Fundraising for cancer (by Elisabet)

Note: I decide to write with bigger font size, so it's easier for YS to read, as she is having some problem with her vision, as she said in her comment two posts before. 

Every year by mid-December the Catalan public TV shows a 15-hour programme called Marató (Marathon) on a Sunday to raise funds to fight against an illness. Many volunteers answer the hundreds of phones installed for the purpose to attend the many people who call to make their donations. Simultaneously, all kinds of events take place in many villages and cities all over Catalonia: singing, dancing, theatre performances, cooking, races, all kinds of sports... popular activities open to everybody in which children, adults, old people, whole families take part. All the money gathered from the tickets sold goes entirely for the cause. Even a CD and a book are published, where the singers and writers participate without receiving any money. Again, all the money coming from the selling of the CDs and the books goes entirely for the cause.

This year the aim was the fight against cancer, all types of cancer; all the money going entirely for biomedical research so that research centers and hospitals can start new projects to know more about the behavior of tumors and, therefore, be able to develop new medicines and specific treatments for each type of tumor, to make drugs more effective and with less side effects. It's what nowadays is called "personalized treatments" and the aim is to prevent metastases from happening and, in case they happen, turn them into chronic diseases.

What's been really amazing is that after 20 years doing this fundraising programme this has been the record year. Never before so much money had been raised. Taking into account that most of the donations come from the anonymous population and given the present context of economic crisis with such high unemployment rates, the effort made by the people and the solidarity derived from such effort is something really touching, deeply moving and admirable.
The amount raised to date is 10.113.152 Euro and, as donations can be made until end of March 2013, it can get even higher.

This gives us who suffer from this terrible illness big doses of hope, but also for those who will come after us; for my hope and my wish is that the people who suffer from cancer in future have much more chances of healing and that they don't have to bear so many side effects. So, less physical and psychological suffering.

Another positive aspect is that nowadays it doesn't matter where the research is being done: when the results come they will be shared by doctors and hospitals all over the world, so the new treatments will reach more and more people.

Things like these reinforce my trust in humanity, in society, and I'm happy to know that when it comes to serious matters, such important human values as solidarity are still there, like beautiful stars shining bright with the light of generosity.

A quote (by Elisabet)

I wish to share the following quote about optimism which I find inspiring. I'm translating it from a translation; my apologies if some words are not the same as in the original, but I'm sure the meaning is fully conveyed:

" No pessimist has ever discovered the secret of the stars, or has sailed accross unknown seas, or has opened a new door to the human spirit."
                                                  Helen Keller


In case someone wants to know more about her:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helen_Keller

Sizes and statistics (by Elisabet)

When I was diagnosed with metastasis of my breast cancer two years ago I was told by my oncologist that the most threatening were my liver lesions. I was told that I had to undergo a long-term chemo treatment because the toxicity produced by the tumors in my liver might go to my brain and cause sudden death. Luckily, that didn't happen. It was only some months later (when the lesions had reduced more than 50% their size) when the doctor told me the initial size of my 2 liver lesions: 45 mm. and almost 60 mm. diameter. They were really big, so big they even touched each other and melted into each other. Of course I was frightened, but then I said to myself that I was not going to worry about sizes.

The same applies for statistics. I simply don't care about them. Of course they are useful to doctors, to science... useful for further research. So that's good, statistics need to be taken into account by the professionals in these areas, but not by me. As a cancer patient, I leave this task to the doctors and researchers. My job is to focus on myself, body and mind, my job is to keep alive, to try to wake up everyday with a smile... my job is to take the prescribed drugs (I'm on oral chemo now), to undergo the necessary tests and scans, and to just live.

One of the many things that make me feel alive is to write and, to my surprise, writing in this blog has become therapeutic for me. I write not only to express myself, but also in the hope that at least some of my writings can inspire and be of some help for those who read them with patience and understanding. I also write out of deep friendship for the creator of this blog, who is one of my best companions in this journey and whose courage and optimism are so inspiring and so important to me.

mri date 14/11/2012

They hv a new MRI machine.  But it still sounded like war zone despite thir efffort to play music and covered my ears with headset.

Impression: " mutltiple cerebral and carebellar metastases in patient with known breast carcinoma with no significant change in the size of the metatases compared with recent c.t. scan of the bra9n, however, the smaller metastases are not appreciating on the previous c.t.scan"

Ambiguous?  Detail reports showed I hv several tumors, the largest being 29x10mm on the right cerebellum.  Anyway, these r just nembers.

Life definitely has its own way of teaching us lessons and having brain tumors has become part of it.

A song about small things (by Elisabet)

Music is a good therapy. I came accross this song (I quote my favourite verses below and give the link in case someone is interested in listening to it; no video).

I was watching a TV documentary about a mountaineer running on the Alps, surrounded by stunning landscapes and the song could be heard on the background... Wow!
What is it that makes a song sound beautiful to the listener's ears? The melody? The lyrics? The context? The listener's mood? Probably a mixture of everything.


"If there's one thing that I've noticed
Out of all the things I've seen
Is that you can leave a footprint
In a place you've never been...
....
If there's one thing that I'm keeping
Out of all the things I've found
Is that the best way to be heard sometimes
Is not to make a sound...
....
If there's one thing that I'm sure of
Out of all the things I know
Is that you can keep on going fast
I'll still be going slow"...
...

From:
"Small Things" (The Audreys)

To listen to the song click on the words: "Listen while you read!"
http://www.songlyrics.com/the-audreys/small-things-lyrics/

Uphill with Hope (by Elisabet)

I am re-reading a book which I had read many years ago. There's a short sentence on one of its pages that didn't pass unnoticed back then, as I had drawn a thin line with a pencil on the side of the paragraph. It goes like this:
"If life is a journey, it is always a journey uphill."

We all have our own fights and certainly life tends to get complicated as years go by. Now that I have less health and more time, I sometimes indulge in my own thoughts and it occurred to me that there should be a reason for life being uphill. If we rush through life we may soon get tired, as it is tiresome to rush uphill. Maybe life is trying to teach us something: to slow down. In doing so we may be able to see beautiful small things to which we barely paid attention before. It's not necessary to suffer from an illness to put this into practice; we can do it in our busy daily lives... to slow down just a little every day. Every little drop counts and, even though life will continue to be a journey uphill, we will have learnt to stop and stare, to take deep breaths from time to time, and to continue walking uphill feeling invigorated, stronger, and full of hope. In doing so, in the long run we may improve our life as well as the lives of those around us.

It also occurred to me that I feel like an alchemist lately. It's not easy, it requires constant efforts, it's a hard task to turn the negative experiences (in this case related to cancer) into something positive or, at least, not so negative. But it can be done. It's just a question of keeping on trying, of never giving up, of never losing hope. So I keep trying, like an alchemist trying to turn lead into gold.

Welcome to our blog

Let me officially introduce Elisabet, who has been the guest author in this blog for a while now, and accept the co-authorship of this blog from here on.  We met through a common friend some years ago, and reconnected - we had rather similar metastases, except I now also have tumors in my brain.

Throughout the journey, I have met many friends, some new, some old, some reconnected and so far all of you have been most supportive.  Allow me to take a moment to ackowlege all of you who travel this journey with me.

Each of us have our life journey to complete(according to a teaching, one reincarnates and return to learn in future if one misses the lesson) and am very grateful to hv your support in this journey.