Zombies…Brains

Err…maybe not zombies.  But definitely brains.  Zombies eat brains, cancer eats brains.  Zombies = cancer? 

My cousin’s 5 your old boy is recovering from brain surgery #3 to remove part of a tumor. He is another one of the cancer fighters and survivors that inspires me to do what I am doing.  He is such an amazing and truly inspiring little boy.

This morning for Team in Training, we had a beautiful 6 or 7 mile run along the greenbelt of Downtown Boise.  (6 miles for ½ and 7 miles for full marathon.)  The weather was absolutely gorgeous.  It truly was the perfect day for a run. However, I didn’t feel good.  Bleh.  But, I got out there anyway.

Along the way, Brian (my uncle, who you may remember, if you have been keeping up with my posts, is training with me) and I started running with one of the other ladies from the team.  She told us a little of her story.  

Many years ago, her husband had been diagnosed with brain cancer. Inoperable. Untreatable. Quality of life would just have to be based on how well he could function with a cancer growing in some of the most important cells of the body.  Then a few years later, he was also diagnosed with leukemia.  At this point, the option was to treat him with high doses of radiation.  Since he now had 2 separate types of cancer, they thought the radiation therapy might help reduce the brain cancer as well as the leukemia.  Turned out the radiation was too hard on his brain and he passed away in January.  She concluded her story by saying that Team in Training is her support group.  They are the reason she is able to keep going.  Not only is this team a group of people who can completely relate because we have all gone through an experience that is somewhat similar, but we are working to raise money to find a cure so that others won’t have to share these experiences.  (My thoughts exactly!)

I had found an app for my phone (which just came out yesterday, by the way) called Zombies, Run!  that I really wanted because I thought it would help motivate me to run.  Playing a game with zombies chasing me!  Fun, right? Right!  Super fun!  While the app is a little spendy, it looks really fun! 

But then I watched a movie last night with my mom and sister about a woman with cancer (we didn’t know it was going to be about cancer or we wouldn’t have rented it, believe me) and *spoiler alert* she dies!!! (Yes, that deserves 3 exclamation marks. Really.) (And, also yes, I am not sharing the name of said movie just in case someone watches it and doesn’t actually want to know the end of the movie. You’re welcome.) Anyway, the 3 of us bawled through the 2^nd half of the movie and told my sister what a horrible movie picker she was, because, well, let’s face it, cancer sucks! 

As I was driving home after the movie ended I realized that I didn’t want the zombie app after all.  I just wanted to cure cancer.  Excitement for this morning’s run came over me and I couldn’t wait to go to bed.  Of course, I couldn’t sleep because I kept thinking about the poor woman dying of cancer, but that’s life. 

That excitement is what carried me through the run this morning.  I ended up having to take the shorter 6 mile run instead of doing the 7 miler due to problems with my hip flexor and IT band.  We don’t want an injury this early into the game.  But, my coach stayed right with me on her bike and worked with me to make sure I was injury free. In the end, I felt exhilarated and full of energy.  It was hard.  But it was so worth it.

I can’t wait for October 14^th!  I know this isn’t a flavor of the month cause.  This is so much deeper.  And this, this is just the beginning…

Starfish in the Sand

I started crying at work today.  Maybe I am just extra sensitive because I work in the medical field and I come in contact with people who are struggling with cancer nearly every day.  I meet people with brain cancer, blood cancer, lung cancer, skin cancer or breast cancer.  I could keep going.  In one year I have met more people with cancer than all the rest of my life.  I personally know someone who currently has or is a survivor of lymphoma, leukemia, brain cancer, thyroid cancer, liver cancer, skin cancer or breast cancer. And I have lost someone I love to leukemia.  

My cousin, who is currently caring for her little boy as he recovers from his 3^rd brain surgery to remove a brain tumor, shared with us about a family who also has a child with cancer.  This child has leukemia and is 12 months old.  My cousin’s child was 18 months when he was diagnosed with his brain tumor.

Cancer doesn’t care how old you are.  It doesn’t care about your beliefs.  Your race, your gender, your religion.  Cancer is no respecter of persons.  

I know that I shouldn’t try to carry this burden alone, but I believe so deeply in the fight to end cancer. Those times when I start to feel weighed down, or like I am not making much of a difference, I just remember the story of the starfish on the beach.  I don’t know where I heard it or when I heard it.  All I know is that it went something like this:

-A young man was walking along the beach after high tide and saw another man slowly making his way, picking up stranded starfish and tossing them back into the surf.  The first man asked the second why he did it when there were so many that most of them would die before he even got to them. What difference does it make?  The second man picked up a starfish and tossed it into the ocean and responded, “It will make a difference to that one.” -

It makes a difference.  Though right now we can’t save them all—right now—it makes a difference to every patient and family that we do save.  And some day, maybe, hopefully, we WILL find a cure.