Art For a Cure: Art Work

Here are the prints that will be available in the auction. The auction store will be on eBay at stores.ebay.com/Art-For-a-Cure. Since these items will not be live until Sunday the 3rd, they do not show up in the store. In order to make sure you can see them and look at what is available before the auction, I have listed them all here. The outstanding few that are not yet listed should be up by the end of this Friday.

Please tell all your friends to come bid and by something as all proceeds will go to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society to help fight cancer.

Thank you. And a special thank you to all the artists that have donated their work.

-Ryan

"Bird" Mix Media by Laura Buller	"Flame Hair" Mix Media by Laura Buller
"Kick" Watercolor by Laura Buller	"Tentacle Lady" Mixed Media by Laura Buller
"Hunters" Silkscreen by Josh Cochran	"Christmas" Digital by Cassandra Worthington
"Crocodile Tears" Watercolor on watercolor paper by Peter de Seve *Available only in the 11x14 size.	"Summer Getaway" Watercolor on watercolor paper by Peter de Seve *Available only in the 11x14 size.
"Tag Sale" Watercolor on watercolor paper by Peter de Seve *Available only in the 11x14 size.	"Toothbrush" Oil, Acrylic, Pastel by Justin Garrity
"Flower" Photo on metallic paper by Chris Hatch	"Fancy Lady" Ink by W. Ryan Hatch
"NYC" Mix Media by W. Ryan Hatch	"The South Lands" Digital by W. Ryan Hatch
"You!" Mix Media by Michael Hilliard	"Stop and Go" Marker by Michael Hilliard
"Frederick at the Fridge" Watercolor by David Hohn	"Red Riding Hood" Watercolor by David Hohn
"Blue" Mix Media by AJ Juson	"Women 1" Lithograph by YuChia Kao
"Women 2" Lithograph by YuChia Kao	"Houctopus" Digital by YuChia Kao
"Monster" Pen by YuChia Kao	"Cicada 1" Lithograph, Artist’s Proof ORIGINAL by YuChia Kao
"Orange" Lithograph, Artist’s Proof ORIGINAL by YuChia Kao	"Sister's Gold" Paint by Alex Miller
"Bike Ride" Digital by Norman Morana	"Fishing Day" Digital by Norman Morana
"The Flying Box" Mixed Media by Norman Morana	"Haunting" Digital by Norman Morana
"Refresh" Digital by Norman Morana	"Canyon" Photo by Kyle Morgan
"Flower" Photo by Kyle Morgan	"Dancer" Mix Media by Anna Owen
"Orange" Paint by Anna Owen	"Red" Watercolor by Anna Owen
"Baby Hayden" Digital Paint by Becky Steele	"Red" Acrylic by Becky Steele
"Bicycle" Watercolor and Digital by Lee White *Available only in the 11x14 size.	"Blue" Paint by Allyson Willsey
"Red" Paint by Allyson Willsey	Additional print(s) may still be coming in. Check back or just go to the eBay store on Sunday March 3rd. Thank you!

Art For a Cure Update

The donated prints are rolling in and I could not be more pleased! More information will come as I get the eBay page up but the dates for the auction will be March 3rd-9th. That starts in a week and a half and will run for one week. 

In the mean time, here are a few of the donated pieces. This first one is from Peter de Seve, title: "Crocodile Tears"


This is from Norman Morana, title: "Haunting"


This is from Anna Owen, title: "Dancer"

Art For A Cure!

Shortly after I started running with Team In Training, I was thinking about ideas for fundraising and thought I wanted to do an art sale in some form. But I did not know how to go about it, worrying about the logistics. The idea was tabled in hopes of figuring it out later. Well now is later. Three years later.

The idea had been ever present in my mind. One of those that always sits on the back burner and never lets you forget about it. Finally I gave in. I thought about how I could make it work. This is my result.

In a few short weeks, maybe less, I will get an eBay page set up for an art auction. I contacted a number of artists, mostly I knew from art school. Some were just wild shot's in the dark. No way these guys would even respond. I am quite pleased to say that some of the big time artists responded and are participating too. How cool is that?!

The eBay site will sell prints of original works by each artist. There will be only two prints available of each piece, and 8x10 and 11x14 inch print. The auction functions like normal, you may bid higher and higher to be the highest bidder before the closing date/time for the auction. Following the conclusion of the auction, I will ship the print(s) to the highest bidders with a charity donation receipt and a thank you. Your donation/purchase will be of course applied to the Team In Training account I am using this season to raise money for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.

Artists have already started sending in work for this and I am blown away by their response. If this works out as well as I think it is going to, this will become an anual event. Hopefully getting bigger every year.

