debutaunt.com

Walkin Walkin

We had a great night tonight. Zoe was so excited to see her dad and my parents joined us. I was also very pleasantly surprised that our lovely friend Day, her husband Daniel, cutie-pie daughter and friend Jill joined us. It was a nice evening and unlike last year, it wasn't 90 degrees. They started walking a little too early for me (I was still in the balloon line), but it was kind of cool that I got recognized from some people from the speech I gave at the corporate kickoff. I also saw "Team Stephen" and some other great friends from the South Texas Blood and Tissue Center (they ROCK!)

Zoe's team raised about $6,500. I think I may try for the prize of raising the most money online between November 2 and the 22nd. If we do it, we win a home entertainment system. I bet I would have to raise tens of thousands to win though. Hmmm. Never underestimate the powers of the internets.

Thank you so so much to all of our donors (esp. Illinois Deb ~ she's totally like our team sponsor ~ btw Deb, you are always welcome in ol' San Antonio).

I'm kind of glad this is all over, but now I have 9234082394 thank you notes to write.

I can do this. I have the support of the internets behind us!

Your assignment today is to tell me if you have a) purchased the BFL book and b) read any of it. I'm serious here people. I know so many of you take care of others, but I want you to put a priority on your own health as well. I especially am motivated as Zoe's dad looks exactly like he did when we met in 1995. I swear he hasn't gained a pound, has all his own hair, and hasn't aged hardly at all. As my hair grows out, I want to regain the muscle tone I have lost. I walked tonight and did it. I know I can do anything!

Yipee! Fall is Here!

Cold and windy. I love it.

Zoe is sick. She woke up with a low grade fever and sore throat/ear ache. We are headed over to the docs this afternoon to get her checked out. Cold/flu season always kind of freaks me out.

I feel pretty well, but am kind of achy - like I have the flu. Mom thinks that the 4 hour drive to Houston and then home again is just really tough on anyone. I'm supposed to head back there next week for a checkup, but I just need to postpone it a week or two. Too much going on.

The Houston walk was more of a crawl, but I was so proud to be there and walk with my sisters and some really great friends. Zoe walked with her two little girl cousins and they were cheering the whole way. "Gimme a Z. Gimme an O. Gimme an E. What's that spell?" They were also spelling out CURE. And then they threw in DOG, TACO and COOKIE.

It was cool to see so many people show up, but the walk route was kind of urban jungle and the congestion was obvious. When we walk in San Antonio, it is really moving because you can see everyone the whole time. The Houston walk walked around the block and on a sidewalk. We actually walked past a few bus stops.

I'm looking forward to the walk this weekend. They walk in the Sunken Gardens and through Brackenridge Park. It's really pretty. We've really worked hard on the San Antonio team and are now over our $3,002 goal. Team Zoe San Antonio is now at $3,257. That is pretty amazing. The power of the internets is ginourmous.

For those interested in the Body for Life Challenge, I think the first step is to buy the Book, Body for Life or Body for Life for Women. I am going to be digging mine out again because I have totally fallen off the wagon. I feel like my body is craving more protein.

Ok. Stuff to do.

I can do this. I harness the power of the Z-O-E!!

Your assignment today is to think of one goal you'd like to achieve. It doesn't have to be New Years to accomplish a resolution. Even if it is something simple, just write it down and finish it. Start small. Don't say you want to lose 75 lbs. Just go for 5 or 10. Or just working on eating better this week. Get your veggies in. Try new recipes. Lately it seems as if so many people have just lost hope. Well seeing the little girls cheering and saying the word CURE made me realize that there is hope. That it is important to carry on in the face of adversity. I am reminding myself of that today.

Roadtrippin!

We are headed out to Houston for our Houston walk.

Wow. I checked out Zoe's San Antonio Fundraising page and we blew her goal out of the water. Amazing! She is so excited to see her cousins. Me too. I miss my Houston people!

Ok. Gotta jet.

I can do this. We are WALKIN!

