Operation Jack

Fighting autism, one mile at a time.

Archives for 2010

Family Updates: Grandma's Groovin' and Jack's Jumpin'!

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Happy Tuesday everybody! I have a couple of quick things to go over, including an update on my grandma and some cool things about Jack’s progress.

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been before, click here to see why I’m running 61 marathons this year for Train 4 Autism!

Grandma Bea Update
If you’ve been following along, you know my Grandma Bea had a major heart problem last week. Like, it stopped and she needed CPR from a stranger while she was lying on the ground in her own blood outside a Target. And if that stranger wasn’t there, my grandpa is a widower right now. But all’s well that ends well, and she got a pacemaker put in yesterday.

Today, she should be going home. Yesterday, I left work a little after noon to make sure I could be there to keep my grandpa company. That was a good call. We chatted, I got a little bit of work done on my laptop. His niece was also there and they were chatting. Everything seemed fine while we waited. The procedure went fine and the cardiologist came in and let us know she was fine. It was weird — I swear the doctor was younger than me. It was a trip — for the first time ever, I got the feeling my generation is taking care of the world!

Side note on hanging out with my grandpa: He’s the nicest man you’ve ever met, and a lot of you have met him. Last week, he asked me where I was running and I told him Santa Rosa. He told me about he got drunk up there and chased a truck and darn near killed himself back when he was young.

Yesterday, he asked me where I’m running this weekend. Pocatello, Idaho.

“I got drunk one time in Boise,” he told me. 87 years old and he gets cooler by the day!

Anyways, we went back up to the room and my dad and one of his childhood friends who is in town visiting (and has known my grandparents for more than 50 years). I think that at about that point, my grandpa said that he was glad I showed up, because he would have been a complete mess without me there. That made me pretty glad I made the choice to go there.

I left and everything seemed pretty under control, putting a good cap on a week that could have been really bad.

One More Thing About Her And Operation Jack
Last week, I asked you guys to contribute $5 (or more) to Operation Jack in her honor, and we raised $235. I told her yesterday about 30 minutes before she went in for her procedure and she was absolutely floored. She was really happy about that and I could tell she was touched.

So to those of you who donated, thank you so much! Not only for donating to a great cause, but for stepping up when I asked you to support me and my family. It really was wonderful to tell this to my grandma.

Quick Jack Update
So, have a couple of quick tidbits about Jack that make me smile just thinking about them while I write them.

First, when he wakes up in the morning, he typically wakes up and turns on the lights, turns on a noisy toy, turns on the TV … basically, he gets going with all of his sensory stimulation as his way of starting the day. But a few times in the past week or so, most recently yesterday, when he woke up he came straight to our bed and crawled in. He just wanted to lay down next to us and chill. As a parent, when you can remember when your child didn’t think you were anything more than moving trees in his intoxicating world, it sure is wonderful to get that show of affection.

As a parent, one of the greatest gifts is the unconditional love you get from your children. Jack’s always been behind, and it’s very tough to read him. So when we get something like this from him, it’s pretty cool. Just like any little kid, Jack wants to be near his mom and dad! That might be the first time I’ve ever used “just like any little kid” and “Jack” in the same sentence and I love it!

Also, our dinner table is rectangular and seats six. He sits at one end and I sit at the other. He’s had that same seat for years. For whatever reason, he wanted to sit in my seat last night. So we let him. I was sitting in the chair next to him hanging out with the kids and at one point, he stood up out of the chair, put the side of his face up near mine and just stood there. After a few seconds, when I could tell that he was just waiting, I gave him a kiss on his cheek and he promptly sat back down. I loved knowing that he wanted that from me and got out of his chair specifically for that purpose!

He’s been on his DAN protocol for a little bit and it seems like he’s really starting to get a little better!

Race 4 Free
I need to plug this more often. We’ll pay for a race entry for you any race you’re running. It’s not too tough to earn it, and you’re helping a great cause! Click here for details!

OK, that’s all for today. Have a great Tuesday everybody!

Stuff For Monday

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Well here we go, another Monday. I have a few things I want to share with you. I guess this is somewhat of a cross between one of my weekend recaps, a 10 random things blog and a “What’s up with Operation Jack” posting. I guess it’s 6 random things from the weekend that are up with Operation Jack. Or something like that.

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, click here to see why I’m running 61 marathons for Train 4 Autism this year.

