Checking in
Well, after two and a half days on the antibiotics and a the IV antibiotics that I had on Wednesday, I can say that the antibiotics do not seem to be working. The rash is somewhat smaller, but the pain is still present and equal in intensity. While it’s possible I’m not giving the drugs enough time to do their thing, I would think that by this time, I should have seen some reduction in the pain if the drugs were working.
In the meantime, I continue to manage the pain taking morphine every 12 hours and the oxycodone up to once every three hours (when I called Dr. Kauh’s office yesterday, they told me to continue to monitor the pain, but if I needed to I could increase the frequency with which I took the oxy).
Today I participated in the 2008 PurpleStride Atlanta walk. There were over 700 participants in the event and it raised over $130,000. A success all around. I want to take this time to thank each and everyone one of you who donated in honor of me. You helped me to raise over $3000 (I was the 4th highest fundraiser). As with my battle with cancer, I could not have raised this much money without the love and support of each and everyone of you. I have said it before and I’ll say it again, I am humbled by your generosity — economic, spiritual, and interpersonal. Below, I am posting pictures from the event.
One of the most touching moments for me, though, was when a woman, Carolyn, came up to me and thanked me for my blog. She told me her husband had not survived pancreas cancer, and that she pulled some strength from reading about my fight. I thanked her and then we hugged, for how long, I’m not sure, but once again I felt humbled that this blog brought some joy into people’s lives.
Introducing Team Indy! Folks from church, karate, and work all showed up to support me. Thank you Michael, Rebecca, Steve, Jimmy, Patti, Gracie, Kathleen, MaryBeth, and all the kids!
My daughter enjoyed the face painting clown.
My older son enjoying the walk. I think attending this event perhaps made my having cancer more concrete for him, as he spent a lot of time wanting to hold my hand or walk with our arms around each other. I was glad to have him there.
What happens when I gave my daughter my camera. Overall, the reaction to my shirt was generally positive, but there were some people who gave me dirty looks. I felt very celebrated today.
The starting point of the 5k walk. The runners had already gone off. There were purple and white balloons all over the place.