Riane Writes! Welcome to My Life

   Happy Sunday!    Sundays are meant for relaxing, church and being with friends and family before the start of another work week. I, on the other hand, clean my house all day. I have already today gone to the store, put away groceries, split the ridiculous amount of meat into more manageable bags to freeze that I bought at Costco, stopped briefly to have lunch, vacuumed the bedroom, and have a load of clothes in the laundry. I still have to vacuum the rest of the house, clean the kitchen, empty and clean the fridge, dust the house, give my three dogs a bath while they try to escape the evil water, and then clean the bathroom.    I don't relax well on Sundays. Saturdays are my fun day. Yesterday we went to Uwharrie National Park to go off-roading with a few others from the Carolina 4Runners Off-Road Group. There were 6 trucks planning to come even though it was ungodly hot at 9 in the morning. We fueled up and aired down the tires to prepare for the da...

   It has been so long since I have written a blog post. I think it was sometime in 2015? Don't quote me on that, I can be a little fuzzy when it comes to dates. Let me fill you in on what has happened in my life the past few years.    Hello my name is Riane and I am a brain cancer survivor. (insert the chorus of hi Riane here). I have a stage 3 oliogoastrocytoma tumor and have had two surgeries (one was 1/15/14 and two was 12/18/14), chemotherapy, and radiation to get that sucker to stop growing. All while going through college and receiving my Bachelors in Criminal Justice might I add. Now the downfall is I will never be cancer free, or ever truly in remission. During my second surgery, my neurosurgeon had to leave part of the tumor that was on the middle wall of my brain where it was, fearing that if he removed it I would be disabled. I had no issue with his decision since I was out cold and didn't find out about it until after I came fully out of the drugs. ...

   This Sunday is my 24th birthday! That for me is a big thing.    I am going to let you in on a little secret, a dive into my mind. I love my birthday, but I have had those nasty little thoughts and wonders if I was going to make it to this one. That was more towards the beginning right after the first surgery. I got a little depressed right after the surgery, the monotony of having to rest and lay in bed, then the steroids, then the everyday chemo pills and radiation. It was really hard. At that point I couldn't drive or do many things. I felt trapped. And the nasty thoughts grew to an almost consuming state that made me act like a bitch towards someone I love very much.    I don't think this way now. I was able to focus on other things and realize that I was not trapped or anything. I focused on going to yoga, and then to the gym. I enjoyed doing work for my dad and was excited to go back to school and sign up for classes. But those thoughts are always...

So I lied. I haven't been posting every week. I got distracted. It's was midterms last week and I have been studying for those. Then it went to fall break and I was working on an essay due at the end of the semester. So let me catch you up! NaNoWriMo: National Novel Writing Month. This is a writing competition-esque event that goes on through the whole month of November. The goal is to write a 50,000 word novel or collection of works within the month. I love doing this. I did it for the first time last year and got only 15,000 words. But at the same time I was working full time, going to school full time, and finding out I had brain cancer. Writing got put on the back burner. This year though I have the time and ability to write. I am going to school full time but the month of October, while also possessing my birthday and favorite holiday, is novel planning month! This year I am doing a fantasy work that is based in Ireland and England. It have mythical creatures and a pri...

Good evening my darlings! You know what's great about chemo? It makes the bad things in my body go away. You know what sucks about chemo? I feel like warmed over death the entire time.  Yes, you read that right. Warmed over death. I started on Thursday making Friday not bad. Saturday I was more tired than anything. And then it's Sunday, horrible Sunday, that my body says hello! We do not like you anymore! Please proceed to nearest bathroom to spend the rest of the day!  Chemo makes me pretty nauseous. That's a side effect that I would rather live with than have the Tumor keep growing. There's just only so much I can do. I ended chemo on Monday, and still feel sick.  No way around it. Oh well. Rather be sick than have a tumor! 

   My darling little readers! Lend me your ears! (If you have ever seen Robin Hood: Men In Tights you will be imagining ears being thrown at you like I am)    I am not the best at blogging. I am a full time student that is graduating. Do you KNOW how much work I have? So let me catch you up on my life for the past few months. I can tell you that it's very exciting, because I am just a party animal      Because I am just the enthusiastic person I am, I went to school all summer. Literally I started in May and didn't stop until the first week of August. But that's okay since I am a nerd and like school. Now I am in my last Fall semester of college. I graduating December 19th! Woo! Now here's the downside of that: I literally study and write papers all the time. I have very little free time that I usually spend editing or thinking of new scenes for my book.   I do have time to spend with family. My grandparents came to visit my family and that wa...

Hello!    You may be new here, some may have come across this randomly, while some may have come from my page on Wordpress. I like Blogger better for creative reasons (shh! Don't tell Wordpress!). I am 23 and living with a Grade 3 Oligoastrocytoma in my brain. I have brain cancer. And I rock it because I'm fabulous!    I hope you enjoy my blog and my life. I am going to try to post at least once a week, which may be hard because I am also a college student graduating in December! WOO! I'm a little excited. But I am going to try.    My little About Me section; I live in North Carolina, was diagnosed in January 2014. I have had two craniotomies to remove the tumor, both went great. I have gone through radiation and chemotherapy to stop the growth of what they couldn't take out. I still take the chemo pills once a month to continue to prevent growth.    It's a long process but hey, I still wake up every day.