Some of the big artists that have already committed and/or sent prints include Peter deSeve, Lee White, and Josh Cochran.

This image is one of mine and is from a children's book I am working on. Therefore, it will NOT be auctioned off at this time. But I wanted to give an idea of what might be in the auction. There is no theme, pieces are whatever the artist wishes to submit. When I get a full or final list of participating artists this year, I will post that as well.



For now, I would love for everyone to pass this along and help generate as much hype as possible.

Thank you very much,

-Ryan

Stupid Immune System!

Have you ever seen the movie Bubble Boy staring a young Jake Gyllenhaal? It's one of those fantastic "stupid-humor" movies like Bill and Ted's, Spinal Tap, Animal House, etc. As the introduction to his character, Jimmy Livingston [Gyllenhaal] tells the audience in first person narration, "I was born without any immunities."

I say that a lot.

Though I was not born without immunities, mine failed me in my early 30's. I like to think that has made me follow the advice of Thoreau "to live deep and suck out all the marrow of life," helping others do the same. Sometimes I am successful in doing that with humor [be that heavily steeped in sarcasm]. Other times, it just makes me weep. Oh well. You can't win them all and I am doing so much better than I was last year or the year before at this time.

That said, I went in to see my GP (general practitioner) the other day because I am now a justified hypochondriac with these symptoms.

- Severe fatigue.
- Headache.
- Sore throat, which sometimes can be very severe.
- Chills, followed by a fever.
- Muscle aches.

Can you guess what I have? They tested for Strep Throat, negative. They tested for Flu, negative. They did a blood draw. Aaannnd....? How the bajeebers does one get Mono at 37, having been married for 11+ years and neither of us making out with anyone but each other???

Turns out the virus can lay dormant for 18 months in a persons system. The most common and successful means of transfer is exchange of saliva. Maybe I took a drink for the wrong drinking fountain. Maybe that frozen pole I licked on a double-dog-dare was... wait a minute! That wasn't me. Well it looks like the world will never know. But we can surmise that if I was born with immunities, I would have been able to fight this off.

I am excited to get over this to see how much my running improves without the additional fatigue. :)

Powerful Conversations

Jack is now in First grade. Over the summer, one of his friends from Kindergarten, Matt [not his real name], had his dad diagnosed with terminal Myeloma. They said he would be gone before Christmas. The week before school started (three-four months early), his dad passed away. In September, Mandy texted me the conversation Jack relayed to her that day.

Jack: "Hi Matt."
Matt: "Hi Jack. My dad died."
Jack: "Yeah. I know. That's really sad."
Matt: "Yeah. Let's go play."


...I could not keep it together that day. I had to go home and hug my kids.

You want to know why I run with Team In Training? Why do I fundraise for them? I do it because I hope that some day, conversations like this never happen. That they are forgotten as modern medicine makes cancer not only completely treatable, even at very late stages, but preventable. Cancer should become a shadow of our past. Not our present and every day.

I run for Team In Training because my first team got me through chemo. My second season and team got me through more chemo. And now, I try to help motivate others to make it through their hard times, chemo or not.

That is why I run. Please donate and help end cancer. I set up a widget on the side of my blog here. You can donate directly to the LLS and Team In Training there, and get an instant email confirmation. Please.

I thank you with all my heart.

GO TEAM!!

Running and running and running some more...

Alright, I am running and running some more. I think this is the year [2013] that I really become a runner. There is a very big difference between "I am running a half marathon in a few months," versus looking and your shoes and thinking, "Is it time? Can I go run yet? do I have time for 7 or 8 miles or can I only squeeze in a 5k? Well if it's only a 5k, I can try to push my pace harder to make it count more..." And those thoughts go on. I can tell I am leaning more and more to that side, and I like that. So this is the year I think the "runner" in me really goes through gestation to blossom into full womanhood... or something like that.

While I am training for the Vancouver BC half marathon in early May, I have been on a much more advanced training program. Most of my teammates that will be running that half with me have worked up to a 5 mile run on the long day. I have been running 11 or 12 miles instead. It was not a sudden jump, I had been doing more already so I just rolled with it.

These longer runs are dual purpose. The obvious is for the running and training. But the other is a litmus test on how I am doing with my health. Previous posts here tell about the blood loss when training for H2C 2012. As is the case with any time I have any weird health issue now, I get more paranoid about that issue.

This last Saturday's run was supposed to be a 12 mile run, I did only 11 because I made a wrong turn somewhere. Oh well. I was not worried about the extra mile. The first half of my run was great. I ran a very comfortable 10:30 per mile pace which has been my normal pace lately without trying to push myself to get faster. So I was happy with that. The latter half of my run though was almost two minutes per mile slower and it was brutal. I was starting to get dizzy by the end and feeling more like the terrible training run for H2C when I was two liters low on my blood.

