Author Archives: Dan York

Care to Donate? I’m Running the NH/VT Komen Race for the Cure on Saturday, July 23rd

KomenvtnhLooking for new charitable donations that you can make in 2011? (that are tax-deductible if you are in the USA?) Looking to help support efforts to fund research to find ways to end the scourge of breast cancer that will impact 1 in 8 women in their lives?

If so, I’m running in the New Hampshire / Vermont Susan G. Komen 5K Race for the Cure in 3 days on this Saturday, July 23, 2011, and I’d love your support. Courtesy of the Komen organization I’ve got a great donation page all ready to go:

http://www.info-komen.org/goto/danyork

My friend Chip Griffin has very nicely kicked off my fundraising with a $100 donation (Thanks, Chip!), but I’d love any donations… $5, $10, $25, $100… or even more 😉

Last year we walked the race as a family, even our then 1-yr-old who was in a backpack I carried. But last year we didn’t have a strong connection to breast cancer other than knowing some people who’d had it.

This year it has definitely hit home with my wife’s breast cancer.

This year I’m running the race… and my wife and 9-yr-old daughter are both walking. (We’ll be taking turns watching the 2-yr-old.) Lori’s fresh off of surgery on July 1, but she’s walking 4 miles every day now and ready to do the walk on Saturday.

Through the experience of Lori’s cancer, we’ve met so many other women who have been affected by breast cancer… we’ve got to figure out what’s going on here and find ways to make breast cancer more like just a treatable disease that can be easily cured.

If you are open to making a donation, I’d sure appreciate it. Thanks for the consideration!

P.S. If you’re wondering why I’m only now talking about the race… we weren’t 100% sure we were going to do the race until last week… it all came down to how well Lori’s recovery was doing.

Of Surviving Breast Cancer… And The Choices Therein

Pasillo rosa - SCA

Eleven days ago, on a Friday morning, my wife got to add a new title to her list of life accomplishments:

Survivor

Her excellent surgeon called from the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center up in Lebanon, NH, to share the good news that there was no sign of cancer in the “sentinel lymph node” they had taken – and that indicates to them that there is a very high probability that the cancer did not spread to other parts of her body.

The joy at that news was tempered somewhat by the fact that the cancer in her left breast was found to be not simply “Stage 0 DCIS” as in her original diagnosis… some of it had morphed into “Stage 1 Invasive Breast Cancer” and she had a very small lump forming outside the ducts.

In a year or 2 or 3, this could have been much, MUCH worse.

We give thanks now for the persistence of Dr. Luthra at the Cheshire Medical Center and his dogged determination to get to the bottom of whatever was causing the changes in my wife’s breast. It would have been easier to just dismiss it… but we definitely have him to thank for pursuing it until it was indeed found to be cancer.[1]

With the discovery of invasive breast cancer, my wife next will meet with an oncologist to go over options… and whether she needs to take some of the various medications that are out there to help reduce the chances of the cancer’s return.

You see, we’ve learned that you don’t really “survive” breast cancer as much as you “learn to live with it“.

Unlike some of the other cancers that really can be completely removed or go into long-term remission, breast cancer seems to lurk inside. It can even return in the scar resulting from the mastectomy.

You survive a battle… but the war goes on.

And winning this one battle was not without sacrifice – my wife made the difficult choice to have a double mastectomy, in large part because with basically no sign of an issue in the one breast she didn’t want to live in fear of any issue in the other breast. She chose not to undergo any of the reconstruction options, although she always has that option at some later date.[2]

Her surgery was on Friday, July 1 … it is a crazy sign of the times that mastectomies are now so routine that it was day surgery and she was back at home that night. The first week was complete hell between the pain, the drains and all the side effects of the narcotics medication. But we were blessed to be surrounded by wonderful family and friends who helped out in so many ways from watching our 2 girls, providing many meals and doing so many other things. It’s been truly wonderful to have this community around us and helping us.

Fast forward 18 days to today and my strong (and not very patient) wife is up and around… going for a 4-mile walk every day… and planning to walk the NH/VT Susan G. Komen 5K Race for the Cure over in Manchester, VT, on this coming Saturday, July 23rd! (I’m joining her in running the race.)

She still can’t lift our 2-year-old daughter (or other heavy objects) and her range of motion is still limited… but each day gets a little bit better and better… she’s on her way back!

And she survived at least the first battle with this unwelcome guest that intruded into our lives…

[1] Sadly for others in our area, Dr. Luthra has now moved on to a hospital down in the Philadelphia or Baltimore area to purse further education/research.

