Sunday, December 15, 2013

It's a Blowout Miracle - Ryan comes clean...

I know, I know... It's been a long time. For your patience, I shall reward you with total honesty regarding a number of things but probably most concerning would be cancer related so- here we go.

Before surgery, I was in a place in my life that I'd never been. I was happy, supported, and hell-bent on not really even being a cancer patient. I remember a moment in my car, alone, furious that I had breast cancer. Not that I had cancer but that I had such a bullshit, cliche stupid fucking cancer. Going forward with chemos, regardless of the side effects like NBD, I got this under control is kind of my modus operandi. There may be a problem in my life but it's kind of "over there" and if I can't just ignore it, I'll plow on through.

As some of you may have seen on the fb (or because you were there), my double mastectomy was wildly successful. The chemo got it all. And the night after having major surgery, I had twelve people in my room having a glow-stick dance party. I was released the following day and the next morning, William and I went camping. I was good to go, tough as nails. But then something happened and I'm still not sure what it was, really. I ended up in deep in a hole of pain that some days I still feel that I'm trying to claw my way out of. The surgery pain ended, but then other pains popped up- pain from the fills, pain in my body that has become terribly frustrating, tingling in my legs like nerve discomfort that just makes my body ache. And then there's the emotional pain. The fillers under my skin where my implants will eventually go are rock hard, oddly shaped, and don't sit evenly, meaning that trying to find something to wear that doesn't make my body look like a side-show is enough to reduce me to tears sometimes.

So, the next piece of the treatment puzzle was supposed to be radiation, which for some reason I just assumed I wouldn't end up having to receive. But then I was randomized to have it (related to a study and how well I responded to treatments thus far) and that's when the bottom dropped out. And that's when I went from being the darling of the oncology office to the rebel. After a series of clinical/administrative mishaps, William and I met with my radiation doctor and asked about the risks of having radiation. Here are just a few risks and side effects;
  • Increased lifetime risk for a heart attack or other major heart event
  • For every 1 gray of radiation (a unit that measures the absorbed radiation dose), a woman's heart risk rises by 7.4%
  • Rib fracture occurs when the radiation weakens the rib cage near the treatment area.
  • Permanent scar tissue on the lungs can occur
  • Fatigue and breast soreness will occur. The treated breast may also be rough to touch, red (like a sunburn) and swollen. Sometimes the skin may peel. You may notice firmness of shrinkage of the breast. You may also have mild tanning of the skin in the treated area which can be permanent.
  • Women who have axillary lymph nodes removed may develop lymphedema.
  • Brachial plexopathy can happen with radiation damages nerves in the upper chest. It may cause tingling, pain and weakness in he affected hand and arm that may be permanent.
  • Radiation pneumonitis is an inflammation of the lungs that can cause shortness of breath, a dry cough and a low-grade fever.
  • Radiation treatment CAN CAUSE A SECOND CANCER.
Then we asked her the million dollar question: What is my risk of recurrence having radiation vs not having it. If I have radiation, my risk of getting this cancer again is STILL 5 - 10%. If I don't have radiation, forgoing shitty side effects and dangerous additional health concerns, my risk of recurrence is 15 - 20%. Then I found this gem:

"For every 100 women given radiation, "one will have a recurrence anyway, four will have a recurrence prevented, but 95 will have had unnecessary treatment," Kunkler said. Since radiation did not affect survival or the risk of cancer spreading, skipping it "is a reasonable option."

I'm sure you can see why I'm declining this particular treatment. And it's cancer in addition to what's happened in the past twelve months of my life that have caused me to reflect on some things in my life and realize just how many lifetimes I've lived in this, my last incarnation.

There are many people for whom their life takes them on a methodical, linear(ish) path through the normal events that one can expect in their life. My path has been markedly more complicated in that when I see some debris in the road, I don't carefully navigate around it and manage any damage done to my metaphorical vehicle. I come to a screeching halt, and scramble in a different direction, typically picking up almost exactly where I left off but with new digs, new friends, and usually, a new look. My old life unapologetically vanishes as if it's never happened. 

Thankfully, my most recent... obstacle was William, who became the engineer, rerouting my train and saving me from derailment. And what we share is so incredible because it benefits everyone around us. Just last night a friend made a remark similar to comments we hear with some regularity. She said "William and Ryan are the only couple I know who actually really love each other." We hardly know this person, but she feels it. Then I think of the couples I know and I can only think of one that I would say that about. What is this thing, this experience of being part of and giving a love that is practically tangible? My relationship with William is the magnum opus of my soul and of every lifetime I've experienced. He's my every all the things and through all the things below, I am his.

