StumpTown Blog

Merry Christmas everyone. A couple fun news items in StumpTown today. First, my Dad has his new medication. Praise God. No really, I’m not just saying that to indicate that I am praising God or that it is something praiseworthy but because I am hoping that you will actually praise God. I know many of you have been praying for this, so please take a minute and say thank you. The new medication will allow him to avoid having to travel out of state to a drug trial. In a truly amazing turn of events, when his insurance company would not pay for this drug, the drug company (Bayer…my new favorite) agreed to give him the drug for free. How often do you hear about that happening? It is true though. Now the important part. This drug needs to work. The others have not or have stopped and the tumors are growing rapidly. Please keep us in your prayers. Second, we had 4 snow days this week and it was awesome. I worked from home and mixed in a little sledding and snowball fighting with t...

A bit of light in the storm today. My Dad has been trying to get in a drug study to get his hands on a Kidney cancer drug called Serafanib. Since my Dad doesn't have kidney cancer, it is very unlikely that his insurance will approve the hefty sum of money to purchase this drug. So, getting it through a drug trial has been the only option. If he can get in he would have to travel to Denver or maybe Chicago to get the drug and the expense and inconvenience factor, even if he could get in would be very high. Still, it has been the only options. Today came news though that it appears the drug company has approved my Dad to receive the drug free of charge if his insurance company declines to cover the cost. So, while it hasn't happened yet, it appears that my Dad may be able to get access to this drug without participating in a study. That would be very good news. Praise God.

You may know where you are, but do you know where you are from? Our good friend Connie inspired my wife to answer that question in the mold of a poem following the pattern of the more famous poem also called "Where I'm From" which I believe was written by George Ella Lyon. Ordinarily my lovely wife is more likely to spend her creative energy on the visual arts, but she has a gift for the written word as well and so I was thrilled that she decided to write her own "Where I'm From." It is a beautiful insight into my Wife and her beginnings and she was gracious enough to allow me to share it here. Though you likely won't enjoy it quite as much as I did (since I doubt that is possible), I hope it inspires some of you to give some thought to your own history. Anyway, enjoy Where I’m From I am from 172nd court From sawdust and custom designed Barbie clothes I am from a triangle tree house with a green corrugated roof Sheltering my sleeping bag and books dur...

Greetings everyone from your long lost lawyer blogger friend. Things have been particularly busy of late. The month of November was taken up entirely preparing for and then doing the lawyering in a two week jury trial. I basically did nothing but work on that case for about a month. Now I am slowly recovering and trying to get to know my family again. Thankfully all that hard work ended with a win for my client. It was an especially gratifying win not only because of all the hard work that went into it but because my clients are genuinely good people and it would have been a grave injustice if they had lost. If it weren’t for all the darned confidentialities and professional etiquette involved in such a thing, I could fill this blog with good stories from this trial for months to come. Instead, I will just offer this bit of advice for any new or would-be litigators out there. When your entire case comes down to your own client’s memory and understanding of events, calling an exp...

My Dad went to his doctor today. Sadly, the new drug he was taking has also failed. The tumors on his liver have continued to grow and multiply. It appears that surgery is not an option. He is going to meet with experts in this particular type of tumor that fortunately reside locally in hopes of finding additional treatment options. This news was not entirely unexpected, but was a heavy, heavy blow to my family. On the positive side, he is feeling pretty good and did not suffer any of the bad side effects of this last drug. Also, we know that God is in control and while I was hoping to be comforted by healing, I will take the comfort in trusting God. Nevertheless, it is sad news today. When I know more, I will post it here. Thank you to all of those who care about us for your prayers and your encouragement. God is good all the time.

My Dad is meeting with his doctors right now. When I know something I will post it here. Please pray.

I like being liked and so do you. Oh admit it, you do too. You know you do. Thankfully there are still a few people out there that like me. It is not a particularly large group of people, but my Mom says that is just because they are all jealous. That could be true I guess. After all I am not handsome or charming or fun at parties, but I am related to people who are all of those things and that surely counts for something. Regardless of all that though, out of the modest group of people that like me, there is a new challenger to the title of my number 1 fan. That position is currently held by the regional sales manager for Pepsi Cola. I have no idea why. Our good friends Tony and Jennifer have a little girl named Claire. She is about the cutest little girl you have ever seen no matter how many girls you've seen. Whenever she sees me she runs up to me and jumps up to be held and burries her head in my shoulder and holds on. She only knows a few words but says "Josh" very w...

