T’is the giving season ☃️ I’m back again for my TWENTY-EIGHTH year in a row dropping off a big bundle of holiday goodies to Toys for Tots with the US Marines, on my birthday!!
I’m excited to gather even more toys this year, and I need your help now more than ever to reach my goal of 1,000+ toys! I’ll still make it easy for you and do the shopping for you🧸 Don’t worry, I’ll have help!
Please let me and my special “Elves” be your personal shoppers by giving a monetary donation. Venmo: @ Nikki-Malnar Or contact me directly for other options.
If you prefer to shop on your own, let me be your delivery gal! We can set up a pickup time and I’ll add your gifts to the collection🎁
These four Twin Cities locations have donation boxes again this year, thank you all! If it’s easier for you, feel free to drop off toys at any of them and they’ll be added to the final count🎀
1️⃣ Braemar Arena – 7501 Ikola Way, Edina 2️⃣ DelMonico Dance – 400 St Croix Trail S, Lakeland 3️⃣ StretchLab Lakeside – 3204 West Lake Street, Minneapolis (next to Lake Bde Maka Ska) 4️⃣ Mendota Office Park – 1250 Northland Drive, Mendota Heights (Friday Collection) 5️⃣ T-Luxe Nails – 5810 W 36th St, St Louis Park
Pickup deadline: ⏰️MONDAY, DECEMBER 15th at NOON⏰️ Help me reach this big goal so the kiddos can enjoy the holidays.
And finally, thank you to my double-lung donor🤍Jacob, for allowing me to continue this tradition of giving joy to others on my birthday. UNREAL, 28 year
I apologize, it was brought to my attention that I have not been posting. I thought my Instagram was connected and it would automatically post on both sites but they don’t! I have a lot to fill you in on and I will once we get through the busy holiday season. In the meantime, I am continuing the tradition with my annual Toys for Tots drive. My birthday in on Monday when I will be delivering toys so it’s not to late if you would like to contribute!
This is what I had posted on Instagram:
Tis the giving season☃️ This is going to be my TWENTY-SEVENTH year in a row dropping off a big bundle of holiday goodies to Toys For Tots with the US Marines on my birthday!
Last year with your help, I delivered a whopping 1,025 toys! THANK YOU on behalf of all the littles. This year, I’m a little healthier and able to walk a little more but I need your help more than ever to reach the goal of over 1,000 toys again! I’ll still make it easy for you and do the shopping. Don’t worry, I’ll have help! Please let me and my special “Elves” be your personal shoppers by giving a monetary donation. You can Venmo me @ Nikki-Malnar or contact me directly for other options.
If you do your own shopping please let me be your delivery gal! We can set a pick up time where I’ll gather your gifts to add to the collection.
This year, to make it even more convenient, feel free to drop off toys at these three locations that have generously allowed me to leave a collection box. Braemar Arena- 7501 Ikola Way in Edina, StretchLab Lakeside location- 3204 West Lake Street in Minneapolis (next to Lake Bde Maka Ska), DelMonico Dance- 400 St Croix Trail S, Lakeland, & Maverick Midwest in Mendota Heights.
My deadline for pickup is MONDAY, DECEMBER 16th at NOON!!! I have a big goal, help me reach it so the kiddos enjoy the holidays!
Thanks to my double lung donor, Jacob, for allowing me to continue this tradition of giving joy to others on my birthday, WOW 27 years in a row!!!🎁
I asked and YOU delivered! We dropped off a truck stuffed to the roof with toys to the Marines on Saturday🎁ONE THOUSAND & TWENTY-FIVE TOYS!!!🧸 Thank you so much to everyone who helped me deliver a record amount of toys, you made my birthday extremely special!
LAST CALL for toys and monetary donations! You have all been incredibly generous, check out the photos of my “Elves”. They have been busy shopping for you but there is still time to donate @nikki-malnar until TOMORROW 12/16 at NOON!
Thank you for the toys and monetary donations for my Toys For Tots toy drive! My “Elves” are preparing to shop for you so keep them coming!
Reminder, you have until this FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15th, to drop off toys at our house or Venmo me @nikki-malnar to have my “Elves” do the shopping for you.
