What A Beautiful Day for A Stroll In The Park!

Today team Till Tomorrow met up in lovely Fairmont Park for the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation's Sandy Sprint 5K. The weather was perfect and it was great fun to explore yet another part of Philly. Our team members were Don, Katie, Billy, Joanne (my friend and workout buddy), Jeanna (Joanne's daughter), Kathy Seward (a friend and fellow survivor), Bud Seward (Kathy's husband), and me. A fellow yoga enthusiast, Laurie, at the YMCA had originally told me about the walk. Laurie's mom has been battling Ovarian Cancer for many years now and she had approached me one day in class to ask about my treatment plan. She told me how she had formed a team that would be walking in the Sandy Sprint in honor of her mother. I thought it would be a good idea to walk also but I put signing up on the "back burner" in my brain while I finished up my treatment. Then last month, while at the Philadelphia Flyers hockey game I came across a poster that in it's simplicity really got my attention. It was a picture of a women's abdomen with the symptoms of Ovarian Cancer listed down the side. As I looked up at that poster and read down that list I realized I had experienced most of them. Bloating, abdominal pain, feeling full quickly, fatique, indigestion were all symptoms that I had been bothered by but that hadn't seemed like anything life threatening and when I finally went to my doctor I had self-diagnosed myself with a hernia. Boy, was I wrong, so much for me knowing anything about medicine. That poster was the first and only time I have seen anything that public about Ovarian Cancer and if I had seen something like that sooner maybe I would have been at the doctor sooner. The poster listed the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Foundation as the group responsible for the its placement. I knew right then and there that I had to sign up for the walk and support what this organization was doing. Sandy Rollman was a 33yr old women who died of Ovarian Cancer in 2000; it is her sister, Adriana Way and her nurse, Robin Cohen that formed the organization to try and prevent other women from having to endure the same pain as Sandy.

I am proud to tell you that team Till Tomorrow raised $1,065.00 through the donations of my friends and family. I would like to thank all of you who have donated, those that walked with me today, and those that have been a continuing support system for me and my family through this "bump in the road". Till Tomorrow....

OM

Happy Thursday to you all. Thursday is one of the two days I have yoga at the Y which always makes me happy. Today's class was very peaceful unlike Monday's class this week. I should tell you that practicing yoga at the YMCA is probably not the ideal place because YMCAs can be rather loud in general with all the music from other classes going on, the hitting of the punching bag that is hanging right outside the door to the room we use, and just the noise level from having so many people congregated in one place. All of us in my yoga classes struggle with keeping our minds focused inward as we move through the poses in a mood of peace and serenity when there seems to be constant interference from the world right outside our room. Actually, sometimes the interference can be inside the room as well, like when it's a rainy day out and the roof of the YMCA leaks and we listen to the drip, drip, drip of water falling into the big plastic garbage can in the front of the room or like Monday. Sarah, our instructor, started off with having us chant "OM" together as we began our practice. She has started to become increasingly frustrated trying to lead us to peace and serenity through yoga when there are so many distractions. She told us how you can use "OM" anytime you want to block out unwanted noise or distractions. When you get stressed, chant "OM"; when you want to block out what someone is saying to you, chant "OM"; when the punching bag begins to break your focus on your pose, chant "OM". Basically, when anything bothers you, chant "OM". We practiced this for a couple of minutes as the trainer working right outside our room began grunting out instructions to his group and we could hear the first of them begin punching that stupid bag. At every one of his grunts, Sarah would say "OM". We were about 10 minutes into class and working hard to drown out the outside noises with our "OM"s when things just got ridiculous. I guess the front desk downstairs forgot that our yoga class, struggling to stay peaceful and serene, was going on that morning when their first announcement came blaring through the loud speakers; "HEY, EVERYONE, IT'S RICK AND PATRICIA'S BIRTHDAYS DOWN HERE AT THE FRONT DESK, PLEASE STOP BY AND WISH THEM A HAPPY BIRTHDAY". Sarah lets out an elongated "OMMMM" and we continued on. Two minutes later, still oblivious to our class, the loud speakers came on again; "HEY, IT"S MARY'S BIRTHDAY TOO, SHE WORKS IN MAINTENANCE, SO PLEASE WISH RICK, PATRICIA AND MARY A HAPPY BIRTHDAY TODAY". Sarah's "OMMMMMMMMM" starts to get a little louder to keep us focused and I start wondering how many people located in our little YMCA could actually have the same birthday; so much for my focus. Five minutes later "COULD SO & SO PLEASE COME BACK TO CHILD WATCH, COULD SO & SO PLEASE COME BACK TO CHILD WATCH". "OMMMMMMMMMMMMMMM". There were probably four or five more of these "important announcements" that went on that morning during our hour long class. It was so ridiculous that Sarah was blurting out "OMMMMM" every couple of minutes to which we were now all snickering; there went everyone's focus. So much for OM blocking out everything, even OM has its limits. Some days are just like that though, no matter your best intentions things can just be out of your control. Thank goodness most days it isn't that bad and Monday's class actually made today's seem rather peaceful and serene because all we had to contend with were the normal noises, no announcements. So, today if something starts to bother you try giving it an OM. If it keeps bothering you, try again but if that doesn't work just laugh it off and have a great day anyway. Till tomorrow...

