Race Tomorrow

Sorry that this is a little late, but oh-well. The LA Cancer Challenge is coming up this Sunday. I am really looking forward to seeing so many of you there. I hope everyone is in shape and we can make a good showing. It is looking like we may be rounding out our team with an Olympian, so hopefully that will give us an edge. The race details are at www.lacancerchallenge.com. The 10K starts at 7:30am, the 5K starts at 9am, and both races are on the Veteran’s grounds next to UCLA. Parking should be available but may be a little ways away from the starting line, so give yourself plenty of time. We will meet and distribute t-shirts somewhere near the team canopies/tents. Just look for a lot of people with Team Tyler t-shirts. Thank you all so much for your incredible generosity and support. You all do more for my disposition and motivation to fight than you will ever know.

Thank you so much to Debbie Cook and Dr. Geisse for your very kind comments. Both of you are very special people and I feel so fortunate to have met and known both of you. Again, if you live in the 46th district, I am sure Debbie Cook would make a great congresswoman and she certainly gets my wholehearted endorsement (not that it is worth much, but she still gets it).

As far as my health for the week, it has been up and down a bit but generally ok. I was scheduled for chemo on Friday morning, but I woke up with a fair amount of back pain and we decided to hold off for a week. Over the last six weeks, I usually feel crappy on the day of an infusion, then really crappy for the 3-5 days after an infusion, then it slowly gets better and for maybe the 3 days before my next infusion, I feel fairly normal. That has been the “regular” 2-week cycle for the last few sessions. This last cycle, though, I just never really got to that semi-normal feeling. I was still feeling fairly crappy the day before the infusion. Add that to some back pain, and you have got a day where adding chemo probably is not going to do a whole lot of good. I always hate to miss a session, for fear that the cancer might gather a bit of strength, but I think that my body needed a bit of a break. Like Eva says, it is no good if you beat the cancer but the treatment has taken out all of your other systems, too. Another perk, is that I will have no pump for the cancer challenge. It would have been very dramatic, but I think I have a better chance of completing the 5k without it. Just to let people know, we may have to take breaks. Plan on chitchatting a bit with the water station volunteers. Maybe try to come up with a few good jokes to brighten their days.

So I have had to take some painkillers just to feel fairly normal over the last couple weeks. Eva was initially a bit worried as se is a caring wife, but after seeing me in pain for a few hours, she understood how important they are. In fact, a few hours after “perking up” a bit post popping a couple pills, she actually said I seem even more like my old self than when I am not taking anything. I would like to not have to take anything, but I am intimately familiar with how pain can take away your will to fight and destroy your resolve. I consider myself pretty tough, but when I am in significant pain, it is just so hard to stay motivated.

Anyways, I am really looking forward to seeing all of you tomorrow. Get a good night’s sleep and get psyched up for the run.

Take Care and Live Strong,
Tyler