An interview with me!

Haha!  No this isn't going to be some weird narcissistic, speak about myself in the 3rd person, coy question and answer thingy.  I just wanted to update you on how this whole crazy, wonderful Woman of the Year campaign ended up, say some thank yous, and let you know what this experience meant to me.  

So if you haven't heard - I won!!  I am officially the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society Gulf Coast Chapter's Woman of the Year 2016!  And what that means from here on out, is mostly a big fat nothing!  HA!  But what it meant on Friday, June 3rd, was that I was able to donate over $241,500 to LLS!!!  And THAT is the true VICTORY!  That is close to a quarter of a million dollars, and near 2.5X my original goal!  That number is staggering, to say the least.  I still can't believe it myself.  Never in my wildest dreams did I think the final number would be anywhere near that.  $241,500 is the most EVER raised by a Gulf Coast Chapter candidate! It is a LOT of money.  Money that YOU should be so proud to be a part of.  This money is going to make a real difference in fighting blood cancers!  Just simply amazing.  So thank you!  Thank you from the depths of my heart.  You made this happen.  You made this possible!!!  

Can we talk a little about June 3rd?  It was an awesome night.  I was fortunate to be able to invite all of my family (including John's which so thankfully I consider mine), Team Awesome, and several close friends to the gala.  It was so very special to have so many people I love and who love me with us that night.  These people were my most avid supporters, my rocks, and cheerleaders and without them I could not have done this.  And many of them are also the ones who miss my mom the most.  Please, if you ever get the chance to attend this gala, take my advice, and do it!  Without a doubt it is the most fun, joy filled, good feeling gala you will ever attend.  The love in the room is almost palpable.  The energy is electric.  You will leave feeling inspired and hopeful, I guarantee it.

My one regret of the evening was that I didn't get to properly thank some people, so I am going to do it quickly (or actually not quickly as it turns out) here...

So proud of this girl and so blessed to call her my friend! She raised over $124K.  That makes her Woman of the Year in my book!

This lady is amazing - she not only lost her mother to blood cancer, but is herself a survivor of blood cancer!  She now is a PA at TCH helping children all over our community fight these diseases.  Oh and she raised a whopping $150K++!!

Lexie and Danielle:  Wow!  Ladies we did it!  You both ran amazing campaigns.  I truly feel as if we are sisters united in this effort, and as a united force, look what we have done!  A half a million dollars for LLS between the 3 of us!   We should be so proud, and I know your grandmother, your mother, and my mother are all up in heaven together smiling down on us.  I can't wait to unite with you ladies again and see what we can do! We are a force, and cancer should be scared, very, very scared!!

McKenzie, the 2016 Girl of the Year and Cancer Survivor.  See her sing "Fight Song" here!  She kills it!

Nicole and Alex:  These are the VERY hardworking women behind the scenes at LLS who so expertly pull off this amazing event.  They are the ones who put together this whole campaign crew and kept all of us nominees running the amazing campaigns that we did!  They did the grunt work, and take none of the credit.  And the encouragement, don't get me started.  Sometimes I honestly wanted to strangle them!  HAHA!  When I was nearing $100K, they were saying, no problem, you can do $150K.  $150K in my sights, "Katie, you will get the most a Houston candidate has every raised", and it didn't stop from there.  They always had faith in me, even when I didn't think it was possible.  Every email ended in, "Let us know what else we can do for you".  Their contribution to my campaign is immeasurable, to say the least.  Congratulations on your first of many $1 million campaigns!

To Team Awesome (read more about them here!) :  You all jumped on board without hesitation.  I know this cause means so much to all of you, but you all also have very busy and important lives.  To dedicate your time to help me with this campaign means so much to me.  You provided me with encouragement, support, donor lists, likes, shares, emails,  auction items, and just general talk-me-off-of-a-ledge confidence that I wouldn't have had without you.  You are truly awesome in every sense of the word. 

Brian Ross:  The minute I saw you at the gala, I began to cry (and am crying now typing this).  I will never forget you sitting across from me at Starbucks back in October, when you were first talking to me about the campaign, telling me that I would get way more out of this experience than anything I put in.  No truer words have ever been spoken y'all (I will get to that next!).   I was so scared to take this on.  It seemed daunting, and what if I let everyone down?  You had such faith in me and I could see in your eyes that day that you wanted this for me just as much as it turned out I needed it.  I will be forever grateful to you for this remarkable experience, exposing me to this wonderful organization, and giving me the spark to light up my silver lining.  Suck it Cancer!

