So as it turns out, I am not superwoman, nor am I impervious to illness. I finally got my first cold since having started my raw/vitamin/immune system kicking butt routine. I've been home, literally home at my parents' house, for almost 3 days now recouping on the couch and sleeping in my childhood bed --- quite a throwback.
I have to say though, I'm going a little stir crazy. It's only been one day that I haven't been able to run/exercise but the sedentary lifestyle is driving me a little nuts! I want to be going about my usual busy routine of running/showering/going to work and doing 1000 other things afterwards. Oddly enough, I'm looking forward to being back to this come Monday morning -- I thought I'd enjoy having some extreme downtime of sleep and no bothering with anything. Albeit, I probably do need the sleep. I think I've slept more in the last two nights here than I have in the last 4 or 5 months!
The cold came, as most do, at a horrible time. Work is swamped right now, our company having recently been acquired by IHS, a lot of my projects coming to a head, and I'd finally been starting to feel a little bit of a fire under my butt in terms of being motivated to work long and arduous hours at the office. I also missed out this week on some of the best parts of my job, a big annual strategy meeting with my team, and a conference in Montreal Canada that I've been planning on for months! What a week to miss :( But, I guess I don't get to pick when I get sick, and I need to be more careful about exposing myself to illness, especially while I'm still on chemo, and especially as we come into the winter months.
I suppose on the upside there is looking forward to the events of the next few weeks. As long as the rain holds out, I'll be at the Big E with my sisters and mom this weekend, and participating in a 5k cancer walk/run at UMass Memorial Hospital in Worcester on Sunday. Then next weekend I'm off to a retreat that I've been looking forward to for quite some time in the Berkshires. It's being run by Kris Carr (the author of 'Crazy Sexy Cancer Tips' and the person who helped get me motivated to not be beaten down by cancer at a young age) and should be a very relaxing yet re-energizing retreat. I will make sure and post afterwards about it. Then a few days after that it's off to Philly/DE again to see Jeff and my friends as we plan a joint birthday party! For anyone in the area and interested, let me know I'd love to see you! The plan is on Friday, Oct. 10th to head for dinner and drinks at a place in Philly then off to ESP: Terror Behind the Walls -- supposedly one of the scariest haunted houses in the US :) Sounds like fun to me!
Well that's all for now. I'm still waiting for pictures from the LiveStrong race Jeff and I participated in at the end of August and will post them as soon as I get copies!
Hope everyone is well, and I'm looking forward to feeling back to 100% (or as close to it as possible) and finally getting rid of this darn cold!
Be well!
Friday, September 26, 2008
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
I love fall.
Hi everyone,
Thought I'd just give a quick update as to how things are going these days. We're starting to come into my favorite season of the year, fall :) I love the smell of autumn and the sight of the brightly colored leaves scattered everywhere on the ground, and last but not least by birthday in October :) I feel as though I have extra reasons to celebrate this year and that each year I am granted is a blessing rather than viewing growing old as a negative thing! I hope to be here to bitch and whine about going "over the hill" and having creaky bones and an aching back.
In any case, the end of August finished off quite well if I do say so myself. A week or so after my last scans I had my 3 month Sutent/scan follow up with Dr. Sato and I also scheduled an appt. with Dr. Shields and Shields down at the Wills Eye Institute in the hopes of switching ocular oncologists -- I'm just too fed up with the ignorance and malpractice (if you ask me) that occurs at Dr. G's in Boston. The weekend before the appt. was also fun-filled I was down with Jeff in Philly/DE and we participated in the LiveStrong Challenge 5K run. It was a fantastic day on many accounts -- there were quite a few people (over 5,000 or so) and it was sunny and gorgeous. The race went well, though I was, as usual, hard on myself and upset for completing it slower than I thought I had! Though it was extremely inspiring to be running with the "I am a survivor" tag pinned on to my back, and passing by various people who were running with the "In honor of/ In memory of" tags. I gained strength and some drive from being able to admire what my body is capable of accomplishing despite being 4 months into chemo and battling cancer. After finishing a photographer pulled me over and asked if he could take some pictures of Jeff and I for Time magazine -- so we'll see if our pix make it in there! If so I'll post and let people know where they can find them :)
The appt.'s that week were o.k. As usual I enjoyed my visit with Dr. Sato (of course considering my scans were clean it was easy to do so :)) and shared quite a few inappropriate quips with him that made him laugh. I sometimes feel as though it's partly my duty to make him smile since so many of the patients he has are Stage 4 and I'm lucky enough to be seeing him adjuvantly. My other appt was good and bad. I was disappointed to hear that the measurements taken from my ultrasound here in Boston were significantly different both in size measurement (initial and the 6 mo. post radiation scans) and different in the amount of change that occured between these two appts. I still do not understand how this is possible mathematically -- but for now I'm choosing to let it go. On the upside, I would much prefer to wait 3 -4 hours at Wills Eye to see them there than to be immediately seen at Dr. G's in Boston. I am thankful to be switching to them for my 6 mo. eye follow ups from here on out and am looking forward to hopefully better news in regards to slow tumor shrinkage and treatment for the fluid in my eye when we go next in Feb. 2009.
