Riding Bikes and Throwing Rocks!

Oliver’s favorite thing to do in the world right now is riding his bike. He is extremely unhappy when I get home too late to take him for a bike ride. We went for a long ride on Saturday. What’s a long ride you may ask? Well we went about three and a quarter miles. Not too bad for a little guy on a balance bike. We took some local trails to a local bakery/restaurant called Denica’s and got a cookie, an Oops which is a peanut butter cookie with chocolate chips. Oliver just had a good time saying the name.

Side note: Denica’s has awesome cookies. When I say awesome…I mean F@#&^ING GOOD. I also take Oliver there for breakfast from time to time and get a breakfast burrito, another solid meal and reasonably priced at $6.99. The cookies on the other hand are a little steep at $2.49, but hey you only live once.

The route to Denica’s is somewhat treacherous for an almost three year old on balance bike. The only source of braking power coming solely from dragging one’s toes and some of the downhill sections are quite steep. The first time Oliver did some of the downhills I thought it was going to end in blood and tears, but after a little tank slapper (for those unfamiliar with the term tank slapper see this https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xzB6KSlD6ec) he regained control and rode it out. Now he’s a tad more cautious, but still gets going quite fast.

After a little rest and a cookie to re-energize us we headed back toward home.

Little off road biking

A couple weeks ago I read this article called The Overprotected Kid (link to article) . It talks about how childhood independence, risk taking and discovery is being taken away from children in the name of safety. It tells the story of a playground in the UK called “The Land”, a playground that lacks the sterility of modern playgrounds and looks more like a garbage dump than a place modern kids frequent.

The Land

"Today, these playgrounds are so out of sync with affluent and middle-class parenting norms that when I showed fellow parents back home a video of kids crouched in the dark lighting fires, the most common sentence I heard from them was “This is insane.”
…
If a 10-year-old lit a fire at an American playground, someone would call the police and the kid would be taken for counseling."

I had an adventure playground where I grew up. It was called Fremont and the things we did back then would have likely landed us in Gitmo. But, with all of those things character was built, and made me the person I am today. Parenting is definitely balancing act between safety and independence/discovery. It seems culturally right now in America the pendulum is solidly on the safety side of the line. I’m definitely trying to let Oliver explore and fail as I believe these are some of the only ways to learn important lessons.

It’s strange, a while back I needed to drive my truck around to the garage and I had Oliver. So I plopped Oliver in my lap and drove the 100 yds to the garage. I decided it wasn't necessary to buckle him into his 5 point harness and cover him in bubble wrap to drive around the corner. Oliver thought it was the coolest thing in the world. He got to drive daddy’s truck. I felt like a criminal on the lookout for ‘do good-ers’ that were going to call CPS on me and coming up with responses to the inevitable comment, “don’t you know that most car accidents happen close to home.” Isn't that crazy? I also don’t wear a bike helmet on my rides with him, he does. Aren't I worried that if he doesn't see me wearing a helmet he won’t want to? No I’m not worried. Who’s the parent, that’s right me. The second he puts up a fight is the second he doesn't go on a bike ride. Guess what kid not everyone has the same rules, get used to it. Oliver has been riding a bike for a year and while good for a 3 year old, he sucks compared to me. That is just the truth. I've been riding bike for the better part of three decades. I've done some rather adventurous things on my bike where I most assuredly wore a helmet (not that it would have helped a whole lot). But riding next to a three year old going 5 mph is not what I’d call pushing the limit. I can hear it now, “what if a car hits you?” Uh…the same thing had I been walking. Riding my bike at 5 mph is akin to walking (for me, maybe not everyone). If I was walking alongside Oliver would I wear a helmet? No of course not. This world we've built have put us all in a ‘one size fits all’ risk profile and if you dare to step an inch outside that risk profile you’re browbeaten. I’m not saying throw caution to the wind. I’m saying how about make the decision yourself (oh my goodness personal responsibility, I know so much easier to let someone else make the decision). Do the risk calculation in your head, FOR YOU or YOUR KID. If it seems reasonable get on with it. Don’t rely on someone else’s judgment on risk, because I can think of a few people who should probably not only wear a helmet when riding a bike 5mph they should probably wear one walking as well. They should not be waiting for someone to tell them to wear a helmet.

