Celebrating the thrills of victory, reflecting on the agony of defeat and bounding obstacles while living life with terminal, stage iv lung cancer with leptomingeal disease, incurable, progressive brain disease, chronic kidney failure and hydrocephalus while recovering from a debilitating hemorrhagic stroke.
It was a beautiful day. The sun was shining, I got to introduce myself, share my lung cancer story, information about lung cancer Awareness Month and my participation in this year's Super Bowl Challenge. So many tailgaters were more than generous with their time and money. Browns fans and Broncos fans as well. It goes to show, no matter which team we root for, we all agree that lung cancer (or any cancer)sucks.
More photos of #CLEvsDEN tailgating HERE.
I have until December 30, 2019 to reach my $50,000 fundraising goal. Please donate HERE. No amount is too small. Every dollar counts, even when you make a minimum donation.
Meaningful football to me this week:It's the Cleveland Browns playing a do or die game in Denver. It means, possibly turning this season around in Week 9, although, a bit late in the season. It means, beating a top rival, again, at Mile High. It means bonding with my Browns football family while tailgating like we are in the Muni lot and watching the Browns in person instead of on TV.
It also means It's Lung Cancer Awareness Month, the kickoff of the Team Draft Lung Cancer Survivors Super Bowl Challenge. I'm anxiously waiting the details of this year's challenge because I have set a $50,000 fundraising goal. I'm super excited to get started! Yes, fifty thousand dollars. Top challenge participants have set the bar high. It's time for me to join their ranks. I'll share the details in a future post.
Meaningful football 2015/2016 Season:The NFL preseason was underway in August 2015. It was the dawn of a new era for the Browns. My football family and I were reunited after a long summer without football to watch games and cheer the Browns through another season. Like many years before and every season after, we had hope, we believed.
I was diagnosed with stage IV, non small cell lung cancer during preseason on August 14, 2015. At that point it was, by far, the most devastating, emotionally draining and excruciatingly difficult time of my life. But what did I do the night before finding out the stage of my lung cancer and what my prognosis and treatment plan would be? I attended a Browns preseason game with the Pikes Peak Browns Backers in Colorado Springs, CO.
Meaningful football since lung cancer:
Dec 9, 2018
All football is meaningful to me since my lung cancer diagnosis. Even in the losing seasons, I am grateful for football and my Browns Backers family. The Browns and the Pikes Peak Browns Backers have been with me since day one of my lung cancer diagnosis. They have provided me with the support, needed distractions and events to keep my mind off of everything involved in a lung cancer diagnosis and fight.
I had a lot of fatigue, some pretty uncomfortable and painful side effects when I started my first line of lung cancer treatment. I had times I was scared to leave the house. But I would get up, get dressed, in orange and brown, and still go to watch the Browns play with my local Browns Backers club. That's how important the Browns are to me. That's meaningful football.
Tackling lung cancer, Dec 9, 2018
Meaningful football NFL Week 14, Dec 9, 2018:
It was a chance to go to Cleveland and an opportunity to attend the Panthers vs. Browns game with Team Draft. I live in Colorado. Before December 9, 2018, I had only been to one Cleveland Browns home game.
A brief uncle and niece Dawg Pound reunion, Dec 9, 2018
That weekend was amazing. Not only did I get to personally witness the Browns win at home, it was the 1 year anniversary of surviving a hemorrhagic stroke. I got tears in my eyes when I was in the stadium and watched the Browns take the field that day. I get emotional today thinking about that moment. I was alive. I was standing. I was walking. I made it through the toughest year of my life. Not only did I survive the stroke and make miraculous improvements in my recovery over the year,I did it all with late stage, stage iv, terminal, lung cancer.
Since returning home in January after my stroke, I work on cognitive thinking and memory therapies every day. I continued to make improvements throughout the year.
Being off of work and at home, we decided it was a good time to get a dog. We rescued an 8 week old black lab mix girl named Laynie on May 1. She keeps me on my toes and keeps me on a schedule. Both are good for my stroke recovery.
Adoption day for Laynie May.
When she first got to our house it was almost like both of us were learning and resting at the same level and at the same pace. We would go for a walk and both run out of energy and slow down at the same time. We would get home and both of us would nap. We gradually increased our exercise time and kept on napping when needed.
The summer was filled with long walks in the neighborhood with Laynie. While I was preparing for this year's Run the Rocks, she was a growing dog and needed to work off that extra puppy energy.
I completed the Run the Rocks 5k on October 21. I shared my story of being diagnosed with stage iv lung cancer and how much the Run the Rocks 5k means to me. It's a yearly milestone to celebrate living another year with terminal lung cancer. This year was even more special after surviving the stroke and walking without using a cane for balance
Run the Rocks is the most physically challenging 5k I've ever done. I was determined to complete the 5k this year. It was my 4th time participating in this event. Out of all 4 years, this year, by far, was the hardest to complete. Of everything involved with my Medical Apocalypse, I think it was just athe combination of lung cancer, moyamoya and recovering from the stroke that made it so difficult this year.
Lisa Moran speaking at Run the Rocks
Run the Rocks finish line.
The Pikes Peak Browns Backers hosted a Whiteout Game for Lung Cancer Awareness at the beginning of November for Lung Cancer Awareness Month. It was a great event with many club members participating and wearing white. I shared my lung cancer story at this event as well.
Pikes Peak Browns Backers Support Lung Cancer Awareness
I ended the fall with a trip to Mayo Clinic in AZ. I never got my 6 month Moyamoya bypass surgery follow up scheduled with Stanford University Hospital. That's a whole other blog post in itself. I was concerned about disease progression and wanted to verify the bypass was holding up.
My first trip to Mayo was a series of meetings, tests and scans. I met with my new neurosurgeon. We discussed what led to my initial Moyamoya diagnosis, my current symptoms and the tests that would follow that appointment.
I'm not hearing often. If I am occupied by watching a show or reading a news story I just don't hear when Jeremy speaks to me. I had a hearing test to verify if it's my ears not hearing or if it's my brain. Good news, my brain is hearing and processing well. Bad news, I'm just hard of hearing. (Thanks Tesla.)
I have been experiencing numbness in my right leg and foot. That side was not effected by the stroke. I had MRIs and MRAs of my head, neck and spine to rule ot any neurological causes.
Good news, I have not had any new strokes! I have good blood flow from the direct right carotid artery bypass. The left side looks still looks good.
The areas of numbness may have to do with my spine. L5 is where the lung cancer tumor was and where I had radiation. Because it is not brain related, it may be spinal damage from the radiation or possibly cancer activity. They couldn't rule cancer in or out by an MRI. I have a CT scan and lab work in a couple weeks. If my lung cancer biomarker numbers are elevated, I'll get a PET scan from there.
I was the 2nd participant in a Whole Exome Seqencing research study on Moyamoya Disease at Mayo Clinic. They are testing Moyamoya patients to see if there is a common denominator. They are also researching to see if there are specific gene mutations that cause Moyamoya. Im anxious to find out if I have a known Moyamoya gene mutation. We already know I have two gene mutations driving my lung cancer.
2019 is just around the corner. I can't wait to see what the new year brings my way. I know one new endeavor is in the works. I've been considering this for some time; I'm going to start writing articles for lungcancer.net. I will continue to write for this blog and I will share my lungcancer.net articles here. Im excited to get started. You will know here as soon as my first article is published.
