Keep on Walking, Walking, Walking......

Hi there! I thought I would post an update on the progress of my sister, Ruth, who is walking a marathon this October to raise funds for the Lymphoma and Leukemia Society (LLS). She is walking four days each week and I get to be her "Thursday Trainer" (she says that I tend to be a "mean" trainer). We walk together at the YMCA, and this past week I did 5 miles with her at a 15 min/mile pace. I was quite impressed with myself, but Ruth is doing much better than that. Her Saturday walk is the LONG one each week and she did 15 miles this morning (in the heat!!). She has a real coach working with her thru LLS's Team in Training program and she is well on her way to being ready for the marathon. Walking around New York all day gave me an appreciation for how tough it will be to walk for about 8 hours straight!!!

She is approaching 50% on her goal of $6800 which is just an awesome amount for one individual to raise for cancer research and support. Thanks to so many of you that have already donated, and for others who are interested, please visit her website at http://www.active.com/donate/tntva/rnrgrrls where you can donate online. I have updated my blog format a little and her links are now right under my picture. Go Ruth!!

3 month scans - ALL CLEAR!!!

I just got in from New York and had to post the great news - no signs of cancer on my CAT scans 3 months after the transplant!!! I am officially dubbed the title of "in remission" at this point! Well, it is 12:30 am - our flight was delayed 2-1/2 hours before boarding and then 2 hours on the runway. I am exhausted and am headed to bed, but will edit this post with more details of my NY trip later today (Friday) after I get a some sleep!

Update:

It was hard to get out of bed today and get the kids off to camp. I came back home and crashed for a few hours. I feel so bad for Brant having to be at work. It is just awful trying to get out of New York by plane in the afternoon - even without bad weather there are always delays!! I was in NY for three days and so excited to finally have enough energy to be a "tourist". Below is a rather lengthy recap of my trip, which may be of no interest to many of you, but, hey, it is my blog and I get to post what I want!! :)

My "New York Minute" of a Trip:

I flew up to NY on my own on Tuesday to get my scans done and have a consult with an oncology gyn. It was time for my normal annual check-up but with all my treatments I wanted to meet with a doctor very in tune with the oncology side of things. It was a good visit and I was able to talk frankly with the doctor about how the chemo has affected me. I won't get into the details, but lets just say I am so thankful that I have two beautiful children already since cancer has sorta taken that away from me now. This is a disease that affects so many young people, and many lose their chance to have children as a result, so I have no place complaining about my side affects. From there I headed off for my CAT scan that went fine. I scheduled my visit with Dr. Moskowitz on Thursday to make sure the radiology folks had a day to read the scans. Brant flew up on Thursday to be with me for that visit.

So now it was Tuesday evening and I had already walked all over the Upper East Side for my appointments that were not at the main hospital. I headed back to the apartment we had stayed in so many times before. I had tried to book a hotel, but rates in Manhattan in August are $300 - $500 a night. My adventurous side wanted to try a hostel, but I figured the backpackers might call me "grandma". I found a "dive" with a shared bath on the Upper West Side for around $120/night, but in the end I chickened out and asked if the apartment was available. - THANKS MIKE! After a bite for dinner at the corner deli I went to a bookstore to buy a "Guide to NY" book. I stayed up past 11pm reading it and plotting my big tourist day on Wednesday.

Then I awoke Wednesday to rain storms around 6am and heat advisories for later in the day of over 100 degrees. No big deal I thought. Well, apparently the New York subways can not handle 3 inches of rainfall in one hour and the whole system shut down. There was even an F2 tornado that touched down in Brooklyn. The whole city was in gridlock and millions of people could not get to where they were going. So I chucked my carefully made sightseeing plans out the window and took off walking towards midtown. Using the west side of 5th Ave, the street was lined with Central Park trees and the "commute" into town was shady and pleasant. You get a glimpse (and whiff) of the Central Park Zoo along the way. I strolled past bus after bus packed with people and sitting still in traffic that wasn't moving. Not a pretty sight.....

I sat and rested at the Grand Army Plaza, but it was too hot so I checked out the jewelry and air conditioning at Tiffany's and then looked in at the Trump Tower (yes, John, this is the building that you let me run into when we drove thru New York in '90). Then I headed over to the TKTS booth at Times Square figuring a matinee Broadway show at 50% off would be a cool way to spend the heat of the day. There is so much to see as you walk along, the buildings and churches are amazing. I stood in the cash only TKTS line for about 30 minutes and then learned that 50% off is more than I thought it was and couldn't buy a ticket. No big deal since I really wanted to see Lion King and that show is so sold out that it isn't available at TKTS. So I went over to the Lion King box office - premium seats were available at $250, ha! But they had a cancellation line and if seats came available they were sold at face value. So I sat down, met a new friend Stacy and her daughter that were locals, and took a gamble on getting a seat. The two hours in COLD air conditioning and off of my feet flew by as I chatted with Stacy. I got a seat with them in the 8th row in the center section near the aisle. The show was phenomenal and when the characters sang in the aisle, they were right next to us!!! It was such a great experience.

After the show it was about 5pm and the subways were up and limping along. So I finally got to use my "All Day Unlimited Rides" subway pass that I had bought. Not exactly the best day to maximize that card! I headed over to the World Trade Center site in the financial district. Since construction has now started on the site it is hard to get a sweeping view of the hole, but the few glimpses I did have were mind boggling in terms of the shear size and depth of Ground Zero site. I stopped at St. Paul's Chapel where they have a good display about 9/11 and the role that church played in helping the rescue workers in the aftermath. I recommend visiting this site to see what good comes out in people during tragedies. I was sad as I walked past Fire Station #10 on Liberty St. right across from the WTC site and thought how hard it must have been that day for the fire fighters.