Here is the lifetime that's happened in the past twelve months.

  • William and I met 
  • William got his first tattoo
  • I moved into William's studio apartment, purging most of my possessions and past life.
  • We spent a week out of town over the giftmas holiday and decided to get married, so I promptly got divorced, for the third time (and if you wonder where this lack of concern for the "sanctity of marriage" comes from, you can ask my mom who has married three times, or my dad who has been married six times. So yeah, my parents combined have been married NINE TIMES.).
  • The book I contributed to was published
  • Midwest Vegan Radio came to an abrupt end
  • I met a woman who has thus far, with the help of her spouse, become our live guardian angels (and who happen to be the only other couple I know who is so in love that other people experience it).
  • William and I both got tattoos at a friend's birthday party
  • I got a new job in West St. Paul
  • We met a very special new friend and subsequently a whole group of new friends, most of whom are absolutely beautiful gems of human beings that pull together and support each other and for how much I've struggled in the past with friendships and the presentation of myself, I actually believe these people like me and I never have to question where I stand with them (and if I interacted with you on the 2nd night of the blowout, you are one of those people).
  • My grandpa Sunshine died
  • I got diagnosed with stage 3A IDC breast cancer and started aggressive treatment
  • We went to vegas for a last hurrah of fun, in case I was going to spend the next year as an invalid.
  • Then the day after my first cancer treatment, quietly, without any announcement, we got married at the Sound Gallery during a rap show on 4/20/13, with Botzy and Lauren as our witnesses and Laura as our officiant. Rather than taking either of our last names, we changed our last name to Veldt in an homage to a number of things including Doomtree, and obviously the Ray Bradbury story The Veldt.
  • We went on an impromptu trip with no bags or plan to House on the Rock in WI
  • And then, because our apartment in Uptown was on the third floor and cancer treatments make you tired, and my commute made me want to hurt myself, we moved to a garden level apartment in St. Paul on Grand Avenue.
  • We had a head shaving benefit at Salon Ori where a number of amazing people shaved their heads to help raise money.
  • Berxerxer showed up at our door, then later we fell in cuteness with Fat Professor and took him home
  • We had an epic sleepover wedding reception in a cabin in the woods of Duluth and William's mom came to visit from Alaska
  • I put back together a friendship that had completely unraveled, which is growing stronger than ever
  • In the midst of cancer treatments, we had the absolute most amazing summer going to too many rap shows to count, meeting more really incredible people, and working on our friends' CSA farm, falling deeply in love with simplicity
  • William quit his jobs in Minneapolis and started working in St. Paul
  • We both said goodbye to some relationships that did not serve to make our lives better, including my dad
  • William bought a fancy new bike and I bought a fancy new car. And we sold Buttercup to a friend
  • I had my second surgery of the year (the first was having my port put in for the chemo drugs, the second was the double mastectomy)
  • I found my previously lost religion and went to Family Gathering for the second time
  • I started a mentorship with a local Medium
  • We went on a road trip through Madison, St. Louis, down to New Orleans, over to Galvaston, and up to Austin, then 22 hours home. No agenda or plans, just the two of us in the car.
  • We started a business
  • Our apartment was broken into so we moved again to a third story apartment on Summit Ave around a block from the Xcel overlooking what looks like the whole world at night.
  • My grandma Sunshine had a heart attack
  • Our fancy new car was hit while it was parked and currently lives at the body shop while we drive a newer but shittier rental
The lifetime I had before this one was five years spent on a couch, listening to Tom Waits, thinking only of a someday that was never going to come. I can't believe how much time I spent on two hour bike rides around Uptown that would start around 1 am. How many boring miles I walked trying to escape the boring couch.

A lot has happened, but the only comfort for me in life is the change. For, as they say:

"Witch's work is turning the wheel and round the wheel doth turn.
Time wheels, the world wheels, time and space embrace in the wheeling circle, the dance of the wheel.
The only constant is constant change: the nature of a wheel is to turn.
Witch's work is turning the wheel: to divine the course of change and to aid it, to add her will to the will of the wheel; for the witch is the agent of change.
And a witch's work is turning the wheel and round the wheel doth turn."

