Thanks

To my family and friends -

As most of you already know, the last six months have been both mentally and physically challenging for me. After my last treatment on March 20, I had to wait another six weeks to receive an update on my status. On April 28, I visited Georgetown for my final follow-up PET scan, which showed no evidence of malignancies and confirmed that I am in COMPLETE REMISSION! I will be going in for regular check-ups and periodic scans going forward, but as of now, I am completely cancer-free, and it feels amazing.

I just wanted to say thanks to all of you for the incredible support you have provided during my fight. Your company, emails, calls, donations, and overall positivity have helped me maintain focus and a positive attitude. I could not have done it without you and I am truly grateful.

Thanks again,

Trevor

Maybe not the front page, but still pretty cool

Just wanted to share a cool little online project the New York Times put together recently...

http://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2010/04/08/health/cancer-survivor-photos.html?ref=health#/4bc3ecebd141b90e72000053/

New Beginnings

Wow it's been a really long time since my last post...just couldn't get myself to the point where I felt like writing about cancer stuff.  I guess sometimes you just want to forget that it's there, and for some brief spans of time, it may have actually worked.  But...I figured the blog was definitely due for an update, since there's actually some GOOD news to to announce.

On March 18, I got stuck (many, many times before a successful vein was found) for what was hopefully my last chemotherapy infusion ever.  My mom and aunt came down to be with me for the last go-round, which made it much nicer to deal with.  After wrapping up the infusion, we headed over to the Georgetown Med School's courtyard meet up with Andrea and celebrate her residency placement at Johns Hopkins [her top choice!] for orthopedic surgery!  So yeah, pretty good day all around.

The next day we went to a pre-race pasta dinner event organized by Team in Training where I was recognized as the top fundraiser for the D.C. group - over $7,500 raised for blood cancer funding - thanks to everyone for your generous support over the past few months!  I was also asked to speak briefly at the event about my experiences with cancer and how it's changed my life thus far.  Fortunately, I joined my company's Toastmaster's club back in the fall and have slowly been working on my public speaking skills.  I'm happy to report that I was able to get up in front of a crowd of about 80 or so and deliver a speech that seemed to be pretty effective (over 8 minutes as well - definitely my longest so far) and coherent.

Early Saturday morning, Andrea, Lissi, Katie and me rode the Metro over to RFK, the starting point for the National Half Marathon.  It was pretty chilly when we left the house around 5:30, but it warmed up quickly and turned out to be an absolutely perfect day for running through the streets of D.C.  Right around 9am, Andrea, our friend Ryan and me crossed the finish line in 1:51:15, only about 45 minutes behind the top finisher haha.  Shortly after, Katie and Lissi both came screaming through the finish line as well.  A bunch of friends from UNC came into town and were at the finish line to celebrate with us; later we went to stuff our faces with delicious dim sum at China Garden.  And finally, to cap off a great weekend, we hosted a little (OK, not so little) shindig at our place to celebrate all the positive things happening in our lives...good times.  Just posted some pictures of the weekend on Picasa (see below)...big thanks to Aubrey for taking some sweet pics with my new camera...



Back for another update shortly (I promise it won't be a month this time)

Stepping it up

Fundraising update:  Over $6,800 raised as of today with a little less than 2 weeks of fundraising left.  I'm still waiting to see whether fellow lymphoma fighter Michael C. Hall (of Dexter fame) responds to my letter (I sent him a letter a few weeks back to say hey and  to see whether he'd consider sponsoring me), but who knows if it even made it past his manager.  In the mean time, if you know of anyone who'd be interested in making a donation, please refer them to my fundraising website.  And thanks to all of you for your support thus far!


Training update: DC's historic blizzard a couple weeks ago brought the training to a standstill, but at this point I think we're pretty much back on track for March 20.  While I've been pretty bad about getting in the two shorter weekday runs, did get two solid long runs in last weekend (9.25 miles) and this weekend (8 miles) with the TNT running group.  While last weekend was tough, Andrea and I were at the front of the pack this past weekend and were tearing up the roads in Rock Creek Parkway (I may be exaggerating a tiny bit).


I also decided last week that it's about time I do a triathlon, so I registered to compete in the DC Tri as my first sprint triathlon (.8K swim / 20K bike / 8k run) on June 20.  Kind of a spur-of-the-moment decision for me but why the heck not?  Sure, I never really learned how to swim, but that's what my girlfriend's for.  She used to be a competitive swimmer so now she has the fun task of improving my swimming so that I can minimize the amount of Potomac River water swallowed.  I had my first lesson today in Georgetown's pool.  So far I can make it about 15 meters before taking a break (i.e., less than one full length of the pool).  I obviously have some work to do over the next few months, as the .8K of swimming equates to about 30 pool lengths!). If all goes well, I'll probably be setting my sights on the Half Full Triathlon in October, which benefits the Ulman Cancer Fund, a great organization supporting young adults affected by cancer.  