From there I checked out Wall St., the NYSE building, and sat on the steps of the Federal Hall National Memorial near the Statue of George Washington. This is where the first Congress first met, our Bill of Rights was written, and our first president was inaugurated when New York acted as the capital of the country. Very cool stuff to read about. New York does a great job with signage - both getting around and historical markers. It was easy to take in a lot as I wandered around. On my way to the Bowling Green subway to head back uptown, I posed with the Wall St. Bull and marvelled at another beautiful pint size park that they have all over the City:

Tired and hungry, I got off at the 77th St subway and had a great dinner at a little Vietnamese place, Vermicelli, that my new friend Stacy had recommended while we waited for Lion King tickets. I fell asleep early after all the walking and had no time to worry about what the results of my scans would be the next day.

But Thursday morning I woke at 5:30 am and couldn't fall back asleep as I worried about my results. So I left the apartment around 7:30 and headed out to walk the Brooklyn Bridge. This was part of my plan for Wednesday that I couldn't do because of the subway shutdown. But things happen for a reason, and Thursday morning was more than 10 degrees cooler, lower humidity, and better visibility. It was a much better day for being on the bridge. I grabbed some morning coffee and headed for the subway, commuting in at rush hour with many others. Despite the crowds, I am amazed at how orderly and polite New Yorkers always seem to be. I like that you are expected to be decisive and assertive around here and it isn't considered rude. Since I had to make a transfer, I chose Grand Central Station, and went up into the terminal to look around. They sure didn't skimp on buildings in New York - the place was so ornate and huge!!!

I made it to Brooklyn and grabbed a bagel at a deli before going on the bridge. I sat on a bench and had breakfast and watched the many commuters and joggers go by. The view was amazing and I could see the incredible Manhattan skyline, the Statue of Liberty, the Empire State Building, tugs and barges heading into the port, and the New York municipal buildings as you exit the bridge at City Hall plaza. It was still a little early for tourists, so I stood out with my camera!

The bridge amazed me (of course, as an engineer), that it was built so long ago (opened in 1883 I think) before semi trucks were around, yet the thing is so solid. There is lots of great info along the walkway about how the bridge was built and what New York and Brooklyn were like during that time. It was also interesting that the average age of the engineers that worked on the bridge was only 31. Just about the time I got across the bridge and back into Manhattan, Brant called to say he had arrived and I headed to the subway to get uptown to meet him at the hospital.

After our GREAT visit with Dr. Moskowitz, we had a little time to kill and we headed back to the subways - did I tell you that NY subways are very nifty ways to get around??!! We went to Midtown and Grand Central, then did a little walking tour past the NY library (a tad larger than the Churchland branch will be!!), Times Square, Rockefeller Center, and then rode back up to the Upper East Side for a late lunch before heading to the airport. We were both so happy and relieved to be heading home with healthy reports.

While at the Sloan Kettering I recognized a lady who has been battling Hodgkin's since the early 90s. She has a website, http://www.hodgkinsfoundation.org/, that helped me when I was searching for info. She started a foundation that raises money just for lymphoma research at Sloan Kettering and I was always impressed with how much she has done. It was great to meet her along with another lady who is getting ready to start the transplant process soon. Cancer is a terrible disease, but it does bring people and experiences into your life that you would never have otherwise. It helps people connect and be kinder to one another - just like what I saw Wednesday at the St. Paul's Chapel during 9/11. I don't understand why it takes bad things in life to help people be good, but I guess that is the way it is........ Maybe it is so we can better endure the tragedies in life.

Well, if you made it to the end of this post - congrats! I will try to post once or twice a month on the blog now, but there isn't as much going on these days, thankfully!! Feel free to drop me a line at bnrcox@yahoo.com. Take Care!

Back from the Beach

Hi everyone! Sorry for the delay in posting anything new, but we were at the beach on vacation. We had a wonderful time in our cottage with 4 other families - 10 adults and 8 kids this year. You can see from the picture that we had a crowd. I felt great the whole week and had no stomach problems. It was a good thing, too, since we had SOOO much food. And it was all YUMMY...... we were the "cottage of delicious meats" (a play on the Geico commercial about Virginia ham in case you didn't pick it up....). The weather was perfect and we only had one day of rain. The kids spent a lot of time in the surf or playing on the sand. Brant got water-logged boogey boarding and body surfing as well. After the beach there was more fun in the sun playing at the cottage pool. The dads had an early morning fishing trip in the surf which Chris really seemed to enjoy.

OK, enough pics of the beach or I will get in the car and head back there!

This is my big week on the cancer side of things. I will be up in New York to have 3 month scans and a visit with Dr. Moskowitz. I will post on Friday with my news which we are praying will be all positive. I think my stomach issues are over and my stamina seems normal. I haven't felt any unusual fatigue in quite a while. Eight of my old fingernails have come off. I feel like I have nubs on the end of my fingers, but hopefully the new nails will grow quickly, they are already about 3/4 normal length. My hair continues to grow and I no longer feel like a "cancer patient"....just a "cancer survivor" which is so much better!!

That's it for now, I'll be back here on Friday......!