diversity and thankfulness

this evening, i'm really tired. i admit it. when i'm tired, i'm usually emotional and somewhat reflective. so i give you my blurb...

my job is difficult, but it is wonderful. i'm so thankful for the amazing people that come to the clinic as patients. cancer is a horrible disease and i wish that they didn't have cancer, but i'm so thankful to know the individuals with the disease. i don't think you (if you are one of my patients) realize what an impact you have on me.

for those of you that don't know much about M.D. Anderson....i have people from all across the country in the clinic every day. many times there is someone from another country that is seen as well. cancer is not too picky...not too selective. i meet people from different decades, ethnicities, religious backgrounds, and family situations. i see lawyers, businessmen, oil workers, homemakers, and teachers. such diversity!

what amazes me is that there is an equal amount of diversity in the ways that people cope. i want people to live their lives as fully as possible. yes, cancer is intruding horribly, but i don't want cancer to become who they are. hopefully that makes a little sense!

my eyelids are drooping (at 8:30!) so i'm sorry for the poor flow of things. maybe i'll write more about this later---or maybe not. i definitely don't want this to be a downer of a blog! i'll have to write more about my adventures! have a great night.

why i would not....

...be the best contestant on the bachelor:

- i do not have a closet full of cocktail dresses
- i would not quit my job to try to fall in love in 6 weeks (or whatever it is)
- i'm skeptical--obviously
- i wouldn't let him touch me...not the kind of girl they are looking for
- i'm not a back-stabber
- i don't drink like a fish
- i'm not a stalker
- if i said something stupid, i would not want it to be on national television---blogging is embarrassment enough!


oh, i meant to add---i have just gotten an additional $350 towards the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network in checks. I'll have to get those sent off to them in the next couple days. have a good night!

things that make me HAPPY!

- putting on a brand new swim cap
- a little muscle soreness after a good workout
- ice cream...although frozen yogurt is making a comeback!
- making someone's day
- checking prices on flights...i should be a travel agent!
- dreaming of future adventures
- adrenaline...and any event that produces it!
- working with cancer patients
- a great conversation
- having a good cry while reading a book
- learning something new
- baking cookies

and many more!

p.s.

please remember to visit www.firstgiving.com/tri4pancan and consider donating money to pancreatic cancer research! thanks!

athletics....

confession: i am not naturally athletic.

i have always had to work at being decent in sports. i definitely have to put the time and sweat into the sport. one of my best friends can pick up a golf club, jump in a pool, or throw a football with the finess of a well-trained athlete----all this after a filling meal from the cheesecake factory! i am not that girl.

training this week is a lot of running. in the past 4 days, i have run a total of 26 miles and swam over 2.5 hours. i still have more to go this week. my motto is--slow and steady wins the race!

i am tired and my nurse tells me i am too intense. i admire her so much that she spoke up and told me that i was being to sharp with everyone! maybe i have to start going to bed before 9?!?!

can you remember a time....

when your life changed?

i started thinking about that this morning at the gym. they were talking about the inauguration and i considered how much this is rocking the obama girls' lives. now, i don't think a life changing moment has to be as big as becoming President.

it can be a good moment or a bad one. i think there are multiple moments throughout our lives that can change our trajectory. sometimes they are just small things that guide decisions. i thinking back on things and i thought of a few right away (there are many more):

1. Trip to Iceland. i went on a missions trip to iceland for the entire summer after my freshman year of high school. it ignited my love for travel and for different cultures. it also developed my leadership skills...i have had many trips since that point.

2. Having my grandparents move to Michigan. we never lived close to them growing up and their health began to fail. i took a year off in between undergrad and PA school and it was such an incredible time with them. my grandfather was an incredible man with such a heart for greece and the less fortunate. my grandmother has Alzheimer's now and is still a bright spot in my life, although she cannot call me by name now.