Your assignment today is to wish Sis #2 a most wonderful birthday. Sis #2 has always been there for me. She was the one that took care of Z when I got sick. Wrangling up 4 kids and having a sick sister wasn't easy. She and her husband will always have my respect. I love you, Sis! You crack me up, "cheew" me up, and love and support me when I need it. I'm so proud of you for doing tai kwan do and for kicking butt. You are awesome. Love love love you!

She Shoots She Scores!!

Zoe scored FOUR goals the other day. What a little hustle-bunny. She was awesome!

We had a great time with my cousin (my Godmother) and her husband. Ok, they could not be any cooler. She is sooo pretty too. And her husband was/is in the music business and has sailed all over the world. It was cool talking about artists that I really love.

We ate at this seafood restaurant in their hotel and it was really yummy. Zoe actually wore one of her "fancy" dresses too and she looked so pretty. I swear I am going to figure out how to download photos off my camera. I just have been running and gunning so much lately to play around with it.

My Godmother's son-in-law is Jesse Dayton. He's a musician out of Austin and I downloaded one of his albums. I can't wait until he plays in San Antonio because it is totally my kind of music. I may even go see him play in Austin if I can scoot out that way!

Allright, it's time to pick up the Z at school. I'm feeling better lately too, so that makes it easier.

I can do this. I'm jammin to some Jesse!

Your assignment today is to SERIOUSLY look at doing the Body for Life challenge with me. I did it for about a month before I got sick. It was really easy and I lost 7.5 inches and gained 6 lbs of muscle in 4 weeks. The book is on sale at Amazon The used ones are like $3.30. It is more than just a workout/diet book. It really discusses how women should care about their own health as much as they would a loved one. Since I'm feeling better, I feel like I need to workout on a more regular schedule again. Let me know if you are interested, and I will create an email list & maybe a blog/forum type of thing so that we can encourage each other. I know so many of you who are moms, working chicas (and dudes :P), or caretakers. I hate to see when people get so run down taking care of others... I witnessed it many times at MD Anderson and on my old forum. Just like the airplane... put your mask on, then the kiddos around you.

So hey, why not??

Rapunzel in a Tornado

Zoe and I spent most of the morning downtown. We went to the Towers of America and wandered around up there for a few hours. I got Zoe some binoculars at Target and she was pointing everything out. The weather is getting cooler (80 vs. 90), so it makes exploring bearable. I love this time of year. More walking and bike riding. Hopefully it won't be Africa hot at soccer and we can all enjoy it.

Zoe loves the Tower. I do too. It's so breezy and cool up there, but we were wondering how these GIANT crickets got up 750 feet in the air. They were all about 2-3 inches long. Must have been stow-aways in the elevator. Then we went to lunch and came home to hang out.

Somewhere, in the middle of nowhere, my Godmother and her husband are on a train headed to SA to see us from California. I don't think I've seen her in about 25 years, but I think of her often. My mother drew a portrait of her when she was younger and it hangs on the wall outside of my bedroom. She also sent Zoe tons of Groovy Girl stuff for Christmas and sent me the Boston Legals that I had missed when I was in the hospital. I was kind of sad that all of my cousins live so far away (Hi Maui Cuz and Minnesota Cuz). I see how close our kids are to each other and it would have been nice to grow up with them. I can't wait to see her. Zoe's planning on wearing one of her "fancy" dresses to brunch.

WARNING: PUT YOUR COMPUTER ON MUTE AS THE WIND ON THIS VIDEO IS SOOOOO LOUD!!!

(I need to use my real camera. This phone doesn't work as well as the last one and the quality of the pictures aren't as sweet) But she and I had so much fun and I wanted to make sure I had some pictures.

Ok. Time to get cleaned up. We have soccer today too!

I can do this. The bird talker now has binoculars!

Your assignment today is to enjoy your Sunday. Hang out with family, enjoy a slow cup of coffee, take a nice walk or have a great workout. But it's Sunday - truly relax for a change!!

Someone recently said I was a big whiner. She was right. Lately I have been speaking way too much whinese. Not a good thing to do when you are a cancer ass kicker!