Good afternoon everyone. I have more news about my Dad and I am afraid it is not very good. The Gleevec that my Dad has been taking has failed. As you know, my Dad’s GIST returned to his liver and the hope was that an increased dose of Gleevec would knock it back. It did not. The tumors continue to grow at a startling pace. The next step is to switch to a different drug called Sutent. The hope is that Sutent would reduce the tumors where Gleevec could not and get them small enough that my Dad could have more surgery. We could know whether that is going to work in as little as a week. If the tumors continue to grow or fail to shrink, there are still some options, but they are less clear. As far as we know now, at that point surgery would not be an option. There may be a radioactive drug that could be used directly on the tumor. There may also be clinical trials for different drugs that my Dad could join which would likely require traveling to a place like Boston or North Carol...

My Dad wanted to send his own thanks and update to our congregation here and asked that I also share this letter with those reading my blog since so many of you have been praying for him. So, below is that letter. Reading it was very comforting and inspiring for me. Dear Family… As you can imagine it has been an interesting week in the Stump household. I was more than a little bummed to get the news last week that I had gone from the always hoped for NED (No Evidence of Disease) on my August scan to multiple new tumors just four weeks later! And one of these is already over 2 inches long!!! These crummy things move faster than several cars I’ve owned over the years. It is not as if I don’t know what I’m up against with this cancer. I was told from the beginning that GIST is an aggressive cancer and that my particular version of it is especially aggressive; and that while there are treatments that might stabilize its progression there is no cure. I know all this, yet…for the past month ...

A quick rant: Happiness should never be a zero sum game. A “zero sum game” is an exercise where adding something means taking something else away so the sum of the exercise is always zero. It is a political/economic/game theory where one participant’s gain will result in another participant’s loss so that the aggregate gain and loss amounts to zero. Sadly, this concept seems to regularly apply to our relationships and it is something I think we should guard ourselves against. All of that may sound like nonsense, but I guarantee you have experienced this. Ever known someone who can not stomach someone else’s happiness or success because it makes them feel less happy and successful? Some people act like there is a fixed amount of happiness in the universe so they resent people who find it because it means less for them. This is, of course, not only wrong but destructive. There is nothing like greeting happiness with resentment to reduce the value of your friend’s happiness to zero...

Just a quick update… As many of you know, my Dad was able to see his Oncologist today. He confirmed that there were new tumors (or at least newly visible tumors) on the liver. There are 6-7 at least. Two of them have grown rather large rather quickly. My Dad doubled the dose of his medication with the hope that it will shrink these tumors. If that does not work, there is another drug he can take and we will again look into the procedure he had done in May that fried the last large liver tumor. He will have another CT on Friday with a follow up appointment next Wednesday. If the tumors are shrinking he will likely just keep the Gleevac at a high dose and monitor. That is the best case scenario. If the tumors are still growing, we will likely switch the drug and consult with the surgeon about the tumor blasting. So, there are still a variety of promising options. For now we are praising God that my Dad is actually feeling good again which we hope is a sign that the higher dose o...

Hello out there in blog land. I am sad to have to report today that we got some bad news regarding my father this week. If you read this blog or know my family, then you know that my Dad has been battling a rare form of aggressive cancer for several years. The first surgery removed a football sized tumor from his abdomen. In a matter of months the cancer returned, this time primarily in his liver. More surgery this past May killed the tumor in his liver. In early August of this year he had a CT which showed no new tumors or growth. The surgery was a success, he had finally recovered and then got a clean bill of health. It was a good month in that regard. Unfortunately, he began feeling discomfort in his liver a couple weeks ago. He went in for a CT this past Friday and then discovered this week what we had feared, but had not allowed ourselves to believe. The cancer had returned and was again in the form of tumors in the liver. In a month’s time one of the two new tumors was ...