3. A moment in the dining hall at Taylor University. it is too complex to go into here, but yet so simple. i just realized that i was living my life out of my own strength. it was in that moment that i realized that i didn't want to go to medical school. i was headed towards med school for the status and that wasn't going to satisfy me....thus, i'm your PA! i'm so thankful for that decision!

there are many more, but that is just a snippet....

what are your defining moments?

san francisco

i just got back from san francisco, california about 2 hours ago. the trip was to attend a conference with a focus on gastrointestinal malignancies. it was a good time and i learned as well! that is the perfect conversation.

i had never been to san fran before and it was a great city. it was gorgeous weather which makes any city look better! it actually reminded me of chicago. maybe it is just the fact that it is more "city-like" than Houston comes across to me. houston feels like a mush of suburbs to me. people think i'm crazy for walking to the grocery store here! i was used to walking everywhere while living in chicago for grad school.

it was interesting trying to continue training while i was there. the hotel had a fitness center, so that takes care of the running and biking. the pool was a problem....at least they had one! it was about 15 yards (usually they are at least 25). when you make the turns on the wall, you end up pretty dizzy because the pool is so short. one end of the pool was only 2 feet deep--yikes! so, i can't say that i enjoyed the swimming. this morning i opted to run instead of swim. i'll have to make the swim up sometime this week.

it is a run focus this week. i'm going to have to pay attention to how many miles i long this week. i hope you all are having a great weekend.

Recap

I am going to re-post the first 2 entries that I posted. I just sent out information to patients today. Hopefully people are excited about getting on board!! Please contact me with any questions.


why triathlon?!?!
some of you may be wondering, why triathlon? sometimes i wonder that too. i was a swimmer in high school and tried my hand at pole vaulting. i held my own but then ended up breaking my nose the week before graduation! i have never been a runner and my cycling experience is limited to two events: a bike trip with the church youth group to chicago and a hilly hundred in indiana (of which i only completed 50 miles). they weren't lying, it was hilly! angie (my college roommate) and i still laugh about that.

since moving to houston, i have had more time on my hands. i volunteered to help with a triathlon a year ago and ended up completing it instead. it was a lot of fun. since that point, i have completed 3 more of longer lengths. i have also begun to hate running less. i have completed 2 half marathons this year (austin and chicago). it has been a fun year in that aspect.

so, i want to do a 70.3 triathlon. this is shorthand for a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run. it totals 70.3 miles----all completed in 1 day---ideally a half day. so now you understand more of the challenge ahead of me! please consider donating to pancreatic research!
Posted by Heather at 5:44 PM 0 comments


Sunday, November 16, 2008

New to Blogging
This is my first blog ever. It is a little overwhelming to think about opening myself up to the entire world. Now, I don't anticipate that happening....but the fact that it is even a potential is mind boggling! I don't understand technology, so this is a good stretching experience.I'm not even letting you all know that this blog exists for at least a month or two. I have to ease myself into it.You might be asking, why this cryptic title? This is going to be a theme throughout the next 5 months. I have just started training for a triathlon while raising funds for the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (thus, the pancan reference). This organization raises money to support pancreatic cancer education, awareness and research. Check out the website www.pancan.org for more information. I'm sure I'll talk about it along the way as well.

Why do I care about pancreatic cancer? I don't have a family member that has passed away from it, so why the interest? I do have a lot of people that have become my friends that have either passed away or are currently battling the disease. I work at M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston as a Physician Assistant. I work specifically with Gastrointestinal Cancers and I see a lot of pancreatic cancer. I love my patients and I want there to be more treatment options and more survivers. I want patients to know that I am pulling for them.Ideally, I want this experience of training for a big event to be something that friends and family of my patients get involved in. I am hoping that they will support their loved one that is fighting hard with a donation in their honor.

So many times, friends and family don't know how to respond to a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer and this is a way that they can tangibly be working toward improving their outcome.Check out my fundraising page at www.firstgiving.com/pancan Search my name Heather Carlson and you will have the opportunity to donate to great cause. If you are convinced yet, it is okay. Hang with me and hopefully you'll see how hard I'm training and how much work their is to do before we improve the outcome for people diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.

ecuador and sisters

my sister is 23 years old and is a brand-new teacher. she graduated from college last spring with a degree in Elementary Education and Spanish. she had done her student teaching in honduras and was interested in teaching overseas. she ended up at the alliance academy in quito, ecuador. she is teaching kindergarten and elementary music. she teaches in english, but being that the kids are just learning english for the first time, she has to use quite a bit of spanish as well. she has quickly assimilated into the ecuadorian culture and is really enjoying teaching.

