Radiation/Chemo Update

I can't believe I'm about to wrap up Week #5 of my 6 weeks of radiation and chemo. Looking back it has gone by extremely quickly, and I'm so happy to say that I've barely experienced any of the side effects that they warned/scared me about. (Nausea, fatigue, low white blood cell counts, blood transfusions, needing to go on disability, and worst of all leukemia!)  During this time I've been a good girl and have waited the full four weeks my neurosurgeon recommended before I started running again. Man, that was hard. That is the longest I have probably gone without exercising or being active since elementary school! I was antsy and anxious to work out, but consider myself to be one of the world's most compliant patients - so I rested as told. And complained a bit about it along the way of course...

 

A lot has gone on in the past five weeks. Here's a quick summary:

 

The Color Run

Earlier in the  year I heard that the Color Run was coming to San Diego and immediately talked Tara into signing up. As the year progressed it looked like I was actually going to miss the race because of a work trip, but luckily in the past month that trip was cancelled!

 

 

San Diego Color Run

 

 

The concept of the race is that you dress up in all white and run through color stations where they douse you with colored corn starch. If that sounds fun to you, you're right. It is fun! This race came at the end of my first week of treatment when I was still adjusting to all of the medications and not feeling 100%, so Tara and I ended up walking the whole course. Um, let me tell you I've never thought a 5K was so long in my life! My goodness it takes forever to walk three miles!

 

 

Color Run Complete!

 

 

 

GOTR Practice 5K

The week after the Color Run was the Girls on the Run practice 5K. This is the first season in over three  years that I haven't served as a Head Coach in Carmel Valley. Sniff sniff. I stepped down from Head Coach to Assistant Coach this season with everything going on at work, but then dropped out of coaching all together because I had so much going on with surgery and doctors appointments and radiation.

 

 

Girls on Track Carmel Valley

 

 

I came to practice the day of the practice 5K though to cheer the girls on and catch up with my fellow coaches. I really miss the girls, the coaches, and the program. Hopefully next season I can find some time to come back.

 

 

Girls on Track Coaches

 

 

 

Hair Today, Gone Tomorrow?

A few months ago when the words chemo were first uttered to me, the first thing I asked in a panic was "Is my hair going to fall out!?!?" They assured me than no, it wouldn't with the oral chemo (Temodar) that I was taking, but that I might have some hair thinning with the radiation. When I met the radiation oncologist I immediately asked him the same question. Would my hair fall out? He kind of brushed it off and said maybe not, and if so it would be in the back and mostly thinning. Okay. Whew. Each week I saw him I'd ask him about my hair again and he'd say the same thing.

 

 

Fun at the Wig Shop With Friends

 

 

Enter Week #3 - When I had my weekly appointment with the radiation oncologist he asked what week of treatment I was on. I proudly told him that I was finishing up Week #3! "Oh, okay. Well your hair is going to fall out next week." WHAT!?!?!?  Were the first few weeks a lie? I was totally devastated. My hair was going to fall out? Nooooooo. Tears.

 

 

Closest Wig to My Own Hair

 

 

Over the next week I noticed that instead of 5 strands coming out at a time 20 or so were coming out. I noticed that when I brushed my hair over the sink there was a pile of hair on the sink and ground. And finally in the middle of week four I found my first bald spot behind my left ear. And then another on the opposite side. And then a thinning patch above my right ear. Cue the tears. I bawled my eyes out. Was this just the beginning? Was it all going to fall out? Would I wake up one day and all the hair would be on my pillow and none on my head?

 

As I finish up Week #5 tomorrow I still don't have the answers to these questions. I still have all of my hair on the top and it seems like I will only continue to lose hair in the lower back where the radiation is hitting, but who knows. I've been told I will continue to lose hair next week during my final week of treatment, and the the two weeks following. I thought about buying a wig but decided to wait and see where I end up with the hair loss.  Gambling with optimism, I have a hair appointment next weekend when I'm done with radiation to have my  hair cut and colored, and to have some extensions added to the part of my head that was shaved. Let's keep praying that I don't lose too much more hair!

 

 

Thanksgiving

When I originally talked to my neurooncologist about starting radiation and chemo and was trying to get an idea of how I was going to feel, he had suggested that I plan to stay in town for Thanksgiving since I'd most likely not be feeling that great over that weekend since it hit towards the end of my treatment. With this advice David and I changed plans and decided to stay in San Diego for the holiday, and my dad made plans to fly down for the weekend to visit.

