Two years ago...

I have not blogged in forever, but really needed to post today. 

Two years ago today I got the call from my doctor that I had breast cancer. I also started this blog on that day. Today I am health and life is back to normal. I do take Tamoxifen everyday but that has become normal for me like taking my daily vitamins. 

I have started the process of testing to find out how the cancer treatment affected my fertility. This whole getting cancer thing put a big damper on my 5 year plan I made a few years ago - I believe I was 34 when I made it... it was right after my divorce was final. One thing in the 5 year plan was to have a kid. My oncologist wants me to wait until I have been taking Tamoxifen for two years before getting off of it to get pregnant, but I don't want to wait that long to find out if it's even possible for me to do so. I still have about 8 more months until it's been two years since I started on the Tamoxifen, but I wanted to be informed so I can make other decisions about my treatment like switching off Tamoxifen to a stronger drug that will put me in menopause. That is a big decision and I want to be as informed about my body as possible before making it. There are also other factors like my age... I'll be 39 in two months... and we all know the older you get, the hard it is to conceive. I also don't have a man right now so that is a factor in the whole thing as well... who knows what this situation will be when it's actually time to make things happen so deciding whether I am going to "the bank" or not will happen later.

This has been an emotional week with Trump winning the Presidency. He brings out so much hate in people and I am really afraid for anyone that is not a healthy, wealthy, straight, white male. He talks of getting rid of Obamacare which has allowed so many people with pre-existing conditions to finally get medical coverage on their own. I am glad I have insurance through my job but no job is guaranteed to be around forever, no company is guaranteed to be around forever and if I find myself with out a job that offers insurance I have a pre-existing condition (thanks cancer) and I need insurance. The ONLY glimmer of hope is that I saw a news report with Trump saying he will keep the part of Obamacare that guarantees coverage for people with pre-existing conditions. Whether he sticks to that, we shall see... he is two faced and keeps changing his stance on things.

Bye, Bye 20 pounds!

I hopped on the scale this morning... I have officially lost 20 pounds!!! Woot! Woot!

Yesterday was the last big walk (18 miles) before the AVON39 in two weeks, for the next two weeks the training has me walking no more than 5 miles a day. The last few miles were rough yesterday but I got them done.

I want to continue losing weight after the AVON39 so the plan is to keep doing the 3 mile walks I have been doing at my lunch hour and do 6 mile walks on the weekends and continue with the eating plan of no bread/pasta and no dairy - allowing a splurge day every 6 weeks - and incorporating more workouts besides walking.

Not one more!

It's been an emotional week for me.

The shooting in Florida really hit me. I don't know why this one impacted me more emotionally than all the others that have happened but it drove me to write letters to each of my representatives in congress. Things are getting out of control. When will the mass shootings stop?!?!?!? Is no place safe anymore?!?! Something needs to be done now, we can not wait one more day.

On top of the shooting, Jeff found out last week that his mom's cancer has spread to her brain. The doctors told her she only has about 6 months left. I cry just thinking about what he is going through.

Father's Day is on Sunday and that is also not a great time for me. This will be the third Father's Day with out my dad. My brother, sister, and I will be going bowling like we have done the past two Father's Day and then we will have dinner at my mom's house.

IN HAPPIER NEWS...
I have lost 15 pounds! The training for the AVON39 and the changes in my diet are working... slowly ... but working. The walk is in 5 weeks!!! That also means I perform in El Capitan in 6 weeks!

Hey look... I was in a film!

Finally getting around to posting about the short film I helped out with. In April I got the opportunity to help out with a film for the 48 Hour Film Project.  My friend Dana was in a film for it last year and it sounded like fun. A costumer friend posted about her team was looking for people to help out/perform in their film so I contacted her about joining her team. She passed my information on to her team lead. I had not heard from them and it was getting close to the day of filming and I was chatting with Dana about it so she contacted her team lead and they contacted me about joining the team. I had signed on to be the hair and makeup assistant - my job would be to make sure hair was consistent in the shots and make sure people's faces were not too shiny. The whole excitement behind the 48 hour film project is that the team lead picks up which genre, writes, shoots, edits, and submits the film in a 48 hour time frame. So we are all basically "on call" until they have the script written. I get a text at around 10:15pm on Friday night telling me where the shoot will be and what time to show up. I got another at like almost 2am in the morning asking if I can bring party clothes because they want to put me in the film. SURPRISE! Luckily, we were not going to start shooting until the late after noon (the director had a call back he needed to be at earlier in the day) because I needed to do laundry in order to have anything nice to wear.

We shot the film at the director's (Christian & Evelyn) house. I knew no one on my team except for Dana... though I figured out later that one of the other actors and I went to high school together. I was glad to have a friend on the team since I am kinda socially awkward around new people. Everyone on the team was nice and pretty chill.

I would have loved to take more photos, but I did not want to invade with my camera so this is all I got.

Our "costumes"... we all provided out own clothes

The party table. We had snacks! Plus the film took place at a birthday party so they are also props.

What I was looking at during the times I was filming.

Dana shooting the opening scene of the film

My fellow cast mates in waiting

More filming.

Dana ending up being the star of the film. Her photo is even used on the poster art. 

