Live Strong Action

My wife is so awesome!
I've been working with the Lance Armstrong Foundation for a number of years, raising money and raising awareness. The LAF is now initiating "Live Strong Action," where you can pay tribute to those who have inspired you. Take a look at the dedication page my wife did for me. So cool! Even better, if I've motivated or inspired you in some way, feel free to add your name...it doesn't cost a cent!
LIVE STRONG...

Helmet Head

Well, first and foremost -- I think I found the perfect helmet -- thanks REI!

It's even been approved by the neurosurgeon! Of course, you'll notice that it's completely blank -- no stickers yet. More on that in a moment.

Status Update: I'm doing pretty well. I'm not in any pain, just dealing with fatigue and the daily grind. I have medical appointments at either the National Institutes of Health or the National Naval Medical Center almost every day, with visits and deliveries from the home healthcare folks at CORAM at least once or twice a week. I also get daily IV antibiotics, and Pooh is a pro now -- we've got the whole IV thing down to an easy routine. The side effects of the Invanz antibiotics aren't too pleasant, but I won't bore you with the details.

Today was supposed to be a fairly big day...the day I get my stitches removed! We took the hour trip up to NNMC, waited for the neurosurgeon, and upon examination found that about half the incision had not yet healed adequately for the stitches to be removed. So, they took about half of them out...well, it's a start anyway! Back next week to get the other half out. Here's how it looked:

As you can see, I haven't been able to cut my hair for a few weeks. I think this is the longest it's been since high school! In any case, I'm doing well, feeling fine, and resting as much as I can. I'm off the roads and off the bike for at least four more weeks, but I'm still hoping to keep my race schedule intact. I might not meet my goal of breaking 1:30 in the half this year, but it's still on the books...it just might take a bit longer.

Finally, about the helmet. THANK YOU so much for all the stickers and support! Here's the current tally:

1 Ohio State Seal (thanks Jen)

1 Ladybug (thanks Jen)

1 Kentucky Wildcat (thanks Aunt Barb...tough one to use for a Duke fan, but I used it!)

1 "No Brainer" logo (thanks Pooh!)

1 "Good as New" logo (thanks Pooh!)

1 Band-Aid (thanks Brian)

2 Stars (thanks mom)

1 Mickey Mouse (thanks mom)

1 bunch of grapes (thanks La Toscana Winery)

1 Major rank, soon to be upgraded to Lt Col (thanks Don!)

2 American flags (thanks Brian)

1 "Custom Cruiser" (thanks Brian)

3 words: "Conviction," "Hope," and "Commitment" (thanks Sharon)

We're up to 17 stickers, with LOTS of room left. Keep them coming!

And, if I haven't told you before, all you bloggers are wonderful people...as are those who read and comment, but don't blog. The support (and stickers) you all provide is tremendous. Keep running and keep fighting!

Foreheads are Overrated -- And A Challenge to Bloggers!

So, here's the latest -- along with pictures this time, finally!

After a great deal of research I don't pretend to understand, the petri dishes grew whatever they needed to, and we have a name for the bug that attacked my head and face -- enterobacter aerogenes. Go ahead and click the link or Google for yourself -- it's not pretty. Highly destructive, high mortality rate, all the nasties you don't want to read about. Fortunately, it's only really dangerous if you have "a prior history of surgeries in the area, cancer, or an immune system compromised by chemotherapy or radiation treatments." NICE! I'm batting a thousand on that one...but I'm doing well. The infectious disease docs at the National Naval Medical Center were outstanding, and isolated the bug in time to treat it appropriately. Once they found the bug causing my infection, they prescribed the right antibiotic and installed a Peripherally Inserted Central Catheter (PICC) line. That was quite an impressive process -- a 43cm catheter that goes from my armpit to my heart -- but in the end it was far less traumatic or painful than I had expected.

With the right antibiotics in hand and the PICC Line inserted, I was discharged from the hospital last night and sent home. This morning a home healthcare nurse from CORAM Home Healthcare infusion services arrived, and provided

me and Pooh with all the equipment and instructions on how to administer the antibiotics -- 30 minutes once a day -- not bad at all. It helps that Pooh's mother, who is a 30-year OR nurse, is staying here with us -- and our next-door neighbor is a transplant and PICC nurse. We're covered! The CORAM nurse walked us through the process this morning, and we're on our own tomorrow!

