive. Lance Armstrong survived cancer and went on to win 7 Tour de Frances in a row so there is hope for a strong athlete like Tim. Tim recently was offered a Make-a-Wish grant and could have chosen many fun things that would've made for great memories. Instead he chose to attend UWM for two years on Make-a-Wish. He started just a few weeks ago and things were progressing nicely.

As seems to be the case with leukemia, if it's not one thing it's another. The drug that was helping him survive chemo, steroids, were slowly deteriorating his bones. I'm printing another exerpt from his mom which appeared on the cancer patient support website Caringbridge.org. It just helps to know of the need for blood products.

SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 15, 2007 01:05 PM, CDT
This is a very hard entry for me to write. Tim has been given the biggest blow since being diagnosed with leukemia. He was told yesterday that he will never be able to run again. The Avascular Necrosis has done so much damage to his hips that he needs to have surgery. The doctor is going to drill a hole in the neck of his femur to try to get blood supply to his right hip. He is also going to smooth out the ball and add some cadaver bone to the head of the femur. It is a three hour operation. He will be on crutches, no weight bearing on that leg for at least three months. If this procedure works, then he will do the left hip sometime in January or February.

I did ask the doctor if it could wait until after the semester was done but he said he didn't want Tim doing more damage to his hips by walking on them for that length of time. Tim decided to have the surgery as soon as possible. He has decided to take a year off of school and start again in September 2008. Surgery is scheduled for September 24th. He will be in the hospital for three days. I plan to take the week off and possibly two weeks from work.

I'll write more when I can think straight and not cry.

Friendship Day was three days ago but I was too busy worrying about things I can't change to notice. I'll be losing another good friend in two days when Scott leaves work. I've been working with Scott the last 20 or so years and he's been a help in many ways. Tim, the young athlete with leukemia I've written about before, is Scott's son.

Today is Tim's 18th birthday. There's been times when he wasn't sure if he'd make it, something I hope my kids won't have to think about.

Scott gave his two week notice the same day everyone else learned they'd be laid-off at my work. Last Friday was the mechanics' last day and I had more than my average fear of the next Monday. Would I be so extremely busy without enough extra help? Or would it be deathly quiet? I was just beginning to be productive Monday morning when all of a sudden the power went out for blocks around. I felt that was the sign. No mechanics in the shop, no power, no work gets done. It's too bad Scott's leaving because, as our computer expert, he was always the guy to call whenever anything went awry with the machines we all use.

With Scott leaving I won't be seeing Tim as much and I'll try to write about other things. But for now I did volunteer for the Luekemia & Lymphoma Society's annual neighborhood fund raiser where I have to send pleas to neighbors who aren't interested in donating. Unless I can come up with a unique angle then I'm afraid this drive will produce as many donations as other years -- almost nothing. I'm looking for your ideas. No, I'm pleading for your ideas.

Because there's a chance that more people would donate blood if only they knew the good it does, I've copied one of Tim's journal entries from the CaringBridge website. His mom does a great job keeping us updated. Tim, as you'll recall, is the 17 year old athlete I know who developed leukemia a short while ago.

 FRIDAY, MARCH 02, 2007 07:00 PM, CST

I finally have a minute to update everyone on Tim. It has been a crazy two days. I woke up Wednesday evening every four hours to give him morphine to control his pain from a headache. Then at 5:00am, Tim said his joints were hurting. This was the pain he had coming off the dexomethazone the last time he took it. Tim remembered how bad the pain was the last time and wanted me to call the HOT unit. (Later he told me that he was saying he wanted to go to the emergency room but I didn't understand that) (Mom screwed up). I called the HOT Unit at Children's to ask if there was anything else we could do to relieve his pain. They called Dr. Browning who was on call and she said to give him more morphine. At 8:00am he was still in excruciating pain in all his joints. I called the HOT clinic because it was now open. They asked if he wanted to continue to try morphine at home or come in to the clinic. Tim wanted to go into the clinic.

Of course we were having a terrible storm. It had been raining and freezing at 5:00 and then it turned to snow about 6:30am. So now I would be driving in very bad conditions. The first step was to get Tim from the couch to his bedroom so he could get dressed. When he finally got to his room, he layed on the bed and cried. His knees and feet were screaming in pain. I stayed with him for awhile rubbing his knees and feet. Then I got the jeep out and left it running to get warm. Brad shoveled a path from the deck, around the front of the jeep, and down the passenger side of the car. I went back in to see if Tim was dressed yet or not. He was laying on the bed in his shorts. It had hurt too much and he had to lay back down. I helped him get dressed while he layed on the bed. Then I asked him if he wanted Brad and I to take him to the jeep in a wheelchair. In typical Tim fashion he said, "No, I'll just run to the jeep and scream in pain when I get there." That's exactly what he did.

A trip that normally takes us 15 to 20 minutes ended up taking us 45 minutes. We decided to take the highway and it was only moving 30 miles an hour. I was glad though that I had decided on the highway. The sides streets weren't plowed and there was a lot of traffic on them. When I parked in the parking structure, I left Tim in the jeep and got a wheelchair. It had been sitting outside so I used Tim's blanket to cover the seat and back. I pushed Tim into the hospital to the HOT clinic. By the time he was checked in, his head was drooping. They wanted to weigh him, take his temperature, and get a blood pressure. I asked them to skip the weighing because standing for any length of time was excruciating. Since he had just been here the day before they agreed. The assistants took his blood pressure and his temp. Come to find out, Tim had a fever of 101.3. He wasn't hot to the touch and his face wasn't flushed.