Ok I’ll step down off my soap box now, back to our ride.

So right around the corner from our house is a trail alongside a creek. I've strangely never seen any kids playing in the creek. If that creek was near me when I was a kid, we would have literally been screwing around down there every day. So instead of heading to the playground as we would normally do on our way home from a bike ride, we decided to check out the creek. After a little searching we found a route down to the water’s edge, where Oliver instinctively started throwing rocks into the water. I decided it was time to teach him an important game. Let’s find a boat (stick), put it up river, and throw rocks at it as it goes by. An instant hit. We played around for a bit finding boats and throwing rocks at them. Then got back on our bikes and headed home.

Having fun at the creek

Another successful bike ride, it’s really getting fun doing big boy stuff with my monkey.

Sacramento Train Museum

About two weeks ago Oliver and I had a Daddy and Monkey day. I decided to take Oliver to the train museum in Sacramento. Oliver, like most other kids his age, absolutely loves trains. I hadn’t been there for years, probably since I was in elementary school, but I remember it being fun and Oliver would have fun.

When Oliver woke up we headed over to Denica’s for breakfast. I had a breakfast burrito (awesome value for breakfast…6.99 for a solid burrito) and Oliver did some eggs and bacon. Then we hit the road.

About an hour and 20 minutes later we rolled into old town Sacramento, parked and headed to the museum. Oliver had fun climbing in and out of train cars and engines. The had a section with about a dozen Chuggington and Thomas tables full of trains that he probably could have played with all day given the chance.

Checking out the exhibit on building the railroad through the mountains

Look at this big train

Oliver sit where the Engineer would sit on the Southern Pacific Cab Forward No. 4294

After we saw everything the museum had to offer. We headed into Old Town for some lunch and fresh mini donuts. After our stomachs were full we headed home. It was a good day.

It’s amazing how fast they grow. It seems like yesterday I could hold him like a football, and now he’s a walking, talking person. I feel like I was somewhat absent for about 8 months last year dealing with the ‘pain in my a**’, so it’s wonderful to be feeling good, spending time with Oliver, and making up for lost time.

The train museum did end up making an impression. Lindsey told me the other day he got his Thomas trains out and lined them all up. Lindsey asked him why he lived them up. He looked at her and said, “It a train museum mommy.”

Yosemite for President's Day

For the long President’s Day weekend we decided to go to Yosemite. We were thinking of going up to Tahoe to go skiing but since this winter has left some to be desired in the snow department, we decided that Yosemite would be fun snow or no snow. We rented a cabin in Wawona, Ca. Wawona is a small Census Designated Place (a concentration of population outside of a legally incorporated area…yup I’m still a nerd) entirely located within the boundaries of Yosemite National Park. There are a quite a few private cabins that people also rent for vacation rentals.

We did our normal program for taking Oliver on a road trip, which means we pack the car, have dinner, put Oliver in his PJs, and then hit the road. We got to Wawona around 11pm, unpacked the car, had a beer and hit the sack.

The next day we decided to go down to the Valley and check out the big rocks and some falling water. We brought Oliver’s little balance bike, so he rode and we followed. He’s pretty quick on the bike, but he’s pretty good at stopping and waiting for us. Riding his bike is his favorite thing to do in the whole world, so threatening to carry him puts him in line pretty quick. We walked/rode from Yosemite Village, up to Lower Yosemite Falls, down to Yosemite Lodge for a little lunch, checked out the Ansel Adams Gallery, and then back to the car at the village. All in it was a tad over 3 miles, which impressed me. I thought I was going to be carrying a monkey and a bike a quarter of the way through. But, nope, that wasn’t the case. He’s a pretty high energy kid, but takes it to another level on his bike.

