Author Archives: teamfricke

What 9/11 Means To Me

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Until three years ago, 9/11 was a reminder of the evil that resides throughout this world.  Now three years ago to the day, 9/11 is a reminder of the pain and helplessness you feel when your 6 month old child is diagnosed with cancer, but it is also a reminder of how an already strong family comes together in good times and bad times.  When I think back to being 5 minutes from the house on our way home from the oncologist telling us that he thought Cutler’s rash was just a rash and probably nothing to worry about only to get the call that we must return immediately I can recall almost every detail.  If I close my eyes when I think back to it, all of my senses bring me back to that day.  I remember having to call Melanie, who was in the car behind me and telling her we needed to pull over and get in one car and head back to the hospital.  I remember Melanie convincing our pediatrician to tell us what was going on before we got to the hospital.  I remember wondering what in the hell Leukemia was and how was this going to play out.  I remember praying harder than I have ever prayed before on our way to the hospital and just repeating over and over again that Cutler will beat this.  I remember how hard it was to leave Melanie and Cutler at the hospital for the night as I had to pick up Mason from school and take him to Amazing Jakes as was previously planned.  I remember trying to choke back that horrible pizza and trying to put on a face for Mason so that he wouldn’t know what was going on despite not having any desire to eat.  I remember getting a much needed laugh from Mason as we played our way through all of the games after suffering through the pizza.  I remember getting on the internet to research AML after getting Mason to bed and almost on que getting a call from my boss telling me not to worry about work and giving me the subtle recommendation to shut down the computer as reading about it instead of hearing from the doctor was a mistake.  I remember my friends and family dropping everything to help us through our tough times.  There are many things that I remember from that day alone, but what stands out in my mind is that there is a whole lot more good in this world than there is evil.

Best Brothers

National Blood Cancer Awareness Month

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Did you know that September was National Blood Cancer Awareness Month?  Slightly ironic considering it was September nearly three years ago that we were introduced to Leukemia with Cutler’s diagnosis.  Thanks to incredible organizations like the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society the survival rate for the most common form of Leukemia, ALL, has jumped from 3% in 1964 to 90% today.  This is one of the many reasons we raise money for the LLS via our annual Light The Night fundraising effort, including our upcoming Lemonade Stand.  That announcement is coming soon.

http://pages.lightthenight.org/ntx/Plano12/teamcutler2012

As a warning, I will be trying to post some good facts every couple of days throughout the month along with some stories and photos from our journey to health for Cutler.  While it would be easy to move on and try to forget those painful times, I think it is important to celebrate what he has overcome and never forget so that we know how blessed we are and to give us motivation to continue to defeat this horrible disease.

Our healthy boy almost three years later thanks to LLS.

 

 

Light The Night 2012

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As many of you know, Cutler, our now 3 year old son, was diagnosed with a rare form of AML (Acute Myeloid Leukemia) when he was six months old and thanks to many amazing people and organizations he was home recovering from his bone marrow transplant in time for his first birthday.  I am happy to say that as of his most recent oncologist appointment, he is still cancer free and living a normal life.

Cutler riding in a St Jude bikeathon at his school earlier this year.

Through countless nights in the hospital I would sit awake at night wondering why this was happening to us and I finally came to a conclusion that it was to raise money and attention to the noble cause taken on by the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society (LLS).  We, as a family, have done this in many ways including Melanie running a marathon, but primarily we do it annually by participating in the Light The Night Walk.  Light The Night Walk is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s annual fundraising walk to pay tribute and bring hope to people battling cancer.  Hundreds of thousands of participants raise funds for lifesaving research and patient services.  For more than 60 years, The LLS has been solely focused on people with blood cancers. Presently, we have more than $250 million committed to research across the United States and in ten other countries. Every dollar is provided by concerned donors.

