DC or Bust

We are so close to being in the Top 10 fund raising teams for our walk this weekend!
We have raised over $40,000 to find a cure for breast cancer!

If you have not given yet - and can, please do so! 5 Days to Go!

Forecast looks like rain and more rain and maybe even some thunder! 39 miles in the rain! Camping in the rain! Now, that's dedication to finding a cure for breast cancer!

Please sponsor a walker today!

Click here to sponsor me

Christy's Crew on Youtube

Rochester Red Wings Game - Pluta Cancer Center

I am so excited!

On Sunday, May 11th - Mother's Day, there is a Rochester Red Wings Game that is sponsored by Pluta Cancer Center. The players will be wearing special pink jersey's in honor of breast cancer awareness and these jersey's will be auctioned off at the game with the proceeds going to Pluta Cancer Center.

Yesterday, the Pluta social worker, Sue Vetter, asked me if I would be interested in throwing out the FIRST PITCH at this very special game! I cannot tell you how thrilled I am to do this! Given everything I had to go through in the past year - the people who work at Pluta made the process so much easier! I cannot speak more highly of the nurses, doctors and staff at Pluta. This is such an honor for me!

If you are in Rochester that day - please join in the fun and come to the game.

If you are out of town - there will be plenty of pictures and video to share!

Now - I am off to the ball diamond at the local park to practice pitching a baseball! I don't want to make a fool of myself!

Updates

There is so much less information for me to post these days on the status of my breast cancer treatments.

I am doing very well. I had follow-up appointments with my plastic surgeon, my chemo oncologist, and my radiation oncologist this past week.

I will meet with my radiation and chemo oncologists every six months right now to keep tabs on how I am doing. But all reports are great! My white blood cell counts are back up to a "normal" persons counts (4.4) - normal range is 4.5 - 8.o (or something around there). they won't give you chemo if the counts drop below 1.5. Mine never dropped that low. But - in Feb they tested my white cell count and it was only 2.5 (still well below normal). But, I guess it takes time to regenerate those white blood cells!

I am still taking Tamoxofin - this is an estrogen blocking drug that helps prevent recurrence of hormone receptive breast cancer. I will be on this for 5 years. I have very few side effects from this drug. Because it is an estrogen blocking drug - it blocks my body from producing estrogen so the side effects are the same as those of menopause. Basically - I am in menopause while on this drug. But- luckily, I don't have many menopause side effects like hot flashes or mood swings.

Now I just spend my time, working and training for my 39 mile walk that is in 2 weeks. I feel like a totally normal person with a busy walking schedule!

Note: this part may be TMI for some people - skip to next post if you don't want to read about nipples -

All reports are good from my plastic surgeon. I have healed well from surgery and now need to think about getting nipple put on my breasts. We decided we would discuss it more in the fall. I wanted to have the summer off and this is just not one of the highest priorities for me. It turns out this is a pretty simple procedure. It is done in my plastic's office operating room with local anesthesia. The trick is that I have to wear loose fitting shirts for 3 months so the nipple does not smoosh. This includes tanks, cami's and swimsuits. So - in the fall I will go back to visit her and decide what I will do from there.

OOO RAHH

I'll have more to add on this later, in the meantime, I just wanted to test how this picture looked online. For those who may not know, my nephew Matt enlisted in United States Marine Corps and left for Parris Island, SC this past January. He is currently embarked on the CRUCIPLE, which is the final test towards becoming a Marine. I borrowed this info below to explain better.

The culmination of recruit training is the Crucible, an intense field training exercise designed to build unit cohesion, reinforce core values, and complete the transformation from recruit to Marine. The Crucible is the defining moment of the recruit training experience. As a right of passage, the 45 Concepts and Issues Crucible is a 54-hour ordeal that tests the mettle of every recruit (and DI). The physical and mental challenges are intensified by sleep and food deprivation.

The Crucible focuses on six major field events and is augmented by eleven challenging Warrior Stations. Throughout this rapid paced exercise, emphasis is placed on the importance of teamwork in overcoming adversity
and adaptive problem solving. The teams of recruits, under the leadership of their drill instructor, succeed as a team. The experience pushes recruits to their limits and is a poignant culmination to the transformation process.

So, his platoon left for the Cruciple at 2am Thursday morning and will finish Saturday morning. During that time, he will be allowed 8 hours sleep, no not in a row and maybe not even that much and he will be carrying 2.5 meals. Upon finishing, they will be treated to a feast fit for Warriors.


Aside from letter writing, Matt has been totally cut off from home during this 13 weeks. Next Friday is Graduation Day and along with his parents, grandparents, myself and other family members, we are taking the trip to South Carolina to celebrate. We're all looking forward to seeing what he has become.

Oh, the picture above is for a shirt that we all will all be wearing on Thursdays Family Day.

More to come later.

Jamie