Almost Heaven

We had such an amazing vacation at Mt Hood last week.  10 glorious days of cool Oregon weather.  Waking up early to catch the chair at 7 am - the lifts close at 1 pm because it gets so warm.  It is a ski racing meca.  They salt the slopes each morning and hope that the clouds (fog) doesn't settle in because it limits visibility so much you can't ski.  We were "fogged" out on Tuesday.  One day off to visit the wineries and waterfalls in the region on Monday.  This is the first of my sharing of my fave photos from our trip.  

The mountain in the distance you can see directly from the "Magnificent Mile" (the mile long chair ride to the top of Mt Hood) is Mt Jefferson.  My zoom allowed me to get these amazing shots all week!  

The name of this one is "Almost Heaven".  I entered it in the MoreBirthdays art contest with the inspiration  of guiding cancer patients through every step of their journey.  It was 1 year ago today that I was diagnosed with cancer.  It was the beginning of July and we had reservations to go and participate in the Peak Performance Ski Racing Camp at Mt Hood.  We had to cancel those plans because of the fast growing cancer inside of me.  It was quite the journey - as this blog has shared my steps along the way.  The programs and guidance of the American Cancer Society kept me informed, helped me to advocate for my care, educated me whenever I had questions and bottom line made for the best experience that I could have in treatment of my cancer.   This and the all the people that were there for me whenever I needed them, the gifts, the cards, the love that I felt from all my family, friends and colleagues.   

Almost heaven --- after making it through CAT scans, PET scans, blood tests (they all sound small but are all so stressful - not knowing what is in store).  4 months of chemotherapy, needles, drugs, nausea, exhaustion, weight loss, losing my hair, my eyebrows, and feeling like total crap.  Wigs and my favorite pirate cap are some of my fun memories.  Speaking on stage about my journey to inspire others.... running.... racing... kicking it in whenever I could ..... running 2 marathons (and pretty fast if I say so myself!) --- the second one sans my spleen.  It all seems like a crazy dream right now with my curly brown hair coming in (not gray - yay!) and running a 19:56 5K to win 3rd place and a pair of sneakers at a local race in Springfield, MA.  

Then to finally make it to the top of that mountain - Mt. Hood.  To race GS, to ski the glacier with my family, to get through those slalom gates without getting smacked in the face and actually look pretty good! :)  This is another step in my journey to share the sweet feeling of the view from where I stand.  The glorious mountains of Oregon.  I am so happy to share these photos with you.   More than you can imagine......

Live each day

Love 

Look to the horizon 
See it 

and Feel 

Almost Heaven

View of Mt Jefferson from the top of Mt Hood

Please leave a comment if you stop by!

Happiness Is.....

 Happiness is....

All those around me that give me strength...

My beautiful family.....

And just a sample of some beautiful people in my life who are also battling cancer.... and winning...

Ray

 

My friend Lynne's Mom

My friend Susan

I think I swallowed a tennis ball.... but now it's Shrinking!

In the beginning when we (Steve and I) were monitoring the "lump" in my stomach it was the size of a tennis ball, we would laugh and joke that maybe I swallowed one of Oakley's tennis balls....  then another tennis ball and the one that was the spleen had grown more like a small football.  It was hard to breathe on my runs, and felt so odd.  Just imagine swallowing a tennis ball and running for 8 miles.... :)  Oakley likes to run with balls in his mouth, but I wasn't so happy running with this tennis ball in my stomach.  :(

It was crazy when the docs would bring out the measuring tape and can see how big it was sticking out of my stomach.  The masses were growing at quite the rapid rate, and now that I knew about them they felt HUGE!

In the best shape of my life these past few years in my early 40's, with my marathon (3:05) and half marathon (1:28) PRs from 2007, I am at the top of my game right now for running.  I had planned on running the NE USAT Mountain Running series again so I could run Mt. Washington again next year, and well actually have a few races on my calendar to compete if at all possible through treatment.  In the beginning of the series this year I was top 3 in my age and top ten in each race.  I love mountain and trail running!  Just checked out the standings of the series and I see I was #21 woman even after only finishing 3 races..... could have been top 5! :)  That's ok - maybe next year!

2010 photos -

USAT bronze medal for finishing 3rd in the NE USAT Mountain Running Championships (master)


Mt. Wachusett - 3rd in age (up and down Mt. Wachusett, MA)


Pack Monadnock - 3rd in age (10 miles mostly uphill in NH)

I will just have to keep listening to my body and be sure to do all the right things if that is going to be reality.  Training is going fine so far - although definitely time to focus and dig deep!

This week was another week of letting people know what I am going through and a flood gate of support and prayers have been headed my way.  I can feel it!  :)  I sent a note to colleagues and missed the Houston Relay Summit and was missed by my NCTP team and the "Relay Summer Camp" participants.  :)  Judy and Kyla and Lori all kept me up to date on the participant experience and even though it was a sauna in Houston - everyone had a great time and was truly motivated!

The lumps have already started to shrink -- we can feel they are going down in size already!  The healing and strength of prayer and all those darn drugs are taking their effect.  As Dr. Barnes explained in the beginning this is a fast growing lymphoma and is also one that the size will decrease quickly as well.
As far as my other stage 4 symptoms, my night sweats continue, but with little nausea and as the time after treatment gets further away I feel much better.

Here is our family picture on the boat --- right before I started treatment the next day.  You can see how large my stomach is at the top toward the rib cage.  What a fun and beautiful family we have!  I am so truly blessed to have such an incredible support system and love all around!

Sharing the news: Family

Hi Family,

I just wanted to make sure that I sent email to everyone telling you what is going on.   No need to call right now, we have more calls than we can handle just with doctors and logistics while we go through all of this.

Nancy has been diagnosed with Defused Large B-Cell Lymphoma.

We noticed a lump in her stomach about 5 weeks ago now and thought is was a clog in the intestines.  Well, we finally went to see a doctor after 3 weeks and she had no idea what it was, so she sent us for a Cat Scan that week.   We had to wait until the following Monday to be told that they were pretty sure that she had lymphoma a type of cancer.  We then had to setup more tests for a biopsy, pet scan, blood tests, heart tests etc.   Well, we finally got confirmation yesterday that it was indeed cancer.   We head to Boston tomorrow to Mass General for a second opinion to get confirmation from the best cancer doctors in the states about diagnosis and treatment.

We had a trip planned with a lot of my race kids going to Mount Hood for next week, but it looks like we can't make it since we need to start Chemo right away. This is a fast growing cancer and needs to be stopped as soon as possible.  This is very treatable which is a great thing. it will be 6, 3 week cycles of Chemo treatments for about 4 months.  Hopefully given her excellent health besides the lymphoma, and her being in amazing shape, this should go well.  

Nancy has incredibly high spirits just like the rest of our family and is the most positive person and is constantly still laughing with me all the time.   So we are fine.   

Our best to all of you.   Again, no need to call right now, the volume of medical calls are huge right now so we can't answer or get back to everyone.   It's only going to get worse as more people know.


Nancy will probably start a blog real soon to help people who want to know how she is doing and once the calls settle down we'll let the family know.  Our hope is to start on Monday or Tuesday with the first cycle of Chemo.  This is just growing too fast to not act right away.

Keep Nancy in your prayers.   And know that we love you all.  We are not trying to avoid you, just extremely busy with everything going on.   Email is the best way to contact us if you want.

Thanks for your understanding and prayers.

We Love you all.

Steve