Vacation Pictures - Yellowstone and Grand Tetons

How Daisy Spent Her Day

Chewing her water bucket into tiny pieces and distributing them all over the yard. I've been half thinking about testing her out alone in the house now that she is older. I think I might wait say five more years before I try it now. I can only imagine what would happen to my couch. I lost my beautiful beloved Maddie earlier in the year - maybe she doesn't like being an only dog. I'm hoping all of these 3 Day training walks tire her out a bit. We went another three miles tonight.

Pink Gloves for Breast Cancer

Love this video - I have nothing but great things to say about the people at the Northern Arizona Cancer Center. The video is from a different hospital but it reminds me of my great caretakers. I still remember so many of them.

Nurse Nancy who came and sat with me at my first appointment with the surgeon. And who stuck with me during my entire treatment even though she had never met me before.

Wonderful Maria who always made me smile and talked me into signing up for the Wednesday massages.

The folks in the chemo room who were always so nice.

The nurse who put in my IV for my post insertion surgery who let my blood spatter all over the floor.

The gentleman who wheeled me into my first surgery who was so touched by my parents.

My surgeon who talked more to my sister about Texas than to me.

The counselor who let me collapse in tears on her couch. More then once.

The nutritionist who always tried to talk to me when I was in a horrible mood and who I was never nice to but she was always very nice to me.

The radiologists who became part of my every day life and who I hope to never see again.

The lady who started complaining about her hair as she walked bald ole me to my appointment - she caught herself in mid-sentence and we both had a good laugh.

The guy who got to do his first radiation tattoos on me - it really hurt and he felt badly.

The lady who told me that while the dye shot I was going to get would really hurt but at least there would only be one of them - yes it really hurt and no there was not just one. She felt badly also.

The orderly who held my hand while I was scared to death waiting in the hallway the morning of my first surgery.

What a hard job each of them have - working with people going through such a horrible ordeal as cancer. Their ability to show compassion and to inject kindness and humor made it all bearable.

I've started training for the Arizona 3 Day Walk

It is just over 23 weeks until the walk in November. I plan on walking the whole thing this year so am following the official 3 Day Walk 24 week training plan. Today was the first three mile walk and I was late getting home from work so these first three miles were on the treadmill.

We had our first fundraiser a couple of weeks ago. We raffled a bunch of Diamondbacks baseball tickets and had a chili cookoff. We made just over $2,300. We have six people on the team so far this year and we each need to make $2,300 to walk so it was great to make enough to put one person over the top and another that much closer. We are thinking about having a dessert cookoff next.

I hurt my back a couple of weeks ago. I was just lifting my bags and getting out of the car. The pain was immense so instead of my usual suffer and take it game plan - I went to the clinic the same day. The doctor was just going to give me some pain pills and muscle relaxants since she believed that I could not have hurt myself too badly just getting out of the car. Then I told her that I had had chemotherapy a year and a half ago. She said that because of that I am an excellent candidate for osteoporosis and that she wouldn't be surprised at all if I had broken something. She sent me right in for X-rays. She looked at them and said that she did see something and had sent them to Flagstaff for the radiologist to review them also to make sure she wasn't seeing things. I had a good 45 minutes sitting there in horrible pain wondering what it meant if there was something. To keep this long story from being too much longer - she same back in and said that apparently was seeing things and that I was cleared to go and take my pain pills. Having had cancer puts a whole different spin to all sorts of things. Guess I will have to mention this to my oncologists the next time I am in just in case he wants tests done also. My back is much better now, it took just about a week before I could get around easily. It has been a great motivator to get off my butt and start walking.

Three more miles tomorrow!