Tag Archives: Cancer

24 Hours of Booty!

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Readers! It is official. Team Hotel Yorba is up and running for the 24 Hours of Booty ride in October here in the ATL. What? What is it you ask? Read below!

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More than just a ride.  

24 Hours of Booty is a community committed to put cancer in its place. This 24-hour cycling event raises local and national funds for cancer-fighting programs. 

Held on a traffic free loop, the event brings together cyclists of all abilities. The only requirement is a bicycle (or unicycle!) and a passion for fighting cancer. When you ride, donate or volunteer at 24 Hours of Booty, you get so much more than miles on your bike.

We are community.  We ride as family, united by a common goal.   
We are achievable.  Ride one mile.  Ride one hundred miles.  It’s a ride to see if everyone can win. 
We are survivors. Cancer doesn’t own us. We will put it in it’s place. 
We are fun.  Cancer is serious business, but the ride doesn’t have to be.
We are focused.  We have a one-track mind. We exist to fight cancer. We fight as one.

We ride for your mom, your brother, your best friend and your coworker. We ride for the people just diagnosed and for the people fighting a hard battle. We ride for those celebrating years of remission and for those who are running out of time. 

We are all 24 Hours of Booty. Share the videos below with your family and friends to let them know how 24 Hours of Booty is active in your community.

Do you want to ride with Team Hotel Yorba? We would love to have you come down, up, or across and join us. Here is the link if you ant to Ride. Are you interested in volunteering? Check it out here. Are you interested in donating? This would be a WONDERFUL tax write off for 2014!! My page is here. If you want to join my team you can do that from either my home page and click the button on the right of the page or go here.

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If you have issues just let me know and we will work on it. Please remember!!!! You DO NOT have to ride for the whole 24 hours. I plan to ride and rest and then ride some more. Read all about it if you are interested or if you are local and have a tent your can lend let me know! ;)

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Readers! Come join us!!

PS…Rebecca took a picture of me while I slept during my chemo!

Sleeping beauty

Sleeping beauty

Round #2

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I did not draw this!

I did not draw this!

Readers! Today was round two of chemo. Once again the wonderful Rebecca A. came with me on my journey. She was at my house at 8am sharp and we headed downtown along with half of the citizens of ATL. I was scheduled to see Dr. Read today. They were running right on time and after my port was opened it wasn’t long before Dr. Read came in to see how I was doing. While driving down to the hospital Rebecca took notes for me about items I wasted to bring up with him. I gave him my list of complaints.

1. Have bump/cyst/thingy on my back by one of my incisions.- He checked this out and have happy to see that when pushed on, it moved around. Tumors don’t usually don’t move. He thinks it may be a cyst caused my the surgery last October. He will have a better idea when the scans are done on the 31st of July. He did say I could get a massage if I wanted to but not for them to push down hard on it.

2. Still having major pain under my right boob/rib/incision areas. The pain is pretty bad, worse in the morning and it has effected my sleep. Sometimes I even find it hard to push down my veg when juicing! -He is not 100% sure this is caused by a tumor. He stated that you usually can’t feel them like that. He thinks it may be a nerve growing back and miss firing signals to the rest of my body. I have to agree with him because I can I know exactly what I was doing the moment it started to hurt. I was in yoga and I had just gone up in a should stand when BAM! Son of a Sweet Pickle!. Like the cyst/bump/thing we should know more after the CT.

3. Sleep. It is hard to do. I have been waking up in the night every night in pain and have been having trouble falling  back asleep. My won’t stop racing and I am sad to say I don’t always have the most positive thoughts. But that is to be expected.- Dr. Read, Rebecca and I discussed my pain management. I love how he uses everyday situations to describe things. Todays was Tequila vs Beer! Ha! Anyway, I have two new prescriptions that will hopefully help me get my pain under control and gel me sleep through the night.

Before I passed out.

Before I passed out.

