Wordless Wednesday: The beginning of the end

The Second Annual Team Gab Virtual Race, benefiting Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation, kicked off Friday! Details HERE.

Decide what distance to run (or bike, or swim, or walk, or whatever), make you DONATION HERE, and comment to let me know and be entered in the giveaway!
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Last Thursday, we took Gabby for her last visit here...

OPI is where Gabby receives her chemo treatments through IV or lumbar puncture. You can read about one of our visits HERE - A day in the life.

Thursday - 738 days after our first OPI visit - Gabby had her last trip to the Infusion Center.

The child life specialist helped her access a tiny elephant's port, and give him some chemo too, just to share the love.

And after her treatment was over, and she was recovered from the "silly medicine" (anesthesia), all of her nurses came in, sang her a "Happy last chemo to Gabby!" song, and presented her with a trophy.

She still has about a month of treatments at home, but it's one giant, giant step closer to over for her.

"I have seven fingers...."

Zombie Gabby

She was pretty excited. 

  

“Each one has to find his peace from within. And peace to be real must be unaffected by outside circumstances

Yesterday was procedure day for Gabby - lumbar puncture, tons of chemo, and the steroid is back.

Every time she has the procedure, she asks for no "silly medicine".

It gets good at 50 seconds in.



If I didn't laugh, I'd lose my mind.

Find hope in the darkest of days, and focus in the brightest.

Childhood cancer, in our numbers ....

487 days ago, Gabby had a lingering cough.

12 - the age my oldest was turning the next day; we had plans, and didn't have time for a sick kid.

1 - the number of birthday parties we had in the pediatric oncology ICU

485 - days ago, Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia became A Thing.

485 - the number of days Gabby has smiled since then

481 - days ago, Gabby underwent surgery to implant a port on her chest to facilitate chemo. The port attaches to a catheter, which is inserted in the superior vena cavain, a large vein near her heart. It's placed here because it's the vein is large, and can handle the chemo. The chemo would destroy her veins if administered through an IV.

20 - the number of days we lived in the hospital.

11 - the number of different medications she was on when we brought her home from the hospital.

3 - the number of medications she's on right now at home.

12 - the number of pills she takes at home every Thursday night

22 - the number of days from diagnosis that it took for Gabby to lose her hair.

2 - the number of times she has lost her hair during treatment

2 - number of bone marrow biopsies Gabby has had so far

11 - the number of lumbar punctures Gabby has had so far

10 - pounds gained in the first month on steroids

95% - Gabby's 5 year survival rate once she completes treatment.

84% - Gabby's 10 year survival rate.

1,304 - the number of children expected to die from cancer in 2012

23% - estimated chance of infertility as a result of childhood cancer treatments

1 - the number of childhood cancer drugs approved by the FDA in 20 years.

9 - different chemotherapy drugs involved in her treatment

2 - the number of those drugs that specifically warn of potentially causing cancer


2 - the number of those drugs that we have experienced a potential shortage of

2,370 - the number of dollars we raised for Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation last year

56,000 - the number of dollars OC/IE Team in Training Team Gab raised last fall

 

63,000 - the number of dollars the PCRF VIP Training group has raised this year (as of almost 2 weeks ago...)
 
18 - the number of friends running for Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation on Team Gab with me Sunday

6,071 - the amount we've raised this year supporting PCRF

5 - the number of days before half marathon #7

5 - the number of days left to donate to fight pediatric cancer. CLICK HERE TO DONATE.

304 - days until remission

Wordless Wednesday

Last April....

Last night....

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Hate childhood cancer? Love delicious food? Live in the OC? Come have dinner with me tomorrow at Souplantation in Irvine! 5-8pm, 20% of proceeds with THIS FLYER will be donated to PCRF and Team Gab.

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Run last night: Scheduled for 1600@9:21, 800@8:56, 2x400@8:33, 800@8:56, 1600@9:21. Actual: 1600@9:02, 800@8:39, 400@8:07, 400@8:05, 800@8:19, 1600@9:06. Yeah. I know. I killed it.

Ran on the track at a local high school with Snork. Well, she was also at the track. We separately ran. I thought it was terrible at the time. Then I saw my splits, and I about died. No wonder it was hard.

8.44 miles with warm up/cool down. Obviously my next run will have to be 8.56 to even that out.

Conditioning class this morning: Squats, lunges, weights, wall sits, jumping jacks, pushups, starfish sit ups (wtf).

I'm starving.

Plan for the Week....

Oh, running.

So glorious.

