My Favorite Color

Of course there was only one blue cup it would have been way to easy to have a two, then Bobby and I wouldn't have anything to argue about that day at grandma and grandpas house.  After all blue was my favorite color and certainly it was Bob's as well so mom had to intervene.  I'll never forget she calmly came over and said to me, "Why is blue your favorite color? The Cardinals are red so red should be your favorite color." I immediately changed my favorite color to red, and well so did Bobby, but there was only one red cup.  So dad put a little Busch beer in the blue cup and let me have a sip, so I would quit complaining and just eat my spaghetti.  Well mom I have changed my favorite color again.

Every disease seems to have a color and a wristband now thanks to Lance Armstrong, shout I saw a wristband the other day for Irritable Bowel Syndrome, I'll let you guess the color.  I've always had a fondness for bracelets, when I was in the 2nd grade I had enough snap and friendship bracelets to go up to my shoulder.  But I have never been as attached to a bracelet until now.  When we found out about the cancer we weren't just going to sit around, we bought the pancreas cancer website right out of purple bracelets.  Uncle Jeff and my cousin Tony even made custom bracelets.  All in my new favorite color, Purple.

When the bracelets came they said three words; Courage, Faith, Hope.  Now the first two were easy.  Big Don is a tough son of a gun, rumor has it that one time he played in a football game and got a concussion in the first quarter and woke up in the 4th, leading the team in tackles and after kicking two field goals, maybe not terribly smart but pretty courageous.  If you need any more proof you can read some of the previous blogs and posts. Courage would be easy.  And Faith well we have that covered.  The good Catholic that he is, Big Don wears a gold cross on his chest that is too heavy for Mary to wear for more than 5 minutes, and I know people that haven't said a prayer since they were children sending them up everyday now.  But Hope hasn't been quite as easy.  As we know pancreas cancer doesn't always lend itself to hope, but the good people at Mayo clinic and a healthy dose of the two things mentioned above have helped us find Hope. 

We still don't know what the outcome will be, and we still treasure everyday with Big Don, but he is doing well.  He has started and now almost finished radiation (sorry the blog was off for Christmas).  He has 5 more sessions left and is still getting the chemotherapy once a week.  After he finishes he will get a couple weeks off and then another scan to see how things look.  We all hold out hope that they would be able to remove the tumor at that time, but more likely they will continue chemo as his tumor markers continue to drop and at last count were 218, down from 2800 four months ago.  He has weaned off all pain medications and is now just on Immodium, so he can borrow my stash if he needs too (refer to Bad Guts, blog #1).  He enjoyed Christmas with mom and two out of three kids, some of us have in-laws and a job.  And I'm pretty sure that mom and dad now know more about the bowl games and NFL football than any analyst over at ESPN.

So as the custom bracelets that we now wear read "I proudly wear purple for Big Don!".  I continue to keep in mind the Courage, Faith, and Hope, and I remember why I can be hopeful by simply looking at the other side of my bracelet, because Big Don is "DulleStrong".  So if your wondering what to give me for my birthday next month, I'd love someone to take that damn tumor out, but if you can't do that I could sure use a couple Purple cups, Bob needs one too.