Walk Ahead 5K

We did it! The 5K was yesterday and I am very proud to report that we all made it to the finish line. The team of Melissa's Magnificent 10 became Melissa's Magnificent 43 and was the top fund raising team in the race, bringing in over 9 Thousand dollars! Thank you all so much for your donations to this amazing cause. They will keep the donation pages active until November 1st, so I will leave the button on my sidebar up until then. After that time, if you would like to make a donation to the University of Cincinnati's Brain Tumor Research department you can contact me and I will pass on their information.

The race was a huge success all around. The organizers were expecting 200 participants in the race and were hoping to raise $60,000. They ended up with 1600 participants and raised $138,000. The race course was amazingly beautiful, Starting in Newport, Kentucky, taking us over the Purple People bridge and ending on the river in Cincinnati. Nick and I decided at the last minute to actually run part of the race, and that was fun! We maybe ran 20%... but considering we did no training we thought that was pretty good. We ran the entire portion in KY :). Here are a few pictures from our day. Thanks again for all of your support. I can't tell you how much it meant to our entire family.

Some of Melissa's Magnificent 43! (look how tall Nick looks!)

Family. Yes, I do have on a tank top. I had a jacket over it, but you all, it was so freaking hot. Like 90 degrees hot. But very beautiful!

Sisters

Cici was very excited about her first 5K

Missy and Ashley, who is her great friend who told us about the race and got us all involved!

Me and Nick

Mom and Missy. Adorable

Mom and her girls (yes, we took a lot of pictures before the race. What? We like pictures! Who needs to mess with stretching before a race??)

Crossing into Cincinnati on the Purple People Bridge. Obviously we were very serious about our finish time, seeing as how we stopped for a quick photograph.

Missy with some of her girlfriends who came in from Columbus, Louisville and Chicago to be apart of the race!

Finish! (which oddly enough, was not the same place as the start. So after the race we had to walk another mile to our car. Not the best plan, but the entire walk was so beautiful that we didn't mind!)

Update on Missy

Thank you all so much for your thoughts, prayers, comments, donations and support for my little sister. It means more than I can ever tell you. I wanted to post an update for you all now that we have a little more information on her cancer. The original post about her tumor can be found here.

Last week Missy and my parents met with her neurosurgeon and two oncologist. It was good news. There is no doubt about it, having brain cancer sucks, but if you are going to get it, Missy has the kind to get. He said that she is considered a juvenile case, even though she is 28, because her tumor has actually been there for 10-12 years. Ten to Twelve YEARS. That just blows my mind. He said that he has patients who have this type of tumor who, ten to twenty years after treatment, are still living a normal life. This is just...I can't even put it into words how relieved we are with this information.

Of course we are not taking her tumor lightly and neither are the doctors. She has cancer, brain cancer, and that is still devastating. She will most likely be starting radiation in the next few weeks. Something that I am sure will make this all seem much more real. The tumor was too large and covered too much area for the pin point cyber knife radiation to be effective, so they have to use the traditional radiation. She will be sick and she will lose her hair. Things that are very hard on her, and on all of us as we worry about her. But these treatments will get her as close as they can to having her cancer free. And that is what is most important. Get her as healthy as we can, and then let her live her life. That is what the doctor told her, "Live your life". They are the greatest three words we can here. The idea that she has cancer is terrifying, but she has a chance to live her life. That is all we can ask for.

I have surpassed my goal for my 5K fund-raising! I am blown away by your alls generosity. Thanks so much to all of you for helping! Of course, I will be thrilled to raise more, so if you are still wanting to donate please do. Here is the site to make a pledge for Melissa's Magnificent Ten (which now has 34 members and counting)!

Family Lane

We had a wonderful trip and are now home safe and sound! I would love to blog all about our amazing weekend, but alas I am back to real life, and real life is crazy busy. So, for now, here is one little picture from our trip. More to come soon!

PS. I am only $20 away from my goal for my 5K for brain tumor research. Don't you want to put me over the top?? Click here to read the story behind my walk and click here to donate! Thanks so much to all of you who have already helped to get me so close to my goal!

My Little Sister

**I was planning to stay quite on this subject, but my little sister has let me know that it is okay to tell you all the details of what has been happening in our family over the past few weeks. So here is her story. She is the bravest, most amazing person I know. Thank you all for your constant prayers and support, even while being in the dark about our situation. It means more to me and my family than we can ever say.**

My little sister Missy had been having a terrible headache for weeks. It began on the way down to Florida for our family vacation, and never truly went away. It hit a peak when we were out of state to meet Cici, but she called her primary care physician and he told her to take Excedrin Migraine. We picked some up and she began feeling much much better. The headache was still there, but she was able to function. She was able to enjoy the weekend with her new niece. Everything seemed better.

Over the next few weeks the headache lingered on. She went to the doctor. Several times. They thought it was a sinus problem. They thought it was migraines. They just weren't sure. Finally her PCP sent her to a neurologist. She thought it was a pinched nerve. She thought it was migraines. She said the Excedrin was causing part of the headaches and she needed to go off it. At no point in any of these visits did they actually scan her head.

On Friday, August 27th she was at work (she works at the hospital) and her head was hurting so badly, and she knew when the Excedrin wore off it would be unbearable, so she went down to the ER. The doctor was positive it was a migraine, but said nobody should have a headache for seven straight weeks and not have a CT scan. That is when they found it. A large brain tumor in her frontal lobe. At first he didn't think it could be cancer because it was so large, but once an MRI was preformed he became pretty positive that it WAS cancer. She was sent home Friday afternoon with surgery scheduled for first thing Monday morning.

Monday August 30th my sweet little sister had brain surgery to have her tumor removed. They say the surgery went very well. They got most of the tumor. Most but not all. They said they knew they wouldn't be able to get it all. It was a tumor of the brain, not from someplace else in the body. This means it was impossible to tell for sure where the tumor stopped and the brain started. The tumor was located right against the speech center of her brain, so he wanted to take as much out as possible without jeopardizing her ability to talk. He did an amazing job. That same night she woke up from surgery talking and was her perfect normal self. She felt like crap of course, and had one hell of a headache, but she was still her. Still Missy. Perfectly her sweet self.

She spent the next couple of days in the hospital and came home that Thursday. Amazingly, she went back to work (part time for now) this week. We are still waiting on all the lab results to find out the type and grade of the cancer. The doctor believes it is a non-aggressive, slow growing cancer. The best you can hope for once you find out you have brain cancer. The said as long as it is grade 2 or lower she will most likely only do radiation treatments and not chemo. We will find out all those details soon. The waiting is hard, the not knowing what comes next.

She is so strong. Stronger than I could ever imagine being. She has faced this situation with such grace. I feel the desire to stand between her and this situation. To try to protect her somehow. She is my little sister. My baby sister. It is my job to watch out for her and keep her safe. She does not need this. She doesn't deserve it. But that is not how these things work. You deal with the hand you are dealt, and she is dealing with hers amazingly well.

One reason Missy has said I could share her story is because On October 10th our family will be participating in the University of Cincinnati’s 5K walk/run for brain tumor research. A team has been set up in her honor, Melissa’s Magnificent 10. I will be walking and hoping to raise $500 to help their ongoing research for Brain Tumor treatments and cures. If you would like to make a donation to the cause, it would be greatly appreciated by me, my family and the entire research team at UC. You can make donations on my personal page at:

Sarah's Brain Tumor Research 5K Donation Page


Credit and debit cards can be entered on the donation page or checks can be given to me or mailed in.

Thank you all so much for your support. Your prayers and kind words during this hard time have meant so much to us all. Together we will fight this, and she will win.