SEPTEMBER IMPACT | MAKE A WISH OREGON

In lieu of offering our "Cancer Free" sale this year, we have opted to donate 15% of sales from the first week of September to The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon. The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon is an organization of thousands of volunteers, donors and supporters who work to grant life-changing wishes of children with critical illnesses living in Oregon and Clark County, Washington. Please read on below for Scott's personal reflections on this decision and what it means to have positive impact for a child battling a critical illness.

Dear Reader,

This week, Portland Razor Company will be partnering with The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon, and donating 15% of all website sales to this great foundation, whose cause is near and dear to my heart. As some of you know, in 2015/2016 I battled cancer and survived with the help of my friends and family. I feel very fortunate to have had this experience but it was certainly the toughest thing I have ever endured. I know that surviving cancer is one of the greatest gifts I could and will ever receive, and it has become a goal in my life to give back.

Every year, thousands of children and their families deal with the same hardships that me and my family did in 2015. Between the physical, mental and emotional stress of battling a critical illness, it can be very difficult for these children to live as positively and as happily as they deserve. The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon plays a very important role in helping lift the spirits of these brave Wish Kids and their families. The simple act of granting a wish to a child can have an incredibly positive impact on their mental and physical well being. The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon is here to make sure that every Wish Kid is given the chance of happiness. Make-A-Wish has granted thousands of wishes and by donating to this cause, we hope to help grant the wishes of as many children as is possible.

I know first hand that having something to look forward to is important during the treatment of a critical illness. Minutes, hours, days, and months really start to add up when they are spent in a hospital bed. During my treatment, I dreamed of the day that I could once again ride my mountain bike and told myself that every minute of treatment was bringing me ever closer to this dream. One friend brought me some new parts to go on my mountain bike when I could ride it again, and a nurse found an old stationary pedaling machine in the hospital and brought it to my room. These little acts of kindness functioned as reminders that I had a life to look forward to after cancer and helped keep me going. Make A Wish helps give Wish Kids something to look forward to, and I believe that donating to this cause is one of the most effective ways we can help these children and their families.

Myself, my family, and Portland Razor Company all thank you for your continued support, and we wish good health for all of you and your loved ones!

Best,

Scott Miyako

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How It Works

Portland Razor Co. will donate 15%  of all online sales during the first week of September 2018 in support of The Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon. These donations will continue through the end of January. We hope to aid those in need as much as we can and thank you for your support.

If you would like to make a donation on your own accord, you can donate directly to Make-A-Wish Foundation® of Oregon here.

November Impact | Movember 2017

This Movember, be the difference in a man’s life.

We’re teaming up this month with the Movember Foundation to help raise funds and awareness for men’s health initiatives.

Our Personal Story

As you may already know, our founder Scott was diagnosed with stage II testicular cancer in mid-2015, barely a year after starting Portland Razor Co. It goes without saying that cancer is serious business, but Scott’s prognosis was good and he was expected to make a full recovery. And, well, he is! Last month marked his second year cancer-free, he competed in a 24-hour mountain bike race a few weeks ago, and he is able to play Taiko regularly… Let’s just say we’re damn grateful for life to be pretty much back to normal!

Reflecting on Scott’s experience, his positive outcome was undoubtedly influenced by the fantastic organizations that support research and outreach related to men’s health issues. This month, we’re teaming up with the Movember Foundation to give back, raise awareness, and help fund over 1,200 awesome initiatives in support of men’s health.

The Movember Foundation

Movember has built a formidable reputation for raising money and awareness on behalf of men’s health. Their stated mission is “Stopping men dying too young,” which they do by funding initiatives to fight prostate cancer, testicular cancer, as well as mental health and suicide prevention.

Movember makes a couple of great recommendations on their site for living happier, healthier, longer lives:

1. Make man time. Stay connected. Your friends are important and spending time with them is good for you. Catch up regularly, check in and make time.
2. Have open conversations. You don’t need to be an expert and you don’t have to be the sole solution, but being there for someone, listening and giving your time can be life-saving.
3. Know the numbers. At 50, talk to your doctor about prostate cancer and whether it’s right for you to have a PSA test. If you are African American or have a father or brother with prostate cancer, you should be having this conversation at 45. Know your numbers, know your risk, talk to your doctor.
4. Know thy nuts. Get to know what’s normal for your testicles. Give them a check regularly and go to the doctor if something doesn’t feel right.
5. Move, more. Add more activity to your day. Do more of what makes you feel good.

Our Fundraising Efforts

This month, proceeds generated from honing service fees will be going directly to the Movember foundation. This has proven to be an effective and meaningful way for us to donate consistently to causes with immediate need, and we thank you all for making it possible.

We are also hosting an event on November 11th at Portland Shave Shop and will be updating our facebook page with additional details. With the help and exceptional talents of barbers Eric Tolento @et.thebarber and Jeramie Armstrong @oldscoolnewblood, we are donating all proceeds from barbering services on select days to the Movember Foundation. There will be food and drinks, and it would be great to see you (come party with us!). Book your appointment for this special event HERE.

Please Share!

If you don't intend to participate in wither of our initiatives, we encourage you to donate directly to Movember Foundation and help spread the word about this great cause by sharing the event with your friends and family. We thank you for your help and we wish all of you a healthy beginning to the holiday season!

Cancer Free!

I haven't given you guys an update for a while even though a lot has happened since the last update! 