 

 

Preparing the Stuffing & The Stuffing Cage

 

 

My mom, step-father, and aunt actually ended up driving down for the day from Orange County as well, and I'm proud to say that David and I hosted our first Thanksgiving together. Hurrah! My dad cooked the turkey and I made several Allen Family recipes.( Oyster stuffing, cranberry relish, mashed potatoes, and crab dip.) Everything turned out great and I think our first attempt was a success!

 

 

Dinner Table Set in the Living Room

 

 

Thanksgiving With Both Parents - First Time in a Long Time!

 

 

Christmas Tree

The day after Thanksgiving officially marks the start of Christmas season in my mind. It was time for a tree! In the past few years I've gone to Home Depot to get a real tree, but with a little research we found that we could cut down a live tree from a tree farm 15 minutes away. And it was cheaper!

 

 

Christmas Tree Farm Trip

 

 

We picked out a nice 7 foot tree, David committed tree murder, and Christmas arrived Thanksgiving weekend in our household. I love our tree!

 

Let Christmas Begin!

 

 

Wrapping up Treatment

As I approach the last week of radiation and chemo I have to say I'm relieved, excited, and apprehensive. This will be the end of my radiation treatment, but will actually only be a short break for me from the chemo. I will get a few weeks off from the 6 weeks straight of chemo, but then I'll go on the standard 5 days on 23 days off routine for the next year or two. The dose I will be taking will be twice what I'm taking now, and I'm worried again about how my body with react to it. Will I feel sick? Tired? Will I need to stay home from work a few days a month? Every month? I really hope not, but only time will tell. The enormity of the unknowns with my brain tumor drive me crazy sometimes.

 

 

Moores Cancer Center - My Second Home

 

 

Right now I am just trying to stay optimistic. Things with surgery, radiation, and chemo have all gone about as well as they could have. Sure, there are several points in each day where I feel a bit off. Either my stomach turns, I have a lump in my throat, food just doesn't taste right, or my head is buzzing a little. I can tell there are weird things going on with my body, but the effects that I do notice are mostly nuisances. Compared to what I was afraid of though, this is nothing.  Best of all, I'm running 4-5 days a week again! Exercise is believed to help fight radiation fatigue, and I think running has been part of what has kept me so strong, healthy, and happy. Running, I thank you!

 

 

 

Home For The Holidays

This Thanksgiving I went home to San Francisco for the first time in several years. I had decided to drive up so that I could bring my dogs with me and have a car available during the long weekend.

The Drive

I knew that traffic would be bad on the 5 on the way from San Diego to San Francisco so I set a goal to leave before noon. (I had some work I needed to finish before the long weekend, otherwise I would have left first thing in the morning.) I wrapped everything up from home and was on the road early – 11:45am! Hey, even 15 minutes early is an accomplishment for me.

I loaded up the car and started off on my drive. San Francisco or bust! I usually let the dogs sit up in the front seat with me but due to the length of the trip and my guilt about being a bad dog mommy, I decided that for this trip I’d put the pet gate up behind the front seats and blockade the dogs in the backseat. Mika was not happy about that… not happy about that at all! She whined and whimpered incessantly hoping that she’d wear me down and I’d let her up front. About 45 minutes into the drive I couldn’t take her whining anymore and decided to stop to get a sandwich so I could get away from the awful sounds of a dying dog. I had this crazy delusion that once I got back into the car and on the road after the quick pit stop that she would have calmed down and given up on the whining. Nope, it persisted.

Mika Struggling to Get Up Front

We hit traffic about 20 minutes later … and that traffic didn’t end for the next four hours. Yes, FOUR HOURS! Guess how far I got in four hours? 145 miles. Seriously. I stopped again at that point and tried not to get too down about the fact that I should be halfway home by now. The dog whining had died down a bit by now. Possibly because of the crazed look I was getting in my eyes from being stuck in the car for so long and making so little progress. Maybe Mika started getting scared that I would “forget her” at the next rest stop. Aww.. I’m kidding, I’d never do that. Where was Kona during all this? Sitting quietly like the little black angel that she is. Of course.

The traffic lightened up when I finally got to the boring, smelly, farm part of the 5, and eleven hours later I finally made it home to my dad’s. Yay!

