Category: Stella

  • January 30, 2013: Blood, Sweat, and Fears

    The day, like almost every Monday, starts with a blood test. As soon as we get to the hospital, blood is drawn from Stella’s port and tested by the lab to see if she is strong enough for the day’s treatment. Occasionally, low blood cell counts have caused the cancellation of the day’s chemo. While…

  • January 21, 2013: Slip Me a Mickey

    I’ll start with the stuff that isn’t quite so great. But that’s just so that I can get to the exciting stuff. We just switched chemo. The medicine we were on was not doing enough. The fact that the side effects were very light was nice, but unfortunately nice doesn’t cut it when you’re dealing…

  • January 16, 2013: Beautiful

    My wife has lost all the hair on her head. The operations have left several large scars on her body. She is very, very thin. Not in the coveted “super-model” way. Yet with everything that this disease and its treatments have thrown at her, I think she is the most beautiful being on the face…

  • January 1, 2013: Smile

    When you think of the word “medicine,” you usually will think of some nasty substance that you have to drink, eat, or inject. No one likes to take medicine. It’s just something you know you must take to make whatever is making you sick go away. If you have cancer, then the medicine is particularly…

  • December 17, 2012: Renovating for the Dawn

    Today Stella and I are sitting for our seventeenth chemo treatment. Once again we sit under the fluorescent lights, surrounded by the white hospital walls. The chairs are lined up against the wall in “bus station” style seating. No, it’s not terrible. Cancer is terrible. The chemo that fights the cancer can be terrible. The…

  • December 9, 2012: The Mountains of Potomac

    A while ago, I asked Stella if she wanted to travel somewhere, anywhere in the world. I suggested that we could go someplace like Switzerland and look at mountains. Isn’t that what people with cancer are supposed to do? Go see mountains and contemplate the meaning of life? Travel to exotic places — places that…

  • November 19, 2012: The Ride — Im Tirtzu (If You Believe)

    So now I must try and find the words to describe the ride… but I don’t know if it’s possible to describe how it felt and what this ride meant to me, and to Stella. When I rode the last kilometer through crowds of people cheering me on and screaming “Go Stella’s Army!” to beating…

  • November 15, 2012: Why Do You Need to Do Such a Crazy Stunt?

    And so my friends, it all comes down to this….. Well, not exactly. The truth of the matter is that we have already succeeded beyond the average person’s wildest dreams. (I have some really wild dreams. There is nothing I would say is beyond my wildest dreams.) Between sponsorship of the ride and Stella’s Army…

  • November 7, 2012: Rain Delay

    Both my crew and I were very prepared and excited for the big ride tomorrow. I got over a stomach bug and Trep was still in despite a nasty crash and falling on his knee. So while earlier in the week, the status of the ride was uncertain, we had reached the two day countdown…

  • October 25, 2012: It’s Not about the Bike, It’s about Stella

    I have been getting quite a few e-mails from cyclists who want to join my ride from Mount Hermon to Neve Daniel. While I really do appreciate the desire to help out, let me give an explanation and then an alternative. Riding from the Golan into the Bekaa at night is dangerous. Luckily for me,…