Some People will Never Know!

Some people may never know what it’s like to wait for a diagnosis if they have cancer or not,

They may never know the fear of the diagnosis,

What it’s like to have chemo burn your veins,

To have the pain associated with bone marrow tests,

To feel nauseous from something meant to heal you,

They may never have radiation killing your bone marrow in hopes to kill cancer,

Some may never know what it’s like to watch a parent or child go through these things,

Some kids may never know what it’s like to skip important events with friends because you don’t want to leave your mom alone while she is sick.

Some may never have to wonder if your mom will make it to your graduation, or help you prepare for prom!

They may never have to stay home alone worrying while their parent is in the hospital.

Some kids may never have to take on household responsibilities of an adult because their parent is too sick.

These are all things that my daughters and I have experienced in the last two years, and the reason I raise money for The Leukemia and Lymphoma Society so that those who have never experienced these things first hand can know one day there will be a cure and they may never have to know what it’s like!
http://pages.teamintraining.org/oswim/nikesf13/lisabayha

Relentless

So I have to say I was not the best at Juneathon this year. I have been battling anemia as a result of my increased running and having finished chemo and radiation just over 6 months ago.

I have been relentless in trying to get answers. I have been going to a naturopathic physician who is helping me get Vitamin B shots and IVs to try and manage the fatigue. Increasing my intake or iron throughout the day.

Last week I had another follow up with the oncologist only leading to frustration. They said the cough, high pulse 122 resting, fatigue, leg cramps, night sweats it’s all part of the anemia. He even said my numbers weren’t too low, he has seen much worse. Umm yea your a cancer dr I’m sure you have. When I asked what I can do to fix mine they said just keep doing what your doing.

Went back to acupuncture and mentioned what had happened at the oncologist who didn’t even want to test my blood levels. And she suggested I talk to a different naturopathic physician who has worked with cancer patients. He was the most help so far, he recommended that I order some vitamins that are blood builder, make and drink marrow broth as well as sage tea for the night sweats. He reassured me I have every reason to be concerned that I am 20 years younger than most oncology patients they see and as a runner any number below average can hinder performance and make you feel fatigued.

Still need to order my vitamins and buy some bones but we will get there.

Hydration and Half Marathons

So as I have started training for my first half marathon I have to start thinking of all the things that go along with it. To date my longest run has been a 10K. I have not had to worry about hydration or nutrition because when I run with the team we have a place to leave our stuff, and an aid station with water and snacks. When I run 5k or 10k races I just get my water at the aid station so I have never had to think about waist belts.

I was really set on getting the flipbelt, not only does it look comfortable, it looks like you can fit a lot of stuff in there. This would definitely take care of the nutrition aspect. I could get rid of my amphipod armband that I hate and could carry my belongings easily.

The only problem is this belt does not cover the hydration aspect. I have looked at so many belts and have yet to purchase one because I don’t want to feel I am hiking Mt Everest with my survival kit strapped to my waist while I am running 13.1 miles. What has everyone elsed used that they love? That does not feel cumbersome and is manageable for a minimalist runner who doesn’t like a lot of extras on them.

Success

This weekend I would say was a success, we had over 20 people join us for our pub crawl, we washed many filthy cars, and we worked the water station at the Vancouver USA Marathon giving us the ability to see our friend come through the first aid station. The disadvantage of being the first aid station for the half marathon is that we were only 2 miles in so everyone was still quite close together and we almost missed her. The marathoners we were mile 15 for them so they came through much more spread apart.

I always enjoy working the water stations, the amazing athletes that you see, watching for people you know makes it even more fun.

All in all our weekend blitz of fundraising brought in almost 1000 dollars. Which I am happy with. We will continue to plug along and we will get to that goal because I believe in the cause.

Falling Down

This morning we had our team run what a beautiful day it was. We hit the streets of Northwest Portland, . The streets are lined with restaurants businesses a lot of coffee shops and a lot of people making the area fun to run through.