Turkey Trot

On Thanksgiving morning I was signed up to run my very first Turkey Trot! My friend Christina and I were going to be running the Turkey Trail Trot in Golden Gate Park sponsored by my alma matter – Oh Lowell High! (If you’re a Lowellite did you hear the Lowell Hymn in your head as I said that?) When I originally asked Christina to run the race I didn’t think to register right away, and once I went back to register a week later the course was full! Ack! Christina talked me into running as a bandit on the course which I felt fairly guilty about .. but she had a point, the race was in the park and I could have just been running in the park.

I saw on the website that a lot of people dressed up for the race. The costumes ranged from turkeys to Indians to Pilgrims. I decided to make a modest effort to be festive and put my hair in Indian style braids. AND I wore a yellow running shirt. You know, a Thanksgiving color! Well, kinda. There were a lot of great costumes among the racers on this race day. There were several people in full body turkey costumes, dozens of people with turkey hats, a few people dressed like Indians and Pilgrims, a cute couple dressed like peas and carrots, and a funny pair dressed up as a turkey and a chef with a big fake knife!

Turkey Trail Trot 2009

The course was 5 miles (not the 5K I had hoped for) and started from the Polo Fields in Golden Gate park and lapped around a larger grassy loop up and down into picnic areas. I haven’t been training or running very hard since my marathon a month ago and was a bit nervous to be trying to go all out on a short distance. The pressure was off though when I found out that I couldn’t register and have my finish time tracked. But then … when Christina came to pick up her race number the night before she found out about a “secret” registration link which allowed you to register for only $10! You wouldn’t get a shirt but who cares! I immediately signed up and thought about how all races should give that option. I almost never wear race shirts and have donated almost all of them.

This excitement was quickly dashed on Thursday morning when I showed up to pick up my number and it wasn’t there. Did I have a print out of my race confirmation? Of course not, I’ve run dozens of races and never had a problem, I had never even though to print it. So okay, back to the bandit plan.

My goal for the race was to run a sub 8 minute mile. That had me aiming for a finish time of around 39 minutes. I’m disappointed to say that I finished in 42 minutes .. BUT .. my GPS watch tracked the course at 5.24 miles not 5.00 miles, so over that distance my pace ended up averaging out to 8:01. Perfect! I’m embarrassed to say that around mile 2 a turkey flew past me, but I did managed to cross the finish line well ahead of the peas and carrots!

Side Note: Interesting - I got a snarky comment on my blog late last night from someone with a private profile going off about how being a bandit is equitable to being a thief. While I see his point to a certain degree he's not totally correct to bash me for this race because #1 I DID register online but my registration got lost. And #2 Because I wasn't registered for the race I didn't take any water, food, and I didn't even cross the finish line. There have also been numerous races that I've registered for but haven't run for one reason for another... so not that I've registered for this race and not run it in the past, but in the running universe I have paid more than I have taken.

Commenter said...

"Christina talked me into running as a bandit on the course which I felt fairly guilty about .. but she had a point, the race was in the park and I could have just been running in the park."

And would you have run the very same coure in the park if there was no Turkey Trail Trot occurring? Race bandits are thieves, plain and simple. The course is designed to accomodate 1,000 runners only. You did NOT pay for the insurance, the permits, the portapotties, the refreshments, etc for the event. Nor did your participation contribute to the donation that went to Lowell.

Any event can happen in public space--concerts, picnics, sporting events. If they all charge a fee for admission, does that give you a right to simply partake in the events without paying, especially when the events have sold out or have restricted entries?

Race bandits are thieves.

Turkey Lunch

After the race I went back home to shower and change and my dad and I headed out for lunch and to go see the movie the Blind Side. I was hoping that the California Pizza Kitchen near the theater would be open but it wasn’t. Neither was Chevy’s. Big sad face. Luckily Max’s Opera Café was open though so we went there. In honor of Thanksgiving they had a special menu that featured Thanksgiving dinner! (And a very limited menu outside of that.) Since it was only lunch time I wasn’t ready for turkey so I ordered a veggie wrap – but then at the last minute asked if they could add some turkey to it as well. Dinner was great and the movie was great as well! Very touching and a great story, even more heart warming to know its based on a true story. I totally recommend seeing it!