You can also drop off toys in the Toys For Tots box in the lobby of Braemar Ice Arena. My “Elves” will also be gathering them until Friday and adding them to our collection.
Tis the giving season☃️ This is going to be my TWENTY-SIXTH year in a row dropping off a big bundle of holiday goodies to Toys For Tots with the US Marines on my birthday!
Last year with your help, I delivered a whopping 1,010 toys! THANK YOU on behalf of all the littles. This year, with my back injury, I need your help more than ever to reach the goal of over 1,000 toys again! I’ll still make it easy for you and do the shopping. Don’t worry, I’ll have help! Please let me and my special “Elves” be your personal shoppers by giving a monetary donation. You can Venmo me @nikki-malnar or contact me directly for other options.
If you do your own shopping please let me be your delivery gal! We can set a pick up time where I’ll gather your gifts to add to the collection.
My deadline for pickup is FRIDAY, DECEMBER 15th!!! I have a big goal, help me reach it so the kiddos enjoy the holidays!
Thanks to my double lung donor, Jacob, for allowing me to continue this tradition of giving joy to others on my birthday, WOW 26 years in a row!!!🎁
I haven’t been myself in a long time, the chocolates explain it all. I’ve been dealing with continuous pain, sleepless nights, and weakness in my left leg. I’m doing everything I can to help myself, I see multiple therapists weekly but lately, I have gotten even worse and I STILL can’t walk up a flight of stairs! I have fallen 6 times due to my leg atrophy and terribly stretched my hamstring which hasn’t helped either. The last two weeks, I lost movement in my big toe and it’s been numb which was freaking me out. Yesterday, I found out, I probably need back surgery!!! An EMG test indicated I have a severe impingement at the root of my L5 nerve. I had mixed emotions on the way home. I cried in relief we finally know what is wrong and it’s fixable and cried because since April, I’ve been in so much pain and it was finally explained. We’ll find out more details this coming week, I’m looking forward to pain free days! On a great note, I’m cancer-free!
What a day yesterday, I’m still on a life high! Thank you for the amazing and exciting messages, I have a permanent smile😁
Last night could not have been a more appropriate setting to celebrate my good news from earlier in the day. It happened to be Donate Life Day with LifeSource at the Twins game! Travis headed out of town so my gal pal Kathy and I picked up our shirts and made it into the stadium. Along with BeTheMatch & the NationalKidneyFoundation there was a wonderful sea of green shirts throughout 4 different sections supporting organ/eye/tissue donation and transplantation.
Our friend Jay met up with us and we watched the fireworks with the perfect song playing. We then proceeded to one of our favorite post-game locations, the @thelooncafempls, where I did a little happy dance😉
I still have some recovery to do so I’m tired and sore today but it was so worth it to enjoy the night and celebrate! Thank you all again for the support and for sharing the sensational feeling of being CANCER FREE!
I have been waiting to post this picture for a long time! I’m “EXCITED” to share with you I’m CANCER FREE!!! When I received the call with the good news, I burst into joyful tears. After I hung up, I cried for another 15 minutes.
Today, we met with the medical oncologist, and I can finally schedule the removal of the central line sticking out of my chest!
When I was in the hospital in May, I bought three chocolates. I posted the other two in previous posts. The first one was the “Blah” chocolate, which represented the misery I was in going through my treatments. The “Happy” chocolate was perfect for when I busted out of the hospital. I’ve been anticipating the day I would be able to share my “Excited” sweet treat.
I have long believed in the power of prayer, good vibes, and positive energy. I want to thank ALL of you who added me to your prayer groups or sent me encouraging and uplifting messages or passed along good feelings. THANK YOU, THEY WORKED!
I’m so sorry for not posting for such a long time. I thought the chemo and radiation treatments were going to be the most challenging part of my cancer treatment. But at nearly 3 months after I’ve completed my courses of treatments, my recovery has been very long and very difficult. I have been anemic (low iron levels) causing extreme exhaustion. My legs have been tremendously sore and weak. Physical therapy has been only marginally helpful. Some of my other blood levels; specifically hemoglobin, white and red blood cell counts, have been taking their sweet time trying to get back in the normal range.
