Light the Night

Light the Night 2008 was a huge success! At the end of the night, they announced that nearly $200,000 was raised for this event alone. How amazing it that?

We had a great time. We got there early and had a great picnic and then the activities began . . . the butterfly release, the Hope on Wheels hand prints, and then the speakers and then the walk! We had a very good Erica's Light team turn out and Erica was in great spirits all night.

The photos are posted, enjoy.

Love and Light!

GVHD Update

We have had a lot of conversations and appointments with Erica's doctors this week, so here is the update . . .

It appears that the GVHD is in her skin and in her GI track. Yesterday we went in for a skin punch biopsy (during which Erica was a total champ!) and decided to wait on the intestinal biopsy until next week (only if it is absolutely needed). Dr. Taylor said that the GVHD is presenting like an acute case versus a chronic case, which is good news. It is a little late in the game to see acute flair ups but anything can happen, as we all know.

The skin on Erica's hands will harden and then peal off. As you can see in the photo, this process is beginning to take place. Her hands are sensitive but she is handling it well.

Thank you for your continued prayers and all of your words of encouragement.

See you at Light the Night!

Return of GVHD

Erica's skin is worse today than it has ever been. We are so sad.

Just when it feels like things are going so well, there is another bump in the road and once again, we wonder . . . when will living in the present be a choice rather than a necessity?

The Graft Versus Host Disease is active in her skin, all over her body and, we fear, it may likely be active in her intestines. She is uncomfortable but managing. The treatment began yesterday; we increased the steroids four-fold and doubled the Cellcept. We also introduced a new medication, mainly targeting to the gut. She gets a pain med at night to reduce the itching and to help her sleep.

GVHD has it's upside, in the sense that it fights against leukemia . . . not that she has any, but if she did, GVHD would kill it. The scary side about GVHD is that it can continue to attack other organs and cause some very complicated, life-long side effects.

There is a different energy in our home today. Bob and I are absorbing the news, trying not to be angry but . . . do you ever wonder how much energy you have left? I keep thinking, "ok, this is enough; we want to move on with our life now."

Please pray for our endurance and strength, for our faith and for Erica's skin and intestines. Please pray for her comfort through this blast of medication. Thank you and God Bless.

Skin in the game

Well, we knew that Erica would have some minor issues going forward and unfortunately, that pesty GVHD is back. We began noticing that her skin was getting worse about a week ago, after we discontinued one of the medications. Sure enough, that was enough to allow the GVH to come back. We saw Dr. Taylor today and increased several medications to get it back under control. She will be ok, but this is something she may likely deal with for a very long time.

Otherwise, things are going very well. Next week Erica will go to physical therapy at the PT facility. It is built for childen so there will a lot of things for her to play on and explore. We are very excited to see how she does.

The growth hormone issue is still up in the air. Erica will have a test in two weeks that will give us a very good idea of IF and How Much hormone she will need.

In other news . . . Light the Night is September 27th! We are very excited for the event! Also, next month is my 1/2 marathon which I will run with our friend Emily. If anybody reading this is running the Nike, please post a comment! We'll look for you on the run!

Thanks again for your continued prayers. This is a sensitive time as we approach the anniversary of Erica's relapse. This is also a beautiful time as we are also mindful of what she has overcome and the life she has ahead of her! Watch out world! as Erica says, "love, love, love".
Amen

Cousin Geoff finishes Pacific Grove Triathlon

Dear Friends:

Saturday was my first Triathlon since college & the first one with an ocean swim. Took Friday off to prepare and round up the gear and food needed for one of these things. I think it would take less stuff to mount a north pole expedition. Bike stuff, running stuff, swim stuff. Filled up the whole minivan.

Drove down to Pacific Grove in the early afternoon for the mandatory "packet pick-up" where they give you your bib number and a bag full of more stuff. Met some nice people checking out the swim course. I felt pretty well prepared since I had trained on the course a couple months ago with my friend Robbie. This time however, you could see exactly how far you had to swim since they had set out very large bright orange inflatable buoys in Lover's Cove. It was hard to believe you had to go twice around to make up the 1.5km. That was a little worrisome. It made me realize my practice swims of 20 to 30 minutes were on the short side.

Headed back north to Marina to Robbie's house. After a long week of teaching middle-schoolers, Rob likes to go for a Friday evening mtn. bike ride on the former Fort Ord property. Lots of sandy single track and fire roads. He promised it would be nice and easy. I figured it would keep me loose and relaxed for the big day on Saturday. We ate a big pasta dinner and headed out at about 7:00PM for the 1 hour ride. About 1/2 hour into it, I realized I should be in bed sleeping after a long day. But the scenery was so great and Rob was so happy to be out and about, I really got into it. We saw a rabbit and two deer before it got dark and I started crashing in the soft sand. When you don't see it coming, it tends to grab your front wheel and knock you down pretty quick. In any case, we made it home without injury by about 8:30PM. Lights out and night night after that.

Woke up before the alarm clock at 5:00AM wide awake ready to roll. Loaded the bike into Rob's truck and headed out in the pre-dawn darkness. Mentally going over all the stuff I planned to use and wondering what I was missing. I think a checklist would help. We pulled into town about 6:30AM and joined the milling masses of multi-sport participants. Did a token amount of stretching, mostly pre-occupied checking out all the triathlon bikes. I realized I was the only one riding a road bike with shifters on the down tube. Oh well, at least I had my clip on aero-bars and I wasn't riding a mtn. bike!

