You read it right. I am one of the top 3 fundraisers! I couldn't have done it without your support. I need just $55 until I reach an even $4,000. I would love to get those last few donations in so that I can reach this milestone. Please consider making a donation these next 2 weeks so that I can make a personal best for my fundraising. You guys can do it!!

With that said, I have less than 2 weeks until I am crossing the finish line in San Diego. This past few months has not been the easiest with my surgery, c diff and hospitalization. Not to mention when we moved I hurt my ankle and am still having some pain and swelling from that. But regardless, I am going to have a great race and do my best. I don't know if I will set a new PR but I'm just going to enjoy the run and enjoy the day. June 2nd is also National Cancer Survivors Day so it means alot that I will be running on that specific day.

So how about we kick this fundraising into action and help me reach my next goal of $4000? I have the greatest support system and would not be where I am without your support. Help me reach this next milestone? Help us get one step closer to finding a cure for blood cancer.

Early Thursday morning Ty drove us to Charlottesville for my PET scan and my oncologist appointment. My scan was scheduled for 11 but we had to be there at 10:30 to get my IV placed. I don't know what it was about the day but from the beginning, it was clear that this was going to be a great day. We go to the cancer center a litle early (10:00) and when I went to register, they told me don't get too comfortable because I'm going straight back. Turns out the 10:00 appointment was running late so they just switched our times. PERFECT.

Ty came back with me for the IV and the tech was really great. I barely felt when he put the IV in. Ty gave kisses and headed to the waiting room while they injected me and I drank the always disgusting barium. Actually, I can't really complain about that because at ECCCC, they just use a watered down, thin liquid. Tastes like old water. My last PET I was in a freezing cold room, the blanket heater was broken, and the light flickered on and off. This time was so much better. I had my heated blankets and ended up being able to sleep for a good hour before they came to take my fluids off and have me go to the bathroom. The only downfall to my cancer center is the 90 minute wait before scans. All my previous scans were only 45 minutes to an hour. The upside though, is that they are the nicest techs and always take good care of me. Another relaxing 30 minute wait and they said I would be going back in a few minutes. Off to the scanner which took about 20 minutes but once again, I ended up falling asleep. They left my IV in so I could get my labs drawn before my appointment. I thought we weren't going to have time to get something to eat but since they got me in early, we were able to go grab a bite to eat at the cafeteria and then go back to the cancer center for my labs and appointment. The only downfall to the day was I almost had to get stuck twice. The techs were busy so this guy didn't want to use my IV. He said I could wait about 20 minutes for the techs to do it. Of course, we had an hour to kill now so I waited. I'm not gonna put my poor veins through anymore sticks if they don't have to. Only waited about 10 minutes before they called me back though. My iv decide it didn't want to draw blood. She had to play around for a few minutes before she was able to get enough. IV was taken out and we headed upstairs where we would await the results of my PET scan. Once again, time was on our side because instead of being called back at 1:20, we were back in the room by 1:00.

I had my vitals taken and still ended up losing a few more pounds. Not too happy about that since I've been eating and eating this week trying to get it back up and still no progress. I blame the weight loss on still getting over the c diff. When I went back for my follow-up after getting out of the hospital, I had more cultures taken and was put back on antibiotics because I was still testing positive for c diff and wbc. I finished my antibiotics the day before my scans so neither Dr. Douvas nor the techs thought it would be a problem with my scans.

The first thing we did was go over my PET scan results. He only had the prelim results and went to talk to the radiologist about them, but everything was perfect. I'm still in remission! The best news of all was that my thymus no longer is lighting up on my scans. Ever since I finished treatment, every single scan had a pretty high SUV on my thymus. Everyone considered it to be thymic rebound since I had went through so much chemo. And now, there isn't a single part of my thymus with any uptake. This was music to our ears.

We went over the rest of my scans and the only uptake that I did have was brown fat around certain areas, which he said is competely normal in skinny people. It's what makes you warm up when you are cold. Also, apparently I don't have a gallbladder. LOL We always laugh at that. But everything was perfect. My labs all came back normal. Better than 2 weeks ago even. My LDH is also the lowest it has been since my diagnosis. Once again, nothing but great news. We went over what we're going to do for the next few years. I'll be having my scans every 6-8 months and continue with my oncology appointments every 3-4 months for the next 2 years. Then we'll be moving to appointments every 6 months for a couple of years and then from there, once or twice a year. Since my lymphoma is considered high risk, he feels like this is a good schedule until we feel like I am continuing on an upward path.