My Dad: Pops, its been such a hard few years.  I can't believe what you, me, and Lindy have been through together.  Its not the way any of us thought our lives would go, I know that.  Like I said in the Team Awesome introductions, the love and care you showed for mom as she battled her many illnesses was the most pure example of living the vows of the sacrament of marriage that I might ever experience.  It was such a wonderful gift that you gave her, and to me and Lindy.  And after her death, your strength, but also vulnerability, your resiliency, and your compassion, is part of how I knew we would make it.  I stopped short there of saying, "make it THROUGH this" because I know we will not ever be THROUGH missing mom, and wishing she was still here.  But together, through God's Grace, we have figured out a way to keep moving, living, loving, and finding joy.  

To John: Thank you for being there for me.  For listening when I wanted to talk, for hugging me when I didn't.  Thank you for letting me live these past few years the way I needed to and picking up the pieces when I was falling apart.  You see the real me even when I don't and you are better than any other person in the world at making me be the best Rita (i.e. Katie) I can be.  In a campaign rooted in joy, you are the source of so much of mine.  I am so grateful for you and love you so much. 

And now to what this campaign has meant to me...its going to be so hard to fully capture.  I accepted this nomination in memory of my mother.  I've said so many times, that I wanted to find a meaningful way to honor her, and raising funds for this great organization, the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, was a perfect fit.  I would raise money that they will use to fund research, help patients and their families, and raise awareness about these diseases.  At the same time, I was going to make the silver lining surrounding our loss brighter.  A win/win.  But honestly, I didn't know if it could work, and there was a part of me that I think didn't want it too.  6 months ago, I still had overwhelming grief for the loss of my mother.  Everyone else seemed to be moving on, getting used to their new normal, but not me.  And I didn't want to deal with it.  The void of her loss felt like the only thing that filled me.  I held onto my grief like a security blanket.  If it went away - would my mom too?  I thought it was all I had left of her, it was my only connection.  But then I started working on this campaign, and everyday I had to face my grief squarely in the face.  I couldn't ignore it or the money wouldn't get raised (thank God for my competitiveness!).  Each time I worked on the campaign was hard.  It was emotional, and draining.  I cried through each and every blog post, letter, email and Facebook update.  But little by little my sadness went away.  That void that consumed me was filling up with JOY again.  The tears that fell were happy ones.  It wasn't any one thing, but all of it together.  It was learning from the lessons of my own interviews, hearing about your struggles and losses and seeing you still standing, it was prayers and words of encouragement.  I was doing something that I was passionate about and I was enjoying doing it (even through the tears!).  I was recognizing that I could still miss my mom but be happy too.  They ARE NOT mutually exclusive. And that is what this campaign has meant to me.  It has given me the gift of my true smile back.  

Just take a look at this picture, shot at the moment they announced me as the Woman of the Year.  Look at all of the love, you can see the JOY, you can see that smile.   I will thank God every time I remember this...




Note: All professional photographs provided by the talented Jenny Antill Photography.  Thank you for capturing such a special night!

An Interview with George Gring

This interview went in a completely different direction than I thought it would.  Actually I really didn't know what to expect, but I am sure it wasn't what George and his mother Katherine ended up sharing with me.  Not sure why, at this point in the campaign (only DAYS to go people!!), I would be surprised at the good of people outshining the black cloud of cancer?  That is what we have learned about from each of our other interviewees, and really the basic reason I signed on to this campaign, to make my silver lining brighter! And in this interview, we see how through JOY cancer doesn't stand a chance!

George Gring is an 8 year old boy.  His mother, Katherine, is one of my Team Awesome members, and truly one of my oldest friends!  About 2 1/2 years ago, George was diagnosed with Burkitt Lymphoma, and is now, thank God, in remission.  I knew when I came up with the idea for the blog that I wanted him to be one of the people I interviewed.  I mean, to be perfectly honest, it's a great story, and one that for sure would tug at your pocketbooks to support this very worthy cause I am campaigning so hard for!  So that's what I set to find out about.  I wanted to hear about how scared he was, how hard it was for him and his family, how sick he felt, how much of an outsider he felt from his peers, but that he's okay now.  That's what makes a great story, am I right?