Speaking of which, I ran No. 40 of the year yesterday in Santa Rosa, Calif. Read the recap here.


My medal hanger for the year. 21 more and it’s full!

Grandma Bea Update
As I mentioned in my blog here on Thursday, my grandma had a serious health scare last Wednesday. She needed CPR to save her life after having heart failure, but she had a temporary pacemaker put in and she stabilized.

She’s having a permanent pacemaker put in today, and while it’s a fairly routine surgery, let’s be realistic — it’s a pretty scary thing. So for those of you who pray, please say a prayer for her!

By the way, that fundraising push I made in her honor in last Thursday’s blog raised $235. She’s going to be so excited — I’ll probably go visit her today or tomorrow and tell her. Thank you all so much!

Honey-Do List
I’ve barely had any honey-do lists this year, because I’m always out of town on the weekends. This weekend, though, I didn’t fly out until 2 p.m. on Saturday, so I had a little bit of time before I left. Tiff was hesitant to give me a list of things to do, because she I was traveling in the afternoon, but I was pretty excited. I got to be a normal dad with a list for once!

I took Ben to taekwondo, plunged the heck out of a toilet, fixed a printer, picked Ben up, went to the store to buy toner, fixed the garbage disposal, brought in the trash cans, created a chart to help Tiff track Jack’s supplements, I was going to fix the sprinklers but I told Tiff what the issue was and she got them easily taken care of … heck, I don’t remember what else. It was awesome, though! And then I packed, ate lunch and went to the airport.

Operation Jack 7-Hour Challenge
If you’re in the Portland area this weekend, we’re having a 7-hour timed race to benefit Operation Jack on Sunday. We’re looking for more runners and volunteers. If you run, you don’t have to run the whole thing. You can just run for an hour or however long you want to.

It’s going to be a fun event and we’re also going to have a barbecue on Saturday night. If you have any interest, e-mail me and let me know! All participants and volunteers will get free Operation Jack gear! < a href="http://www.dailymile.com/events/26069-operation-jack-7-hour-challenge" target="_blank">Here’s the info on the race.

Cool Idea From A Friend Of Mine
A college friend of mine named Stacy is going to an amusement park with her family this weekend. She asked me to send her Operation Jack shirts for them to wear to the park, and she had two great reasons. First, they’re all going to wear them, which will make it easier for them to spot each other and stay together.

Also, with a group of four people all walking around with shirts with the web address on it, surely it will prompt somebody to ask about Operation Jack or go check out the site! So, good idea, Stacy. If anybody ever wants to do something like this, let me know and I’ll some shirts out to you.

NFL Pick-Em Contest
Just throwing out a reminder that I’m going to have a pick-em contest this year as a fundraiser. Hopefully, a lot of you participate. It’s gonna be $20 for the entire season. You’ll pick weekly winners — no spread, no weighted games. Just pick each game and who you think will win. You’ll get a point for each game you pick correctly and the winner will be the person who does the best over the course of the season.

First place will pay 40% of the pool, second place will pay 20% and the remaining 40% will go to Operation Jack. So easy, fun, a chance to win something, NFL and only $20. Who’s in?

Here’s the link: http://operationjack.football.cbssports.com/.

The password to join the league is sixtyone

Enter the league and then click on the “Donate Now!” link at the top of any page on this site and donate $20. I’ll see it come through, I’ll check the site with the pool and I’ll confirm that I’ve got you as paid.

Lesson About Diet Coke
I learned a lesson about Diet Coke yesterday. If you’re ever 65 miles from the airport in Oakland, and you buy an extra large soft drink at In-N-Out, and you drink 2 1/2 of those before filling it up for the drive, and you get stuck in traffic, and you drive over bumpy roads 90 minutes later, and you don’t want to get off the highway in a bad part of Oakland … you’re not going to be happy. Now you know.

OK, that’s all for today. Have a great Monday everybody!

Race Report: Santa Rosa Marathon

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Sunday’s Santa Rosa Marathon was almost more about the Pocatello Marathon for me than it was about Santa Rosa. I needed to get on track mentally for Pocatello, and that’s exactly what I did. I could have been faster that I was today, but I couldn’t be happier than how I am right now.

I’ve been in a bit of a slump lately, running only one Boston qualifier since I went 3:10 at Fargo on May 22. There have been pretty fair reasons for some of the slower times — pacing duties, challenging courses at high elevation, high heat and an injury to the IT band in my right leg. However, I’ve been doing a fairly good job in my training lately and I’m confident I’m regaining a bit of the speed I surrendered in June and July.