i love to travel, so i was more than willing to volunteer to visit over thanksgiving. i know it was extremely self-sacrificing of me! quito has an altitude of over 9,000 ft. i didn't really notice it unless i was really active. we relied on public transportation the entire time, as christy doesn't have a car. we went to banos where they have natural hotsprings. we went mountain biking which was pretty fun. we went on a hike as well.

christy had to work for a day, so i gallivanted around quito by myself. i don't know more than 15 words in spanish and it was quite easy to get around (granted, i have done a lot of travelling). i got some great freshly squeezed juice too! yum!

i went to her classroom and they dressed up like the pilgrims. the kids are adorable, but it would certainly take a lot of energy to interact with them every day! christy does an incredible job with them. i was so impressed! we went to the equator and took the famous picture straddling the northern and southern hemisphere.

we went to a bull fight which definitely was a cultural experience. i won't post any pictures about that. for me, it was a one time experience. it is like going to a huge baseball game in the USA.

we went to guayquil (another major city in ecuador) for the weekend. it was a nice relaxing time. it allowed christy to get out of her environment so she felt like she got a little break too. it has a very nice coastal region and they had the neatest iguana park. there are over 200 iguanas that live in this one square block. i'm honestly not sure why i liked it so much. as many of you know, i'm not a big animal person----although i think i have more of an affinity to reptiles and amphibians than most women do!

that is just a very brief overview of the trip. it was just so nice to be with my sister---and to want to be with her. i am so blessed.

Yikes!

I just officially registered for the triathlon tonight. I now have invested a significant sum of money and the word is going to be getting out just in a matter of days about what I"m jumping into. I certainly hope I can do it....I'm going to try my best. I'm in week 8 of the 20 week training, so it is coming along. I do have the hardest section to go though. That is good, because I definitely wouldn't be ready if I was supposed to race it this weekend.

The triathlon is on April 5th and now I need to work on getting a hotel, likely some aero bars, adjustments on my bike, a new helmet, a wetsuit, etc. I have just dabbled with triathlons before this---but you have to be comfortable for an event that is going to take many hours.

I'll say it now (and likely again)...my goal is to cross the finish line. I might have a more specific goal closer to the time but I think finishing it is my main focus.

If you want to learn more about the triathlon, check out http://www.lonestartriathlon.com/lonestar/index.html. It might be too much information. I'm going to do the half (1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run). Don't forget what I'm doing it for---to challenge myself and to raise money for pancreatic cancer! That is the most important part!!!

happy new year!

happy new year all. i hope you are all anticipating a great year ahead of you. i think our approach to life matters more than our circumstances---there are lots of things i can say along those lines!

i am going to become a more reliable blogger now. i just worked on my little handout to pass out about the triathlon. it is so scary to think about signing up, but i'm going to go for it! doing a triathlon is nothing in comparison to fighting pancreatic cancer. furthing research and support for all the people with the diagnosis are worth the pain that training brings. there is no comparison!

so, 2009 started out difficult for the indianapolis colts last night. i went to college in indiana at Taylor University and it was during that time that my interest in the colts developed. here is the skinny on the season: Peyton Manning (the quarterback), had two surgeries on his knee prior to the beginning of the season. he did not start out in prime form because he wasn't able to practice in the preseason. for that reason, they started out 3-4. it was looking grim. they went on a run after that point and won 10 games straight. unfortunately, their playoff game against the San Diego Chargers ended up in overtime. the nfl has the stupidest rules about overtime. whoever wins the coin toss basically is going to win if they play well. obviously, the colts lost. thank goodness my hope is not in a Super Bowl winning football team! it was a good game, but just an unfortunate way to lose.

what's your new year's resolution? i'm assuming the influx in the gym tomorrow is going to cramp my style a little bit, but at least people are trying to be more active!

i'm not a big resolution person. completely this triathlon is kind of a default goal, but i really set it last year....so i don't know if it counts.

i still owe you ecuador pictures and they are coming...