It is Football Season!
Rucker Update 9/25/18
Football on my mind:
Not only is it football season, but Rucker has had a couple of interesting days last week to say the least.
Last Wednesday, he and I were invited to Tuscaloosa and the Mal Moore Athletic Facility for a tour and to attend an Alabama Football practice. It was an incredible experience lifting both of our spirits. He said to me when we were going to bed that night, “those strong football players gave me power!” Their energy, spirit, grit, and determination were certainly empowering. Not one person there came up to us and said, “I’m sorry,” or anything indicating a negative thought. Instead, their words were: “stay strong,” “be brave,” “keep fighting,” “you got this,” and other strengthening thoughts. The way Coach Saban coaches his players to play for four quarters and to finish was apparent in their approach to what to say to a kid and a dad in our situation. To the players, coaches and staff that hosted us, thank you and Roll Tide! (Also a very special thanks to Rucker’s Uncle Landon for lining this up, and for Griff Redmill of Huntsville and to Brooks and Whitfield Wallace from Birmingham for hosting us in Tuscaloosa).
Also on Friday night, Rucker was on the field for the coin toss of the Vestavia/Mountain Brook game with other child fighters and survivors of cancer. What an experience! Sean Fredella, a four time cancer survivor who goes to Mountain Brook High School and who organized the event, came by our house prior to the game and met Rucker. Sean has an amazing story, which I would encourage you to read:
Got a stop:
Last Thursday, we got some positive medical news for the first time since this all began. Rucker had scans to check on the primary tumor and metastases, and they showed no progression since we last scanned. This means that since we began our current chemotherapy protocol under the SEF diagnosis (two rounds so far), the tumors have not grown in size. Our doctor was encouraged by this result considering the aggressive and rare nature of this cancer. To use a football analogy, we finally got a stop on third down. We finally got something positive. Now we need to score.
Going on offense:
Rucker had his first appointment with a radiation oncologist yesterday. He was fitted for molds that will hold his body still during radiation and was given some temporary tattoos on his body so that they can line him up for the radiation treatments. Beginning on October 1 we will start five weeks of daily radiation to target the primary tumor and possibly other sites in hopes to reduce the size of them and better allow for surgical resection. We plan to remove the left kidney and primary tumor at the end of this round of radiation. Currently, the plan is to wait until further chemotherapy the address the other tumors (lungs and bones). That means Rucker will continue to undergo chemotherapy every three weeks in addition to his new radiation regimen.
Special Teams:
In the meantime, Rucker has been on FIRE (Pops coined this phrase to describe Rucker’s enthusiastic attitude)! As Lindsey described, he keeps on dancin’! With the help of an amazing community, our village, or Team Rucker, we have had quite a lot of dancing lately, both literally and figuratively. This past weekend, Katie and I were able to go to Toronto to celebrate the wedding of our close friends Natalie Aziz and Ted Warner. Congratulations Warners - Eh! Thanks again to our family for keeping our children while we were there.
I am going to try to update this more frequently. I am not the best writer, so long posts are quite draining for me. Please excuse me if I keep posts short and to the point. I want all of you who are Rally4Rucker-ing to be informed and up to date with any new information about our fight and Rucker’s condition. Thank you again from our family to yours for all of the support and love we have received to this point. Rucker is strong, and so are we. This will be a long game and we are not giving up - not giving in - not relenting. We will need continued support for all four quarters.
All the best,
John