They put him in a treatment room and accessed his port. Then Suzy came in and said that he didn't look like he had a fever and took his temperature again. Sure enough his temperature was 101.3. She began her examination and found that his pulse rate was up, he was breathing fast, his hands and feet were ice cold, and the color in his nails would not return fast enough when squeezed (I guess this is significant). They started fluids and gave him morphine. He was still in a lot of pain and his temperature had gone up a little. They decided to give him antibiotics because they felt he may have an infection or a virus. After they gave him the antibiotics, his blood pressure went down(110 over 41). Next they gave him three units of packed red blood cells(thank you donors). Oops I missed a step. Since his port had fluids and antibiotics running through it, they had to put another IV in his right arm for the blood. Tim was not happy about this. He hates needles. Lately they have hurt more than usual. Tim asked for some emla cream on his arm but they needed to get the IV in quick. The nurse offered him the spray that numbs your arm. When it was done, Tim said that the numbing spray worked very well. They used this IV for the red blood cells. Then the team of doctors, nurse practitioners, and nurses decided to give him another antibiotic (broad spectrum used for staff infections). By this time his fever was up to 102.6. Tim was exhausted from fighting the pain and infection and began to fall asleep. When he would dose off, his oxygen level would go down

Unread newspapers have been piling up here lately. Two weeks ago, a few days before Christmas, I woke up with blurred vision. I suspected an infection because one lid was swollen, but it could also have been stress or cold related or maybe I wasn't hydrated enough. Whatever the reason, I still had blurred vision the next day. I didn't know if my condition was going to get worse and wasn't sure I'd find a cause before our trip to Kentucky the day after Christmas.

I made a call to a registered nurse to see if there was anything I could do before the busy holiday weekend. She reassured me and suggested my situation didn't warrant a visit to a busy urgent care clinic, but if my symptoms continued I should call my family doctor.

A week later, back from our Kentucky trip, my vision hadn't worsened but hadn't improved either. Decided to call family doc as there was still time to be seen, if need be, before the next holiday weekend - New Year's. My doctor's triage nurse recommended I see an eye doc so I made an appointment with an optometrist.

I patiently waited for my Wednesday optometry appointment, doing pretty well at work in the meantime, but was increasingly concerned about infection. My mom wanted to offer me her Wednesday appt. with her eye doc and, when the optometrist cancelled my Wednesday night appt. just two hours prior, wanted to take her up on it, but by then it was too late.

I learned my family doc was on vacation when I called back to explain the situation but the attending physician made time to see me. He thought it didn't look like an infection, which was good, but two weeks after I first woke up with blurred vision I still didn't have an explanation for the ongoing problem.

Two days later I patiently waited for the appointment with the eye physician my family doc helped me obtain. Even though he was already running an hour behind by 11:00 a.m., he was willing to give me the complete eye exam he felt I needed. I had unknowingly made an appointment for just a basic exam.

The physician found a few things of concern, thankfully nothing major, and gave me prescriptions for eye drops and glasses. I was told I had too much bacteria on my lashes. The bacteria end up on my corneas and generate white blood cells there.

Today I'm applying drops four times daily, washing my lashes with baby shampoo and debating getting glasses. I have a Tuesday appointment for an orbital CAT scan, which sounds expensive but it's just to rule out a tumor -- one of my eyes protrudes a little further than the other.

I'm hoping the antibiotic eye drops I'm using don't exclude me from donating blood next Saturday. Tim, the 17 year old I've blogged about before, is hosting a blood drive at the downtown Blood Center between 9:00 and 3:00.

If you care to share a pint of blood with leukemia patients or others in need, please consider a donation Saturday, January 13th, at 18th and Wisconsin in Milwaukee. Come out and meet Tim. Walk-ins are welcome!

I've known and heard about Tim, the 17 year old son of a fellow co-worker, for as long as I've known his dad. Tim, only a year older than one of my sons, impresses me with his energy. He's always winning in swiming, baseball or cross country. He loves baseball so much that he got a vendor job at Miller Park when he was 16. I could go on.

Two months ago Tim saw a doctor for a bad sore throat. He was diagnosed with leukemia. Tim is still managing to stay somewhat active but will have to endure treatment for the next two years. He can no longer play on a team or work at Miller Park.

When I was visiting someone in the hospital two weeks ago they wanted me to clean up some blood. "Just be sure to wash your hands," they said. I had to give that little action some thought; if I touch anyone's blood I'd be inelegible to donate blood for one year. (It's happened to me before, just two years ago.) Hospitals have gloves, what's the rush?

Tim and patients like him need platelets to help clot blood and whole blood when the cell count gets too low. Tomorrow, Monday the 14th, I'll be donating at my church's regular blood drive. I've given six gallons so far and I've always been fortunate that my body's made more.

Help Tim and others with leukemia fight to live by considering a donation. Thanks.

----------------------------addendum 8/14, a note from Tim's mom;--------------------------------------------------

Hi Brien,

Thanks for reminding everyone how important giving
blood and platelets is to our communities. As you
know, Tim has had 7 units of blood and three units of
platelets in only two months. Without it, his fight
against the leukemia would be almost impossible.
Thanks again,

Valerie