It was awesome watching her work. 

I had never worked on a film before and this was a great experience and I am proud to be part of the final product. We were nominated for 13 awards. The awards show is on May 22nd.... I hope we win it all! 

Here's a link to the film: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XHSCuz9J0LM

IN OTHER NEWS:

I've been working on losing weight... it's been a struggle. I am doing an eating plan I did about 14 years ago and lost about 70 pounds with. (The plan: meat, vegetables, and fruits. No bread/pasta products and no dairy. There are a few other rules but that's it basically.) Well, I am not in my 20's anymore, plus with the cancer treatment and tamoxifen I am pretty sure my metabolism thinks I am 58 instead of 38 so I am not losing as quickly as expected. I weighed myself today and I have lost 11 pounds in the last month and a half which is nice to see progress. My clothes do fit a tiny little bit more comfortably, but there is no visible changes yet that I have noticed. I am gonna stick with what I am doing a hope that the weight drops more.

Yesterday Dana and I got the meet Alan Tudyk! I got photos with him. I am not a fan of how big I look next to him but I am going to use this a motivation... and since I did not take an official "before" photo I may make these my "before". 

My Auntie Betty's friend, Sharon, joined our AVON39 team. We kicked off Sharon's training by walking 5 miles at a park in Danville on Sunday.

Welp! That is it for now... I think this post is long enough! I will try to more often!

I'm walkin'... yes in deed!

This week is the first week I have felt my ankle was strong enough to walk any sort of distance. I have been itching to start my training for the AVON39 and this week I finally could! I am back doing my lunch time walks and thanks to Daylight Savings Time there is plenty of sun after work for me to do more walking in the evening. According to my fitbit, Tuesday I did 11,170 steps (4.59 miles) and Wednesday I did 13,474 steps (5.53 miles). I've also adjusted my eating in hopes of losing some weight. I started that on March 28th and last week I lost 5 pounds! I do my weigh ins on Fridays so I'll find out tomorrow morning if I have lost anymore weight.

Time to head over to physical therapy!

Ankle and More

It's been a while since I've blogged and my friend Dana was complaining that I have not blogged in a while so here goes.

I got my cast off from my ankle surgery about 5 weeks ago and was in a walking boot for 4 weeks. I am now boot free and have started physical therapy this week. Right now my ankle does not feel any better than before the surgery, but hopefully with time and doing the physical therapy exercises it will be good as new. Patience was never one of my fortes so this has been a challenge for me especially since I am really antsy to work on my training for the AVON39 Walk.

Speaking of the AVON39 walk... Our team the Sparkling Violets have raised over $8,000! Betty and I are blown away at the generosity of our friends and family. We were both a little nervous when we signed up about raising the minimum required to walk... and we blew that out of the water!

It's been 11 months since I first saw signs of my hair growing back and it's now about 5 inches long in most places. It's hard to tell if the curl will stay or if eventually my hair will go back to being straight. I am enjoying the curl while I have it.

My work is offering a free membership to a fitness program called RivalHealth so I signed up yesterday and took my first fitness assessment... I scored an 18 out of 100. SO BAD!!!! Yeah, I have a LONG WAY to go! I am ready to be more fit and focus on this part of my health. I am hoping with this program I can lose some weight, build my strength and agility, and tone up some of my flab/rolls. I'll keep you all posted as (hopefully) my score goes up! I guess I should take the obligatory "before" photo.

Scooting Along

I don't think I blogged about injuring my ankle...
At the end of March last year I went walking with a friend and took a wrong step and severely sprained my ankle. I had my mom take me to the ER that night because I could no longer walk on it and wanted to make sure I did not break it. I was told it was a really bad sprain and not to walk on it for like two weeks. I was really mad about that since I knew in two weeks I would be having my breast cancer surgery. Well, it healed up enough for me to walk by the time I had my surgery. I saw an orthopedic surgeon about a month or so after the injury and he told me it could take up to 6 months to fully heal so I gave it time. In November, during Evita, it was still giving me issues so I went back to see the orthopedic surgeon and he ordered a MRI. The results were I had a tear in a tendon and a ligament... the only way to fix that is surgery.

I had my surgery last Friday, January 22nd. I am in a splint and can not walk on it until I have my follow up appointment on February 9th and get a walking boot. "Luckily", my mom had ankle surgery a few years back and bought a knee scooter and a wedge to elevate the foot so I am all set for this thing. I am so looking forward to February 9th!!!!

The pain has not been too terrible. The first few days were hurting, but now it just hurts when I move my leg and then the pain goes away once the leg is settled.



IN OTHER NEWS:
My Auntie Betty and I signed up to walk the AVON 39 The Walk To End Breast Cancer. We formed our own team... SPARKLING VIOLETS - because both of our favorite color is purple and we do love things that sparkle. My Auntie Betty is my dad's sister and a breast cancer survivor. She was diagnosed with an aggressive form of breast cancer in 2003. She was a great resource while I was going though my treatment. For the next few months we will be raising funds and also training our bodies for the walk... 39 miles in two days. Please donate! www.avonwalk.org/goto/sparklingviolets

I am antsy to start my training but I also have to be patient and let my ankle heal!