Thanks to the incredible generosity of so many good people, I have already met my fundraising minimum. Many of my TEAM STRONGER teammates are still working to reach their minimums, so if you would like to donate, I would love it if you would donate to our TEAM page. It's all going to the same awesome place! Just click on the link to the right that says "View Team Page" and donate there. Thank you so much for your support of me and patients like me everywhere, many of whom are still hoping for a cure.

So my hair has been rapidly falling out due to the chemo. I'd already cut it short to minimize the trouble it would cause while falling out, but it was getting thinner and thinner each day and was coming out in handfuls in the shower and when I combed it. I hemmed and hawed about cutting the rest of it off, still hoping that maybe enough of it would remain that it could still look a little normal. I don't really have any attachment to my hair, and I don't think of mysel as vain at all (it takes me 5 minutes to get ready in the morning). I just didn't want to look like a cancer patient.

And then I just said, "SCREW IT!" "SCREW CANCER!" I decided I was sick of waiting to see what the chemo would or wouldn't do. I decided I didn't want to have some emotional shaving of all of my hair that would feel more like defeat than like fight. So, yesterday, after my fourth chemo treatment (which is hopefully the halfway point) I decided to take most of the rest of it off but make it my own, not cancer's. And it was fun.

And I made it TNT's. Purple is the color of Hodgkin's lymphoma awareness, and it is TNT's signature color. So now I'm a walking poster for both, and I love it.

Before I did it, I doubted whether it would really make me feel any more in control of this whole process than I did before (I was feeling completely out of control). But to my pleasant surprise, it has. I feel stronger, tougher, and more in control than ever, even if that control is mostly illusory. And I feel grateful to be able to feel this way. I know not everyone going through this chemo or other chemos gets to feel this way.

What doesn't kill us makes us stronger. I feel stronger today.

Please donate so that other patients out there can feel stronger, too.

The first time I trained for a triathlon with Team in Training in 2005, I had no personal connection to the mission of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. I was training and fundraising in memory of my mom, who had died of pancreatic cancer. The second time I trained for a triathlon with Team in Training this past spring, I had no personal connection to the mission of LLS at the beginning. I was running in memory of my 17-month-old daughter, Hudson (who died suddenly from a rare bacterial infection-- you can read more about our story here) and in honor of all children fighting blood cancers and their parents who are trying to save their lives.

While I was training for the St. Anthony's Triathlon this past spring, I was diagnosed with Hodgkin's lymphoma. With the help of supportive doctors, I was able to complete my race before starting my bigger race against this stupid blood cancer.

So this time, for the first time, the connection is personal. This time, I am running for me and for all other people battling blood cancers right now who can’t train for triathlons because of the side effects of their disease or treatment.

You heard me right. I am going to train for another triathlon with Team in Training this summer, while I am still in treatment, and I will be serving as an Honored Teammate for the Triangle triathlon team. The Honored Teammate’s job is to remind participants about the real-life impact that their training and fundraising is having on real patients right now. Seems like the perfect job for me.

Not only am I doing the race, but I asked everyone I knew to do it, or another TNT event with me. Together, we formed TEAM STRONGER, inspired by the notion that what does not kill us makes us stronger. That will certainly be true for me and everyone who races with me.

Know that because of the huge advances in research in treating Hodgkin's, the treatment decisions I am making are focused on how to make sure I live a long life AFTER Hodgkin's, because cure is practically a given. So the research dollars you give today will be a cure for someone like me ten years from now. We're doing the hard part: chemotherapy and training and fundraising. And we're making it very easy for you to join TEAM STRONGER. All you have to do is click to the right to make a donation to help make me and everyone battling blood cancers stronger, today and in the future. Thank you for giving.

Me during my second chemo treatment, already kicking cancer's butt and proudly wearing my TNT track jacket earned during last spring's season for raising way over my minimum!

Me with my sweet girl, Hudson, who will always be my inspiration