But that's not the way this interview went.  George had something else in mind, and as much as Katherine and I tried to lead him into saying what we thought we wanted him to say, that was just not what George was there to teach us that day.   So here's how it went...

(We started with the basics, what's your name, how old are you, where do you go to school, do you know how I know you - but we've already touched on much of that, so we'll skip to the "real" questions)

Katie: Do you remember when you got sick?
George: No
Katie: No?
Katherine: You remember when you were sick.
George: No
Katherine: Not at all?  She means, do you remember when you got sick and had to go to the hospital and spend time in the hospital?
George: Oh - Daddy found a bump in my stomach, and I had to go in an ambulance.

Katie: Do you remember how you felt when you first were sick with that bump in your belly?
George: I didn't feel it.
Katherine: You didn't feel great though.  Remember your tummy hurt a little bit?

Playing Football in the yard with his dad and brother

So Katherine explained that George was having issues with an upset stomach starting at or near the beginning of his kindergarten year.  Katherine kind of chalked it up to nerves surrounding the start of a new school etc, but the pain was persistent.  Nothing would really come of it, he was just complaining of pain.  They went to their doctor and decided it might be a lactose intolerance and they took him off milk and it seemed to help some.  But then at the beginning of December his father, Clayton, and George were out playing football.  Clayton felt a large lump which turned out to be a tumor the size of a grapefruit surrounding his small intestine.  Within hours he was headed to the hospital and over the next couple of days they removed the tumor and began chemotherapy.

Katie: Where were you in the hospital?
George: I was in Texas Children's Hospital.

Katie: Do you remember what you had?  What was it called?
George: Cancer

Katie: Do you remember what kind it was?
George: No
Katherine: You don't remember what it was called?
George: Lymphoma?
Katie: Lymphoma, yes.
Katherine: Burkitt Lymphoma

Burkitt Lymphoma is a type of Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma that develops from B cells.  It is one of the fastest growing Lymphomas which is good because it makes it more likely to be cured by treatment.  It can affect both adults and children, and is 1/3 of all Lymphoma's that are diagnosed in children.  Men and boys are also more likely to get Burkitt Lymphoma. If caught and treated with intense intravenous chemotherapy the long term survival rate in children is around 90%!

Katie:  Do you remember wondering what was going on or were you scared to have to go to the hospital?
George: I can't remember.
Katherine: I'm sorry.  Do you remember when they had to take your blood?
George: I think I do, yes.
Katherine:  Remember you never liked them to access your port.  You had to watch the iPad to get through it?
George: Yeah.

I mean, geez, leave the poor kid alone! But now he gets talking a little bit...

Katie: Do you remember how your friends were during this time?  Were they helpful?
George: They sent me a Christmas Tree. (what I really wish you could see was the smile on his face!)
Katie: They sent you a Christmas Tree?
George: Yes, it had stars on it from all of my classmates.  And I also got a go cart.
Katie: A go cart in the hospital? From who?
George:  Santa Claus
Katie: Wow!  Santa came to your hospital room? He knows how to find you no matter what, right?
George: Yep!
Katie: Wow, Santa in the hospital and a Christmas Tree from your friends.  I bet that made you feel really good, didn't it?
George: Yes!

We went on to discuss his treatment regimen which started with 2 rounds of chemo and a total of 18 days in the hospital. From there they would return every 3 weeks for another round, with 5 rounds total.  He also underwent another surgery to check what they thought was a "hot spot" but was just scar tissue.  He was in remission by his birthday on March 4th.  George had to be reminded of all this along the way of our interview.  We reminded him about the PET and CAT scans he had to have, why he had to go back to the hospital because he "just" had a fever,  and how he had to stop school and get a tutor.  Not once did he bring up about how scared he was, how much pain he was in or how sick he felt, although I know all of those things were very much a part of their journey at the time.  I know Katherine VERY much remembers all of this. (And did I mention that George has a little brother, Wade, who was also needing to be cared for and at 3 years old was probably so confused about where his brother, mom and dad were all of the time?)  You should have heard how hard we tried though, to get George to recount and elaborate on this part.  Its almost painful to listen to it again, but we thought we knew what we wanted him to say!

Here is a fabulous video made by TCH which highlights the Gring's experience at this world class hospital.

