Cause related marketing and...my medication!

Walking with the crowd for Heart Walk in downtown!

Today I participated in 2012 Puget Sound Heart and Stroke Walk with a couple of friends. One of my friend was organizing a team for his company, so I decided to join! Fortunately the Seattle-like weather decided to take a break, which we had a beautiful sunny day! The walk was 3 miles, which made me a bit worried due to my lack of physical strengths, but I made it through!

Ever since I decided to participate in this event, I also came to ponder whether I should be participating the run/walk for lymphoma...which I have discussed in my past blog, it's called Pineapple Classic 5k run with obstacles. 

Honestly, I don't think I have regained my physical strengths enough to challenge this event, so I will most likely not participate.

However, it made me think about the cause/benefit event marketing in the United States. When I registered for the Heart Walk, I was very impressed with their marketing strategies. I had my own page on the event website that shows how much I contributed, how much I have raised, and next milestone for a gift giveaway. I felt strange receiving e-mails that says "XX won a VIP package to Bar & Lounge XYZ" because XX raised the most money last Thursday. I mean it's great that they are able to raise money for preventions and research for heart diseases, but I'm worried that some people may be forgetting the original intention and just taking an advantage of the event.

I also came to realize that I think the U.S. has the most number of cause related event organized in the world. Pink ribbon month (which is October yo!), Relay for Life (American Cancer Society event fighting against cancer, more like raising funds toward stem cell research in my understanding), Dance Marathon (a.k.a THON, a friend from Penn State told me about this before. Benefiting wigs for kids), Step Out: Walk to Stop Diabetes, etc etc etc...I bet every health related society has its own benefit event. And I think Leukima & Lymphoma Society event is one of the smaller ones, probably due to the smaller number of patients and survivors...

Enough about the cause related walk/run, I began taking hormone medication last week. I complained to my doctor in Seattle Cancer Care Alliance that my light fever doesn't seem to leave me, then he looked at my thyroid hormone level from my blood test. It showed somewhat higher level compared to an average person, which may have been caused by the radiation therapy. So he prescribed me a hormone medicine, to lower that level down a bit. So far it seems to be working alright. Although my fever level has not changed, I don't feel the fatigue or exhaustion I used to experience as much. Which is...good I guess?

Back to UW Hall Health

My sweet sweet roommate decorated our apartment with awesome bouquet! So sweet!!

Tomorrow is the end of second week of Autumn quarter at University of Washington! It was fast, but it was quite a bumpy road; I seemed to have caught cold as soon as I arrived Seattle, and my fever did not leave until the end of last week. Indeed, even now, when I get home tired from school my temperature is slightly higher than my average temperature.

There's a saying in Japanese, "body is honest" meaning human body expresses its health condition quite sensitively according to the environment. Whenever my temperature is up, it reminds me of that saying. There were few moments that I felt like maybe I'm not ready to be back at school. I felt like my body was punishing me for coming back to the States. Luckily I'm a lot better than last week, although I still need to be careful not to catch cold or work too hard.

Today I got to be back to UW Hall Health to see a nurse practitioner, who then referred me to Seattle Cancer Care Alliance (SCCA). Well, I don't know how referral usually works in the U.S. but when I said a nurse referred me, all she did was hand me a phone number to SCCA, which is also available online at seattlecca.org. Fortunately I was able to make an appointment at SCCA within few hours after my visit to the Hall Health, and it's scheduled to be next week Wednesday.

Although it was over one year ago when I first visited UW Hall Health for my swollen left neck, somehow I didn't have any emotional experience when I went there today. I was indifferent; perhaps I was trying not to think about it too much. I was also a bit nervous; it was a similar feeling I had when I visit the hospital in Japan.