September 8 Update:

Last night when I had free time after a busy day, which I'll tell you about in a minute, I had some time to catch up on others' blogs that I haven't read yet. One of them was my daughter's. Our frequent trips have led her to entitle it Nel Around America.

Janelle's on the right; her friend Kay on the left

Last week's blog had this entry in it:

I was so angry at first when everything happened with my dad, but through it all he made new friends and he seems to be happier than he has ever been. For us, we are not lacking anything. While he is in the hospital, everyone goes completely out of their way to make sure that we have everything we need and want.

The cancer society provided a free apartment that is much nicer than anything I have ever lived in in my entire life. This has also provided a chance to get some very needed schooling done, that will be entirely uninterrupted. Ray has been putting together a box of vegetables every week for my parents. And so many other things. I just want to say thank you for everything everyone has done, and for all your help.

That was, needless to say, a very encouraging couple of paragraphs to read.

Yesterday: Chemo and Preparing for Half Marathons

I saw how much my blood counts went down yesterday, and I thought I'd better get in a long run (well, mostly walk) before they went down too much. I went a little over 5 miles in about 80 minutes. It made me feel like that 3-hour half marathon is not out of my reach!

Even better, despite having a full unit of blood destroyed by the chemo, I made it up the hill to our house for the first time. It was really slow, but we measured the hill in the car on the way home from the hospital yesterday, and it's about .6 miles, or about 1100 yards. There's a short downhill in the middle of about 150 yards, but the rest is all steep uphill.

It took me 7 and 1/2 minutes, which is slow, but I ran uphill for 7 and 1/2 minutes! I was excited. All the more so because that was at the 2.7 mile mark, and I'd surely run a mile of those 2.7 miles and power walked through the rest of it.

Yes, power walked ... like this:

I guess I'm "a disgrace to the man race"!

Quick final note on me: Oddly enough, my blood counts didn't drop today at all, really, except that my neutrophils are down to a more normal 60% of my white blood cells.

They did call the doctor this morning to check on my chemo because I was very slightly slow and shaky on the dexterity test. I don't have the steadiest hands, anyway, but they had another nurse check me, and then Dr. Strickland said to continue the chemo.

Yesterday and Surprise Visits from Friends Who Trust God

Towards the end of my run/walk, I got a call from an old friend. He'd been with us back in the early days at Rose Creek Village, but he left to go live a more organic and off the grid lifestyle.

As it turns out, his daughter has contracted a virus that has paralyzed her from the shoulders down. In fact, she can move her neck, but she can't hold up her head on her own. She's being treated at Vanderbilt at well, though she's home. Vanderbilt saw the care she's been receiving from her family and has allowed them to handle her physical therapy and care.

It's hard to predict recovery from the virus, but his daughter is young, about 15 years old, and it's likely she'll gain full recovery within a year.

What's funny is that when I told them I'd pray, her older sister told me that Naomi considers her illness the will of God that has created a great opportunity to minister to people. So she asked me to pray that God's will would be done rather than to pray that Naomi would be healed.

Now where have I heard that before?

Anyway, it was a great story. Naomi's sister told me about nurses coming to their room just to see Naomi smile. It appears that she never stops smiling, and she never admits to being in pain. They have to read her pain by subtle adjustments in her smile.

I'm telling you, there are a lot of inspiring, brave, and God-fearing people in these hospitals that make you feel like life's worth giving your best shot to.

Note to Dee Dee

Right at the center of the blessings of leukemia is all the people I get to enjoy.

I got a letter from my cousin Dee Dee, a first cousin I wasn't even aware I had, which was really inspiring. It came by snail mail, so I'm having to obtain the archaic tools needed to return mail by postal service. I suppose I'll find out at the same time whether I still know how to print by hand. I'm certain I can't write readable cursive! I can barely sign my name legibly even when I'm trying to!

Anyway, getting the ancient tools out has been a slow process. I should have written back already. I will soon, but I'm hoping, Dee Dee, that you and your children will see this blog post and know how encouraging your letter was to me. I was grateful for all the letters. They were amazing.