Then George said, "Can we stop talking about the hospital now?"  I thought Katherine was going to have a heart attack!  Ha!  She eventually fessed up though and said he really only remembers the good parts.  So then we started talking about the hospital atmosphere and the people at the hospital.  Now I couldn't get George to stop talking.  He told me about his room, and where it was in comparison to the game room.  He recounted everything that was in the game room, and what his favorites were.  He remembers the friends he made in the hospital and told me about them.  He even reminded Katherine about the family room where they could all go and eat dinner together at a table.  That was obviously very special to him.  He remembers his doctors and nurses, and what he made a point to tell me was that they were really nice.  Not that they were constantly poking and prodding him, but that they were nice.  He remembers that he lost his first tooth in the hospital and the tooth fairy was able to find him there.  You see, George didn't necessarily want to stop talking about the hospital, he wanted to stop talking about the sickness.  What he wanted to tell me about was all of the good things that happened, that's the story he wanted to share.  The story was that even though it was scary at times, there was still good.  People made sure of it.

George and his team of doctors

Some of the wonderful nurses at TCH that treated George

And then we got to his favorite part:

Katie: I hear you have a really super famous friend?
George: It's not just one friend, it's a team.
Katie: A whole team?  Tell me about that super famous team.
George: They're called the Panthers, and the person I know best is Cam Newton.
Katie: You know Cam Newton??
George: Yes!
Katie: Oh my gosh!  Patrick (my son) is going to be so jealous!
George: Because I got sick, I got to make a wish, and I wished to meet the Panthers.

George walking on to the field with Cam Newton

For those unfamiliar, the Make-A-Wish Foundation is a non-profit which arranges experiences described as "wishes" for children with terminal or life-threatening illnesses.  Every 37 minutes a sick child's wish is granted in the United States!  This is a special organization that brings so much joy and happiness to the children and families of those facing these scary diseases.  They bring the JOY back into these families' lives.  Through the Make-A-Wish Foundation George, and the whole family, got to travel to North Carolina to be a Panther for a day right along side of Cam Newton and enjoy all of the spoils that come with that.  It was an incredible day for everyone involved and they have remained close with the team and continue to visit them every season.  Much to his mother's surprise, he plans to see "like 3 or 4" games this fall!  HA! George and his wish was even featured on ESPN's My Wish series!  What an amazing gift this wish was for him - I mean you can't tell me you made it to when Cam is putting on those gold shoes without crying.  So special!

Carolina Panther's official program

While that is an exceptional experience, so many people had a hand in making their fight against Lymphoma joyful for George.  You heard it from him; it was his friends and teachers at school, his doctors and nurses, even down to the people who designed the hospital to make it comfortable and fun for those patients (ok - that's a shameless plug because that's what I used to do - but it does make a difference! ;) ).  We didn't even touch on the Mighty George team that Katherine and Clayton's friends set up who rallied around this family to offer food, activities and distractions for George's brother Wade, made t-shirts and bracelets, and hosted the most fun family party at Sky High to show their support!  I am hear to tell you, it takes a village and our village is good!

Mom, dad and me sporting our Mighty George bracelets while mom was getting a round of chemo!

So there you have it friends!  George taught me my own lesson today!  I felt like God worked through the stubbornness of this healthy 8 year old boy who was not willing to participate in the interview I thought I wanted.  It was like He was saying, "Hey Katie!  Your missing your own point!" with every short answer or "I don't know" that George gave me.  It wasn't until we started talking about all of the good that he opened up, and I opened my eyes.   Cancer can NOT beat the good of people.  We will always rise above and be stronger! It can not take our JOY!

George and me after I interviewed him...he's still smiling!

So WOW!  The Finale is this Friday night!  The campaign is almost over!  We have fought so hard and raised so much money!  There is still time to raise more though!  If you have not donated yet please do so by clicking over to my donation page.  I am overcome by gratitude, and humbled by your support every day.  Not just through your donations, but through your kind words of encouragement and praise, and your own stories of struggle with blood cancers and how you overcame them.  These have lifted me up and kept me going in this campaign, and I thank you for that (because I have needed it for sure at times!!).   Keep fighting for the JOY friends!  xo

Couldn't forget about when the Harlem Globetrotters visited George!  So cool!

