OchoRios - After the Dance

[Marilyn]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

Originally posted by swedish:
[qb] ((((M)))))

Brava, brava, brava!!!!!

More more more!!!!

[/qb]

Swedish I don't have anymore to write about, that is all that happened. You gonna have to wait until I go back in November and can have some more adventures.

[QK13]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

Originally posted by Marilyn:
[qb] Qk
wha bout the skeeters? DEm nuh bite ya???

I just noticed your signature...that is hilarious. [/qb]

NO MESH AT SKY CASTLES?!?!?

The mosquitoes LOVE me... Jamaicans tell me it's because I'm fat and I taste sweet... when I came back after 3 weeks my blood-deet level was almost 100%!!

So here's the trick...
The fan aimed at you keeps them from landing and sheer/lacy curtains in the windows keeps them out.
Most people I know in JA who don't have mesh, keep everything open during the day and close up at dusk to minimize the mosquitos. Then the fans come out.

We stay at a house in TB with mesh in the windows, but still leave the big double doors to the veranda open well into the night. I mostly get bitten outdoors and always on my feet!

Plus at the height of your room at SkyCastles, I'd think mosquitos would be minimal... [img]/forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif[/img]

It's true about that skinny woman... she's screaming right now, so maybe some leftover pasta will shut her up....

[Marilyn]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

Nope nothing but windows there, no mesh. curtain types vary from room to room as well. But the castles is real lush, so we got skeeters fi tru.

I did enjoy that day though, and the breeze felt like a lover's caress.

[Suesumba]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

marilyn, i absolutely love your hair the colour the cut is just how do you get it platinum like that?

[CeaBee]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

I noticed Marilyn from before...and though mi not lebanese...Marilyn is hot stuff! [img]/forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif[/img]

[Marilyn]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

Originally posted by SueSumba:
[qb] marilyn, i absolutely love your hair the colour the cut is just how do you get it platinum like that?

[/qb]

Sue I had long dark chestnut brown wavy hair all down my back for 47 years. Found out I had breast cancer and all my long pretty hair came out with chemo. When it grew back, it was snow white.

Ladies do you self exams every month.

[Sugar Shug]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

I don't do the air conditioning thing. Most Jamaicans probably don't need net because they have something in their blood that makes them immune to sketters. Don't you ever notice at night that only you are getting bit and your Jamaican friends aren't. Same thing happened to me in Guyana. I did the open window/balcony thing when I was alone and paid for it, but I can't stand the AC.

Oh-and Marilyn-your a mess!!
Peace

[Ochigal]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

Originally posted by Marilyn:
[qb] Sue I had long dark chestnut brown wavy hair all down my back for 47 years. Found out I had breast cancer and all my long pretty hair came out with chemo. When it grew back, it was snow white.

Ladies do you self exams every month. [/qb]

Marilyn, This is something about you I didnt know. No wonder you live life the way you do...to the fullest with no regrets.

calling my doc right now to schedule my baseline mammo that I have put off for 2 years...

[Sugar Shug]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

Ladies do you self exams every month.
Just wanted the emphasize it.
Peace

[Suesumba]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

Originally posted by Marilyn:
[qb]

Originally posted by SueSumba:
[qb] marilyn, i absolutely love your hair the colour the cut is just how do you get it platinum like that?

[/qb]

Sue I had long dark chestnut brown wavy hair all down my back for 47 years. Found out I had breast cancer and all my long pretty hair came out with chemo. When it grew back, it was snow white.

Ladies do you self exams every month. [/qb]

sometimes i read your trip reports and i can see that you revel in the experience and you truly enjoy yourself. i think i know why. glad you're a survivor.

[ohliz]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

Lovely Marilyn...I hope you save these stories on your computer or printed or somewhere??

[Marilyn]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

So here's the story. My mother had it, and my grandmother had it, but I of course, was not gonna have it....yeah right.

Every year I ran in race for the cure in honor of my Mom and grandmother.

