Sorry…. too exhausted to upload pics, I will tomorrow! 🙂
Ahh! Back home and ready to tell ya about it! I didn’t video blog… I should have!
We had made plans to go out of town for Tims birthday a while ago. During that time I had been contacted about pancreatic awareness events that just happen to be happening during the same time and it fit into our trip. We were going to go as a group with a couple of my friends but as I said before, they had to cancel and we decided we should go anyways instead of sitting at home. We were in Philadelphia, PA for Friday (hey Philly fans!!!) and it seems every time I go to Philly the weather just isn’t so nice. Is it me? What did I do? haha! Last time I was there it was SO COLD and Tim was miserably sick if anyone recalls that from the beginning of November. The time before I recall just being cold and rainy as well and then this time the rain came. Fortunately we were at the game and decided to head out around the 6/7 inning and when we made it to my vehicle the rain just let loose for a little bit.
The Phillies game had a PANCAN awareness night and it was nice!! I was super tired but it was great and I don’t mind rooting for Philly for a night. I mean, they did school the Cardinals alright with a score of 8-2 ….sorry Cardinals. I met great people from the Philly Affiliate that I didn’t mean last fall at the PurpleStride and they even brought up me speaking at the PurpleStride this year in the event which I am beyond honored! I’ve spoke for a High School class so I suppose I could step up my audience although I might be nervous as all when the time comes haha! I am sure the crowd will be even bigger than last year and may have people that were diagnosed this year there and if I can give them hope as someone living with the disease at Stage 4 that has spread all over, then I’d love to! Also, sorry for the people sitting next to me at the game that I wish I met!! (thanks for finding my blog!! 🙂 ) .
Next day? NEW YORK CITY!!! Now this is just one of my favorite places to go! I could TOTALLY see myself living in an NYC apartment and being a fun ‘Carrie Bradshaw’ like girl. Ah! I’m talking if I was a single girl with no dogs or anyone, just living on my own care free. It’s not practical for us but hey, I can dream when I go every time and if I hadn’t been with my husband since high school and lived as a single girl then I probably would have lived out that dream…. oh well! I get to the city as often as I can and I always try to make a reason… “hey hun, it’s your birthday.. you wanna go to the city to get outa town?” haha! Then I even got to add “Look, theres a purplestride the same day we will be there!”.
The NYC PurpleStride was SO great!! I loved their event!! Once again, I met people that follow my blog!! It’s still crazy to me that whenever I go to events I get many people that come up to me and know me from my blog! The sweetest people ever!! I am honestly so taken back and so appreciative that I can help someone and for them to share that with me, they are truly helping me.
Somebody had actually asked me a question at the event that kinda spoke to me. They told me a story about their friend fighting this disease and this is all new to them and her friend is inoperable and she wanted to know if she’d ever be operable. Ok, obviously I am not a doctor. What I do mean how this spoke to me is that I feel so much of this fight is mental and keeping your head in the game per se. I keep positive and believe in myself. They will probably tell her that there is nothing she can do, she’ll never be cured etc. They (doctors) always say this and do go by science and statistics. My doctor says the same to me and it’s ok but to me I believe I will be operable one day. I really don’t care if no one wants to believe in me but I believe in myself. I do believe I can figure things out and have with what works for me since I have so far and believe one day they will say “Ashley, you are elegible for the whipple”. I’ve had friends that said they cry a lot and are scared for me but if I sat around and cried all day every day then that would put more stress on my body which I don’t need. Sure I’ve had plenty of days were we have cried a lot and asked a lot of questions of whys and talking about the past but I can’t do this often. I prefer to stay positive and focus on a healthy future.
Oh! I also forgot… I met Dan Grimaldi, he actually just happen to be hanging out in our group talking and we got to talking. If you are unfamiliar he is in actor… any Sopranos fans?? I’ll post pics of us tomorrow. He told me the story of losing his wife so fast to pancreatic cancer and it was simply heartbreaking! She came home one day complaining of not feeling well and He was so nice and personable and he said I’ll be seeing him again when he comes here (DC) in June. yay!
Then today…. today I went horseback riding for my friends 30th birthday! There were 11 of us girls and we had a great time in the country of Virginia. After horseback riding we did a wine tasting. Unfortunately I didn’t have anything to eat whatsoever because I didn’t have time so the wine really hit me… hard! Let’s just say I was feeling quite good after many glasses, we all were! 🙂 Then it was time for a fabulous lunch outside at the winery, with more wine of coarse. 😉 After that it was time to go… go to another winery that is! At this time I was done. I opted out of drinking anymore and truly needed a bed to crash. I’ve been running on 4 hours a sleep a night for the last many days that I am truly exhausted and done.
I just got home tonight at 9pm and I’m not sure how long I’ll be able to stay awake but I’m trying to not crash while writing this…haha!
I’ll post the pictures tomorrow!! 🙂
xoxo~Ashley
Cancer Kickin' Girl 