An Interview with Beverly Hughes

Remember during the last interview with Dr. Rice how I was telling you about the exceptional staff at Methodist Hospital?  Well, I am so happy to have one of these amazing staff members here on the blog today!  Beverly Hughes is the head nurse on the 8th Floor of the Main Building at Methodist Hospital.  While I appreciated all of the care we received at all of the different parts of Methodist (mom had a pacemaker and was in the world renowned DeBakey Heart & Vascular Center, as well as a couple of ICU units during her illness, some ER visits, etc), we were always relieved to be headed back home.  And our home in Methodist was the 8th Floor of the Main Building.  They were so compassionate and caring, and really, really good at what they did.  To be quite honest, my mom was not an easy patient.  For those of you who didn't know her, lets just say she could be a little particular.  She likes things the way she liked them.  Those nurses, and staff had their work cut out for them.  HA!  And they rose to the challenge, exceeding above and beyond their job description 100% of the time.

Nursing is such an important job.  In fact, my mom was a nurse, and coincidentally her first job was at Methodist.  She took so much pride in her career.  She worked in labor and delivery and was always so happy to point out around town all of the babies (usually full grown adults at this point) who she helped deliver.  But back to nursing.  They not only have to have such a wealth of knowledge to be able to assist and coordinate in patient care, but they also have to be able to provide emotional support for their doctor's patients.  Their contribution to the patient's overall recovery is immeasurable and often overlooked.  I sure did mean to get this post together and out in honor of Nurses Day on May 12th, but alas I got lost in the pre-bowling party craze and I missed it.  But please do not wait for next May 12th to roll around to thank the nurses in your life for committing their lives to help make others' lives better!

So as I get off my soapbox, I introduce to you Beverly Hughes...

Katie:  Tell me a little about yourself? 
Beverly:  I am an Oncology Nurse Specialist at HMH and I work with hematology and oncology patients on 8NW and inpatient Bone Marrow Transplantation. I have been a Heme/Onc nurse forever [since 1972].

Katie: What is your job? 

Beverly:  I provide patient education for hematology and oncology patients; I am also responsible for educating nurses on the administration of chemotherapy, informing/educating the staff about new drugs approved by the FDA, new procedures, equipment, etc.

Katie: Why did you become a nurse? 

Beverly:  When I was in high school here in Houston, I was a Volunteer Nurse’s Aide at Texas Children’s Hospital – I volunteered every weekend for about 2 years – that is when I decided to be a nurse [rather than a marine biologist!].

Katie:  How did you find your way to Methodist Main 8? 

Beverly:  I have worked with the nursing staff for the past 27 years – I have enjoyed/enjoy working with Dr. Rice and all of the Hematology staff as well as the Oncologists who practice at HMH.

Katie:  What keeps you coming back to work each day? 

Beverly:  I enjoy working directly with patients every day – patients and families are the best part of my day. I remember your Mother while she was on 8NW and I remember meeting you sister who is a pediatrician.

Katie:  What makes your staff so special? 

Beverly:  Compassion comes to mind first; trying to make patient and their families/friends as comfortable as possible while going through treatment.

Beverly also mentioned in our email exchanges that she does her own work fundraising for LLS (not sure how she has the time or energy)!  She has participated and/or worked at the LLS Light the Night walk for the past 2 years with a team from Methodist, and they have plans to do it again this year!  In fact, I organized a team to walk in the 2014 event just a few short weeks before mom passed away and I learned about it from the flyers her team had posted around the hospital.  The Ginger's Army team raised around $6,000 for LLS and had over 30 people walking with us that night!  It is a really special event.  It takes place at night and there are lanterns that they pass out in different colors, white for survivors, red for patients, and yellow to honor those that have lost their fight.  The sky becomes illuminated with the glowing of lanterns.   Its moving, encouraging, and emotional as you are literally taking steps toward a cure for these blood cancers!  This year's Houston Light the Night walk takes place on October 8th!  Good work to Beverly and the Methodist team for donating their time, energy, and money to this wonderful event.  And thank you Beverly for sharing your story!

Thanks for visiting again and checking out another interview!  I really have loved doing these for you during this campaign and hope you have enjoyed them too!  But don't worry, there is still more to come.  I am going to try to squeeze in some more before the June 3rd deadline which is quickly approaching.  Which brings me to my friendly donation reminder!  Only 10 short days to make your vote count (hint: DONATE HERE) towards research, patient well being, and a cure!!  Thanks friends!  I'll be back soon!!