I’m eyeing next week’s race as a huge opportunity, but I wanted a confidence booster. I know I can run fast and I think I can run fast now, so I wanted to go out and get it done today. I wasn’t necessarily dwelling on putting together the race of my life, but I wanted to see some success.

Santa Rosa’s course is pretty nice. It’s flat and fast, peaceful and scenic. It’s in wine country, although it was more of a scenic run through the woods. I would have never known I was near vineyards if you wouldn’t have told me, but it was still a nice run through a well-developed trail network. About eight miles were run on gravel paths that weren’t optimal for footing.

I wanted to go out, run by heart rate and not fear a bonk. That’s exactly what I did and I was pretty happy with how it went. I stayed under control, not letting my heart rate creep beyond my target rate of 170-172. Each of the first seven miles were between 6:48 and 6:59. Mile 8 was 7:00 on gravel. I felt fairly quick, with good stride and turnover. And really, that’s all I needed from the race to give me confidence. I kept at it and started to feel some pain by about mile 10. I slowed a bit, but it wasn’t significant.

I hit the half in 1:33 and change, but knew with the pain I was feeling that I probably wasn’t going to come in sub-3:10. The course was two loops of a 13.1-mile route and I knew I’d be slower the second time around. I figured I was a lock for a sub-3:15 and a BQ, though.

I kept rolling, picking up some momentum and moving past some people between miles 14 and 18. I was actually in good fighting shape for a 3:10 at 20, needing 7:15s or so the rest of the way. I didn’t have the fight, though, and faded with miles in the 7:30-7:40 range over the final 10K.

I crossed the mat in 3:12:58 according to my Garmin. I took 10th overall and 3rd in my age group. I didn’t put together a tremendously solid race, but it was good enough and it gave me the confidence boost I needed. I’m running a downhill course next weekend, something I’m very strong on. I know, everybody is faster running downhill than uphill, but downhill running is a strength of mine.

I wanted something to convince me I can reasonably go after sub-3 next weekend and I’m convinced. I think I’ll be able to head out and run in the 6:35-6:45 range for a while. Ordinarily, I might feel a bit guilty about going after a PR on a downhill course, but I’ve run those before and there are no free miles. They beat the heck out of your quads and can be a disaster. And of course, I’ll never apologize for anything I accomplish in my 41st marathon of the year!

So, mission accomplished in Santa Rosa. I ran a decent race. I knocked some of the rust off my wheels. And I ignited my competitive fire as I head into a PR attempt.

40 down, 21 to go. Look out, Pocatello. I’m coming to get you!


I accidentally had my camera on video, so I had to take a screen cap of a paused video. Terrible!

A Day To Remember And To Forget

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I don’t even know where to start this blog. I’m in such a haze writing it. Yesterday was a day that ended up OK, but I’ll never forget it. To put it simply, I almost lost my grandma.

Real quick, if you’ve never been here before, click here and see why I’m running 61 marathons this year for Train 4 Autism. But read this blog entry first.

Yesterday at about 11:15, I was sitting at work, plugging away, and I got a call from my stepmom. She told me my grandma had fallen and chipped her tooth and her mouth was bleeding. That wasn’t the most out-of-the-ordinary thing, but my stepmom told me that she heard somebody administered CPR on my grandma, and that doesn’t fit in with a chipped tooth. Something certainly seemed odd.

My grandma has asthma, and she’s 85, so several members of my family wanted me to go to the hospital to check on her status. If you’ve been following along, you know that three weeks ago, my grandparents moved to an assisted living facility about seven minutes from my work. The hospital she went to is five minutes from my work. I called the place they live at just to make sure my grandpa was there with her and he was. So, not really fearing much, I left immediately for the hospital just to make sure everything was OK.

When I got there, I went to the ER and they had no record of her being there. They checked a couple of different ways and she wasn’t in the system. So, I went outside and called the assisted living facility to confirm, and they swore that she was there with my grandpa, taken by paramedics. So I went back in and asked again. They had no record. They checked something else and still couldn’t find her. I was about to go back to work and tell my family it was a false alarm, because she wasn’t there. I asked one last time, because I felt about 60 percent sure she was there, and the woman told me that she found her, but she had been checked in with a different name. I asked if it was her maiden name, which would have been weird, because she’s been married 66 years. The woman told me that no, when patients are more critical, they check them in with a different name. That’s when I became concerned.

