Tuesday, 10:05 PM
High-Level Journal Summary: Listing a dozen external events, not directly tied to my brain cancer treatments, which are a joy to watch or be a part of right now.
It is healthy to be in such a rich environment, because brain cancer alone is not where I would want to be. Being creative and diverse about communicating brain cancer has value, as well. Perhaps this will play out with the reading of my thoughts this evening, helping to make this basic point.
Countdowns:
1.) On 9/3/08, review my 9/2/08 MRI at NIH. My White Blood Cell (WBC) count was down from 2.5 K/uL to 2.2 K/uL today. We are not at the 3.0 K/uL mark yet which would allow the Avastin + Enzastaurin chemotherapy to begin.
2008 Seizure Activity:
1.) Last Simple Partial Seizure, or SPS, was 5 days ago.
2.) In 2008, I have had 79 SPS's in 246 days. This is an average of 1 SPS every 3.1 days.
Website Updates:
The August Awareness Stats were posted today. They read as follows:
342,618 people visited 38 Lemon in the last 12 months
26,263 people visited 38 Lemon in August 2008
There were 12,121,165 hits to 38 Lemon in the last 12 months
As well, a new Media item was added which deals with a "Major Upgrade to 38 Lemon: 38 Lemon Takes Big Step with New Dedicated Server." This was no easy effort and took the better part of a month to plan and execute, but the server for 38 Lemon is no longer shared with any of 40+ companies. Now, we have the entire server, which creates many advantages which are explained in this article.
Actual Journal: I'm happy that I have other events in my life which are ongoing with my actual brain cancer treatments. I started to make a list of the background events happening right now, and they help to appropriately change my thinking for what can be accomplished in the world of brain cancer. Just a short list of some of the things going on (in no order):
1.) The "38 Lessons" book is about 1/3 of the way completed. Thanks to Steve Eunpu and his team, this will be a reality and will be published on the shelves of major book outlet stores.
2.) David K. Sumrell's book ("COLORS OF RHYMES and Inspirations") will be published with a few of my poems. Inclusion in this book is in honor of 38 Lemon.
3.) There will likely be a "Road Race for 38 Lemon" in the spring of 2009. This is the idea of Warren Corman, who marched for 8 years with The Garfield Cadets Drum & Bugle Corps.
4.) There is a documentary film being produced by a professional team.
5.) There is an article which has been completed for a major national publication. I'm not allowed to say the name of this publication yet, but it will be truly exciting to have this publication happen sometime in 2008. It seems to be close to happening.
6.) A professional dance about brain cancer by BosmaDance is being made. This will happen by May 2009, and it is thanks to additional ideas from artist Rosemary Feit Covey for expressing brain cancer.
7.) Summer t-shirts will be sold offline, all thanks to the 1987 Garfield Cadets Mellophone Section. This has a drum corps logo on the front and the 38 Lemon logo on the back. Personally, I love it.
8.) Another new book will be written which focuses on the relationship between Rosemary Feit Covey and David C. Welch has evolved during brain cancer, even though they have known each other for over 30 years. (And we are both still young, by the way.)
9.) A project is well underway to expand the "Race for Hope" on 5/3/09 next year, the 4th year (less 2 days) after my 5/5/05 brain surgery. This project is designed to expand the audience for Early Detection and 1st MRI Day. More details will be shared as this is brought to reality with senior assistance from major players in the brain cancer world.
10.) Additional art will be done with Rosemary Feit Covey. The other artists who have done artwork for 38 Lemon (Ellen Kochansky and Nancy Thomas) have rumbled regularly about doing additional works, as well.
11.) Virginia Tech has some senior interest in displaying Rosemary's brain tumor art on campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. This would be a way to help introduce their new medical school classes. This might be all the more interesting considering that I took art classes while at Virginia Tech (and was actually able to get A's in these classes).
12.) The 38 Lemon website itself will continue to expand and build new functions which will only help to improve the user experience. The list of items to work upon is long, but some generous donors are helping to make this possible. It is strong enough to keep Blue Water Media quite busy for the time being.
The list will build
I've been wanting to create this list for some time. Task completed! I can better view all the things which are major and ongoing. The interesting thing to me is that a majority of these efforts are thanks to the external desires of other people to deal with brain cancer. It's not me, it is them who are leading the charge.
Plus, these folks do NOT have brain cancer. I think that the stronger the website is, the more easy it will be to attract such efforts. Why? This is getting to be a more proven forum for representing a patient's perspective about brain cancer. While there are a lot of brain cancer websites out there dealing with brain cancer, few like this exist with great depth. We are slowly reaching that point, and I am quite thankful to all those who are making it possible. It helps me in this crazy mess so much.
This is largely the healing power of art and love.