Turkey Wrap @ Max's Opera Cafe

Lunch w/My Dad

Thanksgiving Dinner

My dad and I had planned on going out for Thanksgiving dinner and I searched on OpenTable.com to find the perfect place. A number of places were offering special “Thanksgiving” dinner packages and we ending up choosing the restaurant First Crush near Union Square. The restaurant was packed when we got there at 6pm! The restaurant was really cute and everything on the menu looked great. I had been planning on having turkey for dinner but after looking at the menu I knew I had to go fish all the way! I had mushroom soup, pistachio crusted Hawaiian walu fish, and crème brulee for desert. My dad had hmm… I can’t remember what he started with (probably because I was too busy shoving food in my face), we shared crab cakes, and then he had a shrimp and cheesy risotto as his entrée. I tried to get him to split some of the dessert with me to share some of my guilt but he passed. More crème brulee for me!

After dinner we headed back home (on the Muni! I roughed it!) and I headed straight for bed in a fine food coma. Yum yum yum. I wish I could have that meal all over again!

Heading To Wine Country

Later the next morning I had plans to meet some of my friends to drive up to Sonoma for a day and a half of wine tasting. There was a special event going on this past weekend where for $30 you gained entry to 23 wineries in the area! Not only was that an awesome deal on tasting fees, but each winery had “holiday treats” to eat and they were offering 15% off on all purchases. Some of the wineries only had crackers and nuts and chocolates, but others had sandwiches, crab appetizers, chocolate truffles, and one place even gave out small bowls of pork and beans! Mmmmm! On Friday we managed to visit 6 wineries in the 4 hours that we had. We ate so much that driving wasn’t that much of an issue, but just to be the safe responsible citizens that we are we had arranged for a limo to take us around.

Living the Fabulous Life

SF Friends at VJB Winery

Christmas Carolers at VJB Winery

Seafood Feast On The Grill

After the wine tour we came back home to our swinging pad in Oakmont, a community for active seniors. We brought life to that area! The plan for the evening was to BBQ crab legs to start, and to cook ceviche style tilapia to go into fresh fish tacos. The marinade for the tilapia probably took more than anything else, but it was well worth it.

Fresh Crab Off the Grill

Preparing for Dinner!

I’m Black and White ….

After dinner we retired to the fireplace area (like the active seniors we are) and played a few rounds of Bridge and Gin Rummy. Just kidding, we played the game Taboo. Some of the clues the teams were giving were hilarious and made me think of that scene in the movie Four Christmases where they’re playing the game. Have you seen it? Anyways, of all of the funny clues and guesses that came out that night, by far my favorite was:

Jared: Okay I’m an animal, and I’m black and white, and I smell really bad.

Tom: A panda?

A panda?? Haha! Not a skunk? Oh Tom..

Taste of Sonoma – Take Two

Since the passes we had bought to the Holiday Open House event were good for Friday and Saturday, we couldn’t pass up the chance to go out and check out more wineries! We didn’t have a limo or driver this time and all also had to drive back to the city that night so we were more moderate in our tastings. We managed to visit 6 more wineries on our list in the 4 hours that we had on Saturday which wasn’t too bad! That even included time that we took out for a picnic lunch break at one of the wineries.

When the event ended at 4pm we went back to the house to collect my dogs, pack up the car, and prepare to head back to the city. Although Mika whined like a banshee the entire 1 ½ hour drive up to Sonoma, she was a perfect angel on the way back. Weird. By the time we got home I was full and tired .. and called it a night and cancelled my overly ambitious plans to go out afterwards with some other friends. What was I thinking?

Mika As Co-Pilot

Driving Back to SD

I was so traumatized by the drive north to San Francisco and wanted to make sure I got an early start on the way back down to San Diego. I planned on leaving by 8am so I’d hopefully get home before dinner time .. and I did it! I left right at 8am! Who am I? This strange punctual road-trip girl! There wasn’t any traffic on the way back down and I got back home by 4pm. Who would have thought I’d be happy about an 8 hour drive? Well I sure was! The drive back down was fairly uneventful. Luckily the dogs slept almost the entire way and the car was peaceful and quite. I cleared out a ton of podcasts on my long drive down and the trip really wasn’t too bad.

It was really nice to come home for Thanksgiving and to spend time with my dad and friends. For the past four years I’ve worked an annual dental tradeshow in New York, NY and have taken off for New York on the Saturday following Thanksgiving. That really cut my Thanksgiving weekends short. For years! I wasn’t going this year for the first time in ages it seems which gave me the opportunity to take the time to come home. It was worth it! There’s no place like home.