Light the Night pics

My talented sister-in-law Dana took these awesome pics from Light the Night and I had to post them!

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The good, the bad and Amazing Austin

I have to say Austin Texas is a pretty cool place. The weekend I shared with Kelsey, my crazy generous CTAPP rider and the rest of the Cancervive CTAPP group was equally amazing. The entire weekend was so well planned and filled with incredible moments-the warm welcome at the airport Friday, celebration dinner Friday night... (pictured above - me with my warrior hat and Chris Clark, PwC CEO and fellow cancer warrior; pictured below my rider Kelsey and Chris)...the Livestrong walk on Saturday where Kelsey and I walked 5K through Austin and I walked through the "survivor shoot" to collect my Yellow Rose of Texas...Saturday afternoon travelling to San Antonio, cruising along the river walk and visiting the Alamo ....

Sunday morning for the Livestrong ride - Lance spoke and then rode as well - Kelsey and Chris rode 40 miles and I cheered on the entire CTAPP team (a small sea of blue in a large sea of yellow) - amazing stories, amazing people. While I didn't meet Lance (there were a few thousand people there remember), Kelsey got to shake Lance's hand right before she started the ride, a great birthday present for her! Sunday we had Texas BBQ and flew back Monday.

In between the ride and dinner Sunday, I even got to hang out with my cousin Kenneth and his lovely wife Johanne, a real treat since I so rarely get to Austin! All in all, a pretty awesome weekend.

Returning late Monday night, early Tuesday for bloodwork was back to reality. Wednesday was Day One chemo again, but with my clear marrow I was happy to keep on! The doctors were quite (pleasantly) surprised by the results, and the transplant trial application was moving forward. We should know something in the next month or so, once Health Canada in Ottawa has reviewed the complete application. "Cautiously optomistic" is the phrase being provided right now. One way or the other, I'll be heading to the hospital likely in December or January. Accordingly, I am now on a fast track of physio and training to get strong and ready for whatever I end up doing. With my CTAPP rider Kelsey training for IronMan next August, that's what I call this next month or so - my IronMan training, as I am doing some amount of swimming, running and cycling to prepare!

On the day I found out that my marrow was still in remission, I also found out some brutal news. My best friend Tasha who you've heard and seen about over the past year as she battled breast cancer - her husband Ryan found out that his brain tumour has started growing again. Ryan was diagnosed almost 11 years ago and has had 2 surgeries and done radiation and chemo, with the last treatments finishing over 4 years ago. Now he has to face some difficult decisions regarding surgery and chemo, and start whatever treatment they land on this week. While he is strong and obviously has Tasha for support, I sure wish they could have had just even a few months of non-cancer living.

Since Austin, I have been busy with a variety of work for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society...our annual fundraiser Celebrity Waiters Luncheon is this coming Friday, November 2nd, so I've been at a lot of steering committee meetings over the past couple of weeks and it looks like it will be one of the best ever. I spoke last Tuesday to 100 hematology nurses at a conference cosponsored by our patient services program and I have met with a few more Team in Training participants, our marathon fundraising program. I also spoke last week to a newly-diagnosed ALL patient to help her deal with her questions about her upcoming treatment and transplant. My blackberry is pretty full even though I'm not technically working!

Last night I turned myself into a skeleton for a Halloween party and had an abracadabra martini to toast a night where imagination is the key to success. It took a while to get my makeup off last night, so I'm ready for a nap already today, but it was fun. I hope you have a boolicious Halloween week!

Marrow Miracle

I'm off for bloodwork and will do a full "Austin report" later but wanted to let you know preliminary reports from my bone marrow biopsy indicate that I am still in remission! The quest for the clinical trial transplant continues.....Woo hoo!

Transportation and Thanksgiving

Since my last post I traversed Chicago and New York, trotted in Light the Night and walked in the Run for the Cure! My Cancervive cycle queen Kelsey left on her 8-day bike journey to Austin, Texas where I will join her this Friday. I celebrated Thanksgiving weekend with family and friends. In the midst of all of these wonderful weeks, I also travelled yet another loop in the roller coaster of leukemia.
Chicago was fabulous...amazing architecture, excellent shopping and tasty dining. I realized I'd never REALLY had Chicago deep dish pizza until I had it there. Wow. So much to do, so little time.

By Friday when mom and I flew to NYC, we were a little wiped! Saturday started with a little adventure to get some blood work done in Chinatown, after which we saw the play Pygmalion starring Clare Danes and that night met my friend Glorisel for dinner in Soho. Sunday we spent most of the day our friend Karyn, with brunch at Balthazar, shopping at Barney's and a drink later on in our hip hotel outdoor bar. Monday we shopped on the Upper West Side and ended it with another great night at Elaine's, where we were joined by friends Karyn, Gianni, Chet and Peter, among others. Tuesday included our favourite lunch spot, Nobu 57 and dinner with another friend Jaime at Fig & Olive in the Meatpacking district. All around, it was a great trip, and visiting with my old friends was wonderful. I didn't get to see my NYC doctor in person as his clinic days did not correspond with my trip. I was pretty exhausted when we arrived back to Calgary.