After my appointment we went down to the infusion center and I got hooked up. They gave me a Benadryl and dam! That thing knocked me out. I had such a hard time staying awake that I finally gave up and took a nap. My Man wasn’t pulling my leg when he says I snore. Rebecca said I was lightly snoring too! Wonderful. She was able to sit back and do some work and take a test for her continuing education credits. I got home around 2pm so all in all it wasn’t a horrible day.

I did not draw this!

I did not draw this!

At this point I feel fine. My white blood cell count was kinda low but not low enough for me not to have the chemo today. It is expected for the count to drop (red blood cells too) while going through chemo but you have to keep an eye on it. I was told to stay away from sick kids and to wash my hands a lot. No licking the floors of bathrooms!  I have my barf bucket by my bed just in case it starts to effect the old tummy. I think it will take a few days to hit me if it does this time.

Readers, I hope you are having a nice Thursday and enjoying your summer. It is hot in the ATL but that is the case in the summer down here. More info on 24 Hours of Booty Ride coming soon!

Round 1 Chemo post

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Readers, I slept in today till 8:30am. I mean what the hell right? I was going to have a busy day today anyway. I did a little work, spoke to a client about new  a job offer she got and around 11am my parter in crime, Rebecca, showed up.  We made great time and got to the hospital around 11:30am. I was hopping since I was there so early, that I could get the show on the road so that we weren’t at the hospital all day. HA!

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First they accessed my port. I have a duel one so they have to do it twice. The needle looks like a long push-pin needle. It doesn’t hurt that bad if you have a good RN doing it for you.

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Look at all the stuff they use! And that is just half of it.

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Ouch!

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Boob shot

After that was taken care of we went back to the lobby and to another set of elevators to take us the 4th for my Echo Cardio Gram. I have never had one of these done before and had no idea what to expect. Basically it is an ultra sound for your heart. My appointment was at 12:45 and we got there in plenty of time. However I did not get in till 1:15pm and chemo was to start at 1:30! I hate to be late!

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The test took about 30 minutes and it was pretty cool to see my heart up on the screen doing its thing. It looked good to me, pumping away but what do I know about hearts. Not. A. Thing.
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We made it to chemo at 1:45pm to find out that when they accessed my port, they should have taken blood. Instead I had it taken late and now we would have to wait an hour to get the results back! Son of a Pickle!

Got my port all fancy!

Got my port all fancy!

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After the RN took blood Rebecca and I took a walk outside, went into the cafe to get a drink and snack and then sat in the lobby to people watch.

My snack

My snack

At 2:45pm we walked right into the fusion center looking like we were at a restaurant waiting for someone to set us at our table! Soon they found me a chair that had its own tv. Nice. Rebecca and I watched HGTV.
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Chemo is more fun with friends!

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We were next to a woman who was not feeling well at all and had a 103 temperature and the chills. Poor thing. We felt so bad for her. I think she was going to have to be checked into the hospital. She and her husband were watching the World Cup on their TV. I was the youngest one in there by far. After 30 minutes of premeds and a 30 minute break, the chemo began. Rebecca was really into everything and asked all kinds of good questions.

Red Devil

Red Devil

About a minute into the chemo she was like “It’s RED!”. Oh no! I have heard of the chemo that is red. My friend Gerri had it and they call it the RED DEVIL. NOT GOOD. I sure as hell hope it won’t make me as sick as her or lose my hair all over again. Sweet Pickles!

The chemo ran about an hour and then we were all done. It was 5:30pm. Though I hated that we had to wait an extra hour (never agin will that mistake be made) it wasn’t all that bad. I credit this to Rebecca being there. She was able to come into all the rooms with me and watched all what I had to go through. She was really into it. Asking a lot of questions and keeping me company. I am really glad she came. THANK YOU REBECCA!

I will be going back in three weeks for round 2. I hope in a couple of weeks I start to feel the pain in my ribs ease off a bit. That is all I ask. Shrink a little LT. You can do it!

Tomatoes, Peppers, Edamame Oh My!

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Hey Readers!

Alomost ready to pick!

Alomost ready to pick!

