THE MAN
Who is Lorne Grimes? Lorne is my husband and my best friend, father of two, step-dad to one, and a great friend to many. He was named after Lorne Greene from the old TV series Bonanza, and he very much reminds me of Greene's character on that show. Rugged and industrious, hard working to a fault, and more work than play for sure.
Lorne is an incredible person who truly puts others before himself. He loves his work as a welding inspector and the welding trade in general which he has been involved with for over 20 years both as a business owner and an employee. In addition to his work, he is devoted to the welding community in many other ways as well. He especially enjoys working with high school and college aged kids to get them interested in welding as a career.
He has helped co-ordinate welding merit badge events for the Boy Scouts of America for the last 3 years. In fact, just recently a co-worker learned about his involvement with the Boy Scouts and she asked him if he could organize a hands-on welding demo for her sons Boy Scout troop. Lorne immediately contacted his friends in the welding community and they went into action. Together they put on a large scale, hands-on welding demo that included about 18 welders with their welding rigs and all the necessary consumables to give each of the 80+kids a chance to actually weld!
These aren't just ANY welders, these kids had a one-on-one welding experience with some of the best welders around! The kids learned a whole lot about welding that day and they loved it! They also earned Merit Badges for their participation. Lorne was very sick the day of the event and had just had major surgery 6 days prior. But he HAD to be there. He had trouble staying up and about the whole day, but he took breaks whenever he could. He was so appreciative of his friends in the welding community and what had been accomplished. That is how determined of a man Lorne is. He could have just stayed home that day and but that's just not in his DNA. He started this event and he was darn well going to see it happen! He is quite amazing. And yet he is living proof that cancer is not biased. It doesn't care who you are or what you do. It is an equal opportunity disease.
Lorne is an incredible person who truly puts others before himself. He loves his work as a welding inspector and the welding trade in general which he has been involved with for over 20 years both as a business owner and an employee. In addition to his work, he is devoted to the welding community in many other ways as well. He especially enjoys working with high school and college aged kids to get them interested in welding as a career.
He has helped co-ordinate welding merit badge events for the Boy Scouts of America for the last 3 years. In fact, just recently a co-worker learned about his involvement with the Boy Scouts and she asked him if he could organize a hands-on welding demo for her sons Boy Scout troop. Lorne immediately contacted his friends in the welding community and they went into action. Together they put on a large scale, hands-on welding demo that included about 18 welders with their welding rigs and all the necessary consumables to give each of the 80+kids a chance to actually weld!
These aren't just ANY welders, these kids had a one-on-one welding experience with some of the best welders around! The kids learned a whole lot about welding that day and they loved it! They also earned Merit Badges for their participation. Lorne was very sick the day of the event and had just had major surgery 6 days prior. But he HAD to be there. He had trouble staying up and about the whole day, but he took breaks whenever he could. He was so appreciative of his friends in the welding community and what had been accomplished. That is how determined of a man Lorne is. He could have just stayed home that day and but that's just not in his DNA. He started this event and he was darn well going to see it happen! He is quite amazing. And yet he is living proof that cancer is not biased. It doesn't care who you are or what you do. It is an equal opportunity disease.
The Diagnosis
Lorne had no symptoms at all. No pain, no loss of appetite, no weight loss, nothing. And then it happened. He went to the bathroom one day and there it was, bright and undeniable. Blood.
He mentioned it to me and I instantly remembered hearing somewhere in my travels... one of the medical conditions you should be immediately pro-active about is blood in the stool. I told him it was time for a colonoscopy anyways because of his age so he went about scheduling one. It was on October 31. No lie! We both thought they would most likely just find a polyp or two and just remove them while they were "in there", no big deal, right? WRONG.
I knew the second the doctor came into the waiting area and requested I join him in the recovery room. I just knew it wasn't going to be anything I wanted to hear. It was the scariest day of my life. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. Cancer? Are you kidding me? Are you sure? The doctor said they would send it out for testing to confirm but that he was 100% certain. The next few weeks were grueling to say the least. Lots of tests, scans, lung biopsies and waiting. Endless waiting. Every time we thought we might get a break and get some better news, it got worse. By the end of the testing phase, we knew we were in trouble.
It's amazing how life can turn upside down in a New York minute. We were looking at Stage 4 colo-rectal cancer with 24 lung nodules. A port was installed in his chest and he began chemo within a couple of days. Prognosis... 18 months to 3 years to live, and who knew how far into that timeframe we already were.
He mentioned it to me and I instantly remembered hearing somewhere in my travels... one of the medical conditions you should be immediately pro-active about is blood in the stool. I told him it was time for a colonoscopy anyways because of his age so he went about scheduling one. It was on October 31. No lie! We both thought they would most likely just find a polyp or two and just remove them while they were "in there", no big deal, right? WRONG.
I knew the second the doctor came into the waiting area and requested I join him in the recovery room. I just knew it wasn't going to be anything I wanted to hear. It was the scariest day of my life. I just couldn't believe what I was hearing. Cancer? Are you kidding me? Are you sure? The doctor said they would send it out for testing to confirm but that he was 100% certain. The next few weeks were grueling to say the least. Lots of tests, scans, lung biopsies and waiting. Endless waiting. Every time we thought we might get a break and get some better news, it got worse. By the end of the testing phase, we knew we were in trouble.
It's amazing how life can turn upside down in a New York minute. We were looking at Stage 4 colo-rectal cancer with 24 lung nodules. A port was installed in his chest and he began chemo within a couple of days. Prognosis... 18 months to 3 years to live, and who knew how far into that timeframe we already were.
THE MISSION
Well, it's pretty simple. To save this man. He is far too young and too good a person and too productive an individual to just give up! He has two grown children and one grown step-daughter and he cherishes all of them and they respect and adore him.
We are going to save their dad, my husband and best friend, and friend to many, Lorne Grimes.
We are going to save their dad, my husband and best friend, and friend to many, Lorne Grimes.