Post Speed Workout with TnT at Memorial Park Track

Busy Past Three Months

Between training, work and a little fun these past few months have been pretty busy!  I am still training for San Diego and doing well.  My treatment is still going well with no huge side effects. I think it is giving me a slight rash but it is not bad at all and it comes and goes.  Overall I am still doing great.

I recently let LLS publish my story to their website. I hope it helps gives someone hope that things will work out. You can read it here.

A great bar to improve upon for myself. 2:45ish Half Marathon. This was a trail run too. Maybe on the road I will improve my time!  I didn't plan this pose it just happened. The last 5k was rough and it made me glad decided to wait on a Full Marathon.

Seabrook Luck Trails Marathon

I ran my first half marathon this past March in Seabrook, TX.  I signed up for this last year before I found out about my CML and TnT.  The run went well and I really loved my parents cheering me on as I passed the first water stop.  I am very fortunate that CML did not keep me from my goals.  I learned a few things from Seabrook that will definitely help me in San Diego.

Clockwise starting right these are some of my friends that raced with me at Yuri's Night; Loi, Melissa, Wanessa, Bradley.  Wanessa PR'd that day!

Yuri's Night 5K

My first 5K I have ever ran was Yuri's Night out by NASA-JSC around the neighborhood of the original heroes of manned spaceflight. A lot has changed in the past year but it was great to run with good friends and colleagues. Near the end of the race a friend caught up with me and helped me finish strong. For some reason I started to slow down and lose focus but he helped push me through. It was not a PR race for me but it was something to remember since I started running a year prior.

Crazy difference in a year!

TnT Friends from the Vancouver team left to right; Brittany, Amanda, Louis, Siv, and Erlend. All of them heroes to me!

TnT Friends in Vancouver

Since the start of this year I have been running with these guys every Thursday and Saturday.  They all have inspiring stories that have lead them to run in the battle against blood cancer.  Vancouver was at the beginning of the May and Heather and I will run ours at the end in San Diego. Their support has brought me through to the end of a few long runs. Great work guys!

They ran for all of us Honored Teammates and for all those that have been impacted by blood cancer.

TnT Coaches at Vancouver. Coaches help out the runners during the race providing anything they can.  My coaches will not be physically there with Heather and I in San Diego but they will be there in spirit. Dan is the ruggedly, handsome, ginger, giant in the back second from the right. Lauren is the beautiful, energetic, smiling, lady bottom right. They will be missed in San Diego.

Pushing Forward

May 31st Heather, her husband and I will be running in beautiful San Diego. We will try to stay classy. My parents will be there cheering us on! I plan on live tracking my run on Facebook with Garmin if you want to follow along from Houston.  After that I have Lunar Rendezvous 5K, Outrigger's 5K, Toughest 10K Galveston, LaPorte Half Marathon (over the Fred Hartman bridge) coming up at the end of this year. Then next year I plan on attempting a Full Marathon with TnT.

Everyone asks how I am doing and if I need anything. I am thankful for everyone's love and thoughtfulness. I am doing great and they don't have to worry unless I stop running.

Wow!

I am humbled and in awe about everyone's support. You are all amazing and I cannot thank you enough. This was beyond my expectations. In less than a week you have all let me exceed the fundraising minimum to go to San Diego and run for Team in Training!

Where Your Money is Going

75 cents of every dollar you donated is going to research and patient support.  Research like the medication I am currently on, which so far has me living a normal life.

I am currently almost done with my second bottle and I am still feeling pretty normal.  Things are sure looking good. I can only hope this continues!

I received a congratulations email from LLS is meeting my minimum goal and it had the following. 

"Since its founding in 1949, LLS has invested more than $814 million in blood cancer research. We fund more blood cancer research than all other voluntary health agencies..
An LLS-funded researcher developed Gleevec®, a pill for Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML). Now, more than 95 percent of newly diagnosed CML patients survive more than five years with a good quality of life. LLS was also instrumental in the development of Velcade®, a targeted treatment approved for patients with multiple myeloma and mantle cell lymphoma."

Your support of me and LLS will help ensure the 5% is improved and maybe one day there will be a cure. If they are doing things like the following video then it sure is a possibility!

Pushing Forward

My training has been going well. My long runs on Saturdays have been around 10 miles and they are trying to convince me to run the Full Marathon. Should I do it?  I don't know but I have time to decide.  May if I can raise $5000 I'll do the full. Have to have something to aim for right?

