By the light , of the Silvery Moon....

Well I’m still getting up every Saturday at 5am so I can eat and then head out to a training session. Our Saturday training sessions start at 7Am. And as the winter season approaches, ..it’s very dark and cold at 7 Am. Since I’m not a morning person (and have never been) getting up at that time on a Saturday is a bit of a challenge. I also have to eat about an hour before I run. I’ve never have been a breakfast person either. So having to eat pasta at 5Am is probably harder to do than driving to the workout area and standing around in shorts when it’s 50 degrees outside. (I know, I know... us southerners are such wimps when it comes to cold weather...I think it’s been in the 30's up north already)

This Saturday we ran in a very popular area for the runs (probably because it is part of the marathon route). It’s especially nice because it is in a very old part of town with very cute and expensive bungalows. Most of the little homes have been re-done and are as cute as can be. It makes for interesting run.

We had an easier Saturday....we only did 6 miles that day!

Light the Night event-----

Light the Night event

My youngest son, Trevor, and I did the Light the Night event together. It was fun and lovely at the same time. There was live music, free food and lots of free give-way stuff. Trevor wore the white shirt and carried the red ‘support’ balloon and I wore the blue’ survivor’ shirt and carried the white balloon. What made it extra special was that I got to meet one of the fellow CLLers, John Wagner, from the forum that I’m on. Trevor and I walked with him and his lovely family.

It was a beautiful clear night the lighted balloons looked great. There was also a lighted hot air balloon there as well. Lots of supporters were present and many ‘survivors’ ( one ‘blue shirt survivor’ was a little 3 year old wearing a surgery mask..sooo touching and so cute). I believe there were about 3-4000 people there.. Another little supporter was a 13 year old who was raising money for her best friend who was sick with leukemia...she managed to raise $15,000...to help her friend....what a great story!

It was a night to remember.....

So it's Root, Root, Root for the Home Team ...

I belong to a Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia forum called http://www.cllforum.com./ It has been a life saver for many of us. We can get info about the disease to help us understand what we have(trying to figure out what’s going on by yourself ,at first, is so over-whelming), the latest on treatment and personal experiences with treatment, doctors and clinics....and loads of emotional support. It’s a place to ‘share’ with others that are going through what we are going through. Since this forum is also an international site...some of the exchanges are quite amusing.
************************
A post from Maddog23 who lives in the USA entitled "Continuing with activities while in treatment"--

I was diagnosed in 11/07 and by the beginning of softball season (04/08) discussions were already underway about what treatment I needed to undergo. I began treatment 06/10/08 and am in the middle of FCR. I continue to play softball throughout treatment and my team has qualified for 2 national championships. I am leaving Thursday to go to Columbus, OH to participate in the ASA National Softball championships. I am going to attempt to attach a picture of our team. If you look very closely you will see a "Root for the Cure" CLL patch on the right sleeve.
************************************************
Reply from Richard who lives in NEW ZEALAND:

Hi Maddog, A question about your post entitled,"Continuing with activities while in treatment."

I was just wondering what activities you are continuing??

In NEW ZEALAND - "to root" is a slang expression for sexual intercourse!!

Baseball or whatever.... enjoy!!

CheersRichard

***********************************************************
~~~Hmmmm... interesting fund-raising possibilities!~~~
****************************************************************
So if YOU want to "Root for the Cure" (the USA definition) and make a donation go to :
: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/austin09/akingdpckk

(Thanks to Maddog for letting me use his story on my blog)

Team in Training-- the movie

IF YOU CAN'T JOIN A TEAM... SUPPORT ONE! BE PART OF MY TEAM BY DONATING TO:

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/austin09/akingdpckk

"Light the Night"

The”Light the Night “ walk is a wonderful family event which celebrates and commemorates the lives of people touched by leukemia, lymphoma, Hodgkin's disease and myeloma and raises money to support critical research and provide education and services to patients and their families. Participants at the walks carry illuminated balloons -- white for survivors, red for supporters.. {{In Austin Texas it will be happening on October 18,2008. Meet at Dell Children's Medical Center of Central Texas (located at the Mueller developement) Registration and Activities start at 6pm (food, live music, kid's stuff). I will be walking with John Wagner's Team (I'll be wearing my TNT shirt) Walk at 7:30pm.}} Find out where & when your local “Light the Night” walk will be at : http://www.lightthenight.org/
...help us make people aware..... just walk with us...

2008 -See it http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8DOQIYbSySs

About past “Light the Night” walks
(2007)Actress Cynthia Nixon is lending her face and fame to help The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society raise awareness for one of its key campaigns, Light The Night(R) Walk, an annual fundraiser held each fall in approximately 250 communities in the United States and Canada..

As national spokesperson for the 2007 Light The Night Walk, Nixon has filmed a public service announcement and lent her image to brochures, email blasts and other publicity materials.
"The Society's mission is very close to my heart and I am honored to be the national spokesperson for Light The Night. Nixon became familiar with the urgent need to support blood cancer research because of friendships she made through her acting career. She performed in the Pulitzer Prize winning play "The Heidi Chronicles" written by Wendy Wasserstein, who succumbed to lymphoma just over a year ago. And while playing the role of Miranda Hobbes in "Sex and the City" she came to know the actor Evan Handler, who played Harry Goldenblatt, the lawyer husband of Charlotte York, Kristin Davis's character. Handler is also a leukemia survivor.

(2006)Honorary chairpersons for this year's Walk are Cleveland Indian's pitcher Cliff Lee and his wife Kristen.
The Lee's 5-year-old son, Jaxon, was 4-months old when diagnosed with acute myelogenous leukemia (AML) in September 2001. A bone-marrow transplant in February 2002 saved his life. Jaxon Lee had a 30 percent chance of survival when diagnosed five years ago and has been in remission for 4 1/2 years.
"We hope that something can be gained by sharing the experience our family went through and that those who are touched by cancer will find hope and strength to fight their disease." - Kristen & Cliff Lee