Komen! How could you?

I knew Jeanne could get down to the bottom of this!

I didn't think that Komen was the recipient of the donation from the Jingle Jugs since their wording was so vague. What a disgusting product. It's not funny. It's not cute like the singing fish. I really wanted them to be indignant and not affiliated in any way. Guess it just is all about money and marketing.

Jeanne found this photo.

Guess Komen can't discriminate against who gives them money? The whole, don't look a gift horse argument.

Shame on you. You should get a star subtracted from your Charity Navigator rating for this one!

~ For the type of person that'd buy this, there's already a device you can hang on the wall to look at a boob. It's called a mirror. - Peebert

~ Thanks S.A.E. for raising my awareness of breast cancer by offering me singing disembodied breasts displayed as a hunting trophy. I'm sending the check to your proud mothers. ~Salon.com

Clearly this will not do much business in Los Angeles......where a visit to any trendy bar on Friday night will guarantee at least 100 jiggling plastic boob sightings. (Alternate joke: If I wanted to see jiggling plastic boobs, I'd turn on MTV.)

~ ingle Jugs are clearly designed with a certain jovial-fratty-good old boy-bar vibe (and target audience) in mind; but there is something undeniably serial killer-esque about a pair of tits mounted on a wooden plaque. The gaudy red lettering on the box that declares Jingle Jugs to be "The Trophy Rack You've Always Wanted!" seems like it should be followed by "...If You Used To Torture Animals As A Child!" Indeed, the more you look at these disembodied, hyper-sexualized breasts, all trussed up for display, the creepier and more sinister the whole apparatus appears. You can almost hear the grim, knowing resignation in Horatio Caine's voice as he spies this grisly trophy on the blood-spattered wall of some psychopath's fetid underground lair. "He's a collector" he'd say, squinting. "Mounted breasts are his signature. He's sending us a message." Or, more probably, "He got his bust" (removes sunglasses) "And now he... is gonna get busted." ("WAAAAAAHHHHH!" Roll opening credits.)

But wait, there's more:

http://blogs.denverpost.com/lewis/2007/09/12/this-breast-cancer-thing-has-gone-too-far/ (story about how a strip bar owner donates $$ for breast cancer.

~ When I got the press release, I dug deep for my sense of hu­mor. All I unearthed was a heaping dose of female indignation. - Lucinda Breeding, Denton R-C on receiving a press release about Jugs Across America.

~ I'm happy that things like this exist because they provide me with really good acquaintance filters. If you own one, I'm pretty sure I don't want to know you.

I'm off to go get some anti-nausea meds!!

Die October Die!!!

Now I've seen it all.

I'm sorry, but what the hell?? Ladies and Gentlemen, we have Jingle Jugs for Life

Jingle Jugs for Life
Jingle Jugs for Life. A portion of the proceeds will go to a local breast cancer program in your area. Special recordable edition.

"Fashioned after a lifelike set of women's breasts, Jingle Jugs for Life, when activated, begin to move in rhythmic motion to a prerecorded song or your own re-recordable favorite song or message. Jingle Jugs are the perfect gag gift. They're a must in the game room or in the bar, put 'em in your home office or garage and liven up your workplace. Put a new top on 'em to match the season. Mount 'em next to your trophies in the game room -- after all, it's the Trophy Rack You've Always Wanted!

Leave 'em on "Motion Detect Mode" and startle visitors when they start to jiggle and dance. The opportunities for laughter and fun are endless!

The Jugs are manufactured with high quality components. You can either install batteries in them or use the included AC adapter. Jingle Jugs are easily mountable on the wall or you can use the included stand to put them on a flat surface, like a desk or table."

I hate giving this site any publicity, but damn.

Why We Do What We Do

A very inspirational kiddo from SA. I couldn't help but crying looking at this beautiful boy and reading his story.

www.steventrapp.com

Steven Bennett Trapp
November 2, 1998 -- July 13, 2004

Little guy makes me think of Kadin. Hiya E!

