The Journey of Amy Martin: Breast Cancer Warrior: Making Strides

I know it's been a long time since I've posted - it's been a fun, exciting, and wonderful summer. We traveled to the east coast to visit family in July, have been soaking up every ounce of summer here in Wisconsin, and celebrated the birth of my niece, Eleanor "Ellie" Esther Russell this week (and I'm heading to Cincinnati to meet her tomorrow - so excited!). Besides having treatments once every three weeks, life is pretty much completely back to normal. I'm feeling great and having no side effects (despite starting Tamoxifen and having my first Lupron shot over the past month or so), which I'm very happy about. I'm back to working out regularly and am learning as much as possible about what other types of thing I can do to try to minimize my chances of a relapse (nutrition, supplements, etc). I also have a date in early December for my final reconstruction surgery and having my ovaries out - it will be a relief to have all of that done!

Although work and family stuff is keeping me very busy, I'm finding time for what is my newest cause - fundraising for breast cancer research. I found a breast cancer walk that is happening right here in Neenah in October, and have formed a team for the walk: The Tough Cookies. I've never fund raised before, but for very obvious reasons, I feel that this a cause that I need to completely throw myself into, both to help ensure my own future and to promote research and awareness for the benefit of others. So for anyone reading this blog, if you're in the area and can join us for the walk on October 13th, please go to my team page (http://main.acsevents.org/goto/thetoughcookies ) and join our team - it's going to be a wonderful event! If you're not in the area, you can still contribute at any level by going to my personal page (http://main.acsevents.org/goto/atoughcookie) and donating - even a very small contribution makes a difference! I'm very happy that my company is also allowing me to organize some breast cancer awareness events in October - I'm leading a corporate team for the walk, am going to be doing some fundraising events throughout the month, and even have my radiation oncologist scheduled to come in and give a talk about breast cancer in mid-October. I feel like some good needs to come out of my diagnosis, and if I can make a difference at all in breast cancer awareness, research, or diagnosis, then I've done my part.

Anyway, I'll keep all of you posted on how I'm doing, as well as my team's progress, over the next couple of months. For now, here are a couple of pictures from the last month or so....enjoy!