~~~Just give us some of your time-----Just walk with us ~~~~~~~~~

"The Long and Winding Road"

The other Saturday, we met downtown to begin one of our walks. I was walking with George ( a female), who has walked the full marathon with TNT for the last two years. When we first got there, I picked up a map for the ½ marathon work out (3 miles), while the others picked up the full marathon work out maps ( 4 miles). Both maps started downtown and then looped around part of Town Lake.
George and I walked together and decided early on to follow Tricia and Angela who were walking the full marathon 4 mile work out. George and I figured we would get a really good work out and increase our speed.

This seemed like a really good idea at the time!

Well, after a while it was apparent that Angela and Tricia can walk a very fast 12 mph...and George and I walk a slower 15-16 mph. So this caused a problem. At one point we were getting further and further behind, so George and I had to run to catch up with the 'speedy ones'.

After a while, George and I seemed to be running fairly often. (Is anyone really surprised?) Finally we reached a point where we lost sight of the '12 mph pace setters' and we didn’t know which way to go. (Remember I only had the map for the shorter distance and not the longer one which we were in the middle of). Yes, we were sorta lost in the woods!

Thank goodness for tall buildings! We did find our way back to the start. And, well, I was pretty pleased with myself for going on the 4 mile work out. And remembering the lecture about doing the ice bath after a long work out, I had the following conversation with coach Cassidy:

Me: "So, are we supposed to do the ice bath after this walk today?"

Cassidy: "You only need to do it after a long walk."

Me: "We did walk 4 miles today."

Cassidy: "That’s what I mean, only after a long walk."

Hmmm.....
What I learned today......4 miles is NOT a long walk!
"Let your fingers do the walking" over to : http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/austin09/akingdpckk

If you don't have fun --it can drive you batty!

I'm having a friend from North Carolina coming to visit me here in Austin TX..It’s her first time in this area. Planning to fit in training while taking her to some of Austin’s landmarks. We plan to go down 6th street, check out UT, the capital and of course the Congress Avenue bats.
The Congress Avenue bridge in downtown Austin is the spring and summer home to some 750,000 bats with up to 1.5 million bats at the peak of the bat-watching season. It's the largest urban bat colony in North America.
While bats have called Austin home for many years, it was after renovations to the Congress Avenue bridge over Town Lake in 1980 that they found their favorite hang out. Narrow but deep openings created in the bridge turned out to be perfect accommodations.
Each evening around sunset the Congress Avenue bats emerge like a black cloud from the crevices of the bridge. Covering the countryside in search of food. It is estimated that the bats consume from 10,000 to 30,000 pounds of insects.
Giving birth in June or July, the bats and pups hang around til October when they head back south. Watching the nightly forays for food is a favorite evening activity, especially in late summer.
IT’s like watching something out of a scary movie !!!