Now, it's time to get back on our feet and get back to training. My c diff is completely gone and I am feeling amazing. My teeth have healed and the only aches I have right now is my ankle. I ended up tripping over the roomies dog and fell down the stairs and landed on my ankle. Box stayed in tack but my poor ankle has been hurting for the past 2 days now. But once it is back to normal i'll be hitting the pavement hard to get back to training. I've been out of commission for almost 2 months now and that is unacceptable. Now that I have a clean bill of health, it's time to get back to the swing of things and make more progress!

Most importantly, I give you the results from my PET scan. My last pet scan was in August 2012 which showed that I still had continued thymic rebound. The bottom picture is taken from my report on Thursdays PET scan. No longer shows increased FDG uptake in the present study. This is INCREDIBLE progress! I'll have another CT scan in a couple of months and then will have my next PET scan in about 6 months which we hope can only continue to get better. Thank you all for the support and donations. I have the greatest supporters!

THE GOOD

I have reached my fundraising minimum for the Nike Women's 1/2 Marathon. Since I have 2 races that I'm running, instead of continuing to raise money for Nike, I'm moving my focus onto raising money for San Diego now. Fortunately, I have already met my goal for San Diego as well, so this is more so continuing to raise money. We had a very successful fundraiser at Ruby Tuesday, bringing in almost $300.

THE BAD

My training on the other hand, has not been that great. Only because of my health. We had a Climb-A-Thon for First Descents in early March and after spending a few hours at the indoor rock wall, I ended up picking up some virus. The next morning, I was hurting with a sore throat and then throughout the course of the week, I got worse. It was the typical cold but instead of lasting just a few days, it took me 2 weeks to get over it. I managed to go to one group run and we did 6 miles in 1 hour and 9 minutes. But that was the last time I have been able to run. My cold turned into an upper respiratory infection and I was hacking up a lung for most of each night unable to sleep or breathe. But I finally ended up getting over that just in time to have surgery. Most of you know that I lost my insurance in early 2011, which put getting my wisdom teeth on the back burner until we could afford it. I was supposed to have them out earlier, but because my counts so low and no doctor wanting to touch me going through chemo and wanting an elective surgery, hence no surgery.

Earlier this year, I was awarded a grant for $2,000 for medical bills/expenses. My teeth have been causing me so many problems with headaches, ear aches and pain, that the foundation was working with us to find a surgeon who was willing to take on my case. With still having such a poor immune system and having all the troubles I've been having, no surgeon would up and touch me. They did their research and found a surgeon here in Alexandria who would take all 4 wisdom teeth out under general anesthesia. We went in for my consult and my surgery was scheduled for this past Thursday.

THE UGLY

With my 8:45am surgery, it started out as a very difficult morning. The surgeon who I once had liked 2 days prior, lost all my trust when he first wanted Ty to leave the room before my IV was put in and then again when he let him stay but wouldn't let him hold my hand. Cashea has severe anxiety and for a GOOD reason. When you have such bad veins like me, you would hate it too. Regardless, they did the surgery and I woke up in the "recovery" room with Ty no where in sight. The stupid nurse wouldn't let him come in the room and that made me even more aggitated coming out of sedation. We ended up going home and after I had to make Ty pull over so I could puke, or spit blood (I don't remember which but Ty said there was a lot of blood). I laid in bed and tried to ignore how much pain I was in. The surgeon put me on antibiotics and told me I could take motrin for pain (which thank God I have pain meds still from my hiatal hernia) because the pain was out of control.

Early Friday morning, I woke up sick as a dog. Uncontrollable vomitting and nausea that wouldn't stop. The worst thing ever is having to puke and stretch your mouth open the day after having all 4 wisdom teeth out. The pain persisted and I continued to get worse. I had to have Ty call in sick on Saturday because I was in that much pain and discomfort. Sunday was the absolute worst though. The nausea would not stop. The pain was the worst ever. And to make matters worse, I could not leave the bathroom. Ty ended up going to work but at 11:30 I called him and told him I could not do it anymore. One of our friends came over and sat with me until Ty came home (needed to leave work 3 hours early) and off we went to the emergency room.

We always go to UVA because I don't have insurance, but there was no way I could make the 3 hour drive. I barely was able to make the trip to Inova Hospital which was only 9 miles away. They got me in the ER (really quickly at that) and started all the labs. I was increcibly dehydrated and they got an IV in me and started fluids asap. I will skip all the disgusting parts, but in the end, I was admitted and placed in isolation because of a nasty case of C Diff. If you don't know what that is, google it. You'll see why they keep you in isolation. They had to use all the precautions with wearing gowns and gloves while in the room. Ty and Kimberly were able to stay with me for a while before they both had to leave. Because I was in isolation, I couldn't have anyone stay the night. So my poor fiancee had to go home without me. All in all, I ended up going through 13 bags of IV antibiotics (Flagyl) and 10 bags of fluids (plus 2 that had electrolytes and glucose in them because I was STILL dehydrated). I also had to be given Lovenox shots in my stomach, which are pretty painful. Lovenox is a blood thinner and no I didn't have a blood clot. It was because after all the fluids, they still could not get any blood from me. My blood was super thick and would drip out a few drops before it would blow. I did have some really great nurses on staff taking care of me because I was in the oncology department. Oncology nurses are always better than regular nurses in my opinion.

