Laughing all the way........

2014.03.20

We are one day away from the official start of Spring and it could have looked better.......

This might be what I get as my tattoo.

Morning routine works pretty good now. Dog walk in pajamas, get kids up and ready for school, needle jab in the belly, pills to be taken, deliver kids to school and train station, go for a walk, eat some breakfast.

I did some research on the treatment that I am receiving. It is an interesting science how these different drugs work. Diffuse large B cell lymphoma (DLBCL) is my type of non Hodgkin lymphoma. Doctors often treat DLBCL with chemotherapy called CHOP and a drug called rituximab. This combination is called R-CHOP. Rituximab is a type of biological therapy called a monoclonal antibody. It targets a protein called CD20 on lymphoma cells. The antibody sticks to the CD20 protein. Then the cells of the immune system pick out the marked cells and kill them.  

So the drug rituximab finds a certain protein, hangs a ride with it and goes in and kills the cancer cells. That is pretty cool. Thank you to all the scientists that persevered and found out that this works. It will be one of the things that will save my life.  Left untreated the cancer that I have would be fatal quite quickly because it is so fast growing. That is what is so amazing - this treatment of R-CHOP will kill the cancer and save my life.  GRATEFUL

We need to get more kids interested in the sciences and research so that they can develop even better drugs and medicines. Playing and building with LEGO from a young age is a great start to understanding how things fit together in a system and why certain pieces can only be used in certain ways. BUILD SOME LEGO TODAY.

OK, so lunch was some soup. Then it was an afternoon of tv, laughing, eating, sneaking a few Twizzlers and cleaning out the food pantry where we found a few exciting items and taking a walk with my mom. The mailman brought a great surprise from Clara - a t-shirt that I will wear for chemo #2. It says "Life is about kicking ass, not kissing it" THANKS CLARA.

from a company called bravelets.com 

The walk with my mom was a bit exciting. My mom and I were nearing the end of our walk and were walking down a residential street in our neighborhood. Walking in the other direction on the other side of the street was a young women who I did not know or recognize. As we walk past her my Mom tries to practice her Swedish and says loud and clear to the young woman loud:  "Hej då" which means GOODBYE. I quicken my pace and then start laughing thinking of the expression on that girls face. It was classic.

Dinner was chicken with rice-a-roni and broccoli. YUM YUM. Then it was a game of rummikub which Marcus won and all the kids got to share a big bag of American candy that they had been longing for. 

I am getting better at passing the time and living in the moment. My friends are amazing. I don't think I can say it enough. LOVED.

KICKING ASS. GRATEFUL. LEGO. CANCER RESEARCH. LOVED. FRIENDS.