Sorest Throat Ever

Ok. They biopsied me last Thursday; I have yet to get the results ... in the MAIL... of the tests. I have since found out that they removed one polyp and biopsied another. I've had this test done 3 times now, so why is my throat killing me? It could be a cold, or something more serious. Who knows. My voice is now deeper than Demi Moore's. And I have a puny cough.

I gave a speech last night to my dad's Knights of Columbus group. They were very receptive and sweet. I could not have been more nervous - and the room was super hot. Not a good combo. I nearly lost my voice a few times, but we did raise about $75.

We have our first fundraiser tonight at Taco Cabana. I wasn't sure who to invite, but I hope some people show up.

Did you know that October was Lupus Awareness Month? Neither did I. Thanks, Martha. While I know a few people that have Lupus, I honestly don't know much about it.

So, thanks to the internets:

Lupus is a chronic inflammatory disease that can target your joints, skin, kidneys, blood cells, heart and lungs. The great majority of people affected are women. For reasons that aren't clear, lupus develops when the immune system attacks your body's own tissues and organs.

Although lupus can affect any part of the body, most people experience symptoms in only a few organs. The most common symptoms of people with lupus are listed below. Occurrences of particular symptoms happening are listed as percentages.

* Achy joints / arthralgia (95 percent)
* Fever of more than 100 degrees F / 38 degrees C (90 percent)
* Arthritis / swollen joints (90 percent)
* Prolonged or extreme fatigue (81 percent)
* Skin Rashes (74 percent)
* Anemia (71 percent)
* Kidney Involvement (50 percent)
* Pain in the chest on deep breathing / pleurisy (45 percent)
* Butterfly-shaped rash across the cheeks and nose (42 percent)
* Sun or light sensitivity / photosensitivity (30 percent)
* Hair loss (27 percent)
* Abnormal blood clotting problems (20 percent)
* Raynaud's phenomenon / fingers turning white and/or blue in the cold (17 percent)
* Seizures (15 percent)
* Mouth or nose ulcers (12 percent)

If you have several of these symptoms, see your doctor right away.

Ok. It sounds really unfun. Treatment can include chemo. How sucky is that?

Just another reason to not buy anything pink.

Prostate Cancer Ken Marries Breast Cancer Barbie

Ken's medical benefits are about to max out so he's hookin up with his homegirl Breast Cancer Barbie.

(remember this Ken picture ... hee hee)

I left that picture big so you could see her in all her pink prissy glory.

"I'm not sure what in the world Mattel was thinking. What's with all the glamour? Is she supposed to be heading to a charity ball or something? Because clearly she doesn't look like someone who currently has breast cancer. If she did, she would look more like this:" Thanks Susan

From My Myspace:

My grandmother died of breast cancer when I was ten. I remember helping her get dressed, the ashen color of her skin, and the smell of her smoking dope for her nausea. She had suffered with it on and off for over 20 years. It was a horrible way to live and a horrible way to die.

I was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia in October 2005 and had a stem cell transplant in February 2006. I'm now currently in remission and I feel pretty lucky to be here.

So how many of you actually know what leukemia is? (it's cancer of your blood) Would you know the symptoms offhand? Did you know that September was Leukemia & Lymphoma Awareness Month? Well on October 6th, I got a signed, sealed proclamation from Governor Good Hair Rick Perry himself telling me so (after I wrote to ask him about September/ Leukemia). I didn't even see a story about it in the paper, on the news, heck, I had to search long and hard to find it online.

Maybe you didn't know about it because you are deluged with pink. The Pinking of October has become like another Holiday - Christmas decorations in September. It disgusts me.

Now don't get me wrong, I don't begrudge fundraising by any means for cancer. I hate cancer! But what I do begrudge is buying the CEO of Yoplait his 5th Ferrari or whatever. Ok. So you buy 5 yogurts. You lick the lids (gross right there) then mail them in to Yoplait. That's a 50 cent donation - woo! Uh, not really.... remember the whole 'you gotta mail them in' and the .39 cent stamp? You just in effect made an .11 cent donation. If they really cared about breast cancer, why do they make people do this? Why not just donate a percentage of the pink lid sales?

