WE DID IT!!!!!

Sunday September 17th was the Race for the Cure 5K run. I am proud to say our team had a great showing. Tom and I finished in 36 minutes an impressive 11.25 minute per mile. Our good friends Tracy and Tosha finished in front of us (they walked/ran the 5K faster than we ran it - crap! But they are both close to 6 feet tall so cut us a break). Ashley Allen finished an impressive 40 min and my sister Terri did it in 47 minutes. Terri is the most impressive to me because she has not run a mile in over 25 years let alone 3.2 miles and she didn't train at all. She put on a pair of my running shoes and said let's go. I guess that makes the rest of us not so impressive - huh?

Any who, the walking team was strong and made a good showing. I ran the 5K and then walked with my group. Mostly in spirit because only a few of us could find each other in the 45,000+ people. My companions on the walk Charlene Allen, Jan Huffman, and Don Martini made it easy for me to make the 3.2 trip all over again. It is easy to walk and chat - way easier than running.

We all met for lunch after and had a great time. Photos will be posted within a few days. The photos will be my last posting probably for a long while. If you want to know what’s going on you will have to call me or email me direct.

Thank you again for all of your support.

Love you all

Hair Hair We've Got Hair!!!!

Not much but it is a start my friends. Hip Hip Hooray!!!!

Today is 8/17 just after midnight. After my radiation treatment today at 3PM I will have only 6 treatments left and I am done with this nightmare. Hip Hip Hooray Again!!!!!! I could not have done this without my loving husband and all of you. Thanks so much for your support and prayers.

I do not plan on posting much until after the big Race for the Cure on 9/17. So please forgive me. You know we are in training for the big 5K and that friends, is probably going to kill both of us. I will post some photos from us crossing the finish line and photos of Tammie's Angels Team. But then this blog baby is signing off. From that point on Breast Cancer will be a small stone in our shoe that we finally got out and nothing more. I will be just Tammie once again. I can't tell you all how much I look forward to just being Tammie.

We love you all and we hope to see you all at the Race on 9/17 either in it or at the finish line to witness Tom and me tearing our shirts off as we cross the finish line just like when they score a goal in soccer.... Oh yeah!!!!

1/6 of the way done

Today I have my 5th of 30 radiation treatments. So if my basic school math, which I never did very well at, is right I am 1/6 done. I don't have much to tell recently except I am fat, bald, and very sweaty these days. Oh what a glorious thought isn't. A hot sweaty fat bald chick....ohhhhhh babbbyyyyy!!!! Ok I am not really still technically bald. I do have the beginnings of the basic boot camp crew cut.

Enough about my hottness, radiation has been a breeze so far. Unless something crazy happens I think we might make it through without a hitch. I go in every day, dress in a gown (just the top), wait in a waiting room for about 10 minutes, the tech comes out gets me, we go into a room with a machine that takes x-rays and does radiation (fancy huh?), I slip my arm out from the gown, raise my arms above my head, hold onto a bar thingy, they position me, they leave the room, the machine buzzes a few times and two minutes later I get up and leave. Well I put my gown back on and then go back done the hall, get dressed, and up the elevator. I know, it sounds fascinating doesn't it?

Then Tom and I take off for Mt Tabor where we re-confirm to ourselves that we are fat, lazy, and did I mention out of shape. We hike to the top and then attempt to run 1 1/2 miles. Recently we have both had a few set backs with our knees but we promise we will be sprinting across that finish line at the Race for the Cure Sept. 17. In fact you might want to come just to see Tom and I pushing people down to get past them to win this thing. Or you may see us dead on the side of the street.

Any whooo!!! That is it for now.

Lots of love

Howdy

I don't have much to report just yet but I wanted to update the site just in case someone out there in this great big world is still reading.

I had my first set up appointment for radiation last week. It was really easy. I was placed in a CT scan machine, placed my arms over my head, held on to a bar and let the machine do it's business. I of course was naked from the waste up. Thank the Lord for the handle bars I had to hold onto over my head. At least it made me appear to not be as fat as I feel and probably look. Any who, that was about it except they did give my 4 micro tattoos for alignment for my future visits. One on my sternum, one of each rib and one on the left side of my left boob. It felt like a small pin prick and not much more. They are soooo small I can barely see them. How about some good and bad news.

Good News:My hair is returning slowly but surely.
Bad News:It appears to be returning much more gray than before
Good News:I can color it
Bad News:Not for 6 months or it might fall out again
Good News: My eyebrows have come back with a vengeance
Bad News: Crap! My eyebrows look like caterpillars
Good News: I can tweeze them
Bad News: My vision is crappy cuz I am getting old.
Good News: My body hair has returned
Bad News: My body hair has returned!
Good News: I have 6 weeks of radiation left
Bad News: I am fat and have to stop eating. (that has nothing to do with radiation but I wanted to slip it in there anyway)
Good News: We are finally on the back side of this cancer crap
Bad News: I can't use my cancer crap any longer as an excuse for being lazy. (I think Tom is catching on)
Good News: Radiation begins this Friday
The Best News: I am a 4 month survivor and counting.


Don’t forget Sunday Sept 17 is the big Race for the Cure. Come join us for the 5K (3.1 mile) run 5K walk, 1 mile walk or meet us at the finish line. Contact me via my cell if you are interested. I am going to run the 5K race and when I cross that finish line it will be over my friends. I will be done with Breast Cancer and hopefully a lot healthier than when I started this crazy ride. Contact me or Tom if you are interested in participating.
All are welcome. Here is a link http://www.komenoregon.org/Race_for_the_Cure/. I have not yet set up a team but I will soon. I am working on a funny name. Any suggestions are welcome.

