Hello My Dearest Family and Friends,
I can Not Thank You enough for all of your wonderful flowers, gifts, cards, letters, calls, emails, and texts of such awesome good wishes and love – I feel loved and am truly blessed.
I am proud to report I have passed the halfway point in my Chemo marathon. My final two weeks with the "Red Devil" left me feeling like there was an aircraft carrier parked on top of me – I guess that's how the "Red Devil" makes it's exit.
Good news is the aircraft carrier has set sail for another mission. My second half of Chemo has me sidled up to a new drug – Taxol.... The new drug cocktail comes with a whole new set of side effects with a few of the old ones mixed in for “good” measure....good news is there is only a "Taxi" that hit me this time.
The GREAT News is that the side effects are, for the most part, different and a little less harsh. Much like having a long bout with a really bad case of the flu aches and pains...still no hair and now my "fingernails and toenails" Literally "hurt" very weird.
I’ve been having more "up time" - even got a half hour walk in on my good week. At the risk of being guilty of conveying “Too Much Information”, I will say that I have experienced hitherto unexplored dimensions of, how do I say it, heartburn & gas. Volcanic eruptions emit from northern and southern hemispheres with a regularity that would rival Mussolini’s train schedules. Okay, enough of that.
More good news - my biweekly "prick" revealed blood results better than they'd been in months, allowing my Dad to treat me to a great meal at one of my favorite restaurants Pinot Bistro. The extra energy has also enabled me to welcome some of my wonderful friends who have been wanting to stop by but my total lack of energy prevented it.
KC and I made some head way on iDoggiebag.com and will be working with Teri and the awesome ladies of Big Brother Big Sisters Guild to hopefully raise a little money and have some fun at our Accessories for Success Shoping event and Fashion Show (tickets still available)
- more small steps in the long journey.
I can see the proverbial light at the end of the tunnel, and I can see it on many fronts!!!
However I say again, there is NO way I would be making it through "beating the beast" without each and everyone of you and your incredible support from my awesome brother and his friends to my mother and father, stepmother, Sister, Aunts Uncles Cousins, friends and business associates. . . Truly BLESSED I am. Thank you...
And the iPhone – well the iPhone is in a category by itself. It’s both a security blanket and a lifeline to the outside world. I owe you Apple. We’ll talk.
I hope to use all this positive energy for some great things to come. In the mean time, Taxol…And I begin interviewing "Radiolation Oncologist" for my radiation treatments following Chemo.
Little Video Slide show of the last few weeks...
I am so grateful for all of caring, talented and professional people at Tower. I’d feel lucky to know any one of them, but to know them all and be the recipient of their care is an incredible privilege. A hat tip this week to Dennisa – who always keeps her eye open for that special spot near a window for me. And Sam, who has helped me adjust to the challenges of Taxol territory, and given that little something extra this week.
I do believe it can go only "Up" from here.
My Dear Friend Joe Gareri and His Wife Karen "a Survivor" are on a "Journey of a lifetime" it is my goal to take them up on the invite to visit.
My other friend Ms. Anna Marie Piersimoni has been going through this at the same time as I she is DONE!!!. Way to many people not to think we might be reaching an "epidemic".
Some Little Things I've learned for those going through this:
1) Tea Tree Oil is my New Best Friend combined with Vitman E, Rub it from head to toe literally. (check 101 Uses for Tea Tree Oil)
2) Arnicare another new friend...during Taxol along with "Joint Juice" rub Arnicare on top of the Tea Tree Oil (does not seem to stain anything either)
3) 10-15 drops of Tea Tree Oil couple of Drops of Lavendar, Lemon Essential Oils with some distilled water acts as a nice hand sanitizer and air freshner.
Why the iDoggiebag Foundation
On March 16, 2007 Menu Foods announced the recall of 60 million cans and pouches of its products for cats and dogs – the largest pet food recall in US history. Contaminated food was believed to be responsible for thousands of pet illnesses and deaths. On July 4, 2007 Linda Rheinstein launched the iDoggiebag Foundation to help ensure that such a tragedy would never be repeated. The iDoggiebag Foundation exists to promote safe food for pets and people through research, education and dedicated donations. The traditional doggie bag provides a way to carry good food home. Your purchase of the iDoggiebag will provide a way to ensure the food we bring home is safe. Carry the iDoggiebag as a symbol of your commitment to protect yourself and your pets. Proceeds from the sale of every iDoggiebag help further the mission of the iDoggiebag Foundation.
In the News
- FDA Seizes Pet Food at PETCO Distribution Centers
- Tomatoes may not be root of salmonella outbreak
- More Money for Food Safety Is Sought
- Why are we not talking abut the Real Issues?
- Is the FDA Really able to Protect Our Food or Anything?
- Stingy Funding has put FDA in Crisis, Hmmm
- Funding for Our Food Safety? What's the Government Not Doing?