My oldest daughter who is participating with me in Team in Training had her first runners fall today, she was quite the trooper, two skinned knees and a skinned palm. Unlike her moms first fall, no broken iPhone screen. The fact that we run as a team is so reassuring as a mom to know that even though she is much faster that there are other teammates coaches and mentors out running with us and she was able to get bandaged up. She said it was over a mile and a half in and she still managed to run the remainder of the 4 miles with blood dripping down her leg. She proudly told me that her slowest mile was just over a 10 min mile. Because of this she was nicknamed Sergeant!!

Afterwards we cleaned her up bandaged her up and were off to another car wash to raise more money for cancer. That girl is a trooper and so determined!

I missed track night… for a good reason

My middle daughter had her 8th grade graduation tonight, so I missed our track night. I was feeling a little guilty especially since I didn’t run Monday either so I squeezed in some ab work.

I can hardly believe that she has grown up so fast. Next year I will have two girls at the high school. A Freshman and a Senior and one more going into Junior High. Where does the time go? I do have to say I am very proud of those girls, and despite all the nights I felt like homework was a community project instead of hers she finished with a 4.0 all through Junior High. Following in her older sisters foot steps. The pressure will be on for the little one, with two prior straight A sisters!

Juneathon…. Fail

Ok so honesty is the best policy. I worked my 10 hour day at my JOB and then I came home and worked on homework. I have a 5 page paper and a 25 slide PowerPoint due tomorrow.
So no running for me, but since I’ve been typing non-stop today here is my blog entry…. Just please don’t grade it or highlight my mis-spellleded words or grammatical mistakes because I get plenty of that. FYI.. On your masters they don’t just look at content even if your an accounting major they want grammatically correct papers go figure!

A time to celebrate

Today what’s my off day from running so I did a little foam rolling instead. I did however weigh myself this morning and celebrated the victory. Up until a month ago weight-loss had halted since January. I was up a pound down a pound for four months. This last month when we realized I was anemic as a result of the chemo and radiation and I started taking vitamins, iron as well as the Vitamin B shots and IV I have lost a total of 5 lbs. I am pretty excited about this as I had sort of decided I wasn’t going to stress about it. My body had been through so much that as long as I wasn’t consistently gaining I was happy. My food intake has stayed the same, my miles have actually decreased a little the last month and a half. I went to buy shorts Friday and realized I was a 10!! Two years ago I was a very tight 18 because I refused to go to plus size stores. At 5’9 my heaviest was an embarrassing 215 lbs. most would have never guessed because I am tall, but I knew what the scale said. This morning it went below 170 to 169!!! Which made me realize I may need to start thinking about where I want my goal weight. I have never really picked a magic number, because I really want a healthy BMI and to look healthy, but it made me think I may need to start thinking about this!

Group Runs

Today we had our Team in Training group run, we meet each Saturday to do our long run together. There is just something motivational about getting up and meeting a group of 50 or 60 people to all go for a run together with a common goal of raising money for cancer. It makes early mornings not so bad. For those of us that work Monday to Friday it would be so easy to just sleep in.

I also personally feel that I am more motivated and push myself when I run with a group. It’s easy to cut the miles short when your running by yourself. At first as a new runner, I was intimidated to run with others I was afraid they would run to fast or wouldn’t want to wait for me, but even now as I’m recovering I find the motivation of friends to be helpful.

What do others prefer? Solitude of a solo run or the company of a running group or partner?

Vitamin B Cocktail

Today I had an appointment with both my chiropractor and naturopathic physician. We did the “Vitamin B Cocktail” which is actually a IV that is personalized for whatever vitamins and minerals my body is lacking. Which I did not ask the specific formula but I am sure consisted of lots of B vitamins and iron to build some red blood cells. Can’t say I felt a huge burst of energy, but I was able to get through the day without any coffee and feeling like I was going to fall asleep standing up.

I also had the muscle stimulation on my calves to see if we can continue to reduce the number of cramps that I get. Today was a light day, no running some stretching calf exercises and resting for the Team In Training Run in the morning. I am hoping I can run a little more that walking but we will see what tomorrow brings. Either way I hope to enjoy the run and not stress over time or how much walking I have to do.