I'm not in any pain and I feel fairly good, but I sure don't look pretty. Here's the latest shot, taken just before I left the hospital:

There is still some swelling from both the surgery and the infection, but once that swelling goes down, there will be quite a canyon between the top of my head and my brow. I'll probably look like something between a cro-magnon man and a klingon, but that's okay...I was never much to look at anyway, and I've already got a wonderful wife who loves me to matter what I look like! At least, that's what she tells me...

A CHALLENGE TO BLOGGERS

Okay, here's where the fun begins -- because my brain is basically exposed and unprotected (only covered by a thin layer of skin), I have to wear a helmet whenever I'm out and about or doing anything active (including running). So, I'm going helmet shopping tomorrow. Here's your chance to "get involved" -- send stickers! I'll get a plain black biking, climbing, or skating helmet, and decorate it with all the stickers I receive from fellow bloggers against cancer and everyone else. Feel free to get creative as you like -- a state sticker from where you are, a sticker from your last race, a photo, your favorite slogan, whatever -- just please use good taste (no profanity), and I'll find a way to fit all the stickers on my helmet and show off the great support I've always received from blogland. If you don't have my home address, please send an e-mail to moylesm@hotmail.com and I'll send it to you. I'll even upload periodic pictures of the infamous cranium cap! Thanks to Peggy for the great idea...and start sending!

Next blog will have a few race reports and more photos. Signing off with a farewell from the Monkey...love to all!

Made it Through Another...

Greetings fellow bloggers! It's Mike this time...blogging from the National Naval Medical Center (NNMC) in Bethesda, MD. Wow, what a turn of events.

Angie ("Pooh") gave a pretty good summary in the previous blog. Basically, I was fully recovered from December's surgery, feeling fine, the what appeared to be just a headache snowballed into a craniotomy #4! Far be it from me to place blame, but from what we now know it appears that something unsterile was introduced into the cranium during my last surgery. That was enough to foster an infection under the frontal plate, which has slowly festered for the past few months. It then exited through my right temple and began to attack the soft tissue above and around my right eye, which is when I first became aware of it. By the time we noticed and got to the ER on Monday afternoon, the infection had destroyed the entire frontal plate and done some damage to the sinus cavity and even the dura (sack surrounding the brain).

Surgery yesterday morning was actually not craniotomy #4, it was craniectomy #1 -- the removal of the frontal plate. After some pretty serious labwork to figure out which bug (or bugs) have been throwing a party in my head for the last seven months, I'll be put on targeted antibiotics and sent home -- probably 3 - 4 days. I'll come back in 14 days for a checkup and to get the sutures removed, then back in about 6 months for a cranioplasty. They've made a mold of the bone that was removed, and will recreate it with either titanium mesh or a plastic polymer. The idea is to make me look basically the same as I looked before the event -- I asked if they could make me better looking, but apparently it's pretty hard to improve on what I've already got ;-).

I feel just okay. Not a lot of pain or discomfort, this struggle is far more emotional. I wasn't ready for this. I didn't have time to educate myself or prepare, mentally, emotionally, and psychologically, for this event. The hospital is not nearly as nice as Cedars-Sinai, and it's pretty lonely. I think things will improve as I spend more time here, but more than anything I just want to go home.

I owe quite a few blogs, including several race reports. In short, training has gone very well -- I've hooked up with the FIRST folks, and their training plans have been working for me so far. They've been profiled a number of times in Runner's World, so you may have heard of them. I'm focusing on half-marathons right now -- did the Marine Corps Half, and was happy with 1:41, and had planned to do the Air Force Half on 19 September, but will probably have to miss that one to recover. I hope to follow with the Richmond SunTrust Half and the Oktoberfest Half-Marathon, but we'll see how recovery goes.

I'm on a public PC at the hospital, so can't upload photos...but if you're on FB, I've put a few there. More to follow...I may actually have time to catch up on my blogs now! Thanks to all the bloggers who have already sent me notes and posts on FB...you all ROCK, as usual. Keep praying!

