Ellyn Davidson’s Weblog

I realized today as I was out for a walk that one month from today, I’ll get up bright and early, make my way to OCC in Farmington Hills, join my mom, mother-in-law, sister-in-law, aunt and closes friends in the journey of a lifetime.  25 of us will walk 60 miles over the course of 3 days in the breast cancer 3-day.  For months, I’ve been fundraising, training, recruiting team members and looking forward to the walk.  Now, I am less than 1 month away.  Last Saturday, I put on my shoes, my camelbak, grabbed some cash and a cell phone and headed out for a 5 1/2 walk.  It felt good–actually great.  I just kept walking and walking.  I know the 60 miles will be tough but I’ve travelled a tougher road, and I feel stronger than ever.  Ta Ta Breast Cancer is less than $10,000 way from raising $75,000 and I’m certain we will reach our goal.  I never in my wildest dreams imagined the amount of people that would join me in this adventure and work so hard training and fundraising to support this great cause.  I am grateful, thankful and so happy to have this team of people walking with me.  It is not only the total dollars raised but the amount of donations made to me and my teammates throughout the course of our fundraising–745 individual donation to our team.   Not to mention all the people who’ve supported our fundraisers.  Unbelievable!  All I can say is thank you.  Ta Ta Breast Cancer will be a strong force in 08 and back in 09.  We will keep walking until there is no longer a reason to walk.

It’s been a fun and very busy week.  On Sunday, we picked up two soccer player teenagers from LA.  They’ve been staying with us all week while participating in the Maccabi games.  They are great girls, and we’ve enjoyed them so much.  We’ll be sad to see them leave. 

All 3 kids of my kids are done with camp, and I’m in full mom mode in addition to a little work, a little walking and whatever else I can fit into the schedule.  I love being busy although occassionally juggling 3 kids while trying to work gets a bit stressful. 

Last week, I took my 6 year old to the doctor with me to get my port flushed.  He’s into medical stuff–likes to watch those gross surgery shows on TV–so I thought he might be interested in the whole port flushing thing.  Although it’s pretty simple, relatively painless and I don’t think it’s gross at all.  We were talking about the whole chemo thing, and I was telling him about one treatment when my brother(Uncle Joey) took me home and I walked up 4 flights of stairs to get to his car while he followed close behind.  I told him how I usually went to the doctor feeling pretty good but then the medicine would make me kind of tired and not quite myself.   He thought for a moment and responded with his own analogy.  “Mom”, he said, “It’s kind of like when the TV is on but there’s no show.”   So interesting that he was able to come up with that.   Yes.  Post chemo I was definitely only partially there but thankfully I recovered quickly each time. 

The TV is fully on now.  My days are jammed with work, kids, training and FORCE and yes I do get tired but it’s a different kind of tired, a much better kind of tired, and I’ll take this kind of tired any day of the week.

We all watched Randy Pausch’s journey with pancreatic cancer from his last lecture up until his last moments.   For many of us, he changed our thoughts and views about life–what’s important and what’s not.  While Randy was sharing his personal journey, I was going through my personal journey.  The #1 difference is I was fortunate to be diagnosed with breast cancer–a curable and treatable cancer when caught early and treated aggressively.  Those diagnosed with pancreatic cancer are not so lucky.  I lost my biological grandfather to pancreatic cancer.  I never knew him and neither did my father.  He died when his wife was pregnant with his only child.  My grandmother brought my father into this world on her own because pancreatic cancer took her husband.  Over the course of my life, I’ve watched others quickly lose loved ones from this dreaded cancer.   Just recently a close friend lost his father.  It’s one cancer that really terrifies me.  Pancreatic cancer has a small link to BRCA and it’s usually caught when it’s too late.

So as you know, I don’t usually post unless I can share some decent news.  While reading some message boards and doing a little internet surfing, I found an article printed in the July issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics.  To be honest, I’ve never heard of this publication, I’m not a doctor or a scientist either but it seemed pretty reputable and best of all, it had some good news about pancreatic cancer.  The last line of the abstract says the most important point “This novel and innovative approach combining a dietary agent and a virally delivered therapeutic cytokine provides a means of both preventing and treating human pancreatic cancer with significant clinical translational potential. “  So I don’t know what all of this means but preventing and treating human pancreatic cancer is all I need to hear.  It makes me realize how many people are fighting everyday to find cures and nothing makes me happier.  Keep fighting guys!

I just got back from our second FORCE meeting.  Both my mom and dad came to this one.  My dad–because he carries the BRCA genetic mutation–and my mom, because why not?  It was fun having her there.  She’s always a bit more emotional about the whole cancer thing than I am but I get it, I’m a mom too.  Anything that happens to your kids is way worse than if it happened to you.  Anyways, we made it through the year.