“Is she OK?”

“You just need to get a security pass and go to bed number two and talk to the doctors.”

WOW. That’s when I got really concerned. I got back there pretty quick and saw four or five patients crowded around a person who was mostly covered up. I couldn’t tell who it was. There were machines and tubes all over the place. I saw my grandpa sitting in a chair in the corner, crying with a woman consoling him. I knew I was in the right place, so I told him I was there and I went to take a look at the person. It was my grandma. Her face was pretty swollen with a lot of blood coming out of her mouth. I hate to say this, but she looked terrible. I couldn’t tell if she was alive or dead, conscious or not.

I asked one of the doctors if she was alive and they told me yes, that she was slightly coherent, too. I stepped back to my grandpa and he started telling me about how they were at Target and she fell and he wasn’t sure what was going on. He didn’t have his hearing aid in, so it was a little difficult to communicate with him. Within about a minute, a doctor came over to us with the infamous, “let’s go into the hallway to talk” line.

He told us her heart had slowed down quite a bit while they were at Target, and she passed out, landing on her face, which caused the bleeding. She needed a temporary pacemaker put in immediately and would probably need a permanent pacemaker put in about two or three days later.

I loudly gave my grandpa the quick version and the doctor asked him if he’d sign some papers. He said he would, and within about three minutes, my grandma was getting wheeled on her gurney to get that procedure done. I couldn’t make any calls, but I sent some texts, emails and Twitter direct messages to relatives to let them know what was going on.

While my grandma was getting wheeled down the hall, it was pretty shocking to see her with all the tubes and in her hospital attire. She looked more frail than I’d ever thought she was. The ER trauma doctor was walking with me telling me that he had checked her out and she didn’t suffer any trauma. There were no head or spine injuries and no broken bones. But he told me that an off-duty ER physician’s assistant performed CPR on my grandma while she was out at Target and that saved her life. He seemed like he was 100 percent without doubt when he told me that she would have died right there on the ground if not for that person.

I was shocked like I haven’t been shocked in a long, long time. My wife’s grandma is doing terribly and probably isn’t going to be around too long. I couldn’t believe that I had almost lost my grandma first. My grandma is 85, but she’s pretty upbeat and coherent for 85. Here we are in February:


She still has a lot of life in her.

It just didn’t seem right. She’s a pretty young 85. Everything happens for a reason and I believe in God’s plan. Three weeks ago, she just moved about 45 minutes south from her home of 42 years to live in a new assisted living facility. Yesterday, she was on a group outing with her home to go shopping at Target. If she’s at her old home yesterday, I’d be dusting my suit off for a funeral right now. If that mystery person doesn’t perform CPR, it’s the same situation. And speaking of that, I couldn’t imagine performing CPR on an 85-year-old woman bleeding heavily from her mouth. As I said on my Facebook yesterday, thank God for good doctors and good samaritans. I don’t know what more I can say about that.

Anyways, she’s going to be fine. The procedure went fine yesterday and she’s going to get a permanent pacemaker pretty soon. She’s in Cardiac ICU right now and will stay there for the duration of her stay — probably a little less than a week. I stuck around for about four hours, taking care of my grandpa.

He’s a pretty emotional guy, and he was swinging all over the place. He was upset, and then he was OK cracking jokes. At one point, he started telling me he was proud of me and wanted to know where I was running this weekend. Santa Rosa, California.

“Oh, I remember being there when I was young,” he said. “I got pretty drunk, then started running behind a truck, trying to chase it and grab onto it. I nearly got myself killed!”

Ahhh, the things you learn during emotional moments, huh?

“There’s nothing worse than a wine drunk, Sam.”

Glad I stopped drinking, I guess. Anyways, he started placing blame on himself, saying that maybe it was his fault or maybe he could have done something differently. I told him to stop being ridiculous, that her heart would have stopped beating at that moment no matter where they were or what they were doing. They were in the absolute right place at the right time and everything was going to be fine.

My brother came by and finally my dad and my stepmom were able to get there. At that point I went back to work, but I pretty much spaced for the rest of the day. And that’s pretty much it for my story. My grandma’s going to be fine. But she was way too close to dying face down in her own blood yesterday. I’ll be forever grateful to whoever it was that administered CPR on her.