Because they know that people would be kinda pissed off if they realized just how much money Yoplait, part of General Mills, makes off this campaign. The Yoplait line alone made 1.1 BILLION dollars in profits last year. Can anyone tell me how much money they donated to Komen? It sounds like a lot, but you can't buy that kind of goodwill (oh, I guess you can); and the lust for huge profits by capitalizing on the fear of cancer... ohhhh... mastectomies... chemo... is kind of shameless don't you think? They don't make that donation, their customers feel guilty and they buy that nasty tasting yogurt (I'm an organic yochick) thinking they are helping - the money comes from the consumers. Minimum donation this year is $500k. That's a lot of nasty pink foil.

Make your donation directly to your breast cancer charity of choice. Or to someone doing a race for the cure or Avon walk or something. "Think before you pink" (http://thinkbeforeyoupink.org) Refuse to buy pink stuff before you know the facts. Do they donate ALL their pre-tax profits to the charity (like Paul Newman does). Which charity is it exactly? What are they funding? Do they cap the maximum donation? Do they keep most of the profits?

e.g. 3-M spent $500,000 marketing the biggest post it pink ribbon in Times Square. Then they make a $300,000 donation. Why is that? Am I the only one that finds that kind of sinful?

Just as a curiosity, I wonder if men would allow the Greening of January to bring awareness to prostate cancer. Everywhere you turn there's a little green ribbon and green beer or green soup or yogurt. You can buy green shorts that say, "save the boys" or "protect my privates." Shop for the cure. Buy toast for testicles. Green shoes and gum and deoderant and test cars for prostate awareness. Click on this link and a man will get a free prostate exam... only 40,000 clicks per 1 exam. Tents, coolers, umbrellas, chocolates, candy, shaving cream. Buy a Rolex and we will throw in a free green jock strap.

I feel kind of ill when I see all the pink stuff in the stores. I purposely will go out of my way not to buy any pinking October stuff. I shouldn't feel guilty. If you know someone with breast cancer... pay their electric bill, offer to drive them to treatment, mail them a letter, send out letters to Congress or to these companies to tell them that we won't be duped anymore. We are not going to mail in your disgusting licked lids for a pittance. Consolidate even 10% of the profits from pink purchases and you'd make a boatload more than what is actually donated.

We want real funding for real cures and help for those in treatment cos their ain't no magical fund that will pay your bills when you get too sick to work. We want a cure. Not a stinking pink ribbon.

My inspiration is Jeanne Sather, The Assertive Cancer Patient and my beautiful Grandmother and all my lovely friends who know exactly what I'm sayin.

Deb, the Debutaunt

I can do this. I'm Relentless for the Cure at www.teamzoe.net

Your assignment for today is to tell me about the most obscene Pinkwasher you have seen so far. What was the dumbest item found?

Since I can't say it any better...I won't

WELCOME TO CANCERLAND
A mammogram leads to a cult of pink kitsch
By Barbara Ehrenreich

Barbara Ehrenreich is a contributing editor to Harper's Magazine. Her last two essays for the magazine were the basis
for her best-selling book, Nickel and Dimed: On (Not) Getting By in America, published by Henry Holt.

En excerpt - the original is amazing:

When, my three months of chemotherapy
completed, the oncology nurse calls to congratulate
me on my "excellent blood work results," I
modestly demur. I didn't do anything, I tell her,
anything but endure--marking the days off on
the calendar, living on Protein Revolution canned
vanilla health shakes, escaping into novels and
work. Courtesy restrains me from mentioning the
fact that the tumor markers she's tested for have
little prognostic value, that there's no way to
know how many rebel cells survived chemotherapy
and may be carving out new colonies right
now. She insists I should be proud; I'm a survivor
now and entitled to recognition at the Relay for
Life being held that very evening in town.

