Time to Relay For Life!

I have joined a team this year!

 

Yes I am going to be relaying this year for sure. I had a lot go on last year and every chance I had "me" time I had barely enough to write my blogs and take my rest. Along with reading up on things I was going thru and getting tested for. As you may know by now if you are following my blogs, I finally was told all-clear after all the crazy testings and scans trying to confirm odd results that made no sense. So many times results are effected by other situations and may cause erratic results in tests.

And now on to the Relay For Life profile I now have. I placed hyperlinks into this blog, so click on the "link" corresponding to the subject mentioned. I joined RFL ADvocacy team in Second Life which has a profile on the American Cancer Society site for events. I now have my profile up as a team member and I hope to see more members join and/or donate towards out effort. Donations can be made anytime from now until Saturday, July 13, 2013. And even after, you can still donate because it all helps towards funding research for a cure for cancer and the search for more information made available to all who need it, along with services and support for those battling cancer.

My summarized story as I put on my team member profile page ...

 

Why I Participate in a Relay Event

 

As a survivor (finally told "all clear for now" on October 30th, 2012), I can easily, yet still emotionally, recall exactly how I felt when I was given the approximate duration I had left to live, the shock of it, the fear, the disbelief. In all honesty, I felt hopelessness from what I was told, and I felt, if they "cant do anything else at this point", then what can I do? I remember thinking, "how can this be, in this time and age of technology? All that has been found on cancer, all that could be done in our time and nothing can be done at this point?", yet I was given a terminal diagnosis anyway.

This was back in the end of 2008, after having gone through two emergency operations, and at a time I would start having further complications from the first, leading to yet another emergency operation when for the second time, I would have in my medical records of being revived during surgery. Despite of saying nothing could be done, I was still saved numerous times trying to live up my diagnosis. I am proof we DO NOT have expiration dates when cancer enters our lives.

Who I'm Participating For 

 

I'm relaying for all touched by cancer and those who know someone who has. That is you and I, and just about everyone else in between. I relay because before I knew of how sick I had become back in August-September of '08, people were relaying for life, raising money to help fund research and improve the chances of the then future cancer fighters, like me.

I relay today, am alive today, because of all those who relayed before me, made it possible for me to be saved in moments most would not before the advances made thru research, which is greatly funded by events as relay for life. It is a miracle to me I survived, I am the 4% of 2%, I usually just say 2%, but my chance to hear that "all-clear" was much less than 2%. Complicated, yes,  but if you think of it, that's 4% of 2%, so take 100 people, then choose only 2,  then say to them only 4% of you two will survive this.

That is me, 4% of 2%. I'm here because of all those who relayed for life, my life and the lives of many now saved ...Ill never finish thanking God for all the wonderful people who cared to relay for life before, during and now today with me. The way I see it now, Relay For Life is a very great support for life I never knew I had until I came to need it.

Why I Support the American Cancer Society (ACS)

 

ACS has invested in vital research for a cure, and in that search has found numerous ways to improve life during the battle and increase survival rates. They have advocated the importance of risk reduction and early detection. ACS also provides free information and services for those who are in need throughout their battle with cancer.

The amount of research advances made due in great part from the investments ACS has made from funds raised from donations, especially through relay for life events, have made leaps and bounds to gain more technology, more advanced procedures that were considered far too risky before, or were simply just unknown before. ACS works with lawmakers to get laws passed to fight cancer risks. Through invested research, risks are found and can be targeted for elimination and knowledge found and shared to all so risks can be lowered before getting cancer by lifestyle changes involving better diet and exercise.

We have great finds today, due to the research that benefits from relay for life events. Many advances in healthcare today exists because people came together, had events called Relay For Life, and raised money to fund further research, to search for the holy grail cure for the worldwide fight against this disease called cancer. And I for one am thankful for all ACS has done so far with all my heart.

Life sure can be a funny crazy thing, but so worth the fight

 

My own battle was far from conventional, but the main events in my fight, battled in the hospital, were followed with my eventual return home, because of the amazing doctors and technology we now have. I am fully thankful to ALL those who relayed before me, who relayed in the name of those in their own battle, and of those lost in the past, and because of such events to raise funds for cancer research, those with the same type of cancer today are now being saved with a much higher rate of survival.

I thank you all who have relayed with me while I battled my own fight during a time I had already become a survivor of my own expiration date given to me by the first doctors. During a time I was very slowly becoming a thriver, with cancer, regaining strength in health to be able to chance the harsher medications combined with the other mess of meds that were keeping me "maintained" in the diagnosis' progress thought at first to end my life, yet thankfully, the cancer shrank in the places left after surgery removed the removable, along with lymph nodes and a liver lobe, which thankfully can regenerate and has.

There has been casualties in my battle, and what you are reading now is now my only voice. I am left mute from a severed nerve during a tumor extraction from my larynx. But as many would tell me, I have been louder now than I ever was before.

It's unbelievable, perhaps it was all a nightmare. Did I really hear him say "all clear"? Am I still dreaming in a hospital bed? If so, please don't wake me. SERIOUSLY!