Craniotomy #4

Okay, this is Angie, so bare with me. I'm a bit tired, but am hoping this will all make sense.

To start, Mike wants to say he is sorry for the lack of updates since March.

Everything was going great, expect for a minor bone pain on the temporal area, right by his eye...we were starting to settle back into our "new normal". Mike has been training like mad and was preparing for the Leavenworth, WA half-marathon in October.

This bone pain was checked at his 3 month appointment and nothing was found. The MD said it was just still healing, some post surgical changes. So, he kept dealing with it, hoping it would go away. Thursday or Friday of last week he was having enough pain that he asked for some Ibuprofen. Okay, so that sounds minor to most, but for those of you that know Mike, taking even and Ibuprofen is a "sin"! Well, along came Sunday, he had such a bad headache, with some slight swelling, that he decided it was time to call the CA MD. They said it was unlikely that it was anything too serious since he had no symptoms...hmm...where have we heard that before? "Oh, nothing to be worried about", says Mike, "off for my 12 mile run". He had a miserable run. Chalked it up to lack of sleep and possibly, not enough to drink. Later that day we spent the afternoon downtown with my brother's family and his forehead and eye became swollen. By the time we got home he wasn't feeling good at all. He looked like he was in a boxing match--and he didn't win! (I'll try to post pics later--got to figure that out again :))

Well, Monday rolls around and we had another big day planned to see the "sights" of D.C. But, Mike woke up with his entire right eye swollen shut and the swelling was half way down his face (again, picture later). Needless to say Mike KNEW something was wrong. Made an appointment at the MD for that afternoon... As suspected his GP (general practioner) could do nothing, so up to National Navy Medical Center's ER. Some labs, a CT, LOTS of waiting, an MRI, neurosurgery consult with Walter Reed Medical Center, they determined that Mike had osteomyelitis. At about 4am...they FINALLY admitted him to the hospital to start massive IV antibiotics. There were several questions still to be answered... is the bone (in the forehead) dead, if not will the antibiotics save it? Did the infection cross the dura into the brain tissue?

Well, my brother and I went home to catch some zzz's, not knowing what to expect. Mike was NOT optimistic about this. Finally home at 5am, and asleep by 530 or 6, my phone rang at 855am...it was Mike stating that the head of neurosurgery at Walter Reed Medical Center reviewed his case and they were doing surgery immediately. My heart sank, I was hoping he'd just have to do antibiotics. He said they'd wait on me to get there..."I'm thinking, what, is this a dream?" I hop in the shower to wake myself up, grab my brother and off we go in rush hour traffic on I-495 north. I'm mad, scared and nervous...and I-495 was a parking lot. Thank the good Lord my brother was with me. 930am and only to I-66 (those of you who know the area, feel my pain)..Mike calls..they are doing surgery at 10..I thought, "no way I'm gonna make it"...Mike trys to stall and I push a little harder through traffic. Finally I get north of Tyson's Corner and "free" road. I get there 1015 am and rush into Mike's room where we both share our feelings, crying and then get strong for one another. 1040 and off he goes...

The MD said that he can't save the bone and removing it is the best thing to avoid further infection. This means that Mike will not have a forehead bone for 6-8 mo. He will be in the hospital for the rest of the week getting heavy antibiotics while the Infectious Disease MD's figure out what is growing. Once that is determined and he heals from the surgery he will come home with a pic-line so that we can do more specific IV antibiotics at home for 6-8 weeks. He will be off work for 4-6 wks and, I assume, no running for 8 months, or more. He will wear a helmet to protect his head from any head trauma. Once the infection is gone for good they will put in a titanium plate.

The infection could be a delayed onset from surgery or, before the bones fused back together Mike could have gotten dust in his eye, nose or breathed in something that caused this. It's hard to tell and at this point not worth worrying about.

The surgery went smoothly, he did well. The infection was localized, and did not cross the Dura. I saw him in the ICU briefly where he was quite the comic as usual. Good to see though.

I don't know much more about his treatment/care/post-op process at this time. All I know is that he made it through and has all his functions! Thank God!!

Thank you all for your prayers! We love you all...