Dave Planning His Next Move to 1.) Help CMN & 2.) Kick Cancer

This year I will be one of many. One of the more than 62,000 American men diagnosed with bladder cancer. Women get it, too, but at a much lower rate than men.

According the the American Cancer Society bladder cancer occurs mainly in older people. (Great, I don't even see myself as "older" -- sheesh!)  About nine out of 10 people with this cancer are over the age of 55. The average age at the time of diagnosis is 73. (Hey, at least I'm an early bloomer!)

Overall, the chance men will develop this cancer during their lives is about 1 in 27 and statistics on this fourth most common cancer show the incidence rates for men have been decreasing and death rates have been stable.

How did I get here? In the past few years I have had a couple of bouts with kidney stones, so when I recently saw blood in my urine I figured the stones were on the move and causing the bleeding along the way. It came and went and so while it is quite startling, I thought I knew the cause. But it got worse. So last week I went to the emergency room and then to the urologist. We looked at pictures on Thursday, went "up periscope" and looked at me on Friday. Now we're looking at surgery scheduled for Wednesday morning -- that was fast! (So if you find blood where it isn't supposed to be, better make that call STAT!)

The doc took a biopsy, which I watched on a TV as he did it. Fascinating. It was like watching the arm on the space station at work or some under water deep sea Jacques Cousteau salvage job in action --  but I haven't seen the results of the biopsy, so I don't really know the grade or stage I'm in. Still I'm positive all will go well and I'll be back in the saddle, albeit a heavily padded saddle, soon!

But I will be off for a few days and the recovery time will cause me to miss this Friday's Children's Miracle Network Radiothon. It's an extremely important project to me, so I'm hoping you will continue to support the cause of helping Central Washington's kids in my absence.

You can TEXT a donation (text to 51555 with the message "KIT Cares"), you can call in a pledge to the Morgan Stanley Phone Bank at (509) 965-2515 or you can go online to YakimaMemorial.org/CMNHgive and make a donation.

An adult  diagnosis of cancer is scary, but imagine the fear caused by a diagnosis of a cancer in a kid, or any of the other diseases, conditions, syndromes, accident or injuries with serious consequences that the Children's Miracle Network helps families with every day.

I have prayers and humor on my side and I'm going to be just fine, but the kids need our help -- now and into the future. So if we ever gave you a smile, a chuckle, some new information or even just made you mad, how about making a donation this Friday to the Children's Miracle Network Radiothon with Lance Tormey and my radio pal Rik Mikals?  It would mean a lot.

Thanks. See you soon on the radio!