Posts made in October, 2012

The first day of our Make a Wish trip had it’s ups and downs, as always with travel. SeaTac went all out for us this morning. We had eight Port of Seattle police officers come to the gate with their 3-wheel Segway and the bomb sniffing dog. Ethan got to ride the Segway and Elyse loved the dog, of course. Then the huge airport firetrucks (they are neon yellow!) rolled up on the tarmac outside our gate. Ethan was escorted out and down to the trucks where he got to climb around and wear the firemen’s hat. Then we got to go on the plane extra early so Ethan could visit with the pilots. When we were airbourne the pilot came on the speaker and told everyone about Ethan being on the plane to go on his Make a Wish trip. Then he said he was going to do a half...

Today is October 1st. Exactly eight months since Ethan was diagnosed. Yesterday was the last day of Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Now for the entire month of October you will see a wash of pink. Pink ribbons on products in every store. Pink shoes on football players in the NFL. Pink. Pink. Pink for breast cancer awareness. What you may not realize is that breast cancer is the most well funded of all when it comes to cancer research.  In just one year of funding — 2007 — the National Cancer Institute (NCI) spent $572.4 million on breast cancer research. That same year, the National Institutes of Health (NIH) spent an additional $705 million. The Susan G. Komen for the Cure Foundation had total revenues that year of nearly $162 million. That is over 1...