[2] An entire other post could be written on the topic of breast reconstruction and all the options – and tradeoffs…

Image credit: hygienematters on Flickr

The Results From Running Keene’s 2011 “4 on the 4th” Race

4on4th

Two weeks ago I ran in my first official race over 3 miles… in fact, it was 4 miles in Keene’s 10th Annual “4 on the 4th” race on July 4th!

Sure, last November I ran my first “5K”, but sadly that turned out to NOT be a 5K (3.1 miles) coming in at only 2.5 miles. So I’ve been looking forward to running a race that was formally over the 5K mark.

On July 4th, 2011, there were 550+ people gathered in the “Railroad Square” area of downtown Keene. The race had both walkers and runners… and per the results at CoolRunning.com there were apparently 391 runners.

Out of that pack, I placed 224, finishing with a time of 35:39 and a fast pace for me of 9:01 minutes/mile.

I was pleased with the results given that I typically run about 10 minutes/mile, so the “race pressure” obviously pushed me to go a bit faster than normal.

The CoolRunning stats also show that I came in 28th out of 38 in my age bracket (40s). Given some of the outstanding runners in the race, I’m fine with that ranking. Consider that George Adams, the 1st runner in that age bracket – and 8th overall – ran the 4 miles in 20:44 for a pace of 5:14/mile!

It was also truly amazing to see the pack of mostly 20-something guys that led the race… they were warming up before the race began and you could see they were going to be fast. The race itself was a simple loop down and back so you did wind up passing the people coming back in the other direction. When the first guy passed me when I’d only run about 1.75 miles, I knew he was going fast… still… seeing that people came in under 5 minutes a mile was quite impressive.

All in all it was fun to run and I’m looking forward to my next race, the NH/VT Susan G. Komen for the Cure race over in Manchester, VT, this Saturday…

Fun stuff considering that a year ago I wasn’t really even running!

When The “1 in 8 Women” Stat Hits Home…

1in8

A fascinating aspect about being as open as we have been about my wife’s breast cancer is that you learn this:

Breast cancer really impacts a LARGE number of people.

It’s one thing to hear a statistic like:

1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lifetime

But it’s a completely different thing when that “1 in 8” stat is brought home by the sheer number of people in your own life who turn out to be affected by breast cancer.

In the few weeks I’ve been public about it, I’ve had many friends and colleagues come forward and tell me that they or their spouse either have dealt with breast cancer in recent years or are currently dealing with it. Multiple colleagues from Voxeo… friends from IETF and SIP Forum… colleagues from former employers… friends from social media circles… and many folks on Facebook, Twitter and more…

It’s truly been amazing to experience (and has been greatly appreciated, as well).

“1 in 8” may not immediately sound like much… but when you start thinking of how many women you know, it turns out to be a pretty significant number…

Of Inverted Nipples… and Breast Cancer

Pasillo rosa - SCA

I’ve learned a lot about breasts lately. More than any guy really wants to know… and not in a good way.

We of the male gender generally have a rather simplistic view of female breasts. (Some/most women may consider it a “juvenile” view in some/most/all men.) We may enjoy looking at breasts… in various states of dress or undress. We may want to touch them… or fantasize about that… or… or…

But I’m pretty sure that outside of those in the medical profession the vast majority of men don’t really want to know how breasts are put together… about the plumbing inside of them.

Classify that in the “Too Much Information” category and stick it in that folder with all those other aspects of female biology about which we really have no clue.

I’m learning, though… all about lobules and ducts and lymph nodes and so much more. Not by choice. Two weeks ago I added a new term to my vocabulary: Ductal Carcinoma In Situ, a.k.a. DCIS. As a bonus, I learned the correct way to pronounce “In Situ” (at least, the way one doctor said it)… but that was really the only bonus I got that day.

My wife was diagnosed with very early stage DCIS in one breast. It appears to be “non-invasive” from the biopsy and at this point the good news is that there seems little danger of it being life-threatening. Today.

Cancer. My wife.

And so life was thrown into a chaotic holding pattern that will unfortunately continue for at least two more weeks until we meet with her next team of doctors up at the Dartmouth-Hitchcock Norris Cotton Cancer Center to understand the next steps in her specific process… and when that will all occur. Meanwhile, they’ve sent us DVDs for what will surely be an über-exciting “date night”… and booklets that dive into deep detail. And of course, there’s the glorious Internet… which is sometimes helpful… and sometimes NOT.

Along the way, I’ve also learned that 1 in 8 women will be diagnosed with breast cancer at some point in their lifetime and a hundred other stats that I didn’t know.

I’m writing this in part because writing is what I do… it’s how my brain works… it’s how I deal with things. And also, if any of you wonder perhaps why I may not be as focused on some projects (like, oh, restarting VOIPSA, or helping launch the SIP Forum’s IPv6 SIG) or as excited to jump into something new … or why I’m not traveling to events much lately… my priorities have drastically changed a bit for this next while.