Thank you all with love.

Shortly before Thanksgiving 2014 I received pretty bad news from a doctor.  I was diagnosed with Chronic Myelogenous Leukemia (CML).  It came from unfortunate luck of a random mutation of a chromosome that has been dubbed "The Philadelphia Chromosome".  I was fortunate that it was caught very early. Earlier than my Oncologist has ever seen in her 30+ year career.

After the initial shock of the news, I went to research to learn what CML was and what was to come. I wanted to make sure I was doing everything I could. I had a few friends and loved ones battle various cancers over the years. Some victorious and others less so but I never thought I would have battle it myself. I was very scared but wanted to learn all I could to be less afraid.

In my research I discovered that researchers in CML treatments have made huge strides over the last 20 years or so.  Before 2000 the life expectancy of CML patients were  3-7 years. However a targeted therapy was developed and released in 2000, which has been a serious victory for CML patients. Life expectancy for CML patients on the new targeted drugs are a normal lifespan 14+ years and counting!

Even better yet the treatment is just one pill a day for the rest of my life!  There is a good chance of no side effects. The treatment is not radiation or the stereotypical chemotherapy we all usually associate with cancer.

There is a chance that the initial therapy does not work but other treatments were developed that could be used if the first one does not. Radiation/Chemo and Bone Marrow/Stem Cell transplant is the last resort and I have been told a very rare option to have to pursue for CML patients.

As I started to tell friends and family I led with, "I have bad news but mostly good news."  I feel I am very fortunate to have cancer discovered early and that a treatment is well understood that should not be too life altering. There is a lot of good news.

You can believe that I started to feel better and more positive about things. As long as the side effects were not bad and the first treatment worked everything would be good. There was an even added bonus that I could continue to pursue my new found love of running!

Into The Treatment 1 & 1/2 Months Later

I will always remember January 27th 2015.  That day I had my 6th week followup with my Oncologist to see how the Gleevec treatment was going for me.  

Over the previous month I was hypersensitive to every ache, pain, tiredness and discomfort I experienced. Nothing every lasted and I am pretty sure it was all normal. For the most part I felt completely normal other than scrutinizing everything I felt. At the end I either have no side effects or they are so minor I cannot tell that I am experiencing any.

I was sort of worried about this. What if it was not working and I had to change to the second option of treatment and actually experience worse side effects? It would be great to have no side effects with a working treatment.

As I nervously answered the doctor's questions about how I felt and then started to blab on about all the thoughts that were racing through my mind my doctor told be freaking fantastic news.  All my blood numbers were in the normal range and the key indicator of the Philadelphia chromosome was halved.  The treatment is working!

I may have teared up a little.... the doctor's office had dry air and my contacts were bothering me...... aww whatever I admit it. That was the best news I could have possibly have hoped for! I cried out of joy.

Pushing Forward to San Diego

Since April 2014 I have found a new love of running. I started back then because I decided I wanted to lose weight and improve my health. Little did I know of what was to come the next Thanksgiving.

I have improved a lot in running. I have ran a few 5Ks and moved on to 10Ks and decided I wanted to try for a Half Marathon. When I was deciding this it was shortly before I found out I have CML.

I feel very fortunate for all the hard work that has lead to the advancement of CML treatments that I am benefiting from. I want to give back any way I can.  This lead me to Team in Training and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society.

I have joined and will run for Team In Training and the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society at the Rock 'n Roll San Diego 1/2 Marathon on May 31st 2015.  I will push forward and cross the finish line to fight blood cancer.  For hope that one day blood cancer will be cured and good treatment will be available to all so everyone can have mostly good news!

Please join me in this race by making a donation in support of my work with Team In Training as we help facilitate researchers to make strides in treatments and cures for blood cancer. We may all share in the triumph as treatment options improve and more become survivors.

75 cents out of every dollar raised with Team In Training goes in to support blood cancer research. Team In Training has raised over $1.4 Billion to support blood cancer research and patient services over the last 25 years.  Every donation counts no matter how much. Just as every step and every mile in training will lead us to cross the finish line in San Diego.

Let us all indeed TRIUMPH!

This past weekend I broke my 5K PR by breaking through my 10min/mi barrier for a finish time of 30:21.4 (9:49min/mi) at the Galveston Marathon - 5K.