iCancersurvivor: April 2008

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

iCancersurvior: Woo Hoo ... Chemo Over

My Most Wonderful Family, Friends and Colleagues,

Woo Hoo...Yippee....

8 Series of Chemos over 16 weeks and about 25 plus visits with the wonderful Angels of Tower Oncology guided by Dr. Philomena McAndrew.
Gratefully the skillful, kind and awesome Dr. Jerrold Steiner took that "darn" port out!
I am finished with "Phase One"... and believe me an awesome milestone.

Good news is no more chemo... bad news is my poor body is trying to recover and it's a "process" with all sorts of "side dishes"... most recent is an infection I got last week... (was one of those Lady ones..."prime raising ingredient for bread they call them")... was NOT fun!!! But apparently "more normal"...oh joy...glad I'm "normal", I just wanna know is when we get back to what I call Normal...Big smile...

Feeling a bit better now, only to battle what seems to be a low grade cold and that nagging fatigue that just does not go away...oh how fun...and I thought this 2 week break between Chemo and Radiation was going to be kind of "Footloose"...oh well...I will have plenty of time to party when I've beaten the beast so I'm going to keep the focus...and try and keep doing as much work (nowhere near as much as I'd like) as I can, cause when I'm done...
I'm really ready to start "living", "working" and "playing" again...

Moving on to "Radiation" the glow in the dark" phase will start this Monday,
8 weeks 5 days a week over with a new group of Angels, related to Tower over at The Center of Radiation Therapy .. Did I mention I also get Tattoos with Radiation...more on my next update...

I must again apologize and hope you can forgive me for those calls and emails that I have just not been able to return I promise I will get there.. HOWEVER I really want each and everyone of you know I can NOT Thank each and everyone of you enough for all of your wonderful cards, letters, emails, flowers and goodies. I truly believe that without you I would not be able to do this...I will be forever grateful, thank you again truly you have all made me feel so very blessed.

Hope the Warm Sun of Spring Shines down upon each and everyone of you.
Much Love
Linda

The Most Recent Movie of the events of the past weeks

And Joe Gareri is moving along in his new job in India with some very entertaining photos and videos check out his blog.

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.

"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

Wednesday, April 2, 2008

iCancersurvior: Woo Hoo ... Chemo Over

Why the iDoggiebag Foundation

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