Aloha!

Aloha! As many of you know, at Ironman Arizona 2009, I qualified for the Ironman World Championship. In Arizona, I carried 140 LIVESTRONG bracelets with me throughout the 140.6 mile race. On each bracelet was the name of one of our cancer patients or someone who has battled cancer. It was their gracious sharing of energy, love, and guidance that inspired my performance and I was able to place second in my age group and qualify for Kona! It was only with the support of so many truly courageous individuals who have battled cancer that I’m on my way to the Ironman World Championship in Hawaii on October 9, 2010. It would not have been possible without their inspiration.

I would like to invite everyone who has battled cancer to come with me in spirit to Kona where the motto of the day is “Anything is Possible”. As an oncology nurse at University of Maryland Greenebaum Cancer Center, I have come to understand that we are not meant to face challenges alone, especially one as daunting as cancer. My hope is that as we support one another... caregivers, patients, and families... we will have the strength and resources to believe that "Anything is Possible" and we will one day soon be victorious in our collective battle against cancer.

In the Hawaiian language, ALOHA means much more than hello or goodbye or love. It’s deeper meaning is the "joyful (oha) sharing (alo) of life energy (ha) in the present (aio)". The Hawaiian lei is the symbol of the "Aloha Spirit" as well as the Ironman World Championship. My intention is to put the name of individuals who have faced cancer on the leaf or flower pedal of leis and take them with me to Hawaii where they will be placed on Alii Drive to greet and inspire all of those participating in this challenging event. I am working on a way to do this through our website that will allow individuals to put the name and message of hope or remembrance of the person I will take with me in spirit to Kona and also allow them to print out the leaf or flower pedal to hold on to or give to the individual. Stay tuned here for more details as we finalize the process. Thank you everyone for your love and support! ALOHA!

Gratitude

Today was a beautiful day and I went on a bike ride on the back side of the Columbia Triathlon course.  I was hoping that Dan Alderman could go with me to get ready for the Columbia Tri in May, but he was scheduled to have his mediport removed today.  This is a medical device that is placed under the skin so that IV medications such as chemotherapy can be given more safely.  So while I was riding, a recurrent thought came to me.  People often ask me why I get up even earlier on my days off to go to cycle class, or run, or swim  and my answer is because I can!  In a BIG WAY - BECAUSE I CAN - AND I'M VERY GRATEFUL!  I don't have to worry about a mediport or clinic appointments for blood work or chemo. I don't have to stay in the hospital for days or weeks at a time.  I get to leave the hospital at the end of the day. While I'm grateful for that, sometimes it's difficult...to leave when someone else cannot.  But I shake off the sadness and the worry for myself and my patients because we have things to do, and I'm blessed to be able to replenish myself and bring that good energy back to my patients until they are able to do that more easily for themselves.I think our patients would agree that all of our nurses and caregivers do that in their own way and we are all blessed to be on this journey together.

Facing Challenges: Fighting cancer and training for triathlons!

We are 20 weeks out from the Columbia Triathlon and that means official training has begun. Yeah! Dan Alderman, who is one of our patients at UMMC, will make his triathlon debut at Columbia! This is quite impressive since Dan is still receiving chemotherapy for the lymphoma he was diagnosed with in December, 2008. Last year, my sons, Ben and Ryan raced on our team in honor of Dan since all of them are lacrosse players. This year Ben and Ryan will be on our relay team and Dan will take on all three events of this Olympic distance triathlon! Dan and I cycled together last fall as I was getting ready for Ironman Arizona and I discovered very quickly that he is not going to back down from his goals regardless of the challenges that may arise. You see our training rides were sandwiched between his cycles of very aggressive chemotherapy and he started from ground zero as far as cycling endurance. On our first ride, he chose the route since I was in unfamiliar territory. I told him we should take it easy since one of the side effects of his chemotherapy is a significant loss in oxygen carrying red blood cells. That didn’t stop him from choosing a route with more than one significant climb that left both of sucking for air, but he refused to back down to the challenge of the climb! I know I’m going to be in trouble this spring when his red blood cell counts get back to normal and he resumes his lacrosse training at McDaniel College! We’ll keep you posted!