 

OMG, how crazy this all sounds even to me, and yet this is just pieces of the whole story which I have a hard time believing myself, but I did live it, and I am happy to be able to relay for life. I still have a long way to go to regain health back to where I left off, but I am constantly improving my condition after I came so close many times through the battle and left with a mess of "me". But this "me" now is stronger, resilient, experienced in all the aspects of the darkest hours of the battle and now someone who understands the importance of advocacy, importance of living life to the fullest and to continue to relay for life for the rest of the time I am thankful to have gifted each day I awake.


Now lets relay, I myself am signed up to walk and fund raise in the Relay For Life of Second Life event. We would love for you to join us, so consider joining our team and/or make a donation in support of our efforts.
You can even Dedicate a Luminaria to someone you know who is a survivor, or surviving their ongoing battle, or especially those you have lost to cancer. It is a great way to give tribute to their efforts through their journey.

         Lets relay together....
                ...for life
                    ...for more birthdays
                        ...for the dream of a cure
                            ...to end this disease forever!


~Jennifer C. Wolf (BOOTEDGIRL Foxtrot)  o:)

RFL Advocacy Exchange Team Logo

*********************

 

For more info on our team, visit the team blog at Advocacy Exchange. 
If you want to know more about the event and/or past RLFof SL events, visit Relay For Life of Second Life
And also for more history info of RFLofSL events, visit History-of-RFL-of-SL

Also never forget to be informed on everything involving your cancer diagnosis. Its best to know everything you possibly can so that you can make educated choices for your treatments and how you can tackle down your cancer no matter what your diagnosis turns out to be. Never forget, we never wear an expiration tag!
Visit "Is My Cancer Different?" for a great start to learning how to find out more information on cancer of a loved one or of yourself.

And remember...     YOU ARE NOT ALONE.     *hugs*   o:)

Come relay with us!    
*big hugs to all*   bye for now and be well 
~Jennifer C. Wolf (BOOTEDGIRL Foxtrot)  o:)

Time flies when it drags along ...sometimes.

The hospital missed me!

The subject title of this post is just a play on words of how times can feel literally, and then on a moment of clarity, you realize, "its already February"!  I know its been since the last few minutes of 2012 I last posted, and in that time its been a bit interesting for me to say the least.   To start,  I had some hospital time with yet another operation. This time not having to do with cancer, but a cyst. I cant recall the technical term they used but it was considered a simple cyst, that grew fast and caused issues. All in all, I am better now and feel no pain anymore and that is a good thing.

The flu season, grrr!

About four days into being home from the hospital I started feeling a bit sick in a way I have not felt in a long time, thankfully. My neck felt cramped, I felt a bit dizzy each time I would get up more than usual, my temp went up, and then I was officially sick with the flu. How does someone like me get sick when I'm on so many vitamins and eating so healthy?  Answer: I got it in the hospital most likely. Apparently the body's immune system takes a bit of a hit during surgery so I'm guessing I was not well armed against the bug, and I got sick, really sick,  bad bad sick, but not overnight at the hospital sick, just a half day on IV and another temporary med to add to my collection of pill intake.

It took literally a month to get over this for me, due from the lingering left overs that caused bad headaches, on top of the prednisone-caused headaches and just pure blahness. On top of dealing with a bad flu, I am nowhere near recovered from my battle with cancer, and am still treating my AIH, which by the way is coming along well with the prednisone, despite my misery of the side effects which for me include bad headaches that originate behind my eyes, itchiness on my arms, some dizziness getting up or slight difficulty doing so, and thankfully not a lot of "bad" weight gain, although I could use some weight gain after losing so much early on in my battle with cancer. Regaining has been hard for me and my diet makes that hard to do as well, especially how I must eat 5-6 meals a day, small meals.

Anyhoo, I am feeling better lately and getting back to my pred-mess self instead of pred-flu-mess self that couldn't read for 5 minutes without a migraine, let alone write (err, type, lol) and post as I do. So, for now, I'm getting back to my online self again.

Relay For Life of Second Life

Well its time to start relaying ppls!  Yes this year I have joined a team and I am going to do my best not to miss the event this year. Last year had a mess for me going on with tests and everything that lead to me hearing my doc finally say "all-clear" a few months later. Going in to retest, rescan to clarify previous blood tests a month prior, then going on my camping trip, and returning to odd results, to require more tests, requiring my small local camp trip to help my nerves calm since we were stressed pass a point of popping with our anxiety filling our home enough to fill a neighborhood, to end greatly with all-clear.  :)

I will post up a separate post for the Relay For Life info so if anyone would consider to join and or donate to our efforts to raise money for American Cancer Society at the Relay For Life of Second Life I will have links there to all needed info.

To all still reading my blog/posts/tweets/etc, thank you for sticking around. I done my best to fix any areas of this blog that lost track or made no sense, but I am trying to work through the mind fog I been in since mid Jan. It is funny to reread something I wrote and get lost on what I was talking about myself.

Bye for now   *hugs*      ~Jenn  o:)