I'll start with all of the good news.  The doctors were able to successfully remove all of the tumor masses that they wanted and currently I am cancer free!  In other good news, I am home from the hospital and am on the road to a full recovery.

Unfortunately I did not make it to this point without a bit of struggling. I had some major post-op complications and my estimated 10 day hospital stay turned into a 45 day hospital stay. Sparing you the gritty details, I was unable to eat or drink the entire time at the hospital, and am only now beginning to transition to eating again. For the last 2 months I've been getting all of my nutrition through IV. Yea, it's about as exciting as it sounds. Anyway, now I'm dealing with a bunch of muscle atrophy and living life with a few too many tubes going in an out of my body. 

With any luck, I'll have the tubes removed and be moving around like normal very soon. I missed eating Thanksgiving dinner this year, but I'm just thankful that I'm still here and mostly I'm thankful for all my friends and family who have supported me through all of this. I hope you all had a great Thanksgiving and thank you again for everything!

Best,

Scott

Movember | Grow, Give, Move

Our Fundraising Team: http://moteam.co/portland-razor-co-and-friends

Scott's Condition and Treatment

Hey everyone, Scott from Portland Razor Co. here. I need to give folks an update on what’s been going on with my life and at PR. For those of you who have kept up with the blog, you probably are aware that I’ve been sick and in and out of the hospital lately. I have good news and bad news:

The good news is that I have an official diagnosis. The bad news is that I have stage II testicular cancer, which is a bummer.

I started chemotherapy last Friday and had an orchiectomy (for those of you that are curious, you can look that up) which went well. But stage II testicular cancer means that the cancer has spread to my lymph nodes, which is pretty painful and requires aggressive chemotherapy and pain management. I’ll be in chemo pretty continuously for the next 80 days.

Yep. Cancer is a bummer. 

Enjoying my last straight shave before chemo gets fully underway!

Hunter and Alex have been helping a lot lately, and we’ve been planning and discussing the future between doctor’s appointments. We do a lot more than just hang out at the workshop; we do pretty much everything together! This past weekend they helped me shave my head with a straight razor for the first time, and we made a video which you can check out on our YouTube channel. It was a lot of fun, and I admit we went to the electric clippers for a lot of it and then cleaned up with our new Kamisori. Anyway, we had a fun time with it and it gave me a chance to talk about my experience and what’s going to happen with Portland Razor Co.

Many of you might be wondering what this means for PR. The first thing I’ll say is: PR is not going anywhere. We already have a pretty great team, and we’ve been training up a few other guys. Luckily our clients and customers have been very supportive despite our backlog and despite being told that they’ll have to wait a little longer. Hunter and Alex know what to do at this point and they’re just chipping away at that backlog for now.

Hopefully this will be just a little blip in PR history, and I’ll be back at it making razors before you even realize I’m gone. Until then, Hunter and Alex will be around to answer your questions. If you feel like sending me any personal questions, they’ll pass it along and I’ll answer any questions I can.

There simply aren’t words to describe how much your support means to me. I probably wouldn’t be in as good of a place with this stupid cancer if I didn’t have PR.  I’m so glad to have our PR and straight shaving community and I’m glad I have a really awesome team to keep it going for me in my absence.

I also want to take this opportunity to tell folks a little bit about my experience in finding out that I had cancer. Maybe there’s a chance someone reading this article is in the same situation I am and has some of the same questions.

I never actually formed a sizeable tumor on a testi. The first thing I noticed were these horrible back pains in the middle of the night… obviously not to scare anybody who’s ever had back pain, but I’d say this back pain was more intense than normal. I wasn’t able to sleep, but I didn’t think anything of it and it only lasted a few days.

But then it came back about a month later. Same thing, nightly back pain for three days in a row. I took some advil and it went away. But this past month, I had some really excruciating back pain. It usually started towards the evening, and I started to think something else might be going on. I actually ended up in the ER a couple times because of how intense the pain was. It took them a while to diagnose it. Once they started to get a hunch that it might be cancer, it was as simple as doing a specific blood test. Once they found the markers for germ cell tumors, the testicular cancer cells, the doctors knew what to do.

The back pain was caused by severe swelling in my retroperitoneal lymph nodes, which sit between my abdominal aorta and my spine. Basically these enlarged nodes which are filled with testicular cancer cells are pushing on my spine, causing severe nerve pain that kind of jumps around and is totally random. That’s why it was a little hard to diagnose, because the pain was sometimes in my lower back, my upper back, my abdomen… If that’s what you’re experiencing it could definitely be nerve-related, and if you’re having anything like that, don’t hesitate to go get it checked out. It could be nothing, and even if it is something it’s no big deal, because it turns out that testicular cancer is one of the most treatable cancers in the world! I’d be in worse shape if I was 80 years old and had a bad flu, I’m told. Obviously, a lot of us deal with back pain, but it is not a big deal to go to the doctor and have them take a look.  I’m glad to have listened to the warnings as my prognosis is so positive because we were able to find the problems early on.  If you are wondering about a weird pain or discomfort, talk to your doctor and maybe get some blood tests done. Nobody’s gonna laugh at you!!

Anyway, thanks again for all the support! I’m gonna keep doing what I can while in chemo.  Hunter or Alex will be available in the meantime and can be reached at hunter@portlandrazorco.com and info@portlandrazorco.com.