Tuesday's Special

~~~Tuesday evening we do special training...it’s a combination of practicing: form, breathing, and intervals training. At this time we are learning to run and then slow down into a walk or speed walk and slow to slower walk. The trick is to slow down but not too much. It’s actually harder to do than it sounds!

At our first meeting, I was so psyched. I was planning to run (yes, I said run) a lap and then walk a couple of laps repeatedly. But before we started this, our coach’s, Daniel and Spencer, had us do some intense warm-up exercises.

After doing 10 minutes of intense warm-ups..I was completely warmed up and pretty tired. Apparently I’m more out of shape than I thought. Sooo...anyway I ended up walking the whole time....must say my new shoes are working out just great!

Help us find a cure! donation can be made at:http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/austin09/akingdpckk

It is, what it is... and it is CLL!

I have CLL (Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia). So, I’ll explain very simply what I have. First, I must let you know that my son, Trevor, and I go to lots of horror movies (his picks). So I’ll explain it like a horror/ zombie movie. So here it goes~~

Normal people have about 60% neutrophils ( local police) and about 40% lymphocytes (state patrol). The local police usually take care of crime ( bacterial infections) in their district while the state patrol drive around and take care of crime in a larger area (lymphs can travel and destroy virus, fungal infections). Well, in this story, a strange occurrence has affected the state patrol (lymphocytes) and some of them have become ‘zombies’. Like most zombies, they look sorta like the original person except for a few DNA/chromosome changes ( pale skin, blank stares, walk funny, can’t talk.. the usual zombie stuff) and they don’t die.

Eventually, the zombies will clone or replicate, (so that means there are more state patrol (70%) then the local police(30%), so much so that they start to cause problems. As you have seen in the zombie movies, the zombies, once they increase in number, start to crowd together and clog areas (lymph nodes and spleen get clogged), and they block roads so supplies can get in (RBCs get crowded out so those numbers drop=anemia) and the maintenance workers can’t do their jobs (platelets, which stop bleeding, numbers drop). Also the zombies can’t talk or understand talk. So when a message comes across their two-way radio, they don’t understand it or don’t know where to go. So crimes (infections) don’t get taken care of like they should be take care of.

Some people, like me at this time, can co-exist with the zombies. I don't have any symptoms..don't even know they're around. (Hey, what's a few zombies here or there..Actually, I think I've even dated a few!?).. Some people live this way for 5, 10 or even 20 years without treatment. Others need treatment fairly soon.

...So I'm hoping I can go a long time without treatment ..maybe a cure will be
found before I need treatment--!
Research is the only way to a cure: donations lead to research~~
donate here:http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/austin09/akingdpckk

Walk a Mile in My Shoes~~~~

You may have read an earlier blog about my philosophy on exercise and sports which is: buy “cute shoes”. If you are any kind of athlete, exercise buff or have ever walked more than 30 steps at a time in “cute shoes”, you would know that this entry was coming!

All the gorgeous shoes in a woman’s closet are PBP (pretty but painful). And I re-affirmed this well known fact after walking 3,5 miles Saturday in my “cute shoes”. Thankfully, we had a “shoe clinic” that morning at Rogue’s exercise supple store.

So now I am an owner of some very comfortable, well-fitting, semi-cute ( they’re orange) genuine running shoes.

Even though there is nothing in my closet that is even close to the color orange, my ankles and legs are very happy! (And me too, the next morning!). So it’s the basic sacrifice of functionality vs fashion....Sometimes being pain-free is worth the fashion statement-

(Geez,,..they’re really really really orange !)

Make a difference in a life of a child: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/austin09/akingdpckk

Team in Training --who they are

Team in Training(TNT) is The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society’s signature fund raiser. TNT was born in 1988 when Bruce Cleland, a volunteer with the Westchester/Hudson Valley, New York Chapter of the Society, developed a team, a name, and a training approach for a fund-raising campaign in honor of his daughter, Georgia. Georgia was diagnosed with Acute Lymphocytic Leukemia (ALL). Bruce and his teammates completed the 1988 New York Marathon, raising $320,000 for the Society.
The Society has invested more than $600 million in research, $64.7 million in 2007 alone. But more needs to be done. Thanks to research supported by the Society, the survival rates for leukemia have tripled in the last 40 years, from 14% in 1960 to 50% in 2003. The survival rate for children with acute lymphocytic leukemia (ALL- the most common form of childhood leukemia) is at 81%, up from only 4% in 1960

YOUR DONATIONS MAKE A DIFFERENCE! http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/austin09/akingdpckk

Celebrate the Small Stuff

I had my first 3 mile walk the day before and I felt pretty good about it....I wasn’t too terribly slow. And I wasn’t hurting later that day. I knew the big test would be next morning, Sunday.

Well Sunday morning I passed the big test. I was able to get out of bed..all by myself!. I was worried that I would be so sore that I would need help or would be groaning a lot . Trevor, my youngest son, was visiting so I knew he would give me a hand.

Trevor and I decided to celebrate my triumphant emergence from the bedroom by going to the Alamo Draft House. The Alamo Draft House, who those who don’t know, is a movie theater where there are tables in front of the seats. So you can order food and watch a show at the same time. (We know from experience that eating while watching a horror movie isn’t a good thing. I ended up with food in my hair when I covered my eyes during an especially gory part!) We usually get there about 40 minutes early because they show really, really old and funny “D” rated movie clips. Or they show just funny weird stuff, like the time we watched a 10 minute show teaching us the “bad words” in Chinese... Sometimes the pre-show is actually better than the movie.

So I guess those extra pounds will remain for a few more days.....

Why am I doing this for --donations for Leukemia & Lymphoma Society;

http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/austin09/akingdpckk

ICE ICE BABY

The first day of training

Well the first day of training was Aug 30th. We met at Austin High School which borders on Town Lake (Lady Bird Lake now). Town Lake has a 10 mile walking/running loop around the lake. It’s beautiful. That morning we did warm up exercises and then walked or ran 3 miles.

We have great coaches, Spencer and Daniel. They are teaching us everything we need to know. One of them always stays with the slowest or last person in training. Since there are several walkers, we(me) are usually the last ones to finish.

It was great walk ...talking with others..part of a group of caring people and I felt great afterwards. When the last of us finished, we gathered together to do cool down exercises.

Then, Coach Spencer told us how to cool down after a long work out. He said the best way was to go home and fill the bath tub with cold water and ice cubes and sit in it for 10 minutes.

I’m thinking, “What the..*/&@!.”

He explained that the ice water will stop the swelling...

I’m thinking, “stop the swelling...the ice water will probably stop my heart !!!”

..~~~~~fun times to come~~~~


donations; http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/austin09/akingdpckk

My philosophy on sports and exercise~~

Basically my philosophy on sports or exercise is this:

