Get Up & Get Going

When my alarm sounded at 3:45 a.m., I wanted to shoot it. I got home really late last night from the Inspiration Dinner and now a few hours later, I'm having coffee and about to head to downtown Houston for the Luke's Locker Half Marathon.

By the time I arrive, I will be all purple and peppy and ready to cheer on my teammates. Right now, though, I wish I could close my eyes and sleep!!!

Last week, Bill had another very difficult scan/procedure at MD Anderson. We ended up being there for many hours and I didn't get to see my kids all day. While I sat in the waiting room, a man about my parents' age looked at me and said, "you're too young to be here". I smiled and said, "if you think I'm young now, you should have seen me 11 years ago when this all started!"

Of course I'm all too familiar with the fact that cancer doesn't care about youth. Cancer has the indecency to attack newborn babies. I've been in the children's hospital at MD Anderson many times. I've been with cancer patients at Texas Children's too many times, starting when I was a 7-year-old. Cancer is evil! I had a friend one time tell me they didn't believe in "evil". Well, I guess they just never met someone with cancer then.

So, all we know after last week's procedure is that Bill's cancer is not a recurrence of the original one. It's a new cancer. It's likely caused by the chemo he did for NHL, but at this time, we still know very little. It appears that the tumor is isolated. If so, that's a good thing because if it has metastasized we're dealing with a much bigger problem.

Wednesday Bill has another biopsy and for this one, they may knock him out. This will help them determine where all the cancer is and which cancer type we're dealing with. It's looking like prostate, which is very strange. Bill is in his 40s so this is highly unusual. Of course, with the amount of chemo he did before, he can develop a malignancy anywhere. His worst symptom right now is the lower back pain. I've read that if a person has prostate cancer and they are showing symptoms, that's usually a bad sign- it means the cancer has advanced. So, I am going to force myself to stop reading til we know more.

Time for me to head to Houston to high five a bunch of heroes who are running to cure cancer. Go Team!