Two days later though, I was rested enough to walk 6.5 km with 45 friends and family "Tricia's trotters" at Light the Night, a celebratory walk of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. We walked at dusk, with our lighted balloons, and the event raised over $380,000. Some of the trotters had travelled from Regina to do the walk, including uncles and aunts Ed, Deanie, Mike and Diane, friend Chad, and cousins Holly, Jamie, Ellie (see photo below), Eddie, Mia, Lui, and amazing-fundraiser Heather. Calgary-based trotters included mom, dad, Dana (sister-in-law), uncles and aunts Marty, Karen, and Mary-Ellen, Bob (Gunn), friends Tasha, Ryan, Talyn, Erin, Lindsay, Doug, Michelle, Alex, Cal, Shelley and family, Rhea, Ryan and family, Ryan U and Val, and cousins Allan, Melissa, Bjorn, Barbara and super-fundraiser Lindsey. We were definitely one of the largest teams there! We also walked alongside the PwC Girls team, a collection of some of my coworkers and friends who have been supporting me for years. To describe the evening as amazing is understating it significantly. A year before, I felt energy from my angels as I tried to recover from the flesh-eating disease and take my first steps in months. this year, I walked with many of my angels. What's more amazing than that! I thank all who made the trek as well as the dozens more that supported the trotters with donations and their support.

The next morning, I was thrilled to continue celebrating life while walking a shorter path with Tasha, Ryan, Talyn and Tasha's brother Chad in the CIBC Run for the Cure for breast cancer. Since being diagnosed last year, Tasha has had 3 surgeries and months of chemotherapy, all while remaining positive and strong about both her future as well as mine. I was so happy to be able to celebrate life and our friendship with that walk.

Later that week, I witnessed a different type of transportation with a similar theme. As I mentioned before, Kelsey Wiens, a PwC coworker who I met a couple of months ago, is part of a cycling team called CTAPP, a crazy but generous group of people who are as we speak riding (bikes not motorbikes) from Calgary to Austin, Texas, raising money and awareness for cancer. Lucky for me, Kelsey selected me as a "cancer warrior". Last Wednesday they embarked on their giant journey, and I was able to attend the send-off breakfast for the team. This Friday I will fly to Austin to spend the weekend with her and the team at the Lance Armstrong LiveStrong weekend. I am honoured to be associated with this team and look forward to celebrating their arrival Friday night. It's like the song says - "If we're ever going to survive we got a get a little crazy". Cycling 24 hours a day from Calgary to Austin or fighting cancer, it fits.

After the CTAPP send-off, I was thrilled to speak to a class of grade 12 students as part of a biology presentation on acute leukemia by Megan Dempster, the daughter of a friend and coworker of mine, Karen Dempster. Shortly after than, I met up with Jerry Weber, a man who ran the Maui marathon in honour of me in mid-September, to find out how his run went.

Things definitely got a bit crazy later that day, with a call from the bone marrow clinic telling me they wanted me to do some additional blood work, after a lab report indicated my most recent blood work indicated "atypical lymphocytes". Flow cytometry results on Friday indicated some leukemic cells in my peripheral blood, which could indicate a relapse. A bone marrow biopsy would need to be done to confirm or refute that.

In between Friday and yesterday, I celebrated Thanksgiving. It is pretty easy to be thankful when I recall last Thanksgiving, my first pass home from the hospital, barely able to get up the front steps with my cane, and eating pureed food one half teaspoon at at time. This year, my uncle Bob and aunt Heather came to Calgary Saturday with their dog Patsy and we had dinner with their son Conan and his girlfriend Christine. We had a wonderful visit and the next morning had brunch with Brandon, Dana and Davis and Jack. As always, it was entertaining! Sunday night I had dinner with Tasha, Ryan, Talyn and their friend Nathan, and then Tasha and I kicked some butt as we battled Singstar and Cranium with Ryan and Nathan. Monday night we all stuffed ourselves with turkey (non-pureed) and all the fixins!

Yesterday I had my first bone marrow biopsy in over a year, and now I wait for the results. This morning we met with Dr. Brown at the clinic and went over a number of possible paths depending on the results. If I have relapsed and the marrow contains too many leukemic cells, I may no longer be eligible for the transplant clinical trial that I have been moving towards. Regardless of what state the marrow is in, all possible plans include hitting the leukemia hard again and soon. What hammer we use will be decided once the marrow results are known.

For now, I am packing for Austin and hope to enjoy the weekend as much as possible. It's been an interesting few weeks since my last post! I hope all of you had a scrumptious Thanksgiving - thank you again for your support of Light the Night, Run for the Cure and me!

Cheers