This particular year they really emphasized breast self-exam in the gathering after the race. I was not worried because the race was the first week of Oct., and only two weeks before the race in Sept. I had been to my doctor and had a major check up which inlcuded a breast exam. I got the all clear.

Weeks after the race this tiny voice kept bugging me and would NOT leave me alone. Finally I got tired of the little worry wart and did the darn self-exam. In my right breast I found a small lump smaller than a green pea. I made an appointment.

During that appointment I discovered that I had missed my mamogram that year. The doctor scolded me and sent me in for one. They kept me there waiting for hours and finally came out and said that they were not real worried about the one I found in my right breast, but they were concerned about the one in my left breast.

"WHat one in my left breast??????"

Then came an appointment for a needle biopsy. when the needle hit it and it was so hard the needle wouldn't go in, she sent me right back to the surgeon.

The surgeon was a high school fellow homeroom student who is now one of the most compassionate and accomplished surgeons in Memphis.

It was a Thursday. He said he would schedule it for Monday. I asked him "Rad what are you doing tomorrow?"

He said "Are you going to be ready that soon, don't you need some time?"

I said "I will see you in the morning."

The next day he took both lumps out at the same time. The one I found on the right was fine. The one on the left was malignant stage 2 cancer.

They woke me up and handed me a cell phone.

"Marilyn. this is Rad, I thought you would want to know as soon as possible, and I am between buildings ,and between surgeries, but the one on the left was malignant."

Drop Baptist Memorial Hosptial on my head why don't you.

WHen I told my mother when she came to pick me up, she looked just like a balloon that someone stuck a pin in and deflated it.

Two days after my surgery I strapped on two jog bras and went running. (they told me not to)

What followed was yet another surgery to take out 16 lymph nodes from under the left arm to test to see if the cancer had spread. THEY ALL CAME BACK NEGATIVE!!!! Thank GOD!!!! 12 weeks of chemo (hair all came out with treatment #2. I bought a wig, and went back to work). One week after this surgery, I went running.

They asked me not to run during chemo, but when I felt better, I would run a little.

After chemo, 12 weeks of radiation. After it ended, I started running again.

My goal was to run in the race for the cure one year after I found my cancer to celebrate with my sisters who had made it through as well. 12,000 women ran that day. I came in first place in the survivor category, and won a silver footed tray as my prize. I didn't RUN in the race, I WON it.

But my real prize was being there, in one piece. AJ was there with me, and the race for the cure colors are pink. She found some pink plastic garbage bags and shredded them up to make pink pon poms and was standing at the finish line cheering me on when I crossed it.

I tell my story everywhere. I am not ashamed of having had breast cancer. I tell my story so YOU will take care of yourself. Check your breast, and get your mamograms (even if they are hell).

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. I speak all over the place during that month. My Ja.com sisters. Take care of yourselves. I ran the race, and I won.

I now live my life from one June to the next June. That is my mamogram month, right before GFT goes to Jamaica. Every year I cross my fingers and ask GOd for another year. That is why I don't let anyone tell me not to go to Jamaica. That is why I don't let anyone tell me I should go other places. That is why I do what the hell I want to do. I live my life from June to June, and in between, I've got paradise.

[Marilyn]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

Originally posted by ohliz:
[qb] Lovely Marilyn...I hope you save these stories on your computer or printed or somewhere?? [/qb]

O
You know I think I have like the first two I ever wrote ,and I saved this one to disc, but some of the othere, no.

[QK13]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

My mom & sister both had Breast Cancer, as did my paternal Grandmother. All survivors. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]ray:

Marilyn!!
It's not easy.

[Marilyn]

Re: OchoRios - After the Dance

Originally posted by Q.K:
[qb] My mom & sister both had Breast Cancer, as did my paternal Grandmother. All survivors. [img]/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif[/img]ray:

Marilyn!!
It's not easy. [/qb]

Child tell me about it. On the final chemo I curled into a fetal position and stayed there for about 48 hours. Then I felt a hand reach down in that dark hole I was in and told me that it was gonna be ok, and I came out of it after that , and everything got better . Chemo is the hard part.