Wordless Wednesday

Nutty Part 2

Did you notice something new on the bloggy blog perchance?

I’ll give you a biiiiiiig hint…. its right over…

<==============THERE================

Yes ladies and gents, I’ve drunk (drank?) the Kool-aid once again!

In 2009 I told you all I must be nuts because I had just signed up to walk 60 miles in 3 days… for the 3rd time… in the middle of treatment for my thyroid cancer.  Perhaps I was suffering from cancer brain at the time?  So what is my excuse for signing up for my 4th…. hmmmmm… let’s expound on that, shall we?

My 3rd 3-Day was nothing short of amazing.  I was able to walk with one of my inspirations - my aunt who is a breast cancer survivor.  My mom experienced her first 3-Day as a medical crew member.  I watched another of my aunts carry the “Birthdays” flag in Opening Ceremonies.  Watched as my team mate succumbed to the evil thing called dehydration.  I had blisters covering my heels and between my toes and road rash covering my calves. (ps: no one tells you but your skin does weirdo stuff in a post-cancer world)  And I didn’t know it at the time but I saw Jenne Fromm in one of her last 3 Day events as National Spokesperson… gonna miss that girl this year. Walked in ridiculous heat that fast approached the 100F mark.  And as a team we raised almost $20,000 even in the crappy economy of Michigan!

And why was all that amazing you ask?  Because of moments like these…

World Cancer Day

Every year 12 million people receive a cancer diagnosis.  Of those, 7.6 million will die of their disease. 

I am one of 12 million who heard those words in 2009.    It’s amazing how isolated you feel when you hear those words yet there are 12 million others that have heard the same thing within that year. 

Reading the statistics above, I feel extra lucky today that I am a survivor.  Did you do the math?  Those numbers mean that over 60% who have cancer die of cancer. But it is estimated that 30-40% of those deaths could be prevented and as many as one third could be cured through early diagnosis and treatment.

It’s time for us to fight this global epidemic. Click on the logo above and sign the declaration urging our global leaders to come to action.

A cancer patient will thank you.  I thank you.

Quick Update

Still waiting on results of the mammo. If i get a phone call today or tomorrow that is not good news... if I get a letter in the mail by sometime next week, that means all is normal. I'm hoping I get the letter before my completion surgery on Tuesday so I have at least a little time to enjoy the negative films!

Other than that... trying to get things wrapped up at work and taken care of at home before being off for the next 6 weeks or so.

Work has been absolutely crazy lately because we've been working through a "shared service" arrangement with our downtown group. Basically this means integrating my department with downtown's coding department. It was a loooong period of discussion where I wanted to make sure that we would all have jobs and that the transition would be mostly smooth for everyone. I was sure that my girls would all have jobs but was actually more concerned they would cut out my management position for a while! Talk about anxiety... going through cancer treatments and worrying about loss of income and benefits! Thankfully we are all keeping our jobs and I will not be transitioning until after I get back from my surgical leave so it doesn't disrupt any of my benefit coverage. Again thankful that I work for a great company with wonderful people! We have our full info/paperwork meeting this Friday so it will be interesting to see the new compensation packages offered... Then during all of this we have 2 audits going on - barf! These are the least favorite part of my job! I hate having to defend WHY we coded a patient a certain way because sometimes things are subjective and always there are thousands of rules to remember. I'm getting things done before I go so I don't worry while i'm off and i'm trying to set up my girls with a solid plan so they aren't so disrupted by my absence. Right now there aren't enough hours in the work day and i can't stay over because of the hours i need to use in my personal day! I'm excited for the surprise potluck the girls have planned for tomorrow to wish me good luck...at least i think it was supposed to be a surprise! Oops! LOL

So on to everything else i need to get done... I did laundry this past weekend (had to after not doing it for 3 wks!) but I still have to put it away - UGH! I need to unload/load/run the dishwasher, clean out the fridge, dust, vac, and just put everything away. If I don't get this done before surgery it won't be the end of the world but it will drive me nuts when i can do nothing but sit and stare at it all day! I also want to make a list of the books I have to read and decide what order i'm going to read them in... i think i have 20 or so in the lineup. I need to get my pics printed from 3 Day 2008 so I can work on my scrapbook when i'm bored or can't concentrate to read. I need to find some LID compatible recipes for bread and pasta sauces so I can find people to make me some ;) Oh and I have to get a water filter, yoga DVD (know any easy ones?), and thermometer! I will probably have some paperwork for the merger mentioned above to complete. Oh and this weekend I have a meeting at Gilda's Club, a wedding shower out of town, church... Monday i'm actually working but may decide to work from home so I can cut out my hour drive and work on my to do list instead. Everyone thinks i'm nuts for working on Monday but if my first day of my surgery leave is the day I stay overnight in the hospital, I don't have to use 40hrs of my PTO before my leave pay kicks in - crazy!

So that's basically the peek into my mind at the moment... i'm a bit scattered so i'm sure this post reads that way too! Any suggestions/thoughts/comments on any of the above?

If Anyone Is Out There...

Tomorrow I have to go for a second mammogram... wait, what?! Yup you read that right - second mammogram. I got my first one ever last week to serve as a baseline because of my increased risk factors and on Thursday I got a call back saying I needed to come back for some more views of the right side.

So if anyone is out there tonight and tomorrow morning...please pray that they find nothing and that's its only because the first films were of bad quality. Not sure how I would deal right now if I found out things were going the other way...