An Interview with Dr. Lawrence Rice

This interview is fascinating, informative, and like the others, extraordinarily hopeful, but comes from a completely different perspective.  This is an interview with Dr. Lawrence Rice, Chief of Hematology at Houston Methodist Hospital, and most importantly to me, my mother's physician.   My dad and I met with Dr. Rice at his office in Smith Tower about a week ago and he sat with us for almost an hour to talk to us for this interview.  This guy has a lot of more important things to do, I know that for sure, but he was nice enough to give us such great information to share with you today.  For my dad and I though, the whole experience was special because at almost exactly 18 months from the last time we saw him, we got to sit down with him face to face and say, "Thank you".  We got to thank him for never giving up on my mom and trying till the end to cure her.  Although we could never thank him enough, it felt so good to let him know how grateful we were for his care and expertise.

Katie:  So tell me about yourself?  Where are you from?  Where did you study?  How did you get to Houston?
Dr. Rice: I was born in New York but grew up in Miami...I went to college at the University of Florida, and medical school at Emory in Atlanta.  I have been in Houston forever, I came here as an intern in 1974.  And I tell people I haven't left because I can't find anyone to pay me so much to do so little.

OK, you can mark that down as the understatement of the year.  I am pretty sure he never stops working!

Dr. Rice came to Houston in 1974 for his Internal Medicine internship, residency, and Hematology fellowship at Baylor College of Medicine.  He was then appointed to the faculty and became a Professor of Medicine and Professor of Thrombosis Research. For more than 20 years, he served as the Hematology Program Director and Director of the required medical student Hematology/Oncology course.  A fun note, my sister Lindy took this course when she was in medical school at Baylor College of Medicine.  He says, "she was forced to endure it"! Ha!  I'd say she was lucky to learn from the best.  In 2007 he became Chief of Hematology at Methodist and Professor of Medicine at Weill Cornell Medical College.  

Katie: What drew you to Hematology?
Dr. Rice:  It's a fascinating field.  It's a very broad field.  I think it's the broadest field in medicine because you have to know so many things.  Not only how to treat cancer but you have to know all about infections.  You have to know all about blood clotting and bleeding.  You have to know as much about liver diseases as liver specialists do.  So, it's intellectually stimulating and exciting...many breakthroughs have occurred in the field of Hematology and then were translated to other fields.  So it's very exciting to me...I am a pure hematologist.  I treat both what we call benign hematology, which is often life-threatening and not so benign, but not technically cancer.  Your mom had "benign" hematology problems at first.  But I also treat blood cancers like Leukemia, Lymphoma, and Myeloma.  

For those of you who don't know the background on mom, she first developed Idiopathic Thrombocytopenia Purpura (ITP) in October of 2011 which is an autoimmune disease where your body attacks its own platelets.  This is when she became a patient of Dr. Rice.  Her body also went on to attack her red blood cells, the Evan's Syndrome (a combination of ITP and autoimmune hemolytic anemia).  As if she didn't have enough relatively rare blood problems, she also experienced for a time Pure Red Cell Aplasia.  These autoimmune diseases are life-threatening, however many people, as my mom did, can be treated and move into remission.  But as these are all blood-related diseases, a patient with her history has a greater chance to develop blood cancer down the road, and that is what happened with mom, and she was diagnosed with Large B-Cell Lymphoma in December of 2013.  So clearly, with her history, we felt so fortunate to have an expert in Hematology work with my mom's very complex and ever-changing medical make-up.  

Dr. Rice has contributed to many studies, research papers, and text books, treated countless number of patients, but I love where his passion lies.  He loves to teach.   And we could brag on all of his accomplishments and accolades, but his students are by far his crowning achievement.  

Dr. Rice: "Of course there are patients and families who appreciate what I was able to do for them (um hello, that's us!), and while I have written and published well over a hundred articles and dozens of textbook chapters, my real legacy is the Hematologists all over the country, all over the world, whom I've trained and who still email me every day for advice on challenging patients.  My greatest accomplishment in my career is an educator, a clinical educator...Having said that though, when my phone goes off the patient always comes first.  But that's another thing I teach my students".

