Columbus Ohio Spoke

Thursday, September 9th 2010


Columbus Ohio, The James Cancer Center

We were a bit late arriving at the James, as they had a great deal of construction around the medical center.

Upon arrival they had special security watch our bikes, we were greeted and given gifts and introduced to our tour guide. His name was Frank and he had a glorious head of white hair and reminded some of Jimmie Stewart. We toured the first floor oncology clinic, and met some of the Oncologists who were also bike riders. They had just completed Pelotonia and had pictures of their cycling team on the wall. It was the Melanoma team, and Ken was a Melanoma survivor, it was great to be able to bring them a success story.

Frank then took us up to the second floor, home of the Infusion clinic, where we spent our time for the remainder of our stay. Although Frank had plans for us to tour the remainder of the facility, we found that we were needed on this floor. As we started interacting with the patients, the staff was quickly able to see what we were able to do for the patients, and their strong reaction to our presence and mission. The nurses started asking us to come and see other patients. Each patient was an individual jewel, each very unique and special. Hugs and hats were shared. Then one of the staff came up and said that we really needed to come and speak with one particular patient. He was there for his first chemo infusion and he was very anxious.

We came and spoke with Mark. Mark was strong and vibrant, but very much new to the cancer patient world. We sat to speak with him, sharing experiences and passions. He seemed much more comfortable knowing that he was not alone in this. He had his laptop on his bed and said that someone told him to connect with “ammer-something”... “You mean Immeman’s Angels?” “Yeah, that’s right... they said they had someone with the same kind of cancer as me I could talk to”. We helped him find the website. How cool is that? Getting to help him find the recourses he needs and they are part of the LiveStrong Army!

We were whisked from room to room now, with new people to meet. When we first arrived, the James was concerned about patient confidentiality, which is a strong part of their role... but the patients were the ones that wanted to meet us... so that made it not just “Ok”.... but incredible! Some wanted to hear encouragement; some wanted to hear the straight truth, some wanted to know that they were not alone in the fight, and others just wanted someone to listen, as they had words of wisdom they wanted to impart.

All in all it was absolutely amazing. We ended up not being able to meet with the Columbus Cancer Support Community, which is a real shame, but we couldn’t leave the opportunity to spread some hope, right before our eyes. Judging from the looks in the eyes of the patients as we left their infusion rooms, it was spreading like wild fire!

We arrived at 10am and didn’t leave till after 1:30, double what we had anticipated staying. Our bellies were empty and complaining, but our hearts were very full.

The next destination was lunch at Schmidt’s Sausage Haus (German food in the German village) to greedily consume wonderful food and top it off with giant cream puffs.

Next Destination: Cleveland to meet with CCC’r Jan Frandsen and the Cleveland Clinic Pan Ohio Hope Ride Team.