Victorious Young Triads

We left for King of Prussia Saturday afternoon after Tonya's half day at work and a stop at the Mystics Meet and Greet at Dave 'n' Busters in White Flint. For the record, the one game that genuinely appealed to me in the entire Dave 'n' Busters complex was SkeeBall. I doubt I'll ever be much of a video game enthusiast. I remain amused at my poor performance at the law enforcement academy target shooting game. It makes me think I would like some more real life experience at a target range sometime soon.

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45 miles, here we come.

She passed away yesterday morning. My sister called while we were in PetsMart and I knew immediately when I saw her name on my phone's caller ID what the news would be. My parents had come home to a message on their answering machine from my dad's other sister. We came home to find an email from Becca's mom—she said that everything had happened the way Becca wanted, that she had died at home surrounded by the people (and dog) she loved, that she was very peaceful and not in any pain. Thankfully.

We'll be heading to Wisconsin next week for her memorial service. In the email, my aunt mentioned Becca's request for people not to wear black "unless they are doing so because it is slimming."

Haven't told my parents yet, but I'm still riding.

Tonya wrote recently about my cousin Becca, who has been fighting melanoma since first being diagnosed in 2005. Her illness, especially in this late stage, has affected me deeply and I've been thinking about her constantly since we first became aware of how she's really doing right now.

I think right now most everyone believes she is near the end, as we wait to get the phone call and make arrangements to make a short-notice trip to Madison. We've been keeping track of a bulletin board on a melanoma patient's resource site where Becca had been a regular contributor up until about a month ago. My other cousin, her younger sister, posted a few updates to let other members of the board community know how things have progressed since then, but for a week now there's been no word. My parents have been in touch with my aunt but they've had no communication from her recently either.

I won't deny that I've been praying for a miracle—and I don't pray much—and holding out some small seed of hope that she'll have spontaneous remission of the tumors that have now spread throughout her body and brain. It breaks my heart to hear and read about her fighting spirit and her anger over treatment pitfalls along the way, to know how aware she was of the odds against her, still insisting on exhausting all available options, seeing potential positive results slip away as the disease continued to spread. I wish more and more that we'd known more about how she was doing, instead of getting the abridged version of her story from my parents. I wish we could have made plans to visit her earlier on, that we were there now to be with my aunt and cousins and help in any way possible.

When Tonya and I ran the Race for the Cure in Washington last weekend, I thought about Becca a lot in between huffing and puffing through the race. We were surrounded by many who obviously had endured great suffering, either as patients undergoing treatment for breast cancer or as family, friends and caregivers helping their loved ones through the process. For breast cancer, though, it seems at least there is more knowledge about what works to fight it, there have been proven results, and chances for survivors are improving as research continues and funding keeps coming in. From all I have read and heard about melanoma, things aren't nearly as straightforward. Every treatment seems experimental and often unproven, and the disease is relentless and unmerciful.

In the spirit of wanting to do something about this, I have registered for the 40mi LiveStrong Challenge bike ride in Philadelphia this August. I know the proceeds won't specifically be directed towards melanoma treatment research, which is where I'd like it to go in my current state of mind, but it is something.

I've got a fundraising homepage and an ambitious fundraising goal of $1,000. I've never done anything like this before and probably shouldn't have just chuckled when I saw the "Do you want a [fundraising] mentor?" option on the registration form. I do, however, have the Internet working to my advantage, and I will pimp this out as shamelessly as I please. You've been warned.

http://philly08.livestrong.org/cancerblows/