Friday, October 23, 2009

another reminder that I'm living with a deadly disease...

Cancer sucks, every time I get into the ZONE of living my normal life and being happy and content, cancer comes and stomps all over me..............GO AWAY CANCER!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Of course, I'm trying not to spiral into a sea of sadness today. I'm just playing with the boys and re-decorating my house! That always makes me happy!!!

Well, I went to the doctors yesterday for my routine treatment. I don't actually see the doctor at these appt. but she has an AM meeting with the nurses and discusses any concerns. The nurse started out by saying that Dr. W wanted to know if I wouldn't mind waiting until Jan to do my follow up scans. The Dr. said she felt comfortable waiting and she didn't want scans to interfere with holidays and such. I said sure no problem, I prefer it that way! She then said to me, that it would all depend of my blood work next month, we still might have to do scans in November. I said why, she said b/c my tumor markers were up last month. They have doubled, 19 to 44. (when I first diagnosed the # was 96, so 44 is pretty high). She then told me not to worry (easier said then done) that a lot could play into the fact that the #'s where up including inflammation, hence I just had surgery and the fact that my treatment that I had been on (the shot and pill) had not been working for the past year, that's why I had surgery in the first place.

So we are waiting until Nov. 19 to redo the blood work, that will give us 2 full months back on the medication and 3 month post surgery, and hopefully then the # will be back to normal.

Until then I will ...

"Pray, hope and don't worry. Trust in the infinite goodness of almighty God."
~St. Pio of Pietcrelcina

Hugs,
Jual

Monday, October 19, 2009

WOW, WOW, WOW!!!!


The walk was simply a remarkable experience!! We had so much fun! The DC walk alone raised over 5.5 million dollars; we are getting closer to a cure!! Just to have been a small part of that is so cool to me! I have already signed up to do it again next year!!!


I was interviewed for an article in our local paper about Jual’s Gems and why we were walking in the 3-Day! I have no idea what I said b/c I was so nervous. I’ll have to wait to read it myself when it’s published. But as I was walking the 60 miles, I thought about that question a lot. I walked for many reasons, but this statement sums it up. I walked for all those affected by cancer and I’m walking for the future. A future of watching my children grow, a future without breast cancer.
I saw a breast cancer license plate 2 days before the walk, it said “MSMYSIS”! I almost broke down in tears. I don’t want that for my sisters, I don’t want them to have to miss me. I need to be here with them and I will do everything I can to make that come true.





I’m walking for my children….don’t you love this picture! This is my friend Becca! The team had been looking for that flag all weekend so we could carry it but never found it. When Becca was picking up her luggage on Sunday after closing ceremonies, she found it! This flag is why I walked…for my 3 little gem birds!





That will be my mission for next year to find that flag! My fighting force is my children and I do all things for them!! We did have the honor of holding and walking with this great flag!






This is my neighbor and dear friend, Michelle walking for her neighbor (that’s me)! :-)





Camping was fun too! That was the only thing that I was worried about, since I had never really been camping before! The sea of pink tents was definitely a sight to see! We were hot the first night, sleeping on top of our sleeping bags and then freezing the second night. We did get rained on the first night but not too bad…we were already in our tents and everything was covered in plastic!! We survived out in the wilderness. We even had a little “campfire”, AKA a lantern!



This was just one small section....there were many many more tents!!!





The 60 mile journey was a roller coaster of emotions. From opening ceremony to the physical challenge of getting up and to keep walking mile after mile, especially toward the end of each day when our feet were sore! We met some very nice and interesting people, heard some sad and happy stories. Sometimes we laughed so hard that even our stomach muscles hurt. We cried and we cried, sometimes for very good reasons and sometimes we didn’t even know why. On Sunday in the holding area, we were all so happy to be reunited with our families. Lots of hugs and kisses!









Once it got closer to closing ceremonies, all of the participants of the walk were separated by crew, walkers, and survivors. The tradition is for the survivors to walk in last as a celebration. The 3 survivors of my team got ready to honored by our family, fellow walkers, and crew.







As we lined up to walk into closing ceremonies, I realized that I along with my friends and fellow survivor sisters, Kathy and Erica would be the first of the survivors to walk into the closing ceremony onto the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in our Nation’s Capital! What an awesome experience!!! All three of us had tears of joy and just release of emotions! I can’t even describe the feeling, it was a goose bump moment!!






Thank you to all of my team members for all of the time, blood, sweat, and tears that went into this commitment of a 3 day, 60 mile walk and the efforts of a $2300 fundraising goal!!


WE DID IT!!!



Looking forward to next year!! Who’s interested?

Tuesday, October 6, 2009

I'm so excited...

I can't believe the walk is almost here!! I'm very excited but nervous at the same time! I've been running around for the past week getting supplies for the 3 days. I'm packing and mentally preparing myself for this weekend! Everything in my duffel bag is in plastic bags just in case of rain. There is a 40% chance of rain on Saturday, let's all do no rain dance!!! That would just be miserable if it rained on us!! I got my pink gear and some fun accessories for us to decorate our tents and such! I will post pictures and update the blog as soon as I can!! Wish me luck!!

Thanks for all the support!!! Go team!!

Friday, October 2, 2009

One more week......Breast Cancer 3-DAY here we come!!!

From left to right: Sara Vorce, Robyn Burns, Michelle Natysin, Becca Maguire, Jennifer Toussaint, and Lori Kaye.
This is my friend Erica Hutchinson, she is also walking with Jual's Gems and she too is a breast cancer survivor and a true inspiration!

Team Jual's Gems!! I love you!!! Thank you for walking for all those affected by cancer!!!