Wow am I tired!

Thursday was very busy, and today Jenn drove me...where? You guessed it -- to n. Atlanta to be drained AGAIN. We left Bremen at 8:40am and got home about 3PM. She and I (and probably Jewel) were exhausted. I came home and immediately went to sleep I was SO tired. I want so much to be independent and not have to soak up someone else's time, but I can tell you, if I had managed to drive to n. Atlanta in the morning today, I surely couldn't have driven myself home this afternoon.

April 1st, Jenn and I will go to one of the information sessions about the 3-day walk in October. She, and at least one of her half-sisters are giving serious consideration to doing the walk. It's been a rough year for both moms and for the children that have taken care of them. I couldn't have managed on my own this year, without the help of my child. I'm sure the same is true for the other Mrs. Ward. It's a great testimony to the heart of our children that they are motivated to work so hard against the enemy that caused / is causing us so much grief and trouble.

If you know any really great fund-raisers that maybe you have experience from, let us know what it is. Between them, the sisters have to raise a lot of money! I'll be part of their support personnel, but do not feel it is in my best interest to try the walk myself. I have had several people tell me they are also doing it, in part because of me: Shirley the mail lady, my priest, etc. This is a terrible disease. You have to love life a LOT and be driven hard to live to endure the many painful indignities it visits on you. My survivor friends often say that they pray daily for the researchers in this arena, because there is so much left to understand and so much more to know. This IS a problem that can have the outcome of it's victims improved, by throwing money at it. As a triple negative, I am particularly hopeful that research in the near future will come up with additional treatments for me and my sisters-in-spirit who are also triple negative and have such bleak survivorship at the present time. We've come a long way based on the research already done. I know my treatments were possible because 140,000 other brave women submitted to research. My ability to survive today is based on them being willing to try anything to help them survive or, in some cases, to knowingly allow data to be collected even though they themselves could not be helped. This walk honors them, and looks with hope toward finding more answers for more women in the here-and-now, and the future. If you are not directly involved with the 3-day, perhaps you can support someone who is. One of my dear supporters has been a human learning tool, by graciously participating in an effort to help clinicians learn best how to examine a woman's breasts. This is a great sacrifice and I'm personally thankful for her willingness to give her body over to others for educational purposes.

Cancer is taking more and more people I know these days. I'm sure it is the same for you and those you love. There are many ways to honor those effected by this disease, but the point is to try hard and learn as much about it as we can so that the future can be more hopeful for those of us affected by this disease.

I'm now more than a month out from my surgery. I hope that we don't have to drain me many more times.

Thanks to Bob and Thurman for checking in with me. My heart is always warmed by contact from dear friends and colleagues.

Tissue samples were supposed to have been sent to MDA as of today. So, we'll see what develops. They do more testing than the local hospital does, so maybe there will be some information that will be helpful.

Sleep well friends.