To recap last week...
Wednesday: 2 miles!
Friday: 4 miles!!
Sunday: 6 miles!!!

All of it pain free.

Like magic.

For this week...
Monday: Rest (and dinner plans with my favorite OC bloggers)
Tuesday: 5 miles easy
Wednesday: yoga? (<--I keep saying, so one day it might come true...) Thursday: 5 miles easy Friday: Rest
Saturday: 7 miles easy

I have to say, I am SHOCKED that I was able to run those miles last week with no trouble. Of COURSE it was a bit slower than I was in October, but... I definitely could have kept going. I was sure I lost all endurance, but apparently not.
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I was sent these Celliant socks a few months ago, before Jerk Shin, but didn't have a chance to really test them out before now.

And I pretty much love them. I'm not sure about the technology they profess to have, because I'm not super sciency, but from their website...

Celliant is a revolutionary technology that harnesses the body's natural energy through the use of minerals and fibers. Products containing Celliant have been clinically proven to increase blood flow and blood oxygen levels in the tissue and help balance temperature.

They FEEL great. I've never noticed how my feet felt before, so I can't compare these to regular socks, but my feet didn't feel tired, or hot. They are SUPER comfortable, too, which is unusual for me, because I am stupid picky about my socks.

Bottom line: Highly recommended!
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Um. Did you see there's ANOTHER RunDisney announcement? Bah. At least it isn't preceded by ridiculous clues, I guess..... (but, seriously, RD, please stop. You know I can't resist you....)
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Weekend photo dump!

Christmas shopping is OFFICIALLY done! Wrapping, less than done. Oh, and stockings. Also not done. But so close.

Next year, I swear it, we are taking a vacation instead of this presents business. It is SUCH a hassle, and we are powerless to cute things we see while shopping for paper towels at Target (and hence how we wind up with too many things for #3, and scrambling to up the ante for 1 & 2). It's just not how I want to spend my holidays.

Or maybe I just need to be more organized, and stick to a damn list.

You know. Either one.

Anyway, after months and months of scheduling conflict (aka, laziness), I made it down to the Irvine farmer's market (if you're local, it's on Campus, in the Trader Joe's parking lot, every Saturday).

Gosh it's glorious. I love shopping here.

We ended up walking out with

• purple cauliflower
• heirloom tomatoes
• parsley
• satsumas
• golden beets
• green onions
• radishes
• lemons
• purple potatoes

....and some other stuff I can't remember off hand.

All under around $20. Shall we discuss again the expense of eating healthy? If you're in SoCal, at least, there's no good excuse why you can't.

Somehow, I've missed this, but Gabby's been decorating our Christmas tree with...

Leaves. In the ornaments. Of course.

She spent the first half of Sunday just about like this...

the last few weeks have been not so great for her. For the most part, she's had very minimal side-effects from her chemo - occasional sleepiness, nausea, general blahness. But man, since her last lumbar treatment, she's been pukier than normal. One of the chemo meds we give her at night has to be given on an empty stomach, but before she sleeps, because it makes her nauseous; but now she's waking up in the mornings puking. We have an anti-nausea med that we can give her, but she hates it... so I guess it's like picking the least awful option for her - meds at night that she hates, or puking in the morning.

Stupid choices that a five year old shouldn't have to make.

Man, it pisses me off.

/rant

Friday Five

1. My mom is visiting! We have been spending a lot of time surprising children (they didn't know), bird watching (they're still creepy, but she digs 'em), and hiking.

2. I ran 4 miles Tuesday, slow and easy, and it was like we had never been apart. Then gabby kicked the hell out of my shin (on accident, I think...), and mother effer it hurts.

3. Speaking of gabby, she had a procedure yesterday (lumbar puncture with chemo), that resulted in our first ever reaction following an LP. Scary. Bah.

4. Since I'm not running Holiday Half this weekend, or the 5k that I talked everyone else into running, I'm a little bitter. But I will be there Saturday to spectate the hell out of the 5k. Followed by a trip out to Joshua Tree for the weekend. Bring on the rock climbing!

5. Thank you, pinterest, for introducing me to avocado fries. They were delicious.

Friday was made for GREAT things.

So, yeah. I ran last night. It was nothing to write home about, except for the fact that I’m NOT in pain now. Take THAT, jerk shin.