The world needs to watch out for William and I in 2014- we are going to be a force.

kisses, kitties, and chocolate chip pancakes,
Ryan







Tuesday, September 3, 2013

There She Goes Again...

Coming up on what will soon be a year ago, I recall marching myself down to a small wooded space under a particularly important full moon lunar eclipse. I reflected and projected, and empowered some little trinkets to help get me to the next part of my life. And I charged up some charms for my new friend, William, sensing that he would soon become the sun around which I orbit.

The brisk morning air of fall fills my entire being with excitement and wonder, because it's in the autumn that I bloom. September 5th brings a new moon just as I prepare for a new unknown journey and a new body- and this fall will surely not disappoint.

I find myself in a place of deep introspection as I prepare for what I anticipate to be a relatively uneventful surgery. And while I prepare myself for the experience I'm about to have, I also prepare myself to let go of deep life wounds. With gratitude for their lessons, I free myself from the fear that my peers don't understand or accept me. I let go of culturally inflicted and personal body shame. I release the seemingly bottomless sadness that comes from broken relationships out of my control.

I thank this cancer from the very bottom of my heart for all of the beautiful gifts it has given me and I take away the incredible love and support of friends, family and well-wishing strangers. I will keep all the laughs and silliness and thoughts of giant craft fur eyebrows to help get me through upcoming moments of horrible, but temporary, physical pain. And most importantly, I will guard with my life the new strength I've acquired. The kind of strength that pulls up everyone around it- not aggressively, but delicately and with kindness.

If I haven't thanked you, thank you. Even if you were a gift disguised as a lesson, thank you. My surgery is scheduled for Tuesday (my favorite day of the week, the day of the week I was born), September 24th. It's expected that I'll be in the hospital for two nights, and then begins the journey. Please, if you're up for it, come with me. I don't think you'll regret it.


xoxo, Ry

Monday, June 24, 2013

New chemo is like getting life back

In the weeks that have followed since my last round of A/C Chemo, I have started a new type of weekly chemo. Well, two of them actually- taxol and herceptin. Since there's so much to catch up on with what we've been doing, I'm just going to give you a captioned photo update so you can see just how well things are going, peppered with only a few days of not feeling so great. I know it's a little scattered, but I still hope you enjoy! xoxo, Ry

First we found this little turd
Up in Duluth, a skeleton in the woods
Steve and Duckie hang out in Duluth
William and SK embrace after a dance party
Botzy and Lauren love Duckie
Donna and William get their root on




Jord and Botzy play outside
Pig meets Dog
William loves Duckie

Donna and William
William at Gooseberry
Mr. Monkey Man


Ninja Turtle Sighting
Rock the Garden from the cheap seats





We run into my favorite little Wulfric
We kidnap a five year old
Astronautalis and Sims show
Working on Que Sehra Farm
Amy hennas the littlest leg and our friends leave for tour

Jacque finds shade


 
Riding in the Riviera








Tuesday, June 4, 2013

Fundraiser Event Success!! ... and General Update

So, it's been a short while since our event. Sorry we haven't gotten around to a post until now. We've been busy, and all in all exhausted!

Before getting into anything else though, a HUGE Thank You to everyone that has helped us out through this. Whether you were able to make the event or not, helped us meet our fundraising goal, or have even been sending positive vibes our way, Thank You!!!

We've been amazed at the incredible amount of support we've received so far! Thank You, Thank You, Thank You! We can't say it enough, and will hopefully have some time to decompress and say it a little more personally soon.

The event itself was a huge success!

Thank you to AmberJean and Salon Ori for letting us host it there, shaving all of our heads, and providing post shave gift certificates!

Thank you to Kaylyn Knopp for catering the event. Check out her catering facebook page: Vegano Private Catering.

Thank you to Amy and her business Mehndi Moments for doing all of the awesome henna!

Thanks to Chelsea, Snorine, Amy, Al, Shell, and Piper for raising money and shaving their heads with us!

Thank You AmberJean!
Thank you to everyone that provided silent auction items!
Before Head Shaving
After Head Shaving
First cut!
I think she enjoyed this immensely.
Mehndi Moments. Thanks Amy!


It was an awesome event. We really enjoyed it, and we hope you did as well.

Some amazing news, is that we've far surpassed our initial fundraising goal! When we first started talking about doing any sort of fundraising, Ryan wanted to set the goal at around $8000, as that's what we figured would get us through with minimal difficulty. I objected because I thought there was no way we would raise more than $5000. We compromised on a goal of $6000, as that's what we figured we could make it by with.