```if you can’t look professional
```if you look embarrassingly clumsy
```if you are so slow it can’t be timed
```if you are so out of shape it’s pathetic
```if you will always look like a beginner, years later

...buy “cute” shoes

donate at:
http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/austin09/akingdpckk

My first steps--

I had my first meeting with the Team in Training group on Thursday August 21st. We met in a lovely old victorian style house in an old part of Austin. For as lovely as the house was..the group I met was even lovelier. What a bunch of fun and dedicated people. We also got to meet or hear the stories about our "Honored Heroes." Ray (8) with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia. Carol (58) with Multiple Myeloma. She has undergone two Stem Cell Transplants and is in remission. Tom (28) was diagnosed with Hodgkin's Lymphoma. He has done so well he is in his 2nd year of running the Austin Marathon for Team in Training. And Jordan (22) with non-Hodgkin's t-cell lymphoma. What great stories--they are winning the battle!

I sat there and felt so fired up! Determined to raise funds to find a cure! Determined to run the marathon! Determined to lose those last stubborn 20 pounds!.....
......Well, about those 2o pounds ....that might have to wait--just couldn't pass up the oatmeal cookies (can you blame me - they were still warm)! Anyway, I'm still determined to lose those pounds...maybe tomorrow!

When you get a diagnosis of cancer--- it makes you want to run

So I have this screwy diagnosis (CLL) and I have to figure out what to do about it. After reading some info on The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society website, I decided to pro-actively raise funds to find a cure.
The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society is the largest national voluntary health agency dedicated to finding a cure for leukemia and lymphoma. This society has invested more than $600 million in research alone. It is also dedicated to educate the public, educate professionals thorough symposiums, it promotes funding for clinical trials and financially aids patients with their numerous co-pays.
The Society's signature fund raising campaign is "Team in Training" (TNT). It is the largest endurance sports program of its kind. It helps train people to run the full or half marathon in exchange for raising funds. Team in Training has raised more than $851 million for this society. I decided to join TNT and have pledged to walk/run (mostly walk) 1/2 of the AT&T Austin Marathon (13.1 miles--Yipes!!) in February 2009 and hope to raise more than $5000. This is the first time I have done such a large fund raising effort so I need YOUR help to reach this goal.
Donations: http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/austin09/akingdpckk

Yes, I have a ribbon... and it is orange

Last spring I was diagnosed with Chronic Lymphocytic Leukemia (CLL). News like that definitely knocks the wind out of your sails. And I know I walked around with a "deer in the headlights" look on my face during the first few months while I waited for test results.

Like most leukemia or lymphoma patients, I found myself sitting in the waiting room of a leukemia specialist, MD Anderson in my case,waiting to have a bone marrow biopsy done. Since I had been a med tech for many years, I knew what was coming and I sat there dreading it. So I started my own "pep talk". I kept repeating"There's worst things than a bone marrow" over and over. Then, in walked a charming young couple with two darling little girls ages 3 and 4. Both were dressed alike, except the 3 year old..she wore a little pink baseball cap. ..she had no hair..she also was waiting for a bone marrow biopsy. I watched her playing and thought, "Yes, there is something worst than a diagnosis of cancer or a bone marrow biopsy"...that's having a child with cancer or a loved one struggling with it..

I decided to do something while I 'm still well enough.... so I signed up for Team in Training, the sports endurance fund-raising part of The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. I have pledged to run/walk 1/2 of the Austin Marathon in Feb 2009 and to raise $5000 dollars.... I want to do it for that "little pink hat"

Please donate to find a cure for all those "little pink hats" at my website~~~~She needs your help! Help me meet this goal....
http://pages.teamintraining.org/ctx/austin09/akingdpckk