This isn’t a political blog and I’m not going to turn it into one just because there is a Presidential race coming. But I was a Poly Sci major and absolutely, unabashedly, unapologetically love the United States of America. Before I became an attorney, my plan was to enter politics not because I am power hungry (though of course I am) or because I wanted the spotlight (though of course I did), but because I love the country America is and love even more who she might become. I relish the idea that I could use whatever talent God has given me to help America and Americans realize that dream. All of that to say, I have decided to run for President. Ok, not really, that preface was really just a way of saying, like it or not, I’m going to blog about American politics just for today. Like most of the Country I was surprised to see that Sen. McCain chose Alaska Governor Sarah “Baracuda” Palin to be his VP running mate. Lots of people are going to say that he chose this young, unknown ...

1. Do you think Walsh and Misty are disappointed they got dubbed “The Golden Girls”? I mean it’s cool to be thought of along with the gold medal, but do two twenty something beach girls who play sports in their underwear really want to be connected with….well….the Golden Girls? 2. Since the US avenged their hoops loss to Greece with an easy win last night, I thought I would pile on by noting how many Greek names sound like a medical condition for which a balm or salve might be in order. “Hey, man why are you walking like that?” “Dude, I have the worst case of ‘Schortsanitis’ ever.” 3. Like everyone everywhere except for in France I am in awe of Michael Phelps. Not because of his exploits in the pool which are ok I guess, but for his breakfast menu. According to Costas (who knows all), Phelps’ daily morning meal includes: 3 full fried egg sandwiches with cheese and all the fixin’s (by the way, there is no such word as “fixings”, it...

A few questions/observations from watching the Olympics: 1. Why does Bob Costas have to share hosting duties with that other guy this year? Did he get demoted? He’s Bob Costas for crying out loud. He should be running the whole network. And just who is that other guy and who does he think he is? 2. I love that the Chinese thought they could get away with faking fireworks over a city crawling with foreign journalists. Brilliant. 3. Even with the faked fire works and the lip-syncing little girl (what? She was? Never saw that coming….), it was still the best opening ceremonies I’ve ever seen. Those moving boxes were just amazing. 4. Why do the women’s beach volleyball players wear outfits that would make Pamela Anderson blush? Do they want to? Did some beach volleyball marketing guru convince everyone it was good for their sport? I can’t help but think this was some man’s idea, but I can’t imagine that they are all required to dress like that and if not, why do they all? C...

Almost 2 months and nothing on this blog. That's a shame. Where have I been you may ask? Keeping the world safe for corporate America of course. Before a brief update on things, I thought I would share one of the signs thoughtfully translated into English for the benefit of western athletes. Let's hope none of them are "liquor heads." Work has been incredibly busy which is good for the career, bad for blogging. Meanwhile let's quickly catch you up: My Dad had an MRI this last week and everything looks good. Praise God. My youngest brother Enoch got married to his girlfriend Amanda. It was good to see the family who gathered for the event. I wish I got to see them more. Westside (my Church family) has hired a new preaching minister to team up with my Dad in the ministry hear. His name is Aaron Metcalf and I am very excited about both him and his family joining us. We finally got to sing the song I wrote for my lovely wife to sing at Church and I loved it. Our Prais...

I wanted to get a bunch of quick movie reviews posted and will try to do that this week, but haven’t had time yet. So first, the picture that is posted with this blog comes from a website that sells replicas of signs from London. This is apparently a real sign in London, England. Of course, the imagination is running wild with the possible contents of the box, but I also like how forceful it is. Apparently it is not enough to provide protection, but you must clearly direct someone to use it. Nice. Here are my thoughts on what might be in this box: 1. A note containing a strongly worded reprimand which is what the English Bobbies are armed with instead of guns. Not surprisingly, English criminals are still foregoing these notes in favor of guns. 2. A sandwich. Not only nature’s perfect food, but a recipe for peace on earth. Probably roast beef. 3. It’s not a real box, but one of those “air boxes” created by mime’s and street performers…oh no wait, that would likely encourage an assault,...

Day 4 There is a risk scheduling Disneyland on the first two days of a week long vacation. What do you do to follow that? Since we weren’t getting on a plane to fly to Disneyworld, anything else was going to be a let down right? I mean, it would take trained miniature animals, hand feeding a camel, exotic cross-breeds, children of moviestars riding million dollar horses at a beautiful ranch regularly featured in TV commercials. Now that I think about it, even that wouldn’t be enough unless you also threw in the opportunity to see family you don’t see as often as you would like. Now if you could find a place where you could get all that, then maybe, just maybe you would have yourself a decent follow up to toxic watermelon gas and Jedi training. Fortunately for us, there was just such a place only a few miles from where we were staying in Thousand Oaks. No, it’s not the Neverland Ranch (yikes), but rather the ranch where my Wonderful Aunt Sis (“WAS”) works along with my cousin Mark and h...