Made me cry.

Still a disgrace to the man race, I suppose.

September 2: Big Goals and Half Marathons

I got an official "you're in remission" email from Dr. Strickland yesterday.

For all we know, then, I'm cured. But "for all we know" is a big phrase. Leukemia, at least most acute leukemias, are propagated by one mutated cell. It's entirely possible, even likely, that if I have one loose leukemic cell hiding out in my body somewhere, the disease could come back.

So, on Tuesday I have one more round of chemotherapy. I go in every morning at 8:00 am for four days. Then there's a week letting the chemo work, then a couple weeks for my blood to build back up. That pretty much fills September.

Then we work on the marrow transplant.

Big Goals and Half Marathons

As I said in the last blog post, some friends of mine are running a half marathon in Nashville in November. That's 13.1 miles.

This morning I went out walking and running for 25 minutes, and I decided I'm going to give my best shot at doing it with them. A little math says that I can do a half marathon in under three hours even if I only jog about 4 of the 13 miles.

The question, as far as that being a realistic goal, is how much I'll be able to exercise during the second round of chemo. It's a lighter round, but according to the doctor it will knock my white blood cell count down really low. That means it will also knock my red blood cell count down pretty low, and that's my oxygen transport system. It doesn't matter how good your lungs and muscles are if you don't have blood to carry oxygen from one to the other!

I should be recovered by early October. Will that be enough time?

There's no telling, so here's my plan.

I'm not going to register for the half marathon until this chemo is over, but otherwise I'm committed to it. I'll let you know how I'm doing on this blog.

In the meantime, the half marathon has the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society as its official charity partner, and I have a friend running who is raising money for them. I do not know how much she's raised, but let me put in a pitch for supporting her, which you can do at this website.

She's trying to raise $100 per mile. Even $1 per mile ($13.10 total) would help her do that, and if you sponsor her through her website, there's no mailing of checks involved or anything.

Oddly enough, the race is called the "I Run for the Party" race, and there's a big block party on a street with some honkytonks on it—Nashville's Broadway.

So it's not a "Race for the Cure" or anything, but, hey, if party-goers want to support the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, I'm certainly all for it.

A Dare

Let me give you a dare.

I was released from the hospital about 3 weeks ago. While I was in the hospital I received 14 units of blood, and to this day I'm still below the normal range on my red blood cell and hemoglobin count, which are responsible for providing oxygen to my body.

As of today, I'm pretty sure I can't run further than a half mile straight, and even then it's a pretty slow jog.

I'm going to do a half marathon on November 12, hopefully in under 3 hours.

Here's a page with a list of half marathons in November in Indiana, Oklahoma, Arizona, California, Vermont, and Wisconsin. That web site also has training tips for doing a half marathon.

Anyone want to try to get ready for a half marathon by November with me, but in your own area?

If we include December, then we can add Texas and northern California to the list of locations. An internet search might find you one closer to you.

Remember, I'm making allowance for walking 2/3 of it.

Doing something like that just might change your life.

And if you're really a go-getter, and you want to make it a fundraising idea, then here's how you do that.

I did some searching on the internet, and as I would have guessed, most web sites think that going from the couch to a half marathon in 2 or 3 months, even if you walk 2/3 of it, is ridiculous. So keep that in mind, but I'm not retracting my challenge. I've been running throughout my 40's, so I should have the bone and muscle "infrastructure" for it.

You might want to get a physical. If you get the right doctor, she might say, "Hey, if you build up for this and walk a lot of it, you can do it"

Or she might not.

Let me throw in a plug for the documentary Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead. It can be streamed for free on Netflix. Blockbuster and Amazon have it online, too, but not for free.

The idea of "rebooting" and living differently afterwards is one I highly recommend. My latest reboot was forced upon me by leukemia (one more benefit of leukemia), but it's not the only "reboot" I've done.

Most of us could use more reboots.