Biopsy
So last month (April) I was having severe neck pain on the left side of my neck. I did not have a sore throat and it did not hurt much to move my neck, but if I touch the left side of my neck or pressed on it there was pretty severe pain. So I called my regular Doctor (Dr. Swanger) and asked if they could see me. They got me in that day and checked out my neck. They ordered two tests. The first was a complete CT Scan of my Neck, Chest, Abdomen, and Pelvis. The second was an ultrasound of the arteries in my neck.
The tests turned up nothing in my neck, BUT it did show an enlarged lymph node in my left armpit. We have known about this lymph node since October, but it only measured 1cm x .6cm then. We were not worried about it because it was so small. At the time of the CT Scan the lymph node had grown to 1cm x 1.2cm. This was still nothing to worry about I was told. A week later I had my 6 month checkup with my Radiation Oncologist (Dr. Constine). He was performing all the usual pokes and prods and stopped when he felt my armpit. He asked, “Did you feel that?”. I said, “Yes, I felt that.” He left the room briefly to make a phone call and then came back. He said he just spoke with my primary Oncologist (Dr. Freidberg) and they decided that they should biopsy the node. My guess is that they should not have been able to feel that node and it had grown since the previous week.
Dr. Salloum performed the biopsy. He is the same surgeon that did the biopsy in my neck two years ago. The biopsy went well and he even let my wife take a couple photos of the node after he removed it.
We should get the results back on Tuesday (5/22). Hopefully it turns out to be nothing. 
Photos are included after the Read More link …
Help us fight cancer by supporting Relay For Life!
Can you believe that more than 1.3 million new cancer cases are expected to be diagnosed in the United States this year? Those are staggering statistics, but there is hope. Each of us can do something to save lives and help those already fighting this disease. That’s why I’ve decided to take action against cancer by supporting the American Cancer Society Relay For Life® event right here in my community.
Relay For Life is an overnight event that brings our community together to help support the American Cancer Society and its lifesaving mission to eliminate cancer as a major health problem. The Society works hard every day to prevent cancer and save lives by supporting groundbreaking research, affecting public policies that protect us from cancer, and educating people on how to prevent or detect cancer early. The Society helps people with cancer right here in our own community. And our efforts at Relay For Life can help the American Cancer Society to keep working toward a cancer-free future.
I want to invite you to show your support in the ongoing fight against cancer by joining us for this year’s event. Please click on the link below for more information, including details on the inspirational Survivors’ Lap and the moving Luminaria Ceremony. We hope to see you there! If you can’t join us, will you please visit the site and make a donation to support our efforts? Either way, you will make a real difference in the lives of people facing cancer – and in the lives of the people who love them. Thank you!
Toad’s Hope was put together by my wife and her co-workers to honor their friend - Lori ‘Toad’ Pulver. Lori was very passionate about the ACS Relay For Life and sadly passed away last year from cancer. Please help us honor Lori’s memory by making a donation by using one of the links below.
(These links are just a shortcuts to our ACS Relay For Life pages)
Link to the team page:
http://www.CyclingForCancer.org/ToadsHope/
Link to my donation page:
http://www.CyclingForCancer.org/ToadsHope/Shannon.php
For state fundraising notices and the American Cancer Society’s Privacy Policy, please paste this link into your browser: http://www.cancer.org/docroot/SU/su_0.asp
Are you ready to ride?
The 4th season of the Interlakes Foundation Wellness Program outdoor bike rides begins Monday, May 7th, and will continue each Monday, throughout the spring/summer months, weather permitting. Members will meet in the Mendon Ponds Beach Area Parking Lot promptly at 6:00 pm.
If you are not sure the ride is still on due to weather conditions, please call 585.350.2301 after 4:00 pm for a recorded message.
The rides are chaperoned by members of the J.W. Dundee Cycling Team. All levels of biking expertise, from beginners to experienced cyclists, are welcome to ride.
Feel free to bring a guest.
You can enroll in the program HERE.
More photos of the first night’s ride can be viewed HERE.
Is 1 in 5 good enough?