So I show up at the middle-school track where
the relay's going on just in time for the Survivors'
March: about 100 people, including a few men,
since the funds raised will go to cancer research
in general, are marching around the track eight
to twelve abreast while a loudspeaker announces
their names and survival times and a thin line of
observers, mostly people staffing the raffle and
food booths, applauds. It could be almost any
kind of festivity, except for the distinctive stacks
of cellophane-wrapped pink Hope Bears for sale
in some of the booths. I cannot help but like the
funky small-town Gemutlichkeit of the event, especially
when the audio system strikes up that universal
anthem of solidarity, "We Are Family,"
and a few people of various ages start twisting to
the music on the gerry-rigged stage. But the money
raised is going far away, to the American Cancer
Society, which will not be asking us for our
advice on how to spend it.

I approach a woman I know from other settings,
one of our local intellectuals, as it happens, decked
out here in a pink-and-yellow survivor T-shirt and
with an American Cancer Society "survivor
medal" suspended on a purple ribbon around her
neck. "When do you date your survivorship from?"
I ask her, since the announced time, five and a
half years, seems longer than I recall. "From diagnosis
or the completion of your treatments?"

The question seems to annoy or confuse her, so
I do not press on to what I really want to ask: At
what point, in a downwardly sloping breast-cancer
career, does one put aside one's survivor regalia
and admit to being in fact a die-er? For the
dead are with us even here, though in much diminished
form. A series of paper bags, each about
the right size for a junior burger and fries, lines the
track. On them are the names of the dead, and inside
each is a candle that will be lit later, after
dark, when the actual relay race begins.

My friend introduces me to a knot of other
women in survivor gear, breast-cancer victims
all, I learn, though of course I would not use the
V-word here. "Does anyone else have trouble
with the term "survivor?" I ask, and, surprisingly,
two or three speak up. It could be "unlucky,"
one tells me; it "tempts fate," says another, shuddering
slightly. After all, the cancer can recur at
any time, either in the breast or in some more
strategic site. No one brings up my own objection
to the term, though: that the mindless triumphalism
of "survivorhood" denigrates the dead
and the dying. Did we who live "fight" harder
than those who've died? Can we claim to be
"braver,' better, people than the dead? And why
is there no room in this cult for some gracious acceptance
of death, when the time comes, which
it surely will, through cancer or some other
misfortune?

No, this is not my sisterhood. For me at least,
breast cancer will never be a source of identity or
pride. As my dying correspondent Gerri wrote: "IT
IS NOT O.K.!" What it is, along with cancer
generally or any slow and painful way of dying, is
an abomination, and, to the extent that it's manmade,
also a crime. This is the one great truth that
I bring out of the breast-cancer experience, which
did not, I can now report, make me prettier or
stronger, more feminine or spiritual--only more
deeply angry. What sustained me through the
"treatments" is a purifying rage, a resolve, framed
in the sleepless nights of chemotherapy, to see the
last polluter, along with, say, the last smug healthinsurance
operative, strangled with the last pink
ribbon. Cancer or no cancer, I will not live that
long of course. But I know this much right now
for sure: I will not go into that last good night with
a teddy bear tucked under my arm. --

Achoooooooooo

I'm sick. I've had a low grade fever on and off for 2 days now.

My throat hurts, but I don't know if it is from the endoscopy or just a sore throat.

I'm tired of fundraising. It's not important to anyone unless it's important to anyone. No one wants to walk with us - except Zoe's dad who is going to fly down to see her. I'm so happy for her because she gets to see him, but she's sad that not one of her school friends from Houston or San Antonio has signed up to walk with us. I don't think I'm going to do this anymore. No one really cares unless it hits you right where it counts - your own home.

I sent an email to her principal, the one who left, and didn't even get a courtesy reply. I've asked several of the Brownie moms if they are interested. I even handed out postcards with information to lots of people, but only the ones who read my blog have donated or signed up to walk. Total strangers care more than people that actually know us.