Oliver riding in the Valley

Oliver waiting for us to catch up

Checking out the deer

To bucks hanging out by Lower Yosemite Falls

All of us at Lower Yosemite Falls

Oliver and Meme checking the falls out

Yosemite Falls

The next day we hung out around the cabin went down to the river and threw some rock. Throwing rocks is Oliver’s second favorite thing to do. He could literally do it all day. We decided to have dinner at Yosemite Lodge. Prior to dinner we caught the sun going down in the valley. Dinner was good, the Yosemite Lodge does a pretty good job for being way up in the mountains and serving as many people as it does.

At the river preparing to throw rocks

Sunset in the Valley

Oliver was sleeping so just us

On Monday we packed up the cars and headed up to Badger Pass to find some snow. The road to Glacier Point ends at Badger Pass. A few years back we snow shoed to Dewey Point, you get some phenomenal views of the valley from there in the winter time. It’s a great hike. We got Oliver some little snowshoes to get him use to going for hikes in the snow. We didn’t think he’d get very far in real snow, as the first night he tried the snow shoes on he was breathing hard after on lap around our upstairs.

Oliver walking around in the snow

We parked the cars, went to the trail head were we strapped Oliver into his shoes, and started walking up the barely snow covered road. Oliver was more interested in playing in the snow. Which was completely fine, so my mom built a little snow man with him, he threw snow balls, played with icicles, and climbed snow banks. Oliver wanted to be carried back to the car. I anticipated that so I brought my gear sled that I use for snow camping and strapped a seat to it for Oliver. While initially he was apprehensive and held on with white knuckles, he got used to it and started to have a little fun. Once we packed the cars up we hit the road. For lunch we stopped at the Iron Door in Groveland, had a little mediocre pub food (homemade potato chips were solid) and a tasty beer. Then proceeded to blaze home.

Throwing snow balls

Mush daddy...mush

Monterey Whale Watching

So last weekend we decided to go down to Monterey to do a little whale watching. Every year at this time the 20,000 or so Grey Whales pass by Monterey on their migration down from their feeding grounds in Alaska to Baja where they hang out for the winter. I think this is the third time Lindsey and I have gone and the first time for the Monkey. It was a beautiful day probably mid 60s or so and the seas were pretty flat, which made for great whale watching weather.

 

Meme and Poppy on the boat

 

Oliver looking for whales

 

We ended up seeing quite a few whales, 29 by their count but probably only about a third of those were close to the boat. We also saw a ton of Rizzo’s Dolphins and Sea Lions.

Rizzo's Dolphins

 

Sea Lion playing in the waves

 

Grey Whale fluting up for a dive

While two and half year olds have a limited attention span Oliver was great. He like riding on the boat and had lots of fun walking around the boat.

Lindsey and the Monkey

 

Taking a break from whale watching

We used Monterey Bay Whale Watch http://www.montereybaywhalewatch.com/ and were on their boat the Sea Wolf II. A couple years ago we went out with them and in addition to grey whales we saw a pod of Killer Whales which was pretty cool.

P.S. I'm hoping to keep up with things this year. Last fall got away from me. Over the next month or so I plan on going back and recounting all of the fun things we did last fall.

Pain in Nick's A**: 363

363 days ago my surgeon removed nearly 12 inches of colon along with the pain in my a**. With that said metaphorically it will continue to be a pain in my a**, probably forever. While, I feel great and my colon is working well, I still have some neuropathy in my hands and feet and follow-up appointments every three months. There’s always some anxiety from the follow-ups, more so with the CT scan and Colonoscopies, than the blood work, but anxiety nonetheless.  So, while my physical cancer may be gone, the mental cancer will continue. But that’s OK.

There is a bright side to the neuropathy at least. You’re all probably wondering where I’m going with this. While it does remind me of cancer, which constantly puts that in my head, it reminds me of cancer. Why is that good? Well it’s a reminder every day that I should live a healthy life. Go to the gym. Take my vitamins. Eat my veggies. I can’t count how many times I’ve gotten into bed, felt the numbness in my feet as they slid along the sheets, and remembered to take my vitamins and baby aspirin. How’s that for glass half full?

