Monthly Archives: July 2011

I have a long list of blog topics I’ve been meaning to get to. But today, I give you this:

The success of the auction is also bringing to light the fact that some people in my province don’t have drug coverage like those in the rest of the country. And when something like cancer steps in, lack of money can turn into a life or death issue. As a former reporter, it’s weird being on the other side of things, but I figure if I keep talking maybe someone will listen… right??

Click here to read the story. I’m also Skyping with Janetha today for a television interview. If you’re in New Brunswick, tune into CBC’s suppertime newscast to check it out. I’m pretty sure it can be streamed from here as well.

Needless to say, my days have turned out to be quite filled! It’s nice to feel like I’m doing something productive again. However, with the sweet sometimes comes the sour. Unfortunately I’ve been sidelined with pain over the past day thanks to my white blood cell shot. It can be known to cause pain in your bones, and I’ve been hobbling around due to some nastiness in my pelvis and legs. I’m not allowed to take painkillers yet because they can mask other more serious symptoms. So for now I’m just stuck to moaning and groaning and praying it goes away with my last needle tomorrow.

Clearly, I need some waffles.

Looking for superlatives to use here, but none are enough! Yesterday’s blogger auction raised $23,210, combined with $3,222 in cash donations to make a total of $26,432. I am blown. away. I fully expected the blogging community to come together and raise a good chunk of change, but never dreamed that it could reach this level.

I was running on a high all day yesterday watching the bids come through and keeping up on Twitter. My family and I were all texting each other with updates. You didn’t just save me, but you saved my family. The predicted amount for my chemotherapy drugs is $30,000 if I have to do the full 6 months. This covers almost all of it. That means my retired mother doesn’t have to cash in her RRSPs. My Nana doesn’t have to give up her “just in case” nursing home savings. I don’t have to work full-time when my doctors have advised me against it.

It doesn’t end here however. I am still going to work at getting the drug assistance my province owes me. This gives me a cushion while I go through the bureaucratic minefield of getting there. I originally wanted to give the remaining funds to buying items for the kitchen and family room in the oncology ward that I lived in for one month. But maybe this means we could renovate to give them a proper kitchen! I met SO many amazing people fighting cancer in that hospital, they and their visiting families certainly don’t deserve to eat food like this. I will be blogging all the details about where the money goes.

If you’d like to listen to the radio interview I did with the local CBC station yesterday morning, click here. If you’re a New Brunswicker, I encourage you to write in and tell them your thoughts on the province’s lack of catastrophic drug coverage.

Janetha did an interview with Fitness Magazine about the fundraiser, which you can read here.

Finally, I’m on Freshly Pressed!! How cool is that!?

I really wish I could send a thank you card and gift to every single person who participated in this fundraiser. To the people who bid, who donated items, who donated their money, who blogged about it and tweeted about it, to the hard working bloggers who spent DAYS organizing this, you know who you are! Thank you will never be enough, but your kindness and effort will always, always be appreciated and remembered.

First and foremost, hello to any newcomers stopping by! My blog is outdated since the cancer diagnosis, but this post is always a good place to start. There’s also the About Me page and some of my favourite posts from when I was just a plain ole’ food and fitness blogger. Hope you enjoy yourself and can stay for a while!

Today is the big auction day! Here are some handy dandy links:

Complete list of items
Items available for my Canadian friends
How the auction works
Latest update on item closing times

I’ve already gushed about how incredible all of this is, so I will spare you from having to go through that again. Besides, there are some pretty stellar items up for bid. You gotta bid for yourself too!

Such a high point to start the week on, especially after yesterday, which I would say was probably my best day yet since starting chemotherapy exactly one week ago. I realized very quickly that good and bad days are unpredictable, so I should take advantage of my good days when I have them.

So what did I do with my good day yesterday? Nothing notable. And that’s the point. I spent it like I would any other Sunday before all this cancer mess happened. I enjoyed every second.

It means I put my baking apron back on.

After getting lavender in last week’s CSA box, I’ve been thinking about all the sweet baked goods I could infuse its floral taste into. I began trolling the internet for recipes just I like I used to. Things haven’t changed that much I guess, because per usual I couldn’t find anything that met my fancy and made part of the recipe up.

I ended up using my favourite buttermilk biscuit recipe, adding honey for sweetener, 1 tsp vanilla bean paste, and 1 tbsp lavender buds, to create Vanilla Bean Lavender Biscuits with Honey. So girly and elegant.

It felt amazing to get my hands into some dough again, to obsess over ingredients and flavours instead of medications. To get out my camera and start playing with aperture and light. When my dad saw me in my apron, he came over and hugged me, saying it was “so good” to see me in my element again. It’s true that everything is different now, but the process of making a killer batch of biscuits remains the same. Comfort at its finest.

Apart from baking, a few other things that make for a great Sunday, cancer or no cancer, include a walk with my family…

Big sister Jane is in town!

Steaks from my dad’s barbecue…

Not surprisingly, chemo hasn’t done much to suppress my always heightened appetite.

And a visit from my baby nephew Cole.

He looks so serious for the camera, but when he flashes his baby smile and dimples, you can feel the weight of the world immediately go away. Instant mood enhancer :)

Today is hopefully shaping up to be another good day! But I refuse to spend it crabby like I would have on any other Monday. Instead, drop by Twitter from 1pm-2pm ET under the hashtag #TGFA for a special chat with Katy, Janetha, and I about the fundraiser and my thoughts on my experience so far.

As my friend Madeline says, make it a great one!