Laps of Love!

Hey All of Kim's Fabulous Fans out there! I've got the results from last Saturday's Laps of Love! I'm sorry it's taken me a while to get them up here, but here is our info:

These are the names and number of laps from everyone who came out to the fun run (Our Superstars!) Just so you know, the Logan High track has four laps for every mile.

Cameron Reeve- 34
Desirae Eastmond- 18
Heather Hicken- 13
Thomas Hicken, Melody, Tobias & Felicity- 4/2/2&5
David Phippen- 20
Scott W. Hale- 22
Skyler Higley- 7
Rossy Singh- 8
Kara Skalka- 8
Susana Arredando- 6
Sara Painter- 23
Melissa Fowler- 24
Whitney Bowman- 15
Cassie Johnson- 8
Dianna Maughan- 4
Kodey Meyers- 10
Ellie Edwards
Craig Alder
Luke, Deb, Eliza and Hannah Andrew- 2
Heather Cazier-8
Kris Albretsen- 4
Bethany Olson- 12
Tiffany Samuelsen- 8
Emily Davis- 9
McKenzie Davis- 8
Haylie Meritt- 17
Kim Cluff- 7
Marcus Cluff- 2
Toby Cluff- 6
Randy Cluff- 4
Jeff Tanner- 6
Parker, Hunter & Kaiden Tanner- 8/2/1
Alissa Tanner- 8
Jessica Black- 24
Megan Davis- 20
The Kent Family
Jordan Archuleta- 8
Emily Nelson- no clue how many laps I ended up with... I was all over the place!
Denece Miller- 7
Dauneen Lemerich- 7
Joshua, Phoebe, Mary, Sabrina, Daniel & Jule Albretsen- 4/6/1/1/2/10
Wendy Nye- 8
Henry Olson- 14
Russ Olson- 14
Todd & Carol McDonald
Katie McGough- 1
Scott Winslow- 1
Camna South
Jon Conger
Becca Gee- oo
Pamela Gee- 6
Grandma Mary- <3


SPECIAL RECOGNITION TO:

Cameron Reeve for Most Laps
The Tanners for Furthest Distance Traveled
The Albretsens for Largest Group
Heather Hicken for Organizing the Fun Run
Kim Nelson for Her Amazing Strength in Battling Cancer
Everyone who came to the Fun Run to Support Kim
Every One of YOU who was there in Heart because you care about Kim

THANK YOU ALL!

Goodies from Grandma!

Hi everyone, it's Kim again, the crazy girl from the hopsital :D. Things are going well here. Especially my sanity! The docs gave me two bags of blood yesterday and boy did that feel good. What an energy boost. Hum... BLOOD! I must be turning into a vampire, I think my teeth are more pointy! Hehe just kidding. I was able to work out quite a bit today and yesterday. That's exactly what makes me feel totally awesome. I even dared to eat fish yesterday I was that happy. ;) Mom and I have also played a lot of Rockband the past few days. I'm turning her into a rockstar! It's a great way to pass the time.

Another amazing thing that happened yesterday. I got a halloween package from Grandma Tanner. It was full of healthy snacks and brain-stimulating work searches, word crosses etc. Most excellent. It caused me to make many squeals of joy! Thanks Grandma!

Em is right, I do have a rash again, not as bad as the first one, but still there. Just today it started to feel a lot better and doesn't look nearly as red. The other problem I'm dealing with is my eyes. Yesterday and today they have been really irritated. I got a visit from the eye doctor. He was a very nice guy. And the stuff he put in to numb my eyes was such a relief. I wish they could prescribe that to me.

A few days back I had a funny reaction to one of the chemos I was getting, VP16. It caused my lower lungs to have spasms. I didn't think much of it, hardly noticable, but the nurse practitioner gave me an inhaler. Two puffs later some weird things happened. I got a horrible headache and I was all shaky. Then I started laughing and I couldn't stop. It was a weird laugh, I sounded like an insane hyena! I thought it was pretty funny, scared mom to death and she called the nurse to come in. It was a normal reaction, but they decided it wasn't worth it. I haven't had the spasms again anyway.

On Sunday, Charla and Mel came down. They brought Indian food, tons of candy and a few movies. Mom and Char loved the Indian. It was ok, not too poisonous ;) and better than the squid they made me eat at Olive Garden. BLAH! We then watched "Steel Magnolias." I've never seen it before. It was really funny. Hard to hear over mom and Charla when the room was shaking from their laughter :).

On Tuesday, Heather and Tom Hicken, my fabulous cousins, came to see me. They showed me pictures of the Laps of Love, who ran in it and gave me a shirt that had the Gotta Run club's logo on it. I just have to say thanks so much. I never thought people would come together like that for just one person, for me. It brought tears to my eyes when it sank in how many people loved me. I feel enormously loved. It lifted my soul. I can't thank you enough. Your love and support means so much to me and my family. I love you all so very much. Thanks again!

Quick Update

Hey All, so sorry I haven't posted recently! Things have been very crazy around here, and Kim has been pretty worn out with this round of chemo, and hasn't got to it herself.

I just want to do a quick thank-you now to all of you who came out to Kim's Laps of Love fun run! It was so amazing to see you there... I can't tell you how much it means to us! I am going to do a special post for you as soon as I get the roster back from Heather, who is so wonderful for coordinating everything! (That way I can post your laps- we had some pretty impressive numbers!)

Kim is through with her chemo treatments for this hospital stay, but as you know if you've been reading the blog, this means that a lot of the side effects don't start to hit until now. She's been having trouble with a rash again, slightly different than the first one. They have her on benadryl a lot, so she's usually tired. Aside from that, things are looking okay. (Everything looks okay now that we know it seems to be working!)

I know she's feeling a little down about being stuck in the hospital for Halloween, but I'm planning to spend this weekend with her, so hopefully we'll have a fun little party of our own. And, I was thinking- if anyone wants to do a little, reverse-and-technology-based-trick-or-treating we could bombard her with fun texts and emails that day. You know, "Trick-or-Treat! I love you, Kim!" or maybe, "Trick-or-Treat! Why wouldn't the skeleton cross the road? Because he didn't have any guts! LOL" ... You get the idea (as the semester progresses, I start to lose my mind earlier and earlier in the night- sorry!)

Anyway, look forward to more coming soon. Thank you, everyone!

Back for Round Three- But, BIG NEWS!!!

We're nearly getting to be old hats at this business! Kim went back to Primary Children's for round three of her treatment today. We're hoping that her stay will be even shorter this time... (her first stay was 34 days, second was 24...) but with it being flu season, it's hard to say what her doctors will have her do.

As for the Big News... We got the results from Monday's Bone Marrow Test. The doctors could find NO DETECTABLE LEUKEMIA CELLS in her marrow at all! That gives her a through and through zero percent cancer rate, and an OFFICIAL REMISSION!!! Now, she still has to have a few more months/rounds of chemo treatment, or the leukemia would be very likely to come back, but this is exactly where she needed to be at this point in her treatment. I know things have been going so well for her because of her amazing spirit, and the thoughts and prayers from all of you. Thank you so much! Let's keep it up and get her through the rest of this!

This round, Kim is going to have just five days of treatment, in more intense doses than she used to get. So, it's going to be a rough first week, but knowing that it's all Working is really going to help! Her official visitation rules look like they are going to be stricter than they used to be, but not impossible. They're asking that no more than two people be in the room with her at a time, and visits be kept short. And of course, the usual- wash hands, no flowers or laytex balloons etc, and no sick visitors. But of course, emails, letters, texts and anything else to drive away the boredom and keep her spirits up are more than welcome! Thanks everyone!