Love you all

Bunny is hot!

Look where I found Bunny. Bunny either drank way too much Champaign or he just doesn't like the heat.

I know I said I was not going to post for the next few weeks but once I found Bunny I decided it was time to update all of you. I feel great. I am still bald and as a bonus 30 days after my last chemo I have lost 75% of my left eyebrow. Yes just my left one. What the hell? I was so proud bragging how at least I kept my eyebrows and eyelashes... Well crap! I lost 50% of my eyelashes as of last week, 75% of my left eyebrow, and 25% of my right one. The good news is I am cancer free blah blah blah.. I want hair people. Hair for women is very very important and I want it back. To quote a very famous person, " Daddy, I want an Umpa Lumpa NOW!!!

As many of you know I am back to feeling spunky and attempting to get my big butt in shape to run in the Susan Komen Race for the Cure Sept. 17. Today I ran my first mile without stopping. Hooray for me!! It hurt a bit cuz, well I am fat and my boob is still healing. I have to wear two sports bras to try to keep it from moving at all. It works pretty good but it still pulls just a bit. So many of you say what the hell does that thing look like. Well I think this blog has not been just to keep you all up on Bunny but it is also to keep you informed. As you all know knowledge is power so..... This brings me to a photo I thought many of you would like to see. May I introduce my new and improved cancer free left boob. . You are looking at my left underarm which has a 2.5" scar from the lymph node surgery in March and the left upper section of my left boob which has a 3" scar from the two surgeries in May. The tumor was about the size of a walnut. Please consider that to take this photo I had to raise my left arm and shoot the photo with my right hand... not an easy task. As you can see the two scars are not much different from each other. We are hoping that within the next 6 months to a year neither are going to be visible much.

We are waiting for my scar to heal so we can get started on radiation. I am hoping that by the time I can run 3 miles without stopping (aka passing out) that I will be done with radiation and my hair will be back. I am now hoping for September. I really don't want to celebrate our 9th wedding anniversary bald.

Thanks for checking in and keep your prayers coming. Remember love yourself and your family and get your mammograms yearly.

Great News!

Sorry I haven't posted sooner but we were waiting to hear back on my second surgery biopsy. On Tuesday we got the great news. The second biopsy showed no evidence of cancer. Now you say to your self Tammie you just won the lottery! What are you going to do next? Well I began to look for bunny to share the great news. As of late bunny has been in hiding. I personally think the first surgery may have pushed him over the edge with stress. He may have turned to that old faithful companion - the bottle. So even though he was surprised I was not when I found him like this.

What I didn't realize until I got a better look at him was he was "huggin the bottle" shall we say, attempting to open champaign to celebrate our great news.

Apparently bunnies have exceptionally good hearing, I think it's those ears.

So our friends, let us all "hug a bottle" and say a toast to good health, good friends, and happier days ahead.

For those of you who would like to know, my boob looks exactly the same as it did before any of this started except with about a 3" scar. Unfortunately that ain't like a 25 year old but hey it is still there. You know, as Martha use to say before she got put in the big house, "That is a Good Thing". Have you noticed she doesn't say that anymore. I wonder why sometimes.

Please ladies don't forget to schedule your mammograms if you have not already done so in the last year. I know they aren't a 100% in diagnosis but let me remind you when it comes to cancer any percent is better than zero. Love your families by loving yourself enough to get your mammograms yearly.

I still have 6 weeks of radiation to undergo but it can't begin until my wound heals. So we will be on hiatus for the next 4-6 weeks enjoying summer and taking a break from being sick. May I suggest you all do the same. You all deserve a little "cancer free worry" time if I do say so my dang self. Without all of your support and love there is no way Tom and I would have been able to get this far. Enjoy your next few weeks and please check back with us sometime in July to see the truth about radiation. Most say it is a breeze, I will be the judge of that and report it all to you.

All of our love to you

Surgery

Our surgeon thought I did so well on my last surgery she thought it would be a hoot to have me come back in for another round next Friday. Oh yes my friends it is true. We thought we were home free but Phyllis has thrown us a curve ball and we need to go back in one more time to get "cleaner" margins. For us non doctor types that means the glob they took out Tuesday was not scar tissue as first thought, but in fact it was a big mucus cancer glob (2.7 cm) which needs to have a 2mm cancer free zone around the edges to be considered "clean margins". On one side I have only 1mm free of cancer cells so they have to put me back under and take another mm.

I am sorry I didn't post info sooner but as many of you may have already heard we were thinking the news would only be good so I wanted to wait until we got the final word from our doctor. Ooops!

As all of you know this is has been a real learning experience for both Tom and me. The most recent thing we have learned and my friends you can take this to the bank. If your doctor tells you to phone the office to get pathology reports and when you call they tell you they can't find it, or it is isn't posted, or some BS like that hold on tight cuz it isn’t good news. The first time we called we were told this same BS and it was cancer. This time the exact same thing happened. When they can't find your info it is because they can't tell you the bad news the doctor has to.

The good news is my prognosis is still good and no different today then it was two days ago. I did my chemo, I will have the entire lump removed, and I am doing 6 weeks of radiation. Women who follow this treatment plan live long healthy lives and so will I.

My next surgery will be on 6/9 we think. Check back in with my blog after the 9th to see how it went. I don't have much to report these days except my days are filled with looking in my 10x magnifying mirror to see if I have new hair and watching Perry Mason for two hours a day. A girl has to stay busy you know.

Keep me in your prayers because this is far from over.

Love to all of you