Camp Kickass https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/ Where Love Rules Wed, 03 Aug 2022 14:05:43 +0000 en-US hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.7.2 https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/cropped-Bird-32x32.png Camp Kickass https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/ 32 32 189031471 The walls turn into waterfalls https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/the-walls-turn-into-waterfalls/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-walls-turn-into-waterfalls https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/the-walls-turn-into-waterfalls/#comments Wed, 03 Aug 2022 14:01:49 +0000 https://campkickass.org/?p=480 It’s amazing what we cling to or, paradoxically, how the shape of our lives find a way around or through obstacles like aquatic life forms claiming a submerged automobile. Julie’s mediport was sewn into her body two days after her diagnosis of acute myeloid leukemia. This port would allow chemotherapy to bypass her veins and […]

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]]> https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/the-walls-turn-into-waterfalls/feed/ 5 480 The Unbearable Lightness of Hair https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/the-unbearable-lightness-of-hair/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=the-unbearable-lightness-of-hair https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/the-unbearable-lightness-of-hair/#comments Sat, 19 Feb 2022 23:08:27 +0000 https://campkickass.org/?p=461 Long before we struggled to understand this blood cancer, we tried to understand life. Like you, we were drawn to outlaw poets, lunatics and cult leaders, people who appeared to have broken free of our common ideology. Existentialism may now seem like a philosophy of adolescence, of “but MOM you don’t get it! Life is […]

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]]> https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/the-unbearable-lightness-of-hair/feed/ 3 461 Stubborn Blood https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/stubborn-blood/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=stubborn-blood https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/stubborn-blood/#comments Mon, 15 Nov 2021 02:34:32 +0000 https://campkickass.org/?p=443 When Randy was young, he remembers his grandmother – a woman slightly taller than a kitchen broom – rearranging the stars and holding back the ocean. Some people bravely called her stubborn (she would have laughed this off and said, no, she was just always right), but she was the sort of person who created […]

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]]> https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/stubborn-blood/feed/ 14 443 Blood Cancer Awareness Month (a tad late) https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/blood-cancer-awareness-month-a-tad-late/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=blood-cancer-awareness-month-a-tad-late https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/blood-cancer-awareness-month-a-tad-late/#comments Sat, 16 Oct 2021 01:14:29 +0000 https://campkickass.org/?p=434 #FightBloodCancer For those new to this story, it’s mid-October 2021 and I’m recently in remission from a blood cancer (AML leukemia) that was diagnosed in mid-January (woo-hoo!). Blood Cancer Awareness month was in September and I missed my own deadline to launch this series because I was in the hospital Labor Day week being treated […]

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]]> https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/blood-cancer-awareness-month-a-tad-late/feed/ 8 434 NO EVIDENCE OF CANCER! :-) https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/no-evidence-of-cancer/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=no-evidence-of-cancer https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/no-evidence-of-cancer/#comments Fri, 01 Oct 2021 22:25:22 +0000 https://campkickass.org/?p=428 “Many dreams come true, and some have silver linings I live for my dream, and a pocket full of gold.” Led Zeppelin, Over the Hills and Far Away It’s still me, Julie. It’s true – as of today I have ZERO evidence of cancer! Trying to process my feelings today has been a nice assorted […]

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]]> https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/no-evidence-of-cancer/feed/ 33 428 Day 100 in Only 17 Days https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/day-100-in-only-17-days/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=day-100-in-only-17-days https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/day-100-in-only-17-days/#comments Wed, 29 Sep 2021 03:58:12 +0000 https://campkickass.org/?p=423 You’re an old pro at this now, unfortunately,” the nurse said today as a team prepped for my eighth bone marrow biopsy, with a need to draw 6 tubes of marrow versus the typical three for this round. Although we won’t have results until Friday or Monday, this is one of two big milestones: 1. […]

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]]> https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/day-100-in-only-17-days/feed/ 4 423 You had one job. https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/you-had-one-job/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=you-had-one-job Fri, 27 Aug 2021 20:44:51 +0000 https://campkickass.org/?p=416 The German definitely made herself known this week, first spreading as a lovely red tattoo across Julie’s body and then settling into her gut, where she poked around, literally pushing the poo out of the Badass Panda Queen. This is all typical Graft vs. Host Disease (something we’ve been expecting), and we’ve been told that […]

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]]> 416 German Ascension https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/german-ascension/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=german-ascension https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/german-ascension/#comments Fri, 20 Aug 2021 01:32:18 +0000 https://campkickass.org/?p=411 We don’t always recognize the people who’ve put us on another path until we have the chance to reflect on the small changes that have changed everything. Tumbling along a road, picking up infinitely infinitesimal debris, it’s sometimes shocking to see how much the journey itself has transformed us; how much we have become the […]

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]]> https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/german-ascension/feed/ 10 411 WORK. https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/work/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=work https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/work/#comments Mon, 02 Aug 2021 01:11:21 +0000 https://campkickass.org/?p=402 At one point during these last seven months, someone mentioned the phrase “toxic positivity,” and we hope we haven’t given the impression that we’re living entirely on rainbows and positive vibes. (These are vital snacks, but the heavy nutrition of our days are made of less sweet stuff.) Pull up a chair for a minute […]

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]]> https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/work/feed/ 2 402 Change (and chaos) is in the air https://campkickass.mocomedia.me/change-and-chaos-is-in-the-air/?utm_source=rss&utm_medium=rss&utm_campaign=change-and-chaos-is-in-the-air Wed, 28 Jul 2021 15:27:51 +0000 https://campkickass.org/?p=398 Change happens quickly, like a sudden and unexpected storm, or with glacial slowness. Our turtle marathon has included both varieties, ranging from the urgent induction chemotherapy, that occurred within days of Julie’s leukemia diagnosis, to the infinitesimally incremental (watching blood count numbers climb by decibel points on her electronic patient portal). Throughout most of July, […]

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