Breathe Deep, Cleveland!

I've been talking off and on about hoping to have some sort of event in Cleveland to raise funds for lung cancer research. After nearly a year of planning, I'm happy to say that our dream has been realized, and that Cleveland will have a 5k Fun Walk/Run to raise awareness and funds for lung cancer research!!

The website is a GO! 

When: June 27th, 2015
Where: Edgewater Park

Event Page
Event Facebook Page
Event Twitter
My Donation Page

I know a lot of people are doing a lot of different fundraising things, but I ask you to send a dollar or two my way. My goal is steep - and if I meet it I'm going to go even higher. Lauren Hill has inspired me to raise as much as I can for lung cancer research. If you don't know of her story, click here. She has raised over one million dollars toward cancer research. If we're being honest, I want to do the same. If you know someone with deep pockets, send them to my donation page!

Honestly, though...I'd be happier if a lot of people donated a little - instead of one or two people donating a lot, but I'll take it all.

MOVING ON!

I had a weird dream last night. I blame pain medication.

I was abducted. I don't know if it was by humans or aliens, but they appeared to be human. They took me to a place that seemed to be some hippy-dippy "New Age" healing center. They gave me radiation therapy with gemstones that were unavailable to anyone else. I was told I could choose one person to give the knowledge to, and enough gemstones to start the process of developing more stones.

I chose my oncologist. When I returned home (I got the feeling I never left Earth but who knows - this was a dream after all) I was scanned and was cancer free. Cool, huh?

Anyway, I did a bad, bad thing yesterday. I didn't take my chemotherapy meds. Intentionally.

Why? I really didn't want to throw up this morning. The nausea medicine I was given to take in place of Zofran at night before Zykadia actually does work, about 75% of the time. The other 25% I'm very sick for 10-45 minutes. I take medicine to help me stop throwing up, and then I fall asleep. I'm not entirely sure, but I think I slept most of the day yesterday.

Yes, I'll take them tonight and again the next night and so on. But honestly, it's starting to affect my job a little bit. If it's working, I will pick this treatment over my schedule - barfing or no barfing.

I'm a little afraid to be weighed again. I feel like I at least get one good meal in a day - with some snacking here and there... But sometimes I don't. Lots of times, it's completely my fault. I have frozen fruit in my freezer. I could make smoothies. My goal is to work on that.

Les Symptômes Terribles

Ah, la vache!

Pour mon déjeuner, pêches tendues et du porridge de riz. Très sophistiquée, non?

Oui, non.

Yesterday I was pretty sick in the morning, which left me very hungry in the afternoon yet too gun-shy to actually eat anything, which made me feel even worse... Nausea and appetite loss really suck.

I got home from work and cooked up a steak in our cast iron skillet and wolfed it down. No issues, and I felt much better, for a while. I cooked dinner a few hours later but wasn't hungry. Part of that was likely because I had eaten just a few hours before, most of it was that I just didn't feel that great.

I decided to go to bed a little after that, and rest for awhile. I took Benadryl to help me sleep. One of our cats accidentally scratched me as I was playing with her, and I had a total meltdown. Yes, she drew blood and it hurt - but I was completely sobbing. I know it wasn't just because I had a cat scratch - I've had many "scratches" in the past years that have left me scarred and sore. This was minor, but I think I'd just had it. I'd been doing so well for a few days, it was defeating to have a crap day in the middle of nowhere. I'm over it now, for the most part - but the fact that I still feel weak and a little fragile is upsetting. I did quite a bit more walking (briskly, yay!) than I have in a while, and my hip and joints are suffering some, as a result. I'm waiting anxiously for my city to release the winter schedule for water aerobics so I can start that up again.

Today I managed to eat a bowl of cereal and not get sick, but I still didn't feel right. My head sort of hurts, and I'm (of course) tired. I brought leftovers from yesterday's dinner - locally made pierogi with sauerkraut and sauteed onions (yummy, minus onions) but I've not been brave enough to eat them yet. Instead, I am eating rice cereal (for babies) and strained peaches. They're easy on the stomach, but not as protein enriched as my doctors would probably like.

I got lab results back (at least, they were finally posted so I can access them). My hemoglobin and red blood cells are a little low, just below the normal threshold - they were evidently okay enough to continue treatment without a blood transfusion, but we'll see what happens next week. Thankfully, I am off treatment this week, perhaps that will give me some time to recover.

I am hoping to feel normal tomorrow, since we're visiting with family for Christmas. I need this time of year. Not for presents or anything like that, but it's just so warm and nice. It's really hard to be sad or mad at Christmas.

We went to a basketball game last week, and that was so fun! I bought a shirt and was as giddy as a tourist about it (even though our team lost). I hope we get to go to another game soon.

Happy Holidays to all of my readers, friends and family. I couldn't fight this battle without you. Love and caring are great medicines.