Awareness Month…
Written Wednesday, November 18th @ 1:30pm
I am sitting in my kitchen, responding to emails, watching the wind blow and thinking this is a good time to do an update on our Crystal.
Stride for Stripes Walk in Des Moines.
Crystal is in the middle of her 2nd round of chemo. Tonight she starts the pills that make her next week pretty rough. So prayers would be wonderful and the blessing is she will be off of chemo for Thanksgiving. YaY!
The zebra walk, Strides for Stripes in Des Moines went great! Thank you again for all of the support. It was so comforting and we felt loved. The walk this year raised $5609.54, which is more than last year! YaY!
As were driving home from this walk, the Spirit Van full of loved ones supporting Crystal, we came across a couple of accidents. As some of the walkers, were in a car ahead of us had sent a text, saying there was a bad accident ahead. We were trying to decide should we get off of 80 and go on the back roads to head home or do we stay on 80 and keep moving slowly. You were afraid you might get rear ended. You watched cars maneuver in out of the lanes just trying to get going faster. We chose to stay on 80. As the traffic began to move again, we drove past where the accident was. I thought to myself, someone’s life has changed tonight. Someone’s family is getting a call that will change their lives, will make them think and make them remember how precious life is. But in the cars/trucks around me, including myself everyone just starting driving like…Thank God we can get going faster and as simple is that…life goes on.
Our family Zebra Girl!
That Monday after the walk was an emotional day for Crystal. I think the day of the walk you are excited to get the word out. You are helping others. It is a good feeling but then the next day you go back to reality. You are living a chronic illness. So I remind my daughter of the love that she not only received from everyone at that walk but the inspiration she is to everyone. So you can lay in bed or get up and take a look at the sun and be thankful that you are not on chemo today. She listened to me, but I think coffee really is what helped.
November 10th was NET Cancer Awareness Day. We promoted the best we could on our end. Zebra all the way…
Did you know that a NET diagnoses can take an average of 3 to 7 years. By that time it has usually spread.
November 13th was Pancreatic Cancer Awareness Day. Again, we did our best to bring attention to that too! Purple all the way…
Did you know that Pancreatic Cancer has the lowest survival rate of all major cancers. Just 2-10% of those diagnosed survive 5 years. Myth: Pancreatic Cancer doesn’t affect many people. Fact: It is the 4th leading cause of cancer death in the US.
Our Supports for the Day!
On another note…We will be bringing more awareness to Pancreatic Cancer on Monday, November 23rd. KWWL at 10pm is doing a story on this type of Cancer. I am excited to see how it is put together.
The girl that interviewed Crystal was so delightful and Crystal made a connection with her right away. You know when you do things like this, you worry on what to say, what you look like, but I did tell Crystal…none of that matters. We just need one person to see it, one person to feel it, one person to begin to talk about it. I think that is what we are suppose to do.
Crystal during her interview with KWWL.
Enjoy your Wednesday. Find something good in your day, I bet it will make you smile.
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