Health:  After an entire week working from home (due to low neutrophil counts) and the entire following week at home due to DC's crazy snow storms, my body had plenty of time in isolation to make a strong comeback and I'm ready for round 5 of treatment this week.  Only one more in March and then a follow-up PET scan in April which hopefully shows me that I can start using the "R" word.  Overall, I haven't experienced any major side effects since the last visit to the infusion center and I'm still feeling pretty strong.  I'm back up to my normal weight and while my hair is still a little thin up top, all of the facial hair is back (bummer - was hoping it would just go away forever).  

More posts to follow shortly re: another recent spur-of-the-moment decision (is this a chemo side effect??) and some great organizations I recently discovered...

Greetings from Neutropenia

I realized today that it's been quite a while since my last post, so I'm finally making an update after 2+ weeks of dormancy.  The lack of activity is due in large part to the fact that I don't exactly want to remember my last visit to the infusion unit, as it definitely wasn't much fun this time around.  I won't go into details, but apparently I didn't drink enough good old H2O in the days leading up to round 3 on Jan 12.  This led to some problems finding a suitable vein for the IV...at the end of the day, it took 3 nurses, 30+ minutes, and several unpleasant sticks to get me hooked up (sorry for those of you who may get queasy over this stuff).  Other than this one forgettable span of time, everything else pretty well and I was feeling pretty normal post-treatment (I did experience some bouts of mild nausea, but I really think it was due mostly to the unpleasant experience).  

I've been working full-time for the most part and have been trying to stick to the half-marathon schedule as closely as possible.  Made it up to 7.5 miles last Saturday with Andrea; while this kind of mileage was considered kiddie's play back in the fall, I'm definitely starting to feel the toll that successive chemotherapy treatments are taking on my body.  My bloodwork earlier this week revealed that I have officially, for the first time since beginning treatment, entered the realm doctors refer to as "neutropenia."  This means that my neutrophil (white blood cells that fight infection) levels are super low - 500 cells per microliter (a healthy person's count can be anywhere from 1,500 to 7,000).  As a result, my body is extremely susceptible to infection at this point and I'm basically trying to sequester myself from the world...no office, no gym, no fun stuff.  My neutrophils need to be up to at least around 1,300 by next week for my next treatment, so please think good thoughts and keep your fingers crossed!

One last note: I'd like to reiterate again my gratitude to all you who have helped me over the past months with your positive thoughts, support and, of course, donations to TNT...I cannot thank you enough. I'm excited to announce that you've helped raise over $6,000 to help fund the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's mission of fighting for blood cancer patients through advocacy, support, and research!  There's no reason to stop yet though - I still have another month of fundraising left, so if you know of friends/coworkers/businesses/ celebrities (?!) that would be interested in donating, please spread the word. Thank you again and have a great weekend.  Until next time...

TNT Update

Over $4,000 raised to fund vital cancer research and support luekemia/lymphoma patients!

Thank you so much to all of you who have supported me in raising funds for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society.  Your response has been overwhelming and, as you can see, we blew away my initial goal of $2,000.  I'm not ready to stop yet: please pass the word on to your friends/family who may be interested in donating.  I'm also in the process of identifying potential corporate sponsorships and support from local businesses; I'm thinking a February happy hour fundraiser with a raffle/auction, so stay tuned for that.

I completed my first real training run with TNT yesterday morning (6 miles) in sub-30 degree weather.  All of the DC area teams were there and they held a Honored Teammate event after the training, where athletes and survivors alike shared their stories of dealing with leukemia/lymphoma.  I got up for about a minute and shared my story in front of about 100 other TNT'ers and expressed my thanks for everyone for committing to the cause - it was such an uplifting experience for me and it also helped to hear and meet others that have gone through the same experiences. 

Due to the temporary setback with my neutrophil count, I'm now scheduled for Round 3 this coming Tuesday.  Unfortunately (or fortunately, we'll see), that means all subsequent treatments got pushed back as well, which means the half-marathon is only 2 days after my final treatment.  I plan to keep training through this as long as I can stand on my two feet.  I hope to see all of you in March, either on the roads with me or at the finish line :)