- Safety issues concerning dietary supplements could reach a "crisis" point if more money is not channeled into the US Food & Drug Administration (FDA), according to a new report from the Subcommittee on Science and Technology.
- What are some lawmakers trying to do for "2009" Maybe...
"The Nipper Story" How it Began. . .
“Have you had any recent trauma to the right side of your body?”
It is September 6, 2007. I sit in an exam room at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, stunned. I have just been told that I have breast cancer.
I look at the doctor and answer, “Yes.”
Flash back to Christmas week 2006. Nipper, my 12 year-old cat and best friend, is suddenly hospitalized with life-threatening kidney failure. Christmas Eve I begin feeding Nipper’s unused IAMS wet food to the “outside” menagerie:
2 feral cats, 4 raccoons and a bunch of possums. Nipper comes home in early January 2007 but he must go back to the vet daily for fluids. As for the outside critters, the feral cats refuse to eat the food and the raccoons disappear. At the end of January I find one of my possums, dead. The animal control officer says it looks like it was poisoned.
In March 2007, the horrific news of the pet food recall hits. ALL of Nipper’s IAMS wet foods are on the list. My vet says there’s a good chance that Nipper is one of the poisoned animals, including several others in her care. On May 22, 2007, during a seizure at home, Nipper bites me in the right arm and then on my right hand. I rush him to the vet where she makes me promise to go straight to the ER, not home. I spend 2 days at the hospital, followed by 12 weeks on a variety of hardcore antibiotics for the powerful infection from Nipper’s bites. And truthfully, from then on I never feel 100% “right.”
Nipper died the day I was released from the hospital. It was his terrible suffering and unnecessary death that literally galvanized me to create a movement in his honor, to make sure we have safe food for everybody, pets and people. To that end I launched iDoggiebag with my family on the 4th of July, 2 months before my cancer diagnosis. And by the way, I continue to look to entities like Procter and Gamble and Menu foods to be iDoggiebag allies and not the objects of lawsuits.
Please join me. Carry an iDoggiebag "the everything bag" and become part of the iDoggiebag generation. Together, let’s ensure that something like this never happens again.
Sincerely,
Linda Carol Rheinstein
Founder and Survivor
iDoggiebag
It is September 6, 2007. I sit in an exam room at Cedars Sinai Medical Center, stunned. I have just been told that I have breast cancer.
I look at the doctor and answer, “Yes.”
Flash back to Christmas week 2006. Nipper, my 12 year-old cat and best friend, is suddenly hospitalized with life-threatening kidney failure. Christmas Eve I begin feeding Nipper’s unused IAMS wet food to the “outside” menagerie:
2 feral cats, 4 raccoons and a bunch of possums. Nipper comes home in early January 2007 but he must go back to the vet daily for fluids. As for the outside critters, the feral cats refuse to eat the food and the raccoons disappear. At the end of January I find one of my possums, dead. The animal control officer says it looks like it was poisoned.
In March 2007, the horrific news of the pet food recall hits. ALL of Nipper’s IAMS wet foods are on the list. My vet says there’s a good chance that Nipper is one of the poisoned animals, including several others in her care. On May 22, 2007, during a seizure at home, Nipper bites me in the right arm and then on my right hand. I rush him to the vet where she makes me promise to go straight to the ER, not home. I spend 2 days at the hospital, followed by 12 weeks on a variety of hardcore antibiotics for the powerful infection from Nipper’s bites. And truthfully, from then on I never feel 100% “right.”
Nipper died the day I was released from the hospital. It was his terrible suffering and unnecessary death that literally galvanized me to create a movement in his honor, to make sure we have safe food for everybody, pets and people. To that end I launched iDoggiebag with my family on the 4th of July, 2 months before my cancer diagnosis. And by the way, I continue to look to entities like Procter and Gamble and Menu foods to be iDoggiebag allies and not the objects of lawsuits.
Please join me. Carry an iDoggiebag "the everything bag" and become part of the iDoggiebag generation. Together, let’s ensure that something like this never happens again.
Sincerely,
Linda Carol Rheinstein
Founder and Survivor
iDoggiebag
Why the
- iDoggiebag Foundation
- On March 16, 2007 Menu Foods announced the recall of 60 million cans and pouches of its products for cats and dogs – the largest pet food recall in US history. Contaminated food was believed to be responsible for thousands of pet illnesses and deaths. On July 4, 2007 Linda Rheinstein launched the iDoggiebag Foundation to help ensure that such a tragedy would never be repeated. The iDoggiebag Foundation exists to promote safe food for pets and people through research, education and dedicated donations. The traditional doggie bag provides a way to carry good food home. Your purchase of the iDoggiebag will provide a way to ensure the food we bring home is safe. Carry the iDoggiebag as a symbol of your commitment to protect yourself and your pets. Proceeds from the sale of every iDoggiebag help further the mission of the iDoggiebag Foundation.