Our Mission

Ride With Clyde - Battling Cancer With Bennet Epperson

This is actually set up with the sole purpose of raising funds in various ways to help support Baby Ben, Jenny, Dave, and their families and friends during Ben's fight with cancer.

This blog seemed the best way for me to put all of my various efforts together in one place so that I could share them with others.

I will also try to update the blog with Bennet's condition and other news of his care and treatment as I hear it.

Feel free to post comments and make suggestions for other ways to raise money or generally help out. You can also get in touch with me at ridewithclyde2010@hotmail.com. Thanks in advance to everyone for their support. F*ck Cancer!

-Ben's Uncle Jake

Friday, December 10, 2010

Going Home

Well, as I'm sure most of you are aware, Baby Ben is a total rockstar.  To make this short and sweet, he gets to go home today.  He's doing great.  He's standing and is up and around.  So, our happy little trio of Ben, Jenny, and Dave along with a number of their supporters, get to go home today.  I'm pretty sure I'm not the only one excited about this.  Great job Team Ben!

F*ck cancer, I ride with Clyde!

-Jake

Tuesday, December 7, 2010

The Big Day

Hi everybody.

So Benny's surgery was scheduled for 1 pm today.  It got moved up to 11:30 am and then he actually went in at about 10 this morning.  The surgeon thought it would take 4-7 hours.  Jenny was actually woken up 2 1/2 hours later and told Ben was out already.  The surgery went really well.  The surgeon got 98% of the remaining 5% of the tumor.  The hope is that the small amount that they didn't get is actually dead material.  When I last talked to Beth she said they had seen Bennet, he had been in some pain, they gave him morphine, and he was sleeping.  I guess he has a pretty big incision across his belly where they opened him up.  Obviously, everyone is relieved that today went so well.  Benny has been an absolute superstar since this all started in June, as have Jenny and Dave.  I'm not sure what the next step is.  Originally Beth told me Ben would spend 5 days in recovery at Doernbecher, but I don't know if that is still the case.  I'll make sure to keep everyone up to date as to what is going on as I hear it.  Thank you to everyone who sent good thoughts and prayers to Benny, Jenny, and Dave, I know they helped.

As always, f*ck cancer, I ride with Clyde!

-Jake

Sunday, December 5, 2010

Surgery

I just wanted to pass on the information that the surgery to remove what is left of Bennet's tumor is scheduled for Tuesday.  I'm not exactly sure what time its scheduled for, just Tuesday sometime.  Ben and Jenny, along with at least Beth, Collin, and their two girls headed for Portland tonight.  I don't know who else went up, but they should be there by now or pretty close.  Please send all the positive thoughts and prayers you can their way these next couple of days.

F*ck cancer, I ride with Clyde!

-Jake

Wednesday, December 1, 2010

More Chemo and Surgery

Hi all,

Sorry for the lack of updates lately, but there hasn't been a ton going on to post.  Benny has completed his fifth round of chemo.  It was a three day round and he got through it like a champ like always.  He, Jenny, and Connie took a trip up to Doernbecher a couple weeks later for an MRI to see how that round of chemo did.  Ben was a little sick for this trip but the oncologist didn't want to wait for him to get better to see what was going on.  Luckily, the tumor had shrunk even more.  It had shrunk enough that it was no longer encroaching on his spine or rectum if I remember what Beth told me correctly.  Because of that news, the oncologist and surgeon had to decide what the next step was.  Apparently, again from what Beth relayed, the options were to leave what was left of the tumor and just keep an eye on it or do surgery to remove what is left of the tumor.  Obviously, both of these options have pros and cons.  And either way, Ben is done with chemo for the time being.  Jenny was supposed to hear from the surgeon with a decision I believe last Monday, but it took until this afternoon for him to finally call.  The decision is to do the surgery to remove what is left of the tumor.  The surgery will be sometime next week from what Beth has told me.  Jenny is waiting for a call back from the surgeon either tonight or tomorrow morning with a plan for when the surgery will be.  It will be done at Doernbecher and apparently Benny will have a five day stay there for recovery afterward.  That is all I have at this point.  When I hear when the surgery is, I'll be sure to pass that along.  For now, please keep up the good thoughts and prayers and send them Ben, Jenny, and Dave's way.

F*ck cancer, I ride with Clyde!

-Jake