LLS invests in the best, outcome based science:

  • Anywhere, with no geographic or institutional boundaries
  • Without profit incentive
  • To meet unmet Medicare needs of people with blood cancers

So how can you help us in our cause?  You can go to our fund raising site at http://pages.lightthenight.org/ntx/Plano12/teamcutler2012  where no donation is too small.  If you are fearful or unable to donate via the internet, we are more than happy to receive checks made out to the LLS at our house:

429 Whisperfield Dr

Murphy, TX  75094

We are also in favor of you forwarding this to your own circle of friends that might be interested in helping us abolish blood cancers.

If you want to join us on the night of the walk, there is a link at the bottom to join our team where you can then set up your own page and raise funds as well.  I highly encourage anyone interested and available to join us on October 20th in Plano as it is a very special event to be surrounded by so many people dedicated to such an incredible cause.  If you can’t make the event, we will also be having our annual Turning Lemons Into Lemonade Stand that is growing in size and success every year in the near future.

Basketball Jones

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Last night Mason scored his first basket of the season in his last game of the season.  In fact, due to his typical unselfish play (see lack of aggressiveness) this may have been his only shot of the season so his FG% is out of this world.  I did happen to bring along the camera for this game and was snapping photos almost non stop.  Good news and bad news occurred during this portion of Mason’s dominance.  Good news is that I took the camera down in time for me to see him make the shot, bad news is that I took the camera down without snapping a shot of making his first basket.

The whole play started with him stealing the ball and then dribbling up court, passing it to a teammate at the top of the key and then heading down low for the return pass at which time he drained the swish from an impressive 5 feet away.  🙂  Below are a couple of photos from the game including the HUGE smile on his face after he ran to the other end to play defense (see look for me to make sure I saw it).  I have to say that I was looking at the stands afterwards ready to yell “that’s my boy!”  I am one very proud father.

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A Young Boy’s Dream

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In Mason’s continued love of baseball we have set a goal to attend a baseball game at each of the 30 MLB stadiums by the time he turns 30 years old.  This past Monday Mason and I took the first step in this effort as we traveled to Houston for an Astros game against the Nationals and I don’t know if I have ever enjoyed a game as much as I did this one.  The excitement and joy that Mason showed was incredible and this trip proved to be a great father/son trip that I will not soon forget.  Below are some of the pictures from our trip.

Checked into the hotel and taking the 28 floor climb in the elevator

 

Kicking back and enjoying the hotel shuttle ride to the game with his complimentary water…He was very fired up about riding in the shuttle

Arrived and ready to enter the Juice

Note the Astros gear, another portion of his dream is to get a jersey from each ballpark. Still learning the loyalty to one team trick.

Starting the game of musical seats with a stop in left center field.

While enjoying centerfield we ran into this overly enthusiastic fan with a glove. Was pounding away at his glove talking to the players and stretching in anticipation of the next ball hit to him…which never occurred. Quite certain he may have passed the age limit for bringing a glove, but I guess you are only as old as you think you are.

With the Astros down in the 8th I got to introduce Mason to the rally hat

In our fifth and final seats for the game, the rally hat worked, temporarily, as the Astros went on to lose in extra innings.

Truth be told, this could have been titled a Daddy’s dream as well.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

What’s Missing?

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On Thursday night about 15 minutes after we had put the boys to bed Mason came running downstairs full of excitement that he finally had a lost tooth.  Over the next couple days he worked the tooth almost nonstop and Saturday night while spending the night at Grammy and Bumpa’s.  He is quite proud and pleased that he has now joined the majority of his friends in the world of missing teeth.

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Eight Years Ago Today

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Almost to the minute that I write this, Melanie and I were wandering through the halls of the federal government of Belize, including walking straight into the office of the Attorney General while he was hard at work, in an effort to obtain our marriage license so we could get married later on that evening on the beautiful beaches.  Our life has been as equally crazy as getting our license that day, if not crazier at times, but I wouldn’t have wanted it any other way with any other woman.  I am blessed to have such a wonderful wife that puts up with me and my antics and despite those antics has given me two incredible boys that perform equally frustrating antics.