Quick funny story–or maybe not so funny story.  Several years ago, she joined Weight Watchers–more to learn portion control, healthier eating and to support my dad.  Neither of them really needed to lose much weight but they did change their eating habits and became life members.  In order to be a life member, you have to go for monthly weigh-ins.  In the midst of my year, she went for her weigh-in and was told, she weighed too little and couldn’t come back without a doctor’s note.  Who goes to Weight Watchers and is told they don’t weigh enough?  Anyways, I’m happy to report she’s moved her way back up a bit so she doesn’t get kicked out of Weight Watchers.  Congrats mom!

So back to FORCE.  Lots of people have questions about BRCA, genetic testing and what it all means.  Many people look at me with a blank stare when they hear I have the “breast cancer” gene.  Others want to know if they should get the test and who they should call?  If I had to comunicate a few things really quickly and simply, I would say:

If you have a family history of breast or ovarian cancer, talk to a genetics counselor.  Anyone can draw blood and send it in for testing but here’s what genetics counselors can do for you:

1.  Navigate through the complex insurance situation and make sure your test(which can cost over $3,000 if you don’t know a specific mutation), is covered by insurance. 

2.  Sit down with you, deliver your results, explain what they mean and help you understand all your options.  They’ll spend an hour or more with you and help you navigate through the system.  Typically your family physician or OBGYN doesn’t have the time to do this for you and may even call you with results.  Hearing you have a gene that causes cancer is sort of tough to swallow but probably tougher if you are sitting in the car with 4 kids in the back seat and your cell phone rings.  This didn’t happen to me but it has happened to other people(not sure about the 4 kids in the car but it’s possible). 

3.  Help you understand GINA and other laws that protect you against discrimination.  GINA finally passed and as of May 09, the health insurance aspect will take full effect but right now there are other laws to protect you.  By the way, GINA doesn’t cover life insurance, disability insurance or long-term care insurance so you may want to make sure you are covered with those before you get the test.

4.  Send you to a FORCE meeting if you are BRCA positive so you can hang out with me. 

The more I learn about FORCE and the more involved I get, the more excited I get.  It’s such a fantastic organization.  I’ll be fundraising for these guys soon too but I promise I won’t hit you up for donations–not anytime in the very near future at least.  I’m going to look for fun ways to raise money and see if I can find some good corporate partners.  We have to make sure this organization sticks around because they can do so much for so many women.  Not just support but making sure there is continued research specific to BRCA and making sure hereditary cancers are on the agenda of major health organizations.  BRCA affects over a million people and FORCE is the only national non-profit organization devoted to the issues of hereditary breast and ovarian cancer.  It’s enough to get me going.  Still working hard on fundraising for the 3-day, still hoping to reach the $75,000 goal but now adding FORCE fundraising as a priority.  Got any ideas, send me a comment.

It’s been a whirlwind of a week.  I Came back from a beautiful weekend in Kalamazoo celebrating Taylor’s Bat Mitzvah and jumped right into finishing up a really big proposal.  I’m happy to say that after some very late nights, the proposal is printed and ready to be packed up.  There’s nothing like finishing a big project to make you feel really good.  I love what I do so that makes everything easier.  I guess it really helps that I work for/am part of a truly great company with a group of brilliant minds and hard working people.  So people ask me all the time when it was that I went back to work, and the truth is I never stopped working.   I came home from chemo and checked my email.  I took my blackberry to the hospital on the day of my surgery.  I didn’t have to work, but I wanted to work.  It kept me focused, and I’m sure it kept my brain sharp.  On off weeks, I put my wig on and went to the office.  I had complete back-up and a wonderful support system in the office.  To say I am lucky is a vast understatement.  I could not imagine a better situation.  Brogan & Partners is truly a wonderful place– just ask any one of our 55 employees or any of our really happy clients. 

I’ve learned so much, and the great thing is I continue learning even after 14 years.  As the new frontier of social media emerges, I’m learning from our sister company, Ignite Social Media.   A couple months ago, I set up a facebook group to promote Ta Ta Breast Cancer’s fundraisers.  The group has 150 members and I frequently send messages to the group to promote these events.  On Monday Night, we had a very successful fundraiser at 24 Seconds restaurant in Berkley.  The place was packed with supporters.  The event was promoted through friends passing along emails, posting on our Ta Ta Breast Cancer facebook page, and posting on our home page of the 3-day.  These are all very basic social media tools.  It’s amazing to think how a company could use these tools as part of a comprehensive marketing program.  I invite you to check out their website and see all the cool things they offer. 

So if you’re in the market for an advertising agency, don’t forget to add us to the list.  You can join one of our many happy clients.