Well you've helped us raise about $9000!! Your generosity and kindness has absolutely blown us away. Thank you again!

All the Hugs!!

~ William Veldt
_ _

Onto the update...

This should probably be two different posts but when it rains, it pours. So there.

This past week has been unusually difficult for me for some reason. Chemo is cumulative so perhaps it's just catching up with me. This has been the most challenging post chemo recovery yet. I've been more nauseous than usual, making it increasingly difficult to eat and I feel like I've exhausted all my food options. Nothing sounds appealing so right now I'm eating a lot of cereal. On top of that, if I even think about chemo and a particular thing that goes with it**, I immediately need to drink something flavored or I feel like I'm going to be sick.
Port Picture

My hearing has come back. Hopefully to stay but it will be a couple days, like last time, if I'm going to lose it again. This is one of those hurry up and wait side effects. Dr. Bloom says my ears look good in general so...

I just had my last Neulasta shot yesterday, which is brutal. It causes an unreasonable amount of pain for two days. I cried Sunday night thinking about having to go in for it Monday morning, which is really the first time that I've cried related to having cancer. I'm not really even sure why. I'm not upset about it. I don't think it's "unfair", as if there's some man in the sky doling out what we each do or don't deserve. Maybe it's just misplaced irritability over not being able to eat and then feeling super shitty when I don't eat.

I'm a little nervous for the next round of chemo. Twelve weeks worth, every single week. My oncologist says it's more tolerable. We'll see. My chemo schedule will continue to be on Fridays so I'm currently accepting applications for chemo buddies.

**Saline Flush
I appreciate all of you more than you will probably ever know. Literally each and every person that's ever so much as liked a post or even thought a nice thing about me. Thank you.

xoxo Ry

** The particular thing that goes with chemo that Ryan avoids thinking about at all costs is the saline flush that they do of her port almost every time we're in. They attach a syringe filled with a very concentrated saline solution to her port and pump it in to clean the port and the tube that goes into her jugular vein. The taste goes straight to her mouth and she makes some of the funniest faces, but she absolutely hates it.



Tuesday, May 28, 2013

Food and chemo - A love/hate relationship


For about 5 - 7 days after a chemo injection, I end up with pretty decent nausea. It's not so bad the day of chemo because the first drug they put in you is some steroid anti-nausea stuff which helps you get through the rest of the day. The next 3 - 4 days are spent just trying to get a regular amount of food down. If I even *start* to get hungry and don't eat immediately, I become very sick and uncomfortable. Trouble is, when I'm hungry, thinking about food makes me nauseous. If I even get the littlest taste of something, meaning that if I can conjure the taste in my mouth before I eat it, I immediately don't want it- it makes me sick to think about it. So I can't really ever think about what I want to eat. When I get hungry, I have to decide on a food and then immediately put it out of my mind or I wont want it. If that wasn't bad enough, most of the time I'll get through a few bites of something and then I don't want any more of it. That's not to say that I'm full or don't need more food, it's just that it starts to taste gross. 

Oh wait, it gets better. And by better, I mean worse. 

As you all know by now, chemo destroys rapidly growing cells. Those aren't just cancer cells, those are also hair follicles and cells in your mouth. Ever eaten a piece of toast or a chip and felt it scratch your mouth in some way? Or suck on some sweet sugar coated candy and have your mouth feel a little raw afterwards? Fortunately, your mouth heals very quickly from that. Mine doesn't heal at all. Well, not until almost the end of my treatment cycle, so just before I get another treatment. So basically I can eat soft foods like bread or liquids with minimal discomfort but anything else I end up paying for. They say you're supposed to rinse many times throughout the day with a salt-water rinse which does help a little bit but it definitely doesn't heal the owies, it's more preventative than anything else.

This coming Friday is my last type of this kind of chemo (unless I skip it since the lastest side effect of chemo is total hearing loss- more to come on that...) and my oncologist says that the next type of chemo has different side effects but nausea isn't one of them. Stay tuned!

xoxo Ry

Monday, May 20, 2013

Busiest. Week. Ever.

I'm sure you're all wondering what we've been up to the past week so let me tell you! It's been an epic week of chaos.