Rob left to go surfing and said he would be back in time to see me finish the run and get some pictures. As I was setting up my transition station and getting my wetsuit on, I heard the announcer say that the Men 35-39 better get out of the water from their warm-ups and move to the starting line because it was going to start in 4 minutes. Well that was a shock! I quit my dilly-dallying and hurried up with earplugs, caps, goggles and hurried down the stairs to the inflatable arch that marked the start line. About 100 powder-blue capped 35 to 39 years old packed in ready to go. I moved to the rear of the pack and could not believe that this thing was about to start. I said out loud to myself "OK, I guess I'm really going to do this thing!"

They said "Go!" or something like that and everyone ran into the water. Luckily I was at the back so no one swam over me. The swim was not too bad because the water was very smooth and the kelp was not too thick for most of the route. Some guy grapped my ankle once but quickly let go. The second lap was easier than the first and my total swim time was 39 min. 37 sec.

Ran out of the water and up the steps to the park where the transition area was. Headed straight to my bike and yanked off the wet-suit and put on my socks, sunglasses and helmet and ran to the "bike out" chute. Transition time (T1) was 2 min. 17 sec.

Hopped on the bike and tried to cinch my shoes but realized one of the straps had come out of the little black latch thingy. I had put a safety pin in there to prevent that from happening, but now it was back-firing. I tried to get it thru but the safety pin wouldn't let it. I pulled on the safety pin and cut my finger, some blood starting to squirt around. They were numb so I didn't feel it. Decided to stop, get off and deal with it. Once that was over, tried to get the legs warmed up. They felt like they were still in the water. Feet and legs kind of numb. First lap spent basically just trying to warm up.

The bike ride was interesting because no matter how fast I tried to go, I would still get passed like I was standing still. They would come up behind you making a loud whoosh-whoosh noise from the solid aero rear wheels. It was like being passed by cars on the freeway. They write your age on your left calf so that you can see at a glance how miserably you are getting pummelled by people both younger and older than yourself. Whoever thought of that is an evil genius. I got passed by guys in their 40's, guys in their 50's and even one guy who was 70! I told myself it was because they had $5,000 bikes and that they were probably on their first lap as the older guys started later. This was my coping mechanism.

Finally, after four long windy laps along the ocean front road, the bike portion came to a merciful end after 1 hour 22 minutes.

T2 took 2 minutes 10 seconds after some confusion on my part about where you are supposed to actually get off the bike. I think I got off too soon.

The run was tough. The legs were declaring indendence from the brain and deciding to do their own thing. I decided to concentrate on the arms. The arms were great, they did exactly as they were told. I was swinging my arms real fast. From the waist up, I was sprinting the whole time, below the waist, I was going pretty slow.

Some lower back pain was a unique feeling, started to understand why the Campbell Tri Team focuses on all that "core work". My core was shot and my right foot felt like it was on fire. I just thought of ERICA FAITH and all she has been through and realized my pain was insignificant.

This was my thought as I ran up the hill towards the finish line. The run took 52 min. 3 sec.

Rob, his wife Cher and their two little girls were there with pom-poms cheering me on which was a great highlight to the morning. Heather, my wife was incredible, giving me a pass for nearly the whole weekend! Thanks Heather! I love you!

Total time was 2:58:24, just barely making my 3 hour goal. Thank you for all your love and support! Stay tuned for the next Erica Faith Fund challenge event.

Yours,
Geoff Bradley

It's been awhile

I just haven't felt like posting these past couple of weeks. I spoke at the Keaton Raphael Memorial golf tournament and then just fell into a funk about the question, "what do people really want to know". I spoke a lot about hope and the support we have received but when all was said and done I wondered . . . what about the hell that Erica has been through, what about the sleepless nights and tears and fear . . . do people want to know about that too? Well, if you have been reading this blog, then you have heard it ALL, I just wanted you to know where I have been. I came up with this all encapsulating thought, that this has been the most painful experience of my life. It has also been the most blessed. It is also the most frightening. It is a life altering, priority aligning, pain inducing, uncontrollable journey.

I've been writing in my journal, which has been appropriate and now I am back. So, how is Erica doing? She is doing really well. We think that we just might be experiencing some "normal" two year old behaviors . . . which I guess we're thankful for . . . if you can be thankful for two-year old behavior!! She is very active, walking everywhere on her own; even trying to run. (her feet go at about the same pace but she pumps her arms really hard! classic). Tomorrow is the next doctors appointment. We are really very eager to hear from her endocrinologist who recently took her blood to test for her growth hormones. Also, we continue to evaluate her skin and her blood-sugar issues. But, all in all, we are enjoying our time outside and we have been out to two restaurants with her, we're getting more relaxed . . . it's nice.

A big event coming up is LIGHT THE NIGHT 2008!
Erica is one of the honorees this year as they celebrate the 10th anniversary of the event.
September 27th at the California State Capitol. Activities start at 6:00 PM and the walk starts at 7:30 PM.
Please join us. All you need to do is register:
REGISTER FOR LIGHT THE NIGHT