Day 3 was Day 2 in house of mouse. Our game plan was simple and straightforward. 1. Breakfast at IHOP to start out with a good fuel level as we started our day. For reasons I can not explain to this day, it was by far our most expensive meal of the trip. 4 people, two of them children, and it was more than anything we ate in the park by a wide margin. I looked at the bill up and down, but I still think I must have missed something, like the fact that I agreed to buy a round of pancakes for the house or something. It may be a long time before I try IHOP again. Just makes me nervous like traveling in Europe with your wallet in your back pocket after all the stories of pick-pockets. Ok, so I’ve never travelled in Europe, but I’ve heard stories including one where my lovely wife fought off two gypsies in an Italian bathroom and chased down a third to reclaim her backpack. Lovely and ferocious! It is very likely that if there really are people with superpowers living among us, she is one of...

Still buzzing with excitement from our victory over the evil empire, we charged off to ride the Finding Nemo submarine ride. This was a new attraction relatively and the kids were excited to ride it. How did they even know about it you may ask? I’m not exactly sure. My best guess is that Disney has spiked our drinking water with nanotechnology that sends messages to our brain on a cellular level informing us about the latest Disney rides, tv shows and movies. But I’m not completely sure. Just going with the most simple explanation. Anyway, the line for Nemo was going to take more than an hour and had no fast pass. You know about the fast pass right? It’s ingenious really. You grab a ticket for the ride that tells you when to come back to the ride so you can go stand in line for other rides and then come back and stand in a slightly shorter line for the ride you initially wanted to ride. It is possible that for a major ride it makes sense and I give Disney total credit for trying to do ...

And now the continuing saga of our recent vacation… Day 2, Part 1 – Disney, baby. Disney. The night before day 2 we sat with our friends to decide what time to leave. We wanted to basically get there when the park opened and my friends live “across town” from Disneyland which in LA means approximately 16 hours away if traffic is light. Also the term “traffic is light” in LA means your car is not moving in reverse, away from your destination. I find that many every day terms need to be defined when living in LA. You just need a different frame of reference for questions like: 1. Is that an expensive car? 2. Is that surgery medically necessary? 3. What do you mean the coke you’re selling doesn’t come in diet? 4. Do you know anyone in the business? 5. Do you know how to find the Paris Hilton? Anyway, since it was going to be a bit of a haul, we had to make a plan. Why is it that it can be so difficult for 4 otherwise relatively normal adults who are good friends to arrive at a plan with c...

More good news today about my Dad. He got scanned today and talked to the doctors and they all declared his surgery a success. Ding dong, the tumor's dead. Sadly, it took a big chunk of liver with it which is resulting in some fairly extreme pain for my Dad, but the surgery went well and the remaining tumor in his chest is stable so today was a day of good news. Praise God. No time to provide Day 2 of the Vacation extravaganza. Instead my thought for the day is I bet the ability to read other people's minds is the most overrated super power. It sounds like something that you would like to have, but I'm guessing it would make most people miserable. Think about the people you know with absolutely no social filter. Now think about how much fun it is to be around them. Now consider if everyone was like that. See what I mean? I would much rather have invisibility or the power to turn any rock into a sandwhich.

Hello all. Long time no blog. We are freshly back from a much anticipated, much needed, long overdue vacation. We went to Disneyland and California Adventure and Windy Hills Ranch with the two Indiana Jones doppelgangers pictured along with this post. My hope is to describe our trip in a new series of posts as time permits. First though, a brief update on my Dad’s health. My Dad is now home from the hospital (and has been for more than a week) and recovering well. He’s certainly not back to 100%, but the recovery seems to be going as anticipated. He’s in pain and it interferes with his sleep and it is no fun by any means, but he is on the road he needs to be in and recovery seems to be going well, so praise God. He will talk to the doctors again today and get another scan, so we may know shortly (though probably not today) how effective the surgery was in killing the tumor. Oh, by the way, this tumor was only the size of a baseball as opposed to his last nerf-football sized mass. That’...