Last Tuesday morning we went to Duluth for a work conference where we got to see Chris Heeter and Tuu Weh. We got back from Duluth late on Thursday night where we finished packing and got a little bit of sleep. Friday morning I went off to chemo while William, Amy and Steve started on our great move to St. Paul. Trevor joined us later and helped during the last leg of the move.


 Saturday morning in the midst of all the unpacking, we picked up a kitty from Amy and Steve that we're fostering. His name is Botzy and he's totally a teenage boy.


Random pics of the move. Late Saturday night we worked the merch table for the last Culture Cry Wolf  show which meant we didn't get home until nearly 3 am. We were so pooped.





Sunday we had to run back out to the storage locker to get pieces of the bed frame that we were missing and it was my mom's birthday so we stopped by for a quick visit followed by book group for Confronting Animal Exploitation. As you can tell, we're exhausted and there's no letting up yet. Wednesday is William's birthday and this weekend is the benefit which we're totally stoked for.

Here are the totals for the head shaving contest as we enter the last week. We're so close to meeting our goal - less than $200 to go!

Chelsea $975
Snorine $515
Shell $316
Amy $310
Al $90

Hope to see you all on Sunday at Salon Ori!

xoxo Ry

Friday, May 10, 2013

Wednesday, May 8, 2013

Our Toxic World


A woman's risk of having breast cancer in her lifetime:

1960: 1 in 20
Today: 1 in 8

Women living in Industrialized countries have a higher risk of breast cancer than those in unindustrialized countries. (1)
_ _

Please try to tell me that the way we live, the food we eat, the water we drink, and the air we breathe aren't causing cancer along with a slough of other diseases. 

I'm not at all upset about where Ryan and I are in our lives. I'm the happiest I've ever been despite the fact that we're dealing with cancer.

Here's what I am pissed off about though.. The consumer lifestyle fed to us by large corporations and a complex globalized world doesn't care about people living healthy fulfilling lives, but only about what is going to make more money.

My degree is in Environmental Science, Policy, and Management and throughout the course of the program I honestly just became increasingly depressed about the state of the world and what we can actually do to stop long term global climate issues. We can however do what we can to at least contribute as little as possible to the problem and escape the world of profit by any means.

If we were paying for the actual cost of what we eat, the products we consume, and the electricity that powers our homes, the common conveniences would be a lot more expensive. 

This blog post will be focused on food and I'll follow it up with more about air and water quality.

_ _

The average American spends $150 per week on food (2) - $7,800 annually, or $624,000 in their lifetime assuming an 80 year lifespan.

Courtesy of Komen
We found out just over a month ago that Ryan has cancer and the actual cost of everything so far is quickly converging on $100,000. I have no doubt that by the end of this year we will be over the $600,000 mark. I would much rather pay marginally more for healthy food than pay the pharmaceutical companies for their poison.

An indirectly related but fun coincidence - the CEO of the Susan G. Komen foundation, which only used 15% of its donations for research last year, received a salary of $685,000, a 60% increase over the previous year.

Back on point though. What I'm getting at is that the cost of food is grossly underpriced. If you had to pay for all of the costs associated with the normal processed garbage that we eat every time you checked out at the supermarket, you would likely be paying at least double.

Yet, that's not the case. Large corporations such as Cargill, Monsanto, PepsiCo, etc., control the food market and keep prices for processed, mass produced, nutrient poor, pesticide and chemical laden crap artificially low. It makes the decision to buy organic, locally grown, healthy food an extremely difficult one.

Yet, it is such an important one! I consider myself to be pretty thrifty. I live a fairly simple life. The one thing I don't mind spending money on more than anything else though is food. Putting good food into your body is the one environmental health factors you can actually control. You have no immediate control over the air you breathe or the water you drink.

Our Breakfast This Morning
Consider this example of why you might want to buy organic vegetables. Eli Lily, the pharmaceutical company that produces the cancer drug Tamoxifen, also produces widely used estrogen mimicking pesticides that were banned in Europe. It should be noted that their profits from Tamoxifen are through the roof, as they continue to help cause and treat cancer.

I could write hundreds of pages on the links between the everyday food in the standard american omnivore diet, but I'm going to cut it off here. I'll let Ryan speak to the links between  animal proteins and cancer if she feels so compelled to do so later, as she knows much more about the subject. 

I hope this inspires at least someone to look at their diet a little more closely and think about what it is that the recently gigantic food corporations are doing to us in the long term. I know that it's definitely made my decisions easier every time I go to the store.

