The Invisible Man

What's missing from this picture....

....Dan. He got stuck at work and when I called to check on him (15 minutes after he was supposed to pick me up to head for the airport), he said he was still in Bellingham. I made a mad dash to our other phone trying to get a taxi (no dice), a towncar (no dice), then I pulled up Uber the car and driver app, finally, success! 

My sweet female driver lyn picked me up (by then it was 3:45 pm with a flight departure of 5:00 pm). I relayed my story, and my gratitude that she was willing to take me to Sea-Tac, and she said she would drive as fast as she could, using all of the traffic tricks to avoid rush hour. By the time we got to the airport we had 40 minutes to spare, and Lyn wouldn't even let me pay (so I hid a $20 in her cup holder in the front seat when she wasn't looking).

Once I made it through security (I was even able to help a lady cut in front of me for her 4:30 flight to Boise - always fun making friends in the security line), I walked up the ramp, toward my gate, they swiped my ticket and I was straight boarding. No fuss. No wasted time.

I feel like my stress level was through the roof, although I did manage to laugh it all off. There is a certain severity with these scans because they take weeks/months to plan and become approved, then you have to coordinate the departments, and the Dopa PET is only available on Thursdays, and they only take two patients a day. It was imperative that I make it for these scans, and guess what, I strapped on my spartan warrior helmet (do they wear helmets?), and here I am. If I can handle NYC on my own, I know I can handle LA too.

Thank you to my parents for scrambling to get me a ride from the LA airport, it was all so last minute. Thank you Susea & Gene for the help, and thank you to Sally for picking me up! Jeff, I was going to call you to see if you were available, but my parents took care of it for me while I was trying to navigate security. 

I am here. I am alive. I will be scanned tomorrow, and all the while I will think about fun things like kittens, and puppies, and turtles, and squirrels, and honey badgers, and snails, and....clearly I need to get to bed. It's late and 6:00 am will come early with all this stress.

Spartan Warriors : 1

Giver-uppers : 0

I feel accomplished. Now for great scan results. If you are so inclined, prayers of any sort are warmly welcomed. :)

Sweet dreams.

Busy Bee

Just got home from my first hyperbaric oxygen treatment. It was AMAZING. I know the research out there pairing it with cancer killing can be very subjective but I don't care because it felt like an hour long meditation. What's good for the mind is what's good for the soul is what's good for the body. Below is the exact HC I used. 

The conference on Friday was fabulous. (In general, life has been superb.) Cheryl Broyels is an angel on Earth, witty, and gentle. I wish we were neighbors and could spend more time together. Tied in 1st place (next to Cheryl) is the ever impressive Dr Ben Williams. Holy cow is he a hilarious, intuitive, rogue cancer fighter. I respect and admire his no-holds-barred attitude when it comes to tumors, treatments, and doctors. He has such an honest view on life, I deeply enjoyed spending time with him! Again, if I could just be bookended in the neighborhood by those two, I would be a very, very happy girl!

At the conference there was also quite a bit of self promotion by doctors. I guess it comes with the territory, but nevertheless I was thrilled by the chance to attend the Chris Elliott Fund conference. It was a very small group of fighters and caregivers, and scanning through the crowd, seeing the various scars on the fighters' heads, gave me an unexpected feeling of belonging. Throughout the conference I had a baseline feeling of gratitude that I don't have a glioblastoma,  then, I kept oscillating between excitement (because of new knowledge), fear (the lack of new treatments), and regret (for not having worked harder to kill my tumor). 

Have you seen the tooth whitening commercial that states, "If you're not whitening, you're yellowing!" It's a very effective slogan. It always reminds me that if you're not researching and implementing new treatments to your protocol, you're missing out.

On Sunday I drove the car four blocks to PCC to pick up my buddy Jules from the bus (it was raining sheets). It was so fun!! If you look at the picture you'll notice that even my double chin was having a blast!  

While we cheered on the Seahawks (what a game), we sipped on our aptly named, Hawks Detox Smoothie...

...delish.