My Excellent Philadelphia Adventure

Once again I ventured down to the city Philadelphia, this time for a lunch date with my cousin, Lynne. Lynne is in the Philadelphia area on business from Texas and very kindly asked if we could meet up for lunch and of course, I said yes. She is doing some auditing for Dave & Buster's in the area; even though she is working in a restaurant I thought it might be more fun to escape to some place different for lunch. I found out I know nothing about restaurants in Philly nor do any of my friends. I tried googling restaurants in Philly and looking at reviews but everytime I hit on one with a good review I would check and the place would be closed. I guess in big cities a lot of new businesses just don't survive long, good reviews or not. I finally printed off the menus for 3 restaurants nearby Penn's Landing where she was and headed out the door; we would just have to take our chances on whether they were good or not. I plugged the address for Dave & Buster's at Penn's Landing into Ginger (my nickname for my GPS) and was off and set to brave the big, bad, city of Philly. Ginger and I were managing directions quite nicely and I was within a mile of Penn's Landing when she yelled "turn left" and I did. Oops, what she surely meant was the next left not the left right where I was because where I ended up was on the Ben Franklin Bridge heading into Camden, NJ. No big deal though, once we were off the bridge she quickly got me turned around and headed back across the river to PA, but not before paying the $4 toll. The weather was beautiful when I pulled up to Dave & Buster's and picked up Lynne. She chose GiGi's on Market Street from my selection of menus. We found the restaurant and even found on-street parking (which is always iffy in a city) right around the corner. This time my car inspection was up to date; those familiar with my blog know that on a recent trip into Philly to visit my "Harry Potter" potion master, Dr. Rosenzweig, I received a big ole ticket for parking on the street with an expired inspection sticker, oops. As an aside, Gigi's is located right across the street from the original Philadelphia post office that was run by Ben Franklin. I had been by that before on one of the city tours I had taken and had wanted to go back to it but didn't exactly remember where it was. I guess that will be an adventure for another day. Gigi's has both sidewalk tables, where you can enjoy seeing and SMELLING the passing traffic or indoor seating; we opted for indoors. I guess we made the better choice because at some point while we were catching up and enjoying our meal it must have rained, as evidenced by the wet sidewalk on the way back to the car. Lunch was good, not spectacular, decent food with slightly odd service. Our waitress/bartender came to tell us the specials which included a bluefish sandwich. When Lynne asked her what was on the sandwich (besides fish) she replied she didn't know..odd. She went to check and came back and told us it was fish tacos (not exactly a sandwich now is it?) While sipping our tea, another waitress came by and laid 5 packets of Splenda on the table (not in a dish or container, just packets on the table). Neither Lynne or I had asked for them and she didn't say anything just dropped them off, just in case, I guess. Minutes later, our waitress/bartender (she made sure to tell us she wasn't supposed to be waiting tables today which explains why she wasn't clear on those specials) came by and whisked the Splenda packets off the table and deposited them on another table. I am not sure if the other table had asked for them either or whether it was just their turn to have them on their table because no one said why they had arrived or why they were taken away..odd. Anyway, for those of you related to Lynne she is doing well. I heard all about the clan in Texas and it sounds like all are happy and keeping busy. I think it is so nice that they all live so close to one another; my family seems so spread out in comparison. We made it back to the car before the meter ran out (and there were no tickets on the window, whohoo) and I deposited her back at Dave & Buster's so she could get back to work auditing. For the record, she said the food is very good at Dave & Buster's and that she would have been perfectly content eating there (and they have free parking for lunch) but I thought maybe she might have needed a break so we tried something new. Ginger had me out of Philly and back on 76 heading home in no time; I arrived back safe and sound. Thanks for the invite Lynne; I really enjoyed it. I am sorry everyone that I once again did not remember to take my camera so I don't have any pictures to share. I will try and do a better job with that from now on. Till Tomorrow...

I AM 16!

Shhhh, if you are very, very still maybe you can hear me whooping it up all the way wherever you are. I had to finally break down and go to see my regular doc today because I was pretty sure I had a UTI (or at least I was praying that was all it was). Sure enough that is what I had and that is easily fixed. It is a good thing too because I have that 5K walk for the Sandy Rollman Ovarian Cancer Organization on Saturday and unless they had port-a-potties every 300 ft I don't think I would have made out too well. Okay, so now back to being 16, while I was in the office I asked her to look up my last CA-125 that I had taken the day after I returned from Billy's big swim meet. I had actually worked up enough courage to call Dr. Dunton's office a few days after having the test done but all the receptionist volunteered was that the test results were normal. My courage dissolved right there while I was on the phone and I didn't get the actual number. All "normal" told me was that it was still under 35 which was good but what it didn't tell me is whether it had gone up from 21 where it was in January. I knew before I hung up that phone that not knowing the number was going to nag at me until my visit on the 26th with Dr. Dunton when I would get the actual number but I just couldn't make myself ask for number. I tried appeasing my anxiety by telling myself that it really didn't matter that much because as long as it stayed below 35 I was okay but it really still can make a person crazy not knowing. The CA-125 marker is a tricky thing; it can fluctuate for a number of reasons including a lot that have nothing to do with the cancer. They watch for an upward trend or sudden leaps that could indicate a recurrence but anything below 35, even an increase from the 21, would still be okay with Dr. Dunton. Anyway, today while I was at my primary care doctor I asked her to look up the actual result and IT IS 16!!!! Yeah, if your computer screen is shaking right now it is because I am jumping up and down and shouting YAHOO while I am typing this. If the shaking is making it hard to read just go right ahead and jump up and down also and that should help. Thank you all for your continued prayers. I will be going through these anxiety attacks every three months when I have to repeat this test for some time to come but it truly helps to know that so many people are praying for me and rooting for me to beat this "bump in the road". Till Tomorrow...