Thank you for the many messages to check in to see how I am doing. I apologize to all of you for the lack of responses. Please understand that I appreciate you reaching out, but I haven’t even been able to muster the energy to compose a post like this. It felt like a herculean effort just to respond to no less than six medical teams, (CF, diabetes, hematology, transplant, chemotherapy and radiation oncology). There were many days where I didn’t even look at my phone. Just within the last three weeks I have started feeling a LITTLE bit better and my blood levels are SLOWLY moving in the correct direction, but they’re still not back to normal. In May, it was a good day if I could find an hour of energy. In June, two hours of energy was a blessing. Trav stopped at a party over the 4th of July and he was so exhausted from relaying bad news, he tried to find a positive piece of information, so he told a couple of our friends that we received “good news.” As seemingly insignificant as it was, he told a few people that my ENT provider gave me the good news that one of my “nasal cavities wasn’t as clogged up as normal”, so I could “change my monthly nasal antibiotic installations to every six weeks.” The very next day, people reached out to say they were happy for the great news. In reality, he just wanted to relay some… any positive news. I was so miserable and out of energy, I missed every get-together we were invited to. It’s difficult when the malaise keeps dragging on and you don’t want to sound so negative. It is reality, though. SO… some more good news; I finally cooked a meal for the first time in 2023 when Trav’s dad came down a couple weeks ago to help with some household projects. Sometimes it’s the simple things that make a big difference. Here’s a picture of me, Honey, and Trav’s shadow in a Wells Fargo parking lot enjoying the 3rd of July fireworks over Target.
I had a follow up about 3 weeks ago with the radiation oncologist. She wanted the surgeon to take a closer look at my tooshie. He thought I had, and I quote, “a very pissed off hemorrhoid”. He mentioned how I had surgery and then they radiated the H. E. double hockey sticks out of my tooshie. He couldn’t tell, but he hoped it was just a hemorrhoid. He said he wanted to keep a closer eye on me.
This last Tuesday, the PA (physician assistant) to the surgeon told me she could feel the 3 lymph nodes in my groin. She said 2.5 months after finishing chemo and radiation she shouldn’t feel them, but it COULD be scar tissue. She was also concerned about my tooshie and wondered if the chemo and radiation did not get all of the cancer. Travis was not with me at this appointment so I quickly called him to be on speaker phone. The PA gave us possible scenarios if they determine the treatment didn’t take. They blasted it with so much radiation, they can’t dose me anymore, but there is a CHANCE I could receive more chemo. If chemo doesn’t work surgery would have to be considered. Surgery would require me to have a lifetime colostomy bag. She said if the cancer is still in the lymph nodes then surgery would not be an option.
She left the room to see if we could change some orders for tests, so I hung up with Travis. She came back into the room and after delivering POSSIBLY terrible news, with tears in my eyes she turned to me and said “see, this is why we tell transplant people to get checked out”. I was in shock!!! All that was in my head at that point was this treatment did not work and now she was accusing me of being non-compliant with my health. I looked at her and said “I take really good care of myself and I had my colonoscopy originally scheduled in March of 2020 then Covid happened and I was advised to hold off until Covid was over. I have continuously been asking about it “. After all that she then says she “could be wrong. The tests will tell.” AAAARGGGHHHH!
You know when you are told something that shocks you to the core, and you want to respond but you just freeze and go numb? You don’t really hear anything else, you’re trying to process the information, and you simply cannot formulate words. I cried so hard on the way home and all the things I wanted to say were firing off in my mind…
I am one of the most compliant patients. Do you think I would have stayed isolated for over 2.5 years if I didn’t take care of my health?
I listen to my doctors and if they tell me to drink 80oz of water, I drink exactly 80 oz. of water, but you have the audacity to insinuate I don’t take care of myself?
I am very proactive with everything, but you think I would avoid another easy colonoscopy with all I’ve been through?
There are other thoughts I can’t post on the internet.
I was already supposed to have a MRI and CT scans this coming week but they really need to take a closer look. So Monday, I have a PET scan, Tuesday I have a MRI, and Friday I meet with the medical oncologist.
Thank you again for all the messages, thoughts, prayers and positive energy. It really helps the spirit when people know they have the support.
Nikki's New Lungs 