And it's true.  I told him this too.  I always felt like he was working on my mother's case 100% of the time.  Like she was his only patient.  I knew it couldn't be true, but his dedication to her case seemed to be his principal priority.  And honestly, that's how we felt with all of the doctors, nurses, medical and non-medical staff at Methodist Hospital.  It's an extraordinary place.  One that is equipped to treat the whole body.  The care mom received there was second to none, but what impressed me the most was the compassion for the patient and the patient's family that was a part of everyone who worked there.  Nothing was more important than what was going on in your hospital room.  I think I took for granted before mom was sick how lucky we were to have such a first class institution literally in our back yard, but after our time at Methodist, I will never stop singing its praises.    

Ok, this is getting long!  Enough about us, lets get to the reason we're here...

Katie: From your perspective as a clinical researcher, how important is funding from a non-profit like the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society?
Dr. Rice: It is essential.  It is essential.  We've made so much progress.  The outlook for these disorders is improving every day and we would never be where we are today without it.  We are moving forward so rapidly and it takes money to do it.

My Dad: You mentioned forward-looking things.  What's on the horizon for Leukemia & Lymphoma?
Dr. Rice:  Most of the recent advances have to do with genetic and molecular mechanisms.  There is exploding knowledge in some of the genetic causes and influences on these disorders.  Now we are able to target these genetic abnormalities in a growing number of ways.  An absolute breakthrough drug was Imatinib for Chronic Myelogenon Leukemia where we knew what the abnormal chromosome was, what the gene product was and we could specifically target it with a pill you take once a day.  People used to die in three or four years and now live forever.  But we're starting to be able to do that for other Leukemias and Lymphomas which are more complicated because in CML there is consistent abnormality, and in these other disorders there are usually multiple abnormalities, and not everyone has the same ones.  But we're learning to sort those out and to develop specific treatments that target specific gene abnormalities.  Immuno-therapy is another huge emerging area.  For decades people have wanted to harness the body's immune response against the cancer, but now we have new exciting leads that are spectacularly successful in preliminary studies and need to be expanded and made more practical.   

My Dad: And this is where your own immune system is trained and restructured to attack?
Dr. Rice:  One of the biggest recent breakthroughs is that we have learned that cancer is able to shut off the immune system and escape from it.  And now, we are leaning how to reactivate it and prevent the cancer cells from shutting the immune system off, and that leads to the destruction of the cancer cells.  I am certain there are going to be Nobel Prizes in the next year or two based on this; this is an expanding area of interest.  We are doing some of this work here at Methodist and I am able to refer my patients to those studies.  Antibody treatments is a slightly different way to go about things but has also greatly improved the outlook for many people.  

Katie: Why is this research important?
Dr. Rice: [Leukemia and Lymphoma] are 5% of all cancers, and in young people it's a higher percentage. It's 5% of all cancers but the importance is way out of proportion to the 5%.  A very high number of breakthroughs in cancer therapy came through studies and treatments of Lymphoma and Leukemia and these were later applied to other cancers successfully.  The first wide spread cancers to be cured, the way to use chemotherapy, the way to use radio therapy in curative ways came through studies of Leukemia and Lymphoma...We are on the cusp of these new breakthrough therapies and the leader in all of these studies is Leukemia and Lymphoma.

Katie:  The research affects everyone?
Dr. Rice: Everyone.  Everyone.

The final question I asked Dr. Rice was, "For those of us who are not in the medical community, what can we do to help, to advance this research?" "You don't have to go to medical school to help" was his immediate answer.  And then he thought about this one a while (even overnight and sending me an email the next day), and it turns out the simple answer was the best, we can donate money.  We can raise awareness, and we can donate money.   That is what we are doing with this campaign.  You heard Dr. Rice here.  The research is moving so quickly, and advances are being made all of the time.  But they need our support in the way of funding to make it happen.  In the email he sent me the day after our interview he also mentioned that he recently spoke at a symposium on Chronic Leukemia that LLS sponsored, and they have provided funding for his clinical fellowship trainees and the fellows' research.  Dr. Rice noted that the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society is also supportive of many educational and patient support efforts, not just research.  The money is being put into action but that would all end without our support.  

This is a fun competition, sure.  And turns out I am super competitive and want to win, of course.  But here, in this interview, is the real reason I signed up for this campaign 6 months ago.  Every dollar raised is a vote for me.  And while in just over 2 weeks, those votes won't mean a darn thing, those dollars will mean a great deal.  Have you ever voted in an election, but left feeling like your vote doesn't matter?  I can assure you, that in this election, IT DOES!!!  Vote here, vote for breakthroughs, vote for new treatments, vote for a CURE!