I am happy to say that the garden at Hotel Yorba is coming along. I am very pleased with how things are growing. The only issue I am having thus far is that something is eating all the leaves on my okra plants. What would do that? I have been able to pull up some carrots that I have used in my morning juices.  One thing I am excited about it my Edamame! How cool is it that I am growing it! Very cool. I love the little pods. It has taken to my not so great soil really well.

Edamame

Edamame

I have spotted one cucumber growing but there are a lot of blooms. The cucumber/squash have done a good job of attaching itself to the trellis. I hope keeping the veggies off of the ground will help them grow larger.

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I am not sure if I mentioned but when I bought my green peppers, I accidentally bought a jalapeño pepper by mistake. Now, I don’t like hot things. Pepper, at times, can be too much for me! But My Man is looks spicy, hot things and it very excited about the mistake I made. He will be happy to know that his pepper plant already has a peppers growing on it.

HoT! HoT!

HoT! HoT!

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One of the lemons on our lemon tree

One of the lemons on our lemon tree

Yesterday evening I was looking at chicken coops on Pinterest (I do this all the time) and came across one picture that inspired me to decorate The Majestic some more. I have old photo’s (me and my big brother taken by my dad) and artwork that has been sitting for years in my garage gathering dust and I thought what the heck! The Girls deserve some art in their lives and it will make the coop look nice. So I went to the garage, grabbed the artwork, a hammer, some nails and a step stool and went to work. I think it turned out nice. What do you think?

The Majestic

The Majestic

I also found this old shell mirror that use to hang in my grandparents bathroom. I loved that mirror and thought it would make a good addition to the coop. I think my Honey might have made it, so it is very old. Some of the shells have come off so I am going to glue them back on with the help of a glue gun, clean it up and hang it up over the coop door. Maybe the girls will see their reflection and be like “Wow, you’re a good-looking chick!”.
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Tomorrow

Tomorrow I will be going in for my first regular dose of chemo. Round One. I will get my port accessed, have a EKG (not a big deal) and then at 1:30pm get hooked up and the chemo will start flowing. My very good friend, Rebecca, will be making the trip with me. That is making my parents very happy (me too! :)). They are out west on a trip and can’t be here. I told her that I am going to have her take pictures of everything so I can share it with you guys. She is also brining her lunch. It’s like a field trip! I am not nervous, just ready for it to start, work and shrink LT.  LT is ready too.

 

Readers, are you growing a garden this summer? Whatcha growing? Having issues?

My LT (little tumors)

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It’s Monday Reader’s! How are you doing? I woke up an empty nester! The Boy is at sleep away camp. My Man and I dropped him off yesterday at Camp Winnataska in Alabama. Four of his friends from school are also going so we feel much better knowing his best buddies will be there with him. I think he was excited but also a bit nervous. He told me he is just going to think about like he is spending the night at a friend’s house. We wrote him letters also with his grandparents so he will get mail each day. I also purchased him some goodies that he will get throughout the week.IMG_4391 IMG_4379On Saturday we celebrated Timber’s “Gotcha Day”. I can’t believe it has been one year since he has come into our lives. He has brought such joy to our house. We went out to lunch and then to his best friend, Rebel’s, house. Rebel’s mom bought Timber a beer made esp. for dogs. How nice!! She also got him a yummy cookie.IMG_4376

Yummy!

Yummy!

Whatcha Reading?

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The Son by Jo Nesbo- I finished listening to this one a few weeks ago and like with his Henry Hole series, I loved it. Jo Nesbo is a fantastic writing and I suggested anyone who enjoys crime/mystery books check him out.

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Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds by Dr. Kelly Turner- I started reading this after I saw an interview Kris Carr did with her.

n her New York Times bestseller, Radical Remission: Surviving Cancer Against All Odds, Dr. Kelly A. Turner, founder of the Radical Remission Project, uncovers nine factors that can lead to a spontaneous remission from cancer—even after conventional medicine has failed.