I checked in with the surgeon and my oncologist today. Everything is fine, so both appointments were pretty uneventful. They took some blood, poked at me a bit, and that’s about it. Hopefully it’s the last time I see the surgeon. Not that he wasn’t a nice guy, but if I see him again it means things aren’t good. I will continue to be followed by my oncologist every three months or so for the near future. We pushed off my next CT scan until next October. Everything has been stable and I’ve received a ton of radiation at this point, so we thought it was best to start reducing my radiation exposure. I’ll have another colonoscopy in July to go in and check for local recurrences. Local recurrences in rectal cancer treated with radiation are less than 10% so that’s not a bad number. So no more poking and prodding for another three months (let me find some wood to knock on). Sweet!

In December I decided that I should give back, so I contacted the Colon Cancer Alliance (http://ccalliance.org/) to see what I could do to help. The have a buddy program that pairs up the newly diagnosed with those who’ve gone through the whole thing. I know how helpful the stories I read during my treatment were for me, so I’d like to help others with that as well. Also just like most other things, ‘good news’ tends to be ‘no news’ with cancer as well. The problem is, is that if all the stories out there are the ‘bad news’ stories, then that’s all people see. For newly diagnosed patients I think it’s important to get both sides out there, otherwise it’s quite demoralizing only seeing the ‘bad news’. Last week I also volunteered to work at the American Society of Clinical Oncologists GI Symposium in San Francisco. I talked with various docs and other healthcare professionals about the resources that the CCA has for patients and their caregivers.

Me with Martha Raymond from the CCA

Another group that was helpful during my treatment was the Colon Club (http://www.colonclub.com/). They have a fabulous message board where patients and caregivers get together for support and information. The Colon Club has a mission statement of using out-of-the-box ways to increase the awareness of colorectal cancer. One of the ways they do that is with the Colondar (http://www.colonclub.com/about-the-colondar/). The Colondar is a yearly calendar featuring colorectal cancer surviviors younger than 50, to bring awareness that this disease can happen to anyone. So I’ve decide to put my hat in the ring for the 2015 Colondar. Wish me luck.

Pain in Nick's A**: Where the sun don't shine

So back in July I had my clearing colonoscopy. Finally the doc was able to go all the way to the Appendix and Ileocecal valve (where the small intestine joins the large intestine). I should probably be given a discount as the doc doesn’t have go to as far (since they removed about 12” of my large intestine) and the path is most likely less tortuous, but I doubt that will happen. Prior to the procedure I spoke with the Doc and told her that I remembered my last colonoscopy and I’d rather that not be the case this time. She said that must have been unpleasant…yes…yes it was. She knocked me out, took a look around, found the polyp that was seen on the virtual colonoscopy, clipped that sucker off, and sent me on my way. The polyp was determined to be a tubular adenoma with no evidence of cancer. So that’s good. In a year they’ll take another look around.

On Tuesday I had a CT to check for recurrences. There are some nodules in my lungs that the docs are keeping an eye on. They don’t think they’re cancer as they have been stable on all of the previous scans. Well this scan was no different. The nodules continue to be stable. They are the exact same size as the day they found them nearly a year ago. Seeing I went through some nasty chemo and they didn’t get smaller, most assuredly they are not cancer. No doc will give you a 100% guarantee, but I'll take a 'most likely not' at this point. So the scan came back clear.

So as of today I’m considered NED (No Evidence or Disease). They typically don’t start throwing around the ‘cured’ title for colon cancer until you’re out about 5 years without a recurrence. So surveillance mode it is. I’ve got another follow-up in 3 months for blood and a check-up, another CT scan in 6 months, and another colonoscopy next July.

In the meantime I feel great. So getting back to living a normal life is in order and hopefully the last year will just become a bad memory.