.25mi warm up walk, then started jogging, and at first, there was kind of a pokey pain on my shin. It felt like it was getting progressively worse, and after a whole, whopping one minute, I melted down on the treadmill, turned it off, and started to walk away. Luckily, there was no one else in the gym, because I decided I was going to try at LEAST a little bit more. So I did. And no pain, none at all. 3 miles and another .25 mi cool down later, some ice, foam rolling, and Tommie Copper’s, and I’m feeling good.

Which leaves me with a dilemma. What to do this weekend? I skipped my 12 miler last weekend, in favor of a billion hours on the elliptical and cycling (boooooring). I’ve done 2 ten milers and 1 eleven in this training cycle, but it’s been a few weeks. I’m sure I could cover the distance, but I’m feeling definitely under trained. It’s a strange feeling…

So, what’s your vote? Long, slow run? Short, slow run? What to do, what to do….

Sadly of note in last nights run, was how friendly my thighs have suddenly gotten with each other. WTF, thighs? It’s only been, like, 10 days. You can’t expand that quickly. Shut up.

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Yesterday, we (as in, I) had a little bit of a scare with Gabby. It’s been 2 glorious weeks since maintenance started, and all is going well. She’s been feeling well; her attitude (as always) is unfailingly great; we’ve gotten a routine down to give her chemo every day… easy peasy.

Except yesterday, the day of her first trip back to clinic for blood work, for the first time since we left the hospital, she woke up and started puking.

And man, I panicked. It’s like I’ve never seen a kid vomit before. And I assure you, I have.

I’ll spare you the rest of my day (which consisted of freaking out in my head, texting the poor H incessantly asking how she was, and waiting, just waiting, for the clinic to call with something terrible), and skip right to how at the end of the day she was feeling fine, jumping on the furniture, and playing with legos. The end.

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I found this picture saved in my phone twice. Fitting, eh?


Oh. And this one, but only once.

Obviously I’m telling myself something. Like, I can't brain, apparently almost any days.

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A couple people emailed and asked me where eating out fits in that budget I posted yesterday.

We don’t eat out frequently. The H works from home in the evenings, so dinners out are a no go. I won’t go without him, it seems rude. Well, unless I’m going out with other people, sans kids. Then it just makes sense.

Anyway. I do my long runs Saturday mornings, so breakfast is out. I hate the idea of spending a fortune for 5 people to eat out at lunch, so I just don’t. Saturday dinner is a possibility, I guess.

And then the H works Sunday’s, all day. So no go no Sunday as well, which SUPER bums me out, because I love nothing more in this world than a delicious breakfast out on Sunday mornings. But, oh well. I also like paying for electricity and food, so I guess I’ll have to let him work.

But I like to cook, and I’m pretty good at it, so luckily, it’s not a huge deal. If I feasibly COULD, I’d eat out every meal, every day, and cook only for fun, but that’s not a good plan if you don’t want to be an elephant, and have cash to buy baking supplies, so…

So, no, the $75 does not include food outside of the house, because we don’t really plan on eating outside of the house. If we do, we budget for that separately.

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The Cinco de Mayo Half Marathon benefitting Pediatric Cancer Research Foundation opens registration today, and yes… that means fundraising is back! I have some fun ideas floating around, so… be prepared. I’ll ask you to open your wallets, but I promise, you’ll get something in return (I mean, beyond the normal warm feeling you get from helping to fund research for a cure better than THIRTEEN PILLS TO A FOUR YEAR OLD).

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Tomorrow, we are hitting up Knott’s Berry Farm’s Snoopy’s Camp Spooky with the kidlets. We’ve never been to Knott’s so I’m pretty excited to see how other theme parks stack up to Disneyland.

Camp Spooky is taking place every weekend in October, and geared towards kids 3-11 (poor, over-aged #1). And, costumes, so that’s fun. And then we’re bailing early so I can go meet up my Ragnar teammates!

That’s a wrap, folks. Was that super random, or what? Holy crow.

Clarification.... Maintenance?!

I need to clear something up.

I certainly WISH Gab was almost done with chemo.

But she's really not.

She's one step away from the final stage of her treatment - Maintenance.

What is maintenance?

Maintenance: The final phase of treatment lasts two or three years. Maintenance is much less intensive than the previous treatment and consists mostly of oral medications given at home. There are also intermittent intravenous and intrathecal medications given throughout this phase.

(source)

She'll still be in maintenance, and receiving chemo (daily, at home). It's just a MUCH less intense regimen than what she's experienced so far.

We've been sort of thinking of maintenance as a giant milestone. Gab gets a bit more freedom in maintenance.

It's still two years worth of chemo, just.... Less. Easier, if chemo is ever easy. .

We're still pretty damn lucky.