I'm sick of seeing pink. Every commercial is for breast cancer awareness. Just buy this $2,000 diamond ring and we will throw in a pink sparkle breast cancer pin. And our company is donating $5000 to the Komen Foundation.... even though we just spent $20,000 on advertising. Ok. Not really, but youknowwhatImean.

Another family friend just got a dx of breast cancer and is going to have a mastectomy and maybe chemo. I hate cancer. I need a hobby.

I know I should try to stay positive about fundraising, but I feel like the crazy Aunt at the family reunion. I went to Zoe's school carnival last night and pretty much didn't talk to anyone. They all say hi, but no one says... oh hey, there's Deb, let me pull up a chair and / or hang out with her. It's because I fundraise. I'm always asking people for blood or money or signing up for this or that. I'm tired of it. I'm tired of feeling like people want to dodge me. I just want to be me again. Someone who is dorky and funny and actually gets phone calls to go do stuff. Now I'm just Zoe's mom, you know... the one who had cancer and now asks for money.

Fuck. I don't care if you donate or not. I just don't want my daughter to feel like I do. To feel like the unwelcome guest. To feel like she can't change the world. Seriously. NOT ONE FRIEND has signed up for her team. I have had to beg the ones who did (and they are my dear friends). She keeps asking me why her friends haven't signed up. Well I'm not going to ask anymore. If it is just she and her dad and my mom and I, that will have to be it. I'm alive. I'm going to fucking walk.

I don't want to feel like this anymore.

Yawnies

Uneventful.

I just woke up after coming home and sleeping all day. I came home, ate 2 bagels with cream cheese and some peach preserves, milk, watched some dvds, and then slept like the dead.

The royal treatment showed 2 polyps; one named George (Clooney) and the other ODB.

The prep for the colonoscopy is exactly just like a day in the life of someone with gut GVH. An extreme day, but now you see what it's like to live with GVH. Very unfun.

I don't know what the next steps are. If they told me, I don't remember. I think they said something about mailing me a letter. How fun is that?

And why is it that all my GI guys are always GREAT LOOKING? Welcome to my esophogus... and this time my nether regions, Mr. Hot Doctor. I skipped the fake tattoo, but it made me laugh. I think I was too hungry to actually be scared.

George and ODB look so harmless. Let's hope so.

I'm still tired. And I can't drive to go return my mail dvds for something interesting to watch.

I can do this. I have George and ODB by my side... ok... by my insides, but still.

Dawn, that comment made me snort... for real!

Woo!

Hey... I'm multitasking...

I'm cleaning my colon and my laundry at the same time.

As I suspected, this stupid colon prep is pretty much what it's like to have GVH in your guts. Nausea. Cramping. The Dukes. Yep.

I get to drink the watery nasty stuff at 6pm. I'm thinking I'm going to have the cleanest colon in Texas! If not the United States!

P.S.sssssssss

Ok. For my "royal treatment," I was thinking that I might put a fake tattoo on my bootie that says something funny.

Any suggestions?

Happy Thursday

So. My thyroid, she good. My bloodwork for the first time since October 2005 was in the "normal" range (this was huge!). But my doc wants me to have the royal treatment.

Now what, you ask, exactly is the "royal treatment."

Well it's a full blown procedure to see the inside of all of my guts. Yes, ladies and gentlemen, I get to have not just an endoscopy, but a colonoscopy. Yay!

I'm not really skeered about any of it, except for the "prep" for the inside view of my colon. I've heard it's awful, although Sis #1 was like... what, that's probably a typical day for you (with the GVH I have).

"Be prepared to spend most of the day before your test on the toilet. Bring a book." They actually say, bring a book.

I think I'd rather just watch a movie. Good thing I have a laptop. I'll just set up my own little disgusting movie theater in the can.

I've had 3 endoscopies so far, so they are welcome to "scheck" it out, but the colonoscopy... eeks. I'm at the point where if someone goes near there, yeah... i want to be sedated.

Ok. Enough of this grossness. Been working on Team Zoe stuff. Houston peoples, check out www.teamzoe.net as we added a Houston fundraiser. Email me if you'd like the flyer.