Mike Venable
Welcome to Mike Venable’s blog. Discover words of wisdom, stories of adventure, and a life well lived.
Share Your Stories and Memories
We would love to hear your stories and memories you have with Mike. The adventures and impact he has had in our lives is worth sharing.
Read Posts from Mike
An Update
Update: My scan season has come and gone and our post scan follow up with Dr. Pippas was scheduled for yesterday. We met with Dr. Pippas and got feedback from his reading of my scan films. He says everything Scan season has come and gone and we had our post scan follow up yesterday with Dr. Andy Pippas at the John B. Amos Cancer Center. The anxiety and concern we had going in has evaporated over time and has been replaced with
The Day After
Here on the day after another clear CT scan of my chest, abdomen and pelvis (Thanks Be To God!) I’m feeling like I can finally talk about something that I have completely left out of my writings about living with cancer. Even with a good job and even with incredible (but cripplingly expensive) insurance, cancer has dealt me a financial ass whipping. We have somehow gotten by. Some days getting by seemed less probable than others. Some days I felt like I was standing on the tips of my toes in a windowless stainless steel tank that was filling up with water, my nostrils gasping for air, my eyes seeing the rising water and my brain knowing what was coming. My cancer season came in like a cold wind, riding on that bitch known as the Great Recession. Pieces and parts of our commercial real estate holdings were as dark as my health prognosis.…
A Recent Vacation
On a recent vacation I got the opportunity to spend a good bit of time around two incredible dogs. Kayla and Georgia share a comfortable, hill-perched home in Golden, Colorado with Michelle and Will Ward, friends of our two Atlanta sons. Their home overlooks a broad expanse of trees, rocks and mountains near the Coors Brewery. As I walked into the Ward’s home for the first time and laid eyes on those dogs’ broad skulls, I was primally wary of them. These gals are powerful. Especially Kayla, the pure American Staffordshire Terrier (left in the picture, which I just stole from Will’s Facebook page). She is massive. Georgia, the pitbull terrier is a smaller, decidedly more feminine version of Kayla. There was something really great about reclining in a comfortable leather sofa watching NBA basketball with a warm, completely lovable one-dog canine wrecking crew. Their energy was present in the room and it felt…
Ideas, Please!
One of the most difficult things about living with cancer — if you’re one of the lucky ones who get to call themselves a survivor for a season — is getting comfortable with reaching out to people for help when the disease starts to take things from you. The sad fact that I have to carry around a tumor in my spine severely limits me from almost every physical activity that requires me to lift more than about 30 pounds. And, I’m beginning to come to grips with the realization that my range of motion has been profoundly impacted. I have weakness and touchiness in my core that turns what used to be easy tasks into productions requiring me devise new ways to bathe, dress and walk around that don’t make me bend over, squat down or do much physical work. Jill and I live in Seale, Ala. and it…
Christmas Update
My last blog post was April 13. I have tried every day since to gracefully accept the measure of health I can wrestle from a disease process that is for now being held at bay…by a pill a day. Those pills cost my insurance company over $500 a day. The math nearly brings me to my knees. Thankfully, all my systems are within acceptable limits and the tumor in my spine is being kept stable by a daily 60mg dose of Cabometyx. When I run into friends I haven’t seen in a while, there’s a time warp to connect the sixty-five-old me to a fat profile that, when I last sported it, I was walking the halls of Hardaway High School. If you think that’s weird for you, you should feel it from this side. Know this, Jill and I appreciate the constant love we feel from every channel of…
Sgt. Stubby Teaches Us About Love and Commitment
Call me crazy if you want to, but I see God in the eyes of my companion animals. I am a regular at our little St. Matthews in-the-Pines Episcopal Church and I like how going there makes me feel inside. I love my little church family and how we’re always there for each other in times of need, but there is something very spiritual that I get when Izzy or Bernie or Elvis or Garth or Joey (and a host of departed animal angels whose earthly remains are buried on our property) look me in the eye. I know they look to me to provide for them and to protect them and I am more than willing and capable of doing that. I have too many stories I could tell about uncharacteristic things they’ve done during efforts to soothe or minister to me to think they were just random acts.…
Continue Reading Sgt. Stubby Teaches Us About Love and Commitment
Share Your Stories and Memories
We would love to hear your stories and memories you have with Mike. The adventures and impact he has had in our lives is worth sharing.
Memories and Stories from Family and Friends
Mike’s Blog is Back
Post by Jill Tigner I hope you’ll enjoy reading these posts that Mike wrote about his cancer journey, our family and his passion for this bend of the Chattahoochee. Leave comments and memories if you’d like. I know he’d appreciate it.
Phenix Citizen memory
Post by Lance Duke I was driving home from The Medical Center late one evening. My route home took me Summerville Road past the house where The Phenix Citizen offices were located. The lights were all on, so on a whim I stopped and knocked on the door. Jill and Mike were working late putting together the latest edition. We chatted and visited for a while. It was the first time I had visited the office. It is a great early memory I have of the two of you, early in my tenure with Columbus Regional. Always friendly, welcoming, with huge smiles that say “I’m really glad to see you”. Two wonderful people. Sending our love,Lance and Debbie
For Mike
Post by Bill Becker When Mike asked me to help with his obituary, I was deeply touched. It’s an honor and privilege. However, the warmth of the moment was soon followed by a wave of fear and self-doubt. I began to seriously question if I was up to the task. Eulogy? Obituary? Tribute? Call it what you will, but encapsulating a lifetime as distinguished as Mike’ into a few well-intended passages is a challenging, intimidating, and near impossible task. Salesman, journalist, writer, publisher, husband, father, and grandfather, Mike’s list of accomplishments was long and noteworthy. Protocol recommends an ideal length of 200 to 300 words. How is it possible to do justice to a life so well-lived with a such a meager ration? I have long admired Mike’s writing style. He wrote effortlessly and intentionally. His stories were honest and authentic. It reminded me of the old trick of hiding…
Share a Memory
Post by Bill Becker Hope everyone will take this opportunity to share a memory of Mike. It will remind us of what a special person he was.
The Blog Is Back!
Post By Jill Tigner So happy Mike’s words are available to be shared again. Post away friends and famiy!