I’m also writing this to let my female friends and readers (and their male companions) know about the way in which my wife’s breast cancer was found.

She didn’t have a “lump”. It did not show up on a mammogram… nor on a follow-up ultrasound of her breast. There is no family history of breast cancer. She has none of the other indicators for cancer. She’s in fact in the best physical condition she’s been in for years.

There was only one sign… and one that she didn’t really think was significant.

She had an inverted nipple.

Instead of pointing outward as nipples usually do, this one started withdrawing in upon itself.

It changed.

My wife just casually mentioned the change in her annual checkup a few months ago when the physician asked that standard question to which they probably don’t expect an answer: “anything else you’ve noticed unusual?”

The physician thought it was probably nothing, too, but said it should be looked at… which led to several months of testing, a horrid course of super-strong antibiotics (to see if an infection was causing it) and eventually multiple MRI scans (including a “MRI-driven biopsy”) where the cancer was detected and confirmed.

An inverted nipple.

That was it. The only sign. And one that could have been easily overlooked.

Since that time, naturally, we’ve found various articles that mention this as a potential symptom of breast cancer… but it was certainly one that neither of us, nor anyone we’ve mentioned it to yet, knew about.

So, should you (or your female companion if you are male) ever notice a change like this… get it checked out. It may be absolutely nothing. Or it may be something more serious.

Meanwhile, life here continues in a holding pattern while we wait to understand what lies ahead in her specific case…

Image credit: hygienematters on Flickr

Contact Info

The best way to reach me is usually one of these:

Email: dyork@Lodestar2.com

Telephone: +1-802-735-1624

Skype: danyork

I can be found on most social networks – the ones I usually use publicly include:

I am also active on Facebook but keep that to close friends and family.

If for some reason you need to contact me via snail-mail, my address is:

34 Richmond Drive
Shelburne, VT 05482

One Year Of Exercise: 50+ Pounds Lost and Hundreds of Miles Run

WeightprogressOne year ago today, May 30, 2010, my wife and I began a concerted effort to introduce physical exercise into our daily routines. My exercise at the time was just walking because I quite simply couldn’t run even up to the end of my street – and even walking too far was a stretch. Being who I am, I opened a spreadsheet and recorded my weight at the time: 255 pounds.

Fast-forward one year to today and this morning I ran a 7-mile run with an average pace around 10 minutes/mile.

Still pretty unbelievable to me.

Along the way, I dropped 50+ pounds… my pants size is now 6 inches smaller and I’ve dropped in T-shirt size not just from an XL to a Large… but even down into a Medium for many shirts.[1]

That, too, I still find hard to believe.

As I outlined at some length in a post back in November 2010, Living Proof that 40-year-old Fat Men Can Get Up and Run!, I didn’t start out on this journey to become a runner. That was probably the last thing on my mind. But it just kind of happened along the way…

After that post in mid-November, my wife and I continued running outside into December, pushing each other until we were up over 6 miles (with her, again, raising the bar on that one). We then bought a treadmill and both worked out religiously through the long winter. I started back outside in the cold of March, averaging 3-4 miles until May, when I started ratcheting up the mileage to where a 5-7 mile run is now my new “normal”. (Alas, my wife has been dealing with medical issues this Spring that have kept her away from running until just last week.)

7milerunI’ve continued to be very focused on running every other day with taking an extra day off on the weekends. Admittedly I haven’t been as good lately about walking on the off days, but I’m trying to change that. In fact, last week I started introducing some bicycling as the off-day activity.

Along the way, we invested in Garmin GPS watches … and I started using iPhone apps to track my running as well. I don’t have a total count of the miles I’ve run and walked… but the two iPhone apps I’ve used (Nike+GPS and Runkeeper) together show me up around close to 400 miles.

The funny – or sick – thing is that I’m actually starting to enjoy the running.

What’s even more amusing – or more sick, depending upon your perspective – is that I can actually see how people run even longer. With the distance I’m running now I’ve already passed a “10K”… the next target would be a half-marathon at 13.1 miles… and for the first time that doesn’t seem completely unattainable. (The real challenge I have is finding the time for longer runs.)

We’ll see where I go next… today I’m celebrating one year of exercise … and of burning exercise into my daily routine. (And yes, I’ll probably go eat a chocolate chip cookie to celebrate… I think I’ve earned it! 😉 )

And let me tell you… if I can do it, so can you!

[1] I should note that running was NOT the only factor in my weight loss. I also changed my eating in one major way: I stopped taking second helpings. I simply limited myself to whatever I put on my plate the first time.