While getting her Ph.D. at the University of California, Berkley, Dr. Turner, a researcher, lecturer, and counselor in integrative oncology, was shocked to discover that no one was studying episodes of radical (or unexpected) remission—when people recover against all odds without the help of conventional medicine, or after conventional medicine has failed.  She was so fascinated by this kind of remission that she embarked on a ten month trip around the world, traveling to ten different countries to interview fifty holistic healers and twenty radical remission cancer survivors about their healing practices and techniques. Her research continued by interviewing over 100 Radical Remission survivors and studying over 1000 of these cases.  Her evidence presents nine common themes that she believes may help even terminal patients turn their lives around.–Amazon.com

So far I have read the first three chapters and am hooked. The stories of the survivors are very uplifting and encouraging. I am using what I am learning in my own fight to get my LT’s (Little Tumors) healthy again. I have decided not to hate them. Not to want to kill them. They are just blood cells who minding their own business, working hard for me and the bam! They get sick. I know the feeling and I want to help them get better. I want the big LT to lose some weight cause he is really hurting my ribcage. So I am going to be positive, tell them I will help them get better. Watch what I put in my body, how I treat it and to breathe. Most people don’t really breath. I don’t need the negative energy in my mind and body right now. Who wants to go around being angry all the time? I know there are some out there who think the chemo, radiation and drugs have all gone to my head and maybe they have but this feels right for me. Of course when I told My Man about LT he said he would just be happy to kill the little fuckers. Oh Well!

 Whatcha Reading?

Needs more salt…

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Reader’s!

Chillin' at Dr. Reads

Chillin’ at Dr. Reads

I got some good news today at Dr. Reads office today. My blood tests came back great! My white blood cell count was good, liver and kidneys look great! The only issue was that my sodium level was a bit low (128 whatever that means), lower than it has ever been. Low sodium!?! I love me some salt! Dr. Read is very happy with how things are going which makes me very happy.

Waiting....

Waiting….

The white hair has started to appear. It’s crazy! Good thing I will be going to get my hair colored next week. Don’t think I could stand to much of it. The pain in my side is still there and Dr. Read seems to think it is possible nerve damage from the surgery since it is at its worse in the morning and better when I am up and moving around. All I know is that it hurts and sneezing is a b!tch!

I am off to ProCare today to get my two new legs! Can’t wait to test out the sporty on tomorrow during my workout with SK. Bouncy! Bouncy! Bouncy!

Reader’s, how is your week going?

 

 

Lights! Puppies! Shout Outs!

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Happy Wednesday Reader’s!

Only two more days till Friday and a three-day weekend! Woot! Woot! Are you doing anything special for Memorial Day? Our very good friends/The Boy’s God Parents are doing down in Friday and will be staying the weekend with us. The Boy’s big day is on Saturday and we are having people over to Hotel Yorba for swimming and grilling. It should be a lot of fun with good weather (fingers crossed) and good food.

Gift from Nana Pete & Papa!

Gift from Nana Pete & Papa!

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The Boy got a gift and some $$$ form his Nana Pete and Papa today in the mail. He has been working on his legos ever since! Loves working on them. The $$$ will go into his college fund because nothing is as fun as a good college education!

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Lights!

Lights!

O Tuesday we hung lights in the screened in porch. I have been wanting to do it for years and finally decided to just buy the damn things. It got a bit crazy but we got them up and I love them! Makes the porch come alive! My Man did most of the work and he did a good job.

We are heading down to the Braves games in a bit. It should be a good game, they have won the last two games in the series. Let’s go number three!! Go Braves!

Pet Cam

Passed out Puppy

Passed out Puppy

Kobie- Timber's new buddy!

Kobie- Timber’s new buddy!

Isn’t Kobie a cutie!?! I love to watch his little legs run!

Shout Out!

I want to give a shout out to my Uncle Roone. He is done with round 2 of chemo and is starting to feel the oh so wonderful side effects of the crap (good crap cause it will save your life but crap just the same). Hang in there!!

Also to Tammy R.! I know she should be getting new boobies soon (so jealous). Let us know how you are doing Tammy! And I want to see how our hair is growing in!!

Be Good Y’all!