I'm Audra. I was born 9/25/73. I was born and raised in Oxford, PA a small town that is near the Maryland and Delware border.
Fast forward...
The love of my life, Michael Carmack, whom I met on vacation in Ocean City, MD when I was 15, came to live with me in Nashville, TN one day after my b-day in 1999. He actually came just to visit but ended up staying. For me it was a dream come true. A couple years later we started our web design & hosting business that has now blossomed into Rock-n-Roll Design and Karma Sites.
We moved to Pittsville, MD near Ocean City, MD in July of 2004 from Nashville, TN 2 months after our son, Quinn was born. I had lived for 12 years in Nashville, TN attended college, and graduated from Belmont University. All the while and thereafter I tried my best - though misguided - at becoming a rock star. You can still hear my band here: Audra & The Antidote.
Dec. 14, 2006 at 4:00am I was rushed to the hospital after a grand mal seizure, given a CAT scan and MRI, and told "the results weren't normal". I had a mass in my brain. Dec. 18 it was removed. Dec. 20th we found out it was indeed a tumor, and a rare type called Oligodendroglioma, type II. It's the "best" of the malignant tumors even close to being benign, but it is still a tumor and it is still cancerous. Damn.
I went through 30 days of radiation therapy and during time started take the chemo drug, temodar, which I stopped as soon as radiation was over. I've also started a diet therapy based around calorie restriction with optimal nutrition (CRON). The more I talk to other brain tumor patients the more I learn especially when it comes to diet. I lost half of my hair during the radiation treatment. Most of it came back 3 months after it ended though the patch where the radiation was most concentrated still hasn't come back fully. It's come back, but much more sparse and kinda frizzy. I'll stick with the headbands for now.
I will (hopefully) deliver our second child Dec. 2008 after two miscarriages both after Quinn and before the brain surgery. Every now and then it crosses my mind that it might not be responsible to have another child now but I know if the worst did happen he/she will have a great and involved Dad and Grandparents to be there. Of course, I don't plan on it coming to that :-)
I've also since pursued and idea for a new product/invention I've had for many years. It's called The Hip Klip and you can read all about it at the website. I've partnered with Mike's sister and sales woman extraordinaire, Allison. Our "finished" product arrive the day after labor day, 2008 and test marketing so far has gone very well.
I never in a million years thought I'd have to worry about cancer. It doesn't run in my family. I thought I'd have a long life like the rest of the women in my line and only have to worry about diet and exercise. Double damn. I'm hopeful that the cancer will go into remission and the tumor will never return. Odds are the tumor will return sometime within 10 years. However, with my "even steven" luck (as we've named it) we're betting that it won't.