Yesterday afternoon I was feeling like I was on the mend and getting better, plus the hospital was full so they moved me to a shared room with someone who was in the bathroom just as much as I was and had a fever and virus at that. So with my feeling better, we discussed me going home to recover. I was given more antibiotics to take and potassium to take as well since it was really low. I have an appointment on Thursday at UVA and I have to go have my labs drawn again to make sure my numbers are back to normal. Today has been touch and go with how I was feeling so I'm hoping I continue to get better. If not, I already have an appointment ready for next week. This has really been one of the toughest weeks since chemo and I wish that my immune system would get better as time goes on, but it seems that I just pick every little thing up. Who gets c diff and ends up admitted to the hospital after having their wisdom teeth removed? ME!

So i'm taking it easy the next few days and hoping I continue to get better. I've come to realize that my wanting to get a PR for Nike isn't happening and that I am just going to race to finish. If I do great, that's fine. If I finish slow, I accept that too. This month has not been the easiest to get my running in. And as far as San Diego goes, I'm just having fun with that one. I'm running it with one of my really great friends i've met from TNT, Beth, and we are just going to have a lot of fun.

Thank you again for those of you who are following us along this journey. I don't look forward to the hospital bill that is coming but thankfully I am in the process of getting Medicaid and that should be getting my bills paid for. It's been a rough few years but I am so thankful to have my fiancee and all of my friends along side.

BTW, if you do end up seeing or talking to Ty at any point. He deserves major props. Between him trying to be there for me and trying to go to work to, he had become so sleep deprived but still was focused on me. Give him a pat on the back. He jumped in my cancer journey without hesitation and has proven that he is worth marrying. I am just so thankful to have him in my life and to have someone who cares so much about me.

Poor guy is so exhausted.

For those of you that do not know my story, you can click HERE to read it. However, for those of you that do know about it, it's no surprise that I am once again signed up to participate with Team in Training. Since my diagnosis, the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has been a big support system with anything from financial support to emotional support. As a cancer survivor, I want to give back and help others who need the same support that I have received the past 3 years. This year, I will be running both the Nike Women's 1/2 Marathon on April 28th & the San Diego 1/2 Marathon on June 2nd with my friend Beth. I would have never met Beth if it weren't for Team in Training. I was the honored patient for the Kansas City Marathon in October and Beth was the team mentor. We were emailing back and she was keeping the team updated on how I was doing. Then the idea came that we needed to meet. What better way then to meet at a race to benefit the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. We will cross the finish line together and celebrate a new friendship that I would have never found if it were not for my diagnosis.

(Cashea & Ty at the National Capital Light the Night Walk)

Last year, I was supposed to participate in the San Diego 1/2 Marathon but because of low blood counts, low platetlets, and still having such a weakened immune system, my oncologist felt like it would harm me in the long run if I ran with such a large crowd. This year, I am still having my fair share of problems but my blood counts are not one of them. I lost my health insurance in March after Ty and I moved to Missouri since we were both unemployed. It was then when my counts had taken a dive and I ended up getting into medical debt because of the lack of insurance. In June we moved to Richmond where Ty was offered a seasonal position with the National Park Service. (I may have had a slight influence on that, but it is a job he enjoys doing). While we were in Richmond, I found out about UVA Medical Center where they approved me for patient financial assistance. This is such a relief because I was able to get my PET scan in September that showed that I was still in remission! I have an amazing oncologist who specializes in young adult cancer survivors (specifically leukemia and lymphoma) and only have a small co-pay ($6) for my appointments and a very small co-pay for each of my meds ($4 for any rx).

This past month, I not only had my 3 year anniversary of my diagnosis, but I also have had terrible stomach pain. After TONS of tests and bloodwork, that still does not get any easier, we have found out that I have a hiatal hernia caused by acid reflux that was a lovely *insert sarcasm* side effect from all the chemo I went through. Now that we have an answer for the pain, I can focus on getting my health back on track. Nothing compares to the pain, sickness, and hurt that came with my diagnosis, but the after cancer is just as frustrating. I am still unemployed and still uninsured, but nothing makes up for knowing that I am still cancer free.

I ask that you please consider supporting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society by donating to my Team in Training fundraiser. Not only will you be helping me reach my personal goal, but you will be making a difference in the life of those diagnosed with Leukemia, Lymphoma, or Myleoma.

All my thanks!

Cashea