Recently, President Bush signed a bill to reauthorize the National Breast and Cervical Cancer Early Detection program, an initiative that provides free breast and cervical cancer screenings to uninsured and low-income women.
The reauthorization is a critical first step in saving lives, but it alone does not solve the problem. That’s because under current funding levels, the program covers only one in five eligible women. You read that right: Five women need the care. One will receive it.
That’s not good enough. There is a serious gap between what we know works—and what we do to fight cancer. The question is, are we willing to do what it takes to fix this problem?
You can help close this gap by signing the LIVESTRONG Army petition today and uniting to make cancer a national priority. Please take a minute to sign the petition. Lance’s name is the first on it.
We know, and the Institute of Medicine confirms, that low-income women are three times more likely to die from breast cancer. Why? This same group is less likely to get screened and more likely to be diagnosed with late-stage cancer. In other words, we could prevent these deaths. In fact, one-third of the 560,000 cancer deaths that occur in the United States each year could be prevented by applying what we already know about prevention, screening and early detection.
We must close the gap between what we know works – early detection and access to care- and what we do – which, for the past several years, has been to watch Congress and the Administration under-fund life-saving cancer programs.
Please join Lance & I as part of the LIVESTRONG Army by signing the petition below and uniting in a call for change. It will only take a minute and it will make a big difference.
It is time for Americans to demand that our nation’s leaders make fighting cancer a national priority. Literally hundreds of thousands of lives depend on it.
Perfect Day for a ride
So yesterday Carrie and I went for a short ride with her sister Darcie and our niece Mackenzie. I just thought I would share some photos.
This was Mackenzie’s first ride with us. She did really well on the mountain bike she was riding. She tried her Mom’s (Darcie) road bike on the way back and would not give it up. She could not believe how much easier riding was on the road bike. She liked it so much that we went to the bike shops with her and Darcie and she bought herself a Giant OCR3!
It’s always nice to get another person interested in cycling. Especially young people. I think they can get so much out of riding for fun.
The Girls (Carrie, Mackenzie, & Darcie)
St. J’s 5K - Runnin’ for the Squeezin’s
Today Carrie, Sergio, and I went to Naples, NY to compete in the St. J’s 5k - Runnin’ For The Squeezin’s. It was great event and well organized. This was Sergio’s first 5k and he finished 3rd in his age group!
Male 35-39
| Place | Name | City | Age | Overall | Time | Pace |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Mark Shaw | Victor NY | 35 | 13 | 22:04 | 7:07/M |
| 2 | Douglas Pereira | Canandaigua NY | 37 | 50 | 24:35 | 7:56/M |
| 3 | SERGIO CASE | Palmyra NY | 36 | 57 | 25:00 | 8:04/M | 6 | Shannon CASE | Penfield NY | 38 | 196 | 39:24 | 12:43/M |
Ballan wins Tour of Flanders
from IOL
Italian Alessandro Ballan of the Lampre team won the 91st edition of the Tour of Flanders, held over 259km between Bruges and Meerbeke on Sunday.
Ballan, who thus becomes the first Italian since Andrea Tafi in 2002 to win the race known as the ‘Ronde’, surged ahead of Leif Hoste of the Predictor team to snatch victory from the Belgian in the closing metres before the finish.
Both riders had managed to pull ahead in the final 20km of the race, in which Belgium’s two-time winner Tom Boonen fell out of contention towards the end, and worked together to keep their chasers at bay.
A chasing pack of riders were in hot pursuit, just behind another pair of victory hopefuls Tomas Vaitkus and Karsten Kroon.
As the leaders raced towards the finish line, Hoste, who has previously claimed a number of runner-up places in the race including in 2006 when he finished behind Boonen, was forced to stay on Ballan’s wheel.
The Italian is known as a formidable sprinter, and when Hoste attacked in the last 200 metres he was allowed only a brief advantage before Ballan pulled up behind him and overtook the Belgian just two metres before the line.
Boonen had won the past two years and had been bidding to become the first rider in over half a century to win the race three times consecutively.
