"Oh, so you are the guitar pick guy. I heard about you," a fellow MD Anderson patient said to me.

Just before leaving my home in Michigan for my two-month stay in Houston, I had decided to do something to make the experience more positive. While playing my guitar, I'd noticed the logo on my guitar pick. That's when I came up with the idea for "Winky."

I rush-ordered 1,000 guitar picks custom-printed...