Cliffs Riffs - Stuph n Nonsense

First off, let me tell you I was diagnosed and treated for throat cancer in 2013, so I am not talking out of school. You can read about my cancer dance in a book which is for sale here: Otter Was A Beagle-ish Dog.  Having danced that dance gives me the latitude to discuss the potential of devoting a month to being more UNaware of cancer. Actually, this concept will work for pretty much any DISease you want to use to fill in the blank. But my target today is cancer. All due respect - I really think we are aware of cancer - breast cancer, testicular cancer, skin cancer, cancer cancer and every other cancer. We got it. The disease is out there and whacking people willy nilly. I work, and will soon live in, Lowell, Michigan,  a small town that has elevated cancer awareness to a new level. Our high school football coach created The Pink Arrow Project, which has done a HUGE amount for folks and families fighting cancer in our little slice of The Mitten. That is why we are ...

The Pink Arrow football game was the brain child of our former football coach Noel Dean. Back in 2008 he was casting about for a way to help residents of the Lowell area who were battling cancer. Pink Arrow was born and since then the event has grown to be way more than a football game and the best part is that it has been copied all over Michigan and the rest of the country thanks to some national news exposure early on.  For those of you who may be unfamiliar with Pink Arrow Pride , Coach Dean came up with a plan to have his players (the Red Arrows) play a game in pink jerseys and turn that game into a fund raiser to lend a hand to area residents and their families who were fighting some form of cancer. FYI - the tremendous success of Pink Arrow is the reason that Lowell is home to a Gilda's Club. There is no other town of our size that has one. The  story goes that he floated the idea by one of his friends, Perry Beachum, and asked, "Do you think the team will put on pink j...

This story originally ran in the Lowell Ledger and Buyers Guide . As part of our annual Pink Arrow effort, the local paper(s) publish stories of Lowell folks who have been affected by cancer. (They also have stories of other people who are dealing with grief at Gilda's Club.) Anyway - they were nice enough to let me tell my story - here it is: The Pink Arrow Project was the brain child of one Noel Dean, the varsity football coach at Lowell High School. He noticed how many families in the community were being hit with cancer and he decided his team, the Red Arrows, could turn their uniforms and name to pink for one game in the season and use the money raised to help local people in the fight. If you want to appreciate what "Pink Arrow" has done, spend a few minutes doing an internet search on the subject. Be prepared, get a box of tissues. The results in Lowell are fantastic and the concept has been copied and modified all around the country. Our week...

Here are some facts about medical marijuana and marijuana in general when it comes to Michigan in general and Grand Rapids/Kent County specifically. FACT 1: In 2008 the VOTERS in Michigan voted in favor of allowing people to seek treatment for a variety of ills using medical marijuana. An interesting side not on this for me personally was that my father voted with the majority. My dad spent most of his life equating those who used pot as "hop heads" - what he called the heroin addicts he saw as a kid growing up around Detroit. His thoughts on pot changed when my step mother was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer - which took her life. This was before such cancer was being treated with any success and they sought all manner of relief from the symptoms and pain - including getting some pot from a friend of a friend. Seeing the positive use of weed turned my dad around on the subject. In fact, when he was alive he was an advocate for legalizing it in the same manner as alcohol...

Background: I began noticing something in my throat over 18 months ago. At first, I thought it was some kind of cold/flu thing that I just could not kick for a couple weeks. Went to the doc and did a week of antibiotics as a last resort. Didn't work so then I thought it was some kind of allergy. Tried lots of things - acupuncture, a visit to a naturalist and herbs, massage, energy work, and lastly a series of visits with a chiropractor. Many good things happened - I now chew my food more slowly and completely which has helped eliminate acid reflux. Dealt with some mental/spiritual issues. Chiropractor has given me more and better range of motion for my head/neck than I have had in a decade or more. However, the "thing" was still there. I could no longer sing. Sometimes I would almost lose my voice completely - other times is was raspy and sounded nasty. Back to the doc and then to an ENT specialist. He scoped me and found a growth. He was not overly concerned. Told ...

  Throat Cancer Update 2015 - so, as the date of my last treatment grows even more distant my overall response when folks ask me "How are you doing" is kinda like Snoopy here. All happy dance and what not. After all - I keep going in for check ups with all the various doctors involved in my treatment and they keep giving me Grrrrrrrr-eat news: On top of getting good reports from the Medicos on a consistent basis, I have my own gauges of success to go by. First, I ain't dead. I am cool with that. Secondly, I am getting stronger all the time. I can handle the cold temps of The Mitten waaay better this year than last. I can sing full out most of the time - my weight hangs out at 200 lbs with hardly any variance. Thanks to medical marijuana (I drink tea and use edibles) most of my nights are actually spent sleeping. The pot tea helps with my appetite as well.  Since my taste buds are still toast, I can use the boost in that department.   I am thankful the v...

  Life is some kinda weird.   The first time I met Chuck Peterson was at a backyard concert with some Finnish musicians hosted by some friends. Chuck had undergone surgery and treatment for Stage 4 cancer in his esophagus.   At that point Chuck was looking pretty damn good and doing pretty well. At that point Cliff was waiting to find out what was going on in his throat.   My throat cancer story is on this here blog.   Chuck's story is on his blog: Chuck Peterson's Blog   Let me boil some things down. 1. Chuck is one amazing guy. 2. I am fortunate to have known him, however briefly. 3. Chuck is not going to be amongst us for very much longer.   In the last few days it was revealed that cancer had beaten up Chuck's liver and he does not have long. Chuck did not miss a beat - just hours after hearing THAT news, Chuck lay in his hospital bed expressing concern for the pain and discomfort that a mutua...

Throat cancer is striking a lot of us. I was diagnosed and treated in 2013 - if you are so inclined you can read all of my posts on this subject by clicking THIS LINK HERE.  I had three 5-6 hour sessions of IV chemo and 7 weeks of daily radiation (35 treatments). Rather than give you a blow by blow of my treatment, (which you can read by clicking the link) I wanted to boil things down to what I think are four things that will give help you lessen the effects of radiation and chemotherapy and help you in your fight. Not trying to sell anything here - just trying to give anyone fighting throat cancer some useful tools in that battle (to hell with the term "cancer journey" - this is an effin street brawl - you want to use anything and everything in reach to help your cause). These are tools that your treatment team might be overlooking or presenting poorly. 1. FEEDING TUBE - get your feeding tube installed as early as your team will allow it. In my mind I saw a fee...

Just had a wonderful "Eureka" moment as I was washing up some dishes after dinner. (Really, I do dishes - if Julie is going to spoil me with the great food she prepares, I am more than happy to do some clean up. Ask her.) This is a photo reproducing what happened in my brain over the sink. Okay - don't know if you have snooped around my blog here at all, but the BIGGEST attraction on here is my account of dealing with gall stones using an alternative method. If you google - "gallstones olive oil" the #3 link that comes up is to that very blog post from June 2008.   (Read the gallstone post.)   Say what you will about it, to date it has been viewed over 93,000 times and it gets over 1,000 views a week. Nothing compared to an "oops" video of some actress getting out of a car, but certainly the big hitter on my blog. In summary, my whole point of view in that post is that I eschewed the traditional medical method of surgery for a somewhat d...