~ William Veldt

Monday, May 6, 2013

The Tides of Chemo

If you read the last blog post, A Day in the Life of Chemotherapy, you know that the end of Friday was not a bright shining moment in my life. I felt pretty crappy and slept on and off most of the evening. 

Saturday picked up a little bit. We tried to go to a pancake breffis. Well, we succeeded in going there but the pancakes weren't vegan and our friend wasn't there. Then we tried to go to the farmers' market. We also succeeded marginally in that we bought some interesting lemony leafy greens, parsley and a few other greens, but we didn't really get anything else because it was all just resellers. Then we had a super fun visit with SNorine and her smooshers. We'll just let the video speak for itself:



We had lunch at Ecopolitan with William's dad and went for a walk. I didn't have a whole lot in me after that. My energy came and went a little bit but we spent the remainder of the evening at home. We watched an interesting documentary called Pink Ribbons, Inc. It's pretty slow going but about halfway through it gets into some pretty interesting stuff about what I already suspected to be true of the large breast cancer fundraising organizations.


Sunday was like a brand new day. We went to early lunch at Namaste with Amy and Steve. They made us enchiladas and Amy got to help pull out some of my hairs, which I'm sure was super fun for her! Next we went out with my family for early mothers' day brunch where the following pictures ensued! After that we drove out to Baker for long boarding and bike riding with Kristin and Gabe. It turned out to be a really great afternoon for that. We went to the coop, received a really great phone call from a far away friend, rested back home for a couple minutes and then met them back up at Common Roots along with Jackie. I started to feel pretty wiped out by the middle of the evening but it was still really nice to feel sort of back to normal.  

Now please enjoy this short clip of us being able to enjoy spring:



Saturday, May 4, 2013

A Day in the Life of Chemotherapy

Mom in the waiting room
Deb trying to pick my nose in the chemo pod
The morning started off totally normal. I felt as good as I did before the first chemo appt. I got in a few hours of work and then went to my chemo appointment where my Mom and my Aunt Deb were joining me.

William had to work because he doesn't have much PTO, and is trying to save it up for when things are a bit rougher. 
I just accidentally licked my moms hair

I met with Katie, my super nice nurse, and found out that my tumor has already decreased in size a tiny bit!! I couldn't ask for better news after just one treatment! Unfortunately, even very quick progress won't change my treatment schedule at all as they have to make sure everything is gone even beyond what they can functionally measure.

Everything went fairly smoothly aside from the May 3rd snow storm that I'm now fairly certain I caused. Seriously... There has been significant snowfall every single time we've been into the oncology office for any type of appointment. Sorry Minnesota.. Looks like you're all going to have to suffer with me.
_ _

Adriamycin injection 
Chemo is bizarre. You can feel it. You can taste it. It's just weird.This time I felt it a lot more immediately than before. It wasn't awful by any means during the treatment, but I could definitely tell it was instantly impacting my body.


Totally took a selfie
The chemo pod is the place to be. It's kind of like a spa, except that instead of activities that help you remove toxins from your body, you're directly injecting toxins into it. The lovely red Adriamycin on the left is fondly known as the "red devil". In addition to contributing to nausea and whatever this fuzziness feeling is, it turns my pee reddish and makes almost all of my bodily fluids toxic to others.

I do have to give them some credit at Abbott Northwestern though, because with the chemo you at least get warmed blankets, fully reclining massage and heating chairs, and snacks. You even get to roll around your little IV stand and take silly selfie pictures of yourself in the bathroom mirror. I've never done that before so I figured I could get away with it. 

I felt ok for awhile after the appointment. I stopped by the grocery store and caught up with a couple people on the phone. Then it happened! Finally! My hair started coming out in tiny bits!

I've been checking it for the last several days to see if I was losing it yet, and aside from the really weird prickly feeling, it stubbornly remained attached. Not today. I was wondering if I might be able to keep it until our head shaving benefit, but I got my answer today.

It was our friend boy Ryan's birthday today, so we went out and met up with them at Pizza Lucé. It wasn't really til then that the chemo fade really set in. Nausea and chemo brain got the best of me. We ordered early, got our check quickly, and went home to rest.



Me and 3 of 4 Harle Von Hansmeyers

Here is a short little video that William took of me. It's bizarre more than anything else. It's certainly a feeling I've never experienced before. Hopefully it doesn't last too long during this cycle...

xoxo Ry and William