Baby sisters can be heroes too.

Yesterday my sister Katie was asked to speak at an event promoting blood donations by the United Blood services. Even after reading her words today I tear up thinking of all she has been through. I am so proud of my little sister.

Here is what she said;

My name is Katie Clarke and I am a Cancer survivor who was saved by blood donors.

Wedding day Feb. 7 2004

My fairy tale began five years ago. When prince charming, Ryan, swept me off of my feet, took my hand in marriage and carried me across the threshold we were well on our way to our happily ever after. But the next chapter in our story was scary. Not long after our beautiful wedding the monster of cancer attacked us.

Day 1 at Banner Thunderbird. 3 weeks after her wedding.

We basically spent our honeymoon in the oncology ward of Banner Thunderbird. The nurses called me the cancer bride because my family decorated our honeymoon suite with wedding pictures to cheer me up. We spent the first month in the oncology ward of the hospital and the first year of our marriage in and out of out patient care and Dr’s offices. I can talk for hours about the physical and emotional things that Ryan and I went through, but lucky for you I only have a few minutes to share my story. ☺

I was diagnosed with Acute Promyelocytic Leukemia. No one knows where this monster came from but it caused my bone marrow to over produce white blood cells and not enough of the other blood cells.

My symptoms came on quickly. I was bruising easily from the lack of platelets in my blood. I had red all dots over my legs from my blood vessels bursting in my skin. I experienced a shortness of breath because I did not have enough red blood cells to transport oxygen to my body. I was hallucinating from the white blood cells interfering with the neural connections in my brain.

I thought that I had a weird strain of the flu. It was not until I literally felt like I was dying that I decided to call my doctor to get a check up and some antibiotics. My primary care physician ordered me to go directly to a hematology/ oncology office for more tests. He suspected something was seriously wrong. His suspicions were right.

When I went to my Oncologist, Dr. Joseph Volk’s office for the first time and he tested my blood. He told me that the average blood sample has about a quarter of a million platelets; I had about 8. He also told me that I had more white blood cells than his machine was calibrated to read. He ordered me to go to the emergency room immediately; if I did not get fresh blood in my system before the end of the day I would probably die.

The Dr. called in orders for me to get a blood transfusion STAT while I was driving to the hospital. But there was a shortage in the blood supplies that day and I had to wait 6 agonizing hours before my first transfusion.

And not only did I just have APML I also had an additional condition called Disseminated Intravascular Coagulation or DIC which is also called Death is Coming. My blood was clotting in my veins. The nurses told my husband to start planning my funeral. I had asked to be buried in my wedding dress. I paid a lot of money for that dress and I wanted to get my money’s worth. ☺

Fresh blood and the love, prayers and support of my husband and family were the only things that kept me alive for the first weeks until the chemo could restore my bone marrow to produce the proper blood chemistry again. I had 24 transfusions of red cells and platelets in 21 days.

That is when I became my alter ego of the vampirate. I wore a bandana to cover my baldhead. I wore an eye patch after an adverse reaction to one of my meds caused me to get double vision, my low red blood cell count made me deathly pale and I craved blood. One part vampire- one part pirate.

Transfused blood was the only thing that gave me relief from my malaise and pain. The transfusions instantly caused relief from my symptoms. They gave me energy; color in my face and life again. The transfusions helped my body to heal and gave me my life back. It took a year of chemo, radiation, tests, surgeries and daily doctor visits but I am finally in remission. An APML specialist at UC Davis who studied my case said that she had never seen an APML patient so close to death as I was and be as healthy as I am today.

Katie at one of her fundraisers

My husband is my prince charming. He never left my side and made sure that I had everything that I needed to get well. He was my motivation to recover and we grew so close together. I would not trade our first year of marriage for anything. It has made us who we are today.

Even though my husband is my prince charming, blood donors are my knights in shining armor.

I am now the site coordinator for the university where I work. I recruit new knights from the staff, faculty and students.

You never know who’s life you will save every time you donate. It took 24 people to save mine. I don’t know who they were so I try to thank every donor I meet; as far as I am concerned every donor saved my life.

The moral of this story is that we all have our own challenges in life mine was cancer. But the most important thing that we can consider is how we deal with our challenges and remembering to help others along the way.

And to all of the donors here, from my husband, my family, and me thank you for giving me my happily ever after back.

I got nothing to share, so it's funny time again

Is calling it a "Tard" really any more insulting than calling it a "Tart"?


Maybe he just needed to feel a little sexy that day.


Those extra ketchup packets no longer seems so important, does it?


And I mean it people. Not one thing! If I find one sign hanging from this pipe, heads are going to roll. R-O-L-L!! In fact, write this down and hang it from the pipe.


And his ego grew three sizes that day.





And now for your palate cleanser.

Teach him old school

I try to make this Blog about my family and stay away from the political stuff, but those of you that know me know I have strong opinions about our rights. I saw this video and had to put it up. It is just too perfect. While the left would like to portray my hobbies as vices, I say they are my constitutional rights.




Obama. "Don't Tread on ME!!!"