Alot's been going on

Abby had her first airplane ride, we went skiing, visited with longtime friends, I spent a week in the hospital and all the time kept up with work & school activities.


Advocare has been busy, too. Getting a few fresh new items for Spring, and getting ready for swimsuit weather!


The latest new product is Strawberry Slam! We still have LemonAid, Power Punch and Octane Orange available.


Also, the current special - buy 2 bottles of ThermoPlus for just $54.


All the other stuff? Gotta download some pics, then I'll tell that story.

The Waiting Room @ MD Anderson

Except for the bald heads, wheelchairs and medical ID bracelets, you would never know this was the waiting area for chemo treatments.

It's really more like social hour at the community center. And it's kinda noisy at that.

Three women over there are talking about where they want to go shopping now on their way back home. I think one of them is a bit hard of hearing, because they all are politely yelling at each other. And this group over here is waiting for Grandma to come out - it's Grandpa, the adult Daughter & her Husband and their college aged Granddaughter sitting on her boyfriend's lap. Someone in the group is doing some major DIY landscaping in their front yard. It's becoming frustrating and they are about to hire someone to finish the job. The couple over there in their running shoes are discussing an article in a Vanity fair magazine. She has a nice yellow Kate Spade bag, he has a backpack with his chemo pump in it - I'm guessing that means he has prostate cancer.

Those 2 guys just met. They both are wearing camo baseball caps - one in boots the other in UT Crocs. The Crocs guy has a bag, too - again, I'm guessing prostate cancer. They are talking hunting or sports or something. That guy over there has the TV remote; he's looking for a golf tournament.

Me? I'm online IM'ing Brian about returning a pair of sneakers we bought on RoadRunnerSports.com and making sure Abby gets a bath and in bed by 7:30 since it's a school night. And, I'm finishing up plans for our vacation - looking for discount lift tickets and car rentals.

Oh yeah, the elephant is standing over there.

I'm hungry. I hope they call me soon so I can order dinner in the room.

Just fine. Thank you.

It happened again - while I was talking with a woman who was telling me about a great salad that is part of her new weight loss & fitness plan. She wants to lose about 50 pounds. "Oh but you're so fit," she says, "you don't need to worry about this stuff." I just smiled and said "Thank you."

Should I have told her? That I lost 35 pounds the hard way. That I have cancer, started chemo and was so sick that I couldn't eat and when I did it just came right back up.

I've gained alot of it back. I am really conscious of what I eat and work hard at putting the weight back on with healthy calories.

At times, there's a brief moment there when I want to be offended. But then I realize how crazy that is and this person, bless her heart, is just trying to be nice and is really proud of being able to accomplish her weight loss goals and I don't need to bring her down by launching into my story.

So I just say "Thank you." It's kinda like when people ask how I'm doing and I say "Fine, thanks for asking."

A funny thing happened on the way to Chemo ...

Actually, funny stuff happens all the time. Well, maybe not so funny to anyone else - I suppose it's all in the way you look at it.

I'm at MD Anderson today. It's one of my long days. That means I will have a 4 hour chemotherapy treatment. Before my treatment I have to get my labs (blood test) then I go to my chemo. There are several chemo treatment areas throughout MD Anderson. I get my labs done in the Main building and today my chemo is in the Mays clinic.

I had been reading an article in Southern Living magazine and hadn't finished it before my blood test so I took it with me and headed over to the shuttle to ride over to the other building. Now, you have to imagine MD Anderson as a kind of city with hundreds of Doctors in lab coats and patients with their families and administrators and support staff all walking around. It's really amazing.

I was sitting on the shuttle, it's like a big golf cart, next to someone in a white lab coat and she noticed the cover of my magazine had a picture of a delicious chocolate cake with ganache filling. She said, "Oh my, that cake looks absolutely deadly." I couldn't help but giggle and she asked me why. "Deadly? That's just a funny word to be using around here, don't you think?"

The Lighter Side of Low-Carb: Cici's Pizza Bowl of Slap Happy

The Lighter Side of Low-Carb: Cici's Pizza Bowl of Slap Happy

Drew Brees is Gluten, Egg & Dairy free

I found this article about Advocare's #1 Endorser, Drew Brees. His diet is free of gluten, egg & dairy. He still is able to use Advocare products.

Advocare & Hair Loss

You may see that I have a little tracker that let's me know about traffic to this blog. I've noticed that I get alot of search hits from folks using key words referring to hair loss. Well, I lost my hair due to chemotherapy. No big deal really, I knew it would grow back. The most annoying thing was losing my eyelashes and my eyebrows. But, I did get to go through the summer without having to shave my legs!

As far Advocare goes for those who are wondering about thinning hair and hair loss - I have heard that Anti Aging formula has been helpful due to the ingredient Reservatrol. Couple that with Amplify AT for even better results. And now Advocare's new product, BioTools has come out and it too contains Reservatrol.

I plan to attend the event in Houston Thursday Feb 24, to learn more about BioTools.

I also am looking forward to seeing - and thanking - a couple of people who helped me out last year when I first received my cancer diagnosis. Dr Judith Smith, the gynocological oncologist from MD Anderson who sits on the Advocare Sci/Med board and Mike Wade, the Advocare Regional VP who both helped me during that frantic afternoon when I got the results of my CT scan and had no idea what to do next.

So, for those of you who come back looking for answers to your questions about hair loss, I hope this was helpful. To learn more, join me in Houston or one of our other events, or contact me.