Sunday, I took a two hour nap because I could not function. Today, Monday, I am worse off. I am dizzy and spacey and just feel horrible. I have called oncology and asked to go in to do a blood draw to see if I am low or if I am just getting sick. Not that I ever thought I wish for sickness, but I do now. I hope I am just fighting a cold.

Here, I am posting a picture of myself just a year ago. This is me, in treatment, well in my house but while going through a round of treatment. This blood loss or sickness thing, I am hoping it does not spin me back into another hairless round of treatment.

You know, while on the topic of hairlessness... I thought it would be totally fine because I liked to cut my hair super short anyway. But when it comes down to it, when your hair pulls out without pain, as do your eyebrows, it is hard. Emotionally. For those women that must go this, I do truly empathize. I am sorry.

...Anyway, I'm done with this post for now.

Blood Tests

One week ago today, so Thursday December 20th, 2012, I had another port flush scheduled. While doing that, my nurse took a blood sample to test. Good. I was really hoping she would. I have been really tired lately and had raised my proverbial eyebrow.

A little backstory on why I worry about blood levels. You would think it normal for a cancer patient either in treatment or recovery or even remission to worry about their blood counts, but this goes a little beyond "normal." My last heavy round of chemo ended mid March, which made for almost exactly two years since I started this mess. I was happy to hear the test results then, "shows no sign of the disease." I had been training for my second half marathon in June and was looking forward to having a couple months to get the chemo and fatigue more out of my system. I did not push myself that race. I took it really slow, just relaxed, and enjoyed myself, not wanting to try and push hard because of the recent round of treatment.

Two and a half months after that race, I ran the Hood to Coast relay for the first time. In training for it, I had been following a generic schedule set up by an OHSU group. OHSU is one of the biggest medical universities and hospitals on the West Coast. On my last long run before I switched entirely to shorter runs multiple times during the day (which is like the relay), the schedule said something like 11 or 12 miles. If I am going to run that, I might as well run the 13.1 to make a half. Right? Very wrong. It was, unequivocally, the worst run I have ever had. By mile 11-ish, I thought I was going to black out. Not like, "Oh man this is hard! Why am I doing this?" but I was actually blacking out. My sight was blurring and spotty. If I tipped over like to rest my hands on my knees, I would have fallen over completely. Black out. I was not sure I could make it home. I stopped running. I walked the last couple miles home and was just happy to make it.

The next few days were very telling. I could not recover. I felt like I was in the midst of heavy fatigue again, and sever chemo brain. It was worrying me. I finally called my oncologist who had me come in the same day for a blood test. Surprisingly, the white blood cells were fine (for me) but I was two liters low on red blood. They just about ran me over to the hospital right then. Instead, they scheduled an infusion for the next day. We started running all kinds of tests to try to determine the cause of the red cell depletion. There are a few common causes, but none of them seemed to be the catalyst for me. Actually that's a good thing. Some of the common things were like the cancer spread to the bone marrow, or the blood produced by the marrow had mutated and the body was rejecting it. While getting a bone marrow sample done is less than pleasant, it is a necessity.

With the blood doping, I was given permission to still run H2C the next week. Mandy was not thrilled. But I did really well. Blood doping totally works. :)

It's been four months or so since then. Every time I have been tested, my blood has been holding, which is great. Seems it was a weird fluke, for the most part. But anytime I cannot shake being really tired, I get worried now. Recently, I cut out energy drinks. No more Rockstar, no more Amp. Let's be realistic though, there is still a lot of Diet Coke. One step at a time. But the last while I have been super tired and I have blamed it on the lack of Rockstar. But the results of the blood test show both red and white cells (and related things like neutrophils, etc.) were down again. They were lower than one month ago though higher than the two months prior. So the results were not bad enough to warrant additional tests, but still pay attention and do another CBC next month.

My worry comes in here. I have three more weeks before I go in, and on Christmas day I took a two and a half ish hour nap and still went to bed by 9:00pm. I slept for nine hours and was unhappy the alarm was going off. I could have slept more. Last night, Dec 26th, doing one of the shorter Insanity workouts I noticed I was pretty spacey. I am not liking the direction this may be heading. My running is stronger now than it has ever been. Not trying to push time, I did 10 miles and averaged 10 min 19 sec per mile. That is so much faster than I have been able to run that I am very excited to start working on speed. But the Spidey Sense is tingling about the tired. With three weeks before the next blood test, and maintenance dose of chemo, I guess I just keep an eye on it. Keep running. Keep doing Insanity.

...Wait and see.

And in the words of a Spaniard, "I hate waiting."