P.S. And yes, the effort at losing weight will continue… as the chart shows, I’ve been flirting with the 200 pound milestone for a while now, and I’m determined to break that mark… which would be the first time since probably 1990 or 1991…

If you found this post interesting or useful, please consider either:

Photos of “What It Is That I Do”

I often get asked by people, even friends and family, “what is it that you do?” And some parts of what I do, like all the writing online, are relatively easy to understand. Other parts, like the speaking I do at conferences, is less clear to some people. Given that I actually wound up with some photos taken of me at a recent conference, SIPNOC, I thought I’d post them here (and clicking on each photo will take you to a larger image). These photos are part of a larger set of conference photos that I shot… except for the photos of me that were taken by a couple of friends while I was speaking.

In this particular case, I was at very technical conference at a hotel in Herndon, VA, of around 150 people involved with telecommunications. As described on a Voxeo events page, I was on a panel of people talking about security and then the next day was giving a talk about work we’ve done at Voxeo. I was also on a final panel at the end of the second day where we talked about what had happened at the conference.

Anyway, here is another aspect of “what it is that I do”…

SIPNOC - Dan York SIPNOC - Dan York SIPNOC - Dan York

SIPNOC - Dan York SIPNOC - Dan York

SIPNOC - Dan York SIPNOC - Closing Panel

SIPNOC SIPNOC

And yes, if you’re wondering, I did reverse the order of the images and started with the shots from the second day, largely because they are, to me, more interesting than the 2 shots of me from the first day.

The Zen of Air Travel (or How I Gave Up And Learned To Laugh At The Insanity)

TraveldelaysWhen you have yet another delay or cancellation in air travel, what do you do? Do you get upset? Scream at the gate agent? Look for something to punch? Cry? Swear? Storm around the gate area muttering and scowling?

Or do you just smile or laugh? Decide to go get something to eat or drink? Perhaps with a bemused smile on your face?

I saw pretty much all that behavior on display this past week while I wound up stranded at Dulles airport near DC trying to get home from the SIPNOC event where I had spoken. Three planes and most of 24 hours later I did finally get home, rather tired but just glad to be home.

Several folks asked if I was stressed out or upset with it all… and the truth is that:

I fly way too much to get stressed.

The corollary to that is that I’ve sadly become way too jaded and cynical about air travel to the point that:

I basically expect there to be delays, cancellations and other problems.

So I just go into any trip assuming things will go wrong. And perhaps that is a sad comment on the state of our air travel system, but I know from talking with many other frequent travelers it is a common view held by many.

To that end, I:

  1. NEVER check luggage – I always travel with a carry-on so that I can very easily redirect to another flight or go to a hotel for the night;
  2. Always carry the 800-number for the airline I’m traveling so that the moment there is a cancellation I can jump on the phone to get rebooked (which is why I got out on an afternoon flight yesterday while my fellow travelers who went and stood in the enormous “Customer Service” line weren’t getting out until late in the evening or the next day);
  3. Sign up for services like FlightStats.com so that I get alerts and notifications the minute there are any changes to my flights;
  4. Always have my computer, mobile phone, mobile broadband (ex. MIFI), and anything else I need to be able to go online to find other routes or locate nearby hotels; and
  5. Be ready to choose alternate modes of transport. I’ve switched to taking a train when a flight was delayed, have taken a taxi to another airport and have even rented a car and driven home when a flight was cancelled.

Plus, of course, pack an extra change of clothes. Then, when things go wrong, I’m ready to react.

Here’s the reality of the air travel system:

Once you enter the system, you surrender yourself to the system and have to assume you’ll eventually get to your destination.

By that I mean that once you enter the system for a flight to somewhere…

… there’s not much YOU can do to influence the outcome!

You can’t fly a plane. You can’t control the weather. You can’t control that delays cause one of your pilots to be late to get to your plane. You can’t control the mechanical errors that happen.

If you get delayed, there’s typically not much at all you can do.

So there’s usually absolutely zero value in getting upset at the gate agent or other staff. Sure, some of them could be better with communication… some might not be helpful… some might be unfriendly. Sure, all of that happens. But how is screaming at them really going to help you? Very often they don’t have much they can do.

And sure, you can rant about that particular airline, but in my experience having flown pretty much all the major airlines in North America:

All airlines suck. And all airlines have moments of greatness.

Best thing I’ve found is to be ready to react (with my list above) when you can make a change… and when you can’t (like yesterday when thunderstorms, lightning and tornado warnings closing the airport) … just kick back, go grab a bite to eat, buy a book or magazine, grab a beer or other beverage… and…

…laugh at the insanity of it all.