One last thing … I normally have a weekly contest where you guys pick my time. I’m not going to do that this week, just because I’m just not in the mood to have fun. But here’s what I want to do:

My grandma’s youngest son, my uncle Marty, has autism. He’s 50 and somewhere between moderate and severe. He’s definitely got his problems and he’s nowhere near mainstream. As a result of being a mother of an autistic child who has led a life of difficulty, she has formed a pretty special bond with Tiffany and she’s very proud of Jack.

So, instead of having a contest, I want y’all who would be willing to play to donate $5 (or more) in her honor and I’m going to tell her what the number ends up being. I’ll randomly draw one out of every 10 of you who donate and give you your choice of an Operation Jack t-shirt, tech shirt or sweatshirt.

So that’s all. Thanks for getting to the bottom of this. I hope you have a great weekend!

Video Of The Day

Quick DAN Doctor Update

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I’m going quick with the blog today. They don’t always have to be super-long, right? I have a quick update on Jack and a couple of announcements I wanted to repeat. You’ll be back to work in three minutes flat!

Real quick, just in case you’ve never been here before, click here to see why I’m running 61 marathons this for Train 4 Autism.

DAN Doctor Update
I don’t think Tiff read my blog yesterday. The reason I say that is because I announced in there yesterday that she would have an update from the DAN doctor for today’s blog, and when I asked her for that last night, she looked at me like I was a three-headed alien. Now, I know I’m ugly. But I’m not that ugly. So Tiff, click here and read what you missed yesterday.

Anyways, she suggested I should use something we put on Facebook last week as an update, so here goes:

UPDATE on Jack’s test results: He’s highly reactive to gluten, has low white cell blood count, has yeast (Rhodaturula) in his stomach, has heavy metals (arsenic and lead) in him, cholesterol is low because it’s spilling into his stool because his body’s not absorbing all it’s fats and his zinc is low. Doc added on 11 more supplements-daily.So far we’ve been successful on what he’s been taking. Keep him in your prayers. 🙂

Also, she gave me a list of things she gives him. He gets most of these daily.

Chelate Mate (minerals)
Digestive Enzymes
Isocort (adrenal suppport)
MCT oil (anti-fungal)
Nystatin )anti-fungal)
Cholesterol
Zinc
Uva Ursi (anti-fungal)
Probiotics
Magneseum cream
Naltrexone (blocks opioids)
Glutathione cream (detoxification)
Vitamin D3
Culturelle (probiotic)
Progesterone cream
Grapefruit seed extract (anti-fungal)
Rectal suppositories (pulls out metals)
Sea salts
Methyl B-12 shots (balances out brain chemicals)
Nasal spray (contains hormone that helps w/interaction)

Maybe we’ll have a little something more on Jack tomorrow.

I’m Repeating This From Yesterday
There’s a family that lives about 15 houses down from us and one of the daughters in the house was just diagnosed with stage 4 cancer. Most of you live out of the area and there’s nothing you can do with this fundraiser that’s going on this Wednesday, but if you’re in Orange County, or if you know anybody in Orange County, PLEASE take a look at this and pass it along on Twitter, Facebook, etc. THANK YOU!

It’s tough to get into anything not completely serious after that, but I have a few random things for you to start your week with.

Something Else I Want To Repeat From Yesterday
I decided that I’m going to have a pick-em contest this year as a fundraiser. Hopefully, a lot of you participate. It’s gonna be $20 for the entire season. You’ll pick weekly winners — no spread, no weighted games. Just pick each game and who you think will win. You’ll get a point for each game you pick correctly and the winner will be the person who does the best over the course of the season.

First place will pay 40% of the pool, second place will pay 20% and the remaining 40% will go to Operation Jack. So easy, fun, a chance to win something, NFL and only $20. Who’s in? Oh, and quick feedback … do y’all think I should play? I’d probably lose, and I’d hate to win my own pool, but if I won, I’d give my winnings to the foundation. Let me know your opinion!

Here’s the link: http://operationjack.football.cbssports.com/
The password to join the league is sixtyone
Enter the league and then click on the “Donate Now!” link at the top of any page on this site and donate $20. I’ll see it come through, I’ll check the site with the pool and I’ll confirm that I’ve got you as paid.

That’s About It For Today
Can you tell I was busy last night and didn’t have time to write a whole lot for today? Well now you know. Sometimes that whole “life” thing gets in the way. Please forgive me and come back tomorrow!