So on the cancer front most is quiet these days. My next set of scans will be in November the week before Thanksgiving -- I hope and pray that I will have plenty of reasons to give an abundance of thanks on that day. I am still on Sutent and am 4 months in, continuing to so far only have white hair and the annoying rash as side effects, both things I am more than capable of dealing with. In November I think I will push Dr. Sato to allow me to continue 3 more months of Sutent in the hopes to complete 9 months of adjuvant Sutent treatment before looking for my next plan. If not I have a few ideas in mind, but they all need further investigation.
Otherwise life is hectic as usual. I recently had my first few nights to myself since probably mid July after being with Jeff and having friends visit for almost an entire month and a half straight. It was much appreciated and thoroughly enjoyed though :) I'm continuing trying to get back into the swing of work, at least up until the next nervous scan period :) and am keeping busy as usual. I'm trying to take advantage of every minute of every day....easy for a person with a lot of energy (like myself) but hard for a person who's always broke (like myself) :) but I'm doing the best I can at the moment.
I hope everyone is well and have enjoyed seeing so many of you over this summer -- thank you all for helping me enjoy and appreciate the warm and balmy days :) I hope it continues throughout the rest of the fall!
Be well!
Thought I'd just give a quick update as to how things are going these days. We're starting to come into my favorite season of the year, fall :) I love the smell of autumn and the sight of the brightly colored leaves scattered everywhere on the ground, and last but not least by birthday in October :) I feel as though I have extra reasons to celebrate this year and that each year I am granted is a blessing rather than viewing growing old as a negative thing! I hope to be here to bitch and whine about going "over the hill" and having creaky bones and an aching back.
In any case, the end of August finished off quite well if I do say so myself. A week or so after my last scans I had my 3 month Sutent/scan follow up with Dr. Sato and I also scheduled an appt. with Dr. Shields and Shields down at the Wills Eye Institute in the hopes of switching ocular oncologists -- I'm just too fed up with the ignorance and malpractice (if you ask me) that occurs at Dr. G's in Boston. The weekend before the appt. was also fun-filled I was down with Jeff in Philly/DE and we participated in the LiveStrong Challenge 5K run. It was a fantastic day on many accounts -- there were quite a few people (over 5,000 or so) and it was sunny and gorgeous. The race went well, though I was, as usual, hard on myself and upset for completing it slower than I thought I had! Though it was extremely inspiring to be running with the "I am a survivor" tag pinned on to my back, and passing by various people who were running with the "In honor of/ In memory of" tags. I gained strength and some drive from being able to admire what my body is capable of accomplishing despite being 4 months into chemo and battling cancer. After finishing a photographer pulled me over and asked if he could take some pictures of Jeff and I for Time magazine -- so we'll see if our pix make it in there! If so I'll post and let people know where they can find them :)
The appt.'s that week were o.k. As usual I enjoyed my visit with Dr. Sato (of course considering my scans were clean it was easy to do so :)) and shared quite a few inappropriate quips with him that made him laugh. I sometimes feel as though it's partly my duty to make him smile since so many of the patients he has are Stage 4 and I'm lucky enough to be seeing him adjuvantly. My other appt was good and bad. I was disappointed to hear that the measurements taken from my ultrasound here in Boston were significantly different both in size measurement (initial and the 6 mo. post radiation scans) and different in the amount of change that occured between these two appts. I still do not understand how this is possible mathematically -- but for now I'm choosing to let it go. On the upside, I would much prefer to wait 3 -4 hours at Wills Eye to see them there than to be immediately seen at Dr. G's in Boston. I am thankful to be switching to them for my 6 mo. eye follow ups from here on out and am looking forward to hopefully better news in regards to slow tumor shrinkage and treatment for the fluid in my eye when we go next in Feb. 2009.
So on the cancer front most is quiet these days. My next set of scans will be in November the week before Thanksgiving -- I hope and pray that I will have plenty of reasons to give an abundance of thanks on that day. I am still on Sutent and am 4 months in, continuing to so far only have white hair and the annoying rash as side effects, both things I am more than capable of dealing with. In November I think I will push Dr. Sato to allow me to continue 3 more months of Sutent in the hopes to complete 9 months of adjuvant Sutent treatment before looking for my next plan. If not I have a few ideas in mind, but they all need further investigation.
Otherwise life is hectic as usual. I recently had my first few nights to myself since probably mid July after being with Jeff and having friends visit for almost an entire month and a half straight. It was much appreciated and thoroughly enjoyed though :) I'm continuing trying to get back into the swing of work, at least up until the next nervous scan period :) and am keeping busy as usual. I'm trying to take advantage of every minute of every day....easy for a person with a lot of energy (like myself) but hard for a person who's always broke (like myself) :) but I'm doing the best I can at the moment.
I hope everyone is well and have enjoyed seeing so many of you over this summer -- thank you all for helping me enjoy and appreciate the warm and balmy days :) I hope it continues throughout the rest of the fall!
Be well!
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