Greetings to you all from the space care facility- I have been calling home for the last couple of weeks. (Okay, I’m actually not in space, I’m in a hospital) I’m battling multiple fevers, nose bleeds, and other various ailments, so these past couple of days have been extremely difficult to deal…
VIA GREEK FIRE:
In February 2012, shortly after an amazing tour of Japan, GREEK FIRE drummer and longtime STORY OF THE YEAR drum tech Johnny Venus was diagnosed with Leukemia. As anyone can imagine, this devastating news came as a complete shock and rocked the entire camp to the core. Johnny is fighting the battle of his life, and even in these darkest of times his incredible courage and strength inspired Johnny’s fellow band mates to write a song about this profoundly difficult and emotional journey.
The song, “If this is the End (The Sound of Belief) was utilized for a video GREEK FIRE released via YouTube on May 15th, 2012. The video was made for zero dollars by a group of amazing and selfless individuals that donated their time and talents with no thought of reward or payment, and the result is a heartfelt and emotional offering of hope and support for anyone, anywhere who has experience with cancer. Greek Fire is releasing this video in hopes that it can help people find the courage and strength to fight with all of their heart, and that there are people everywhere in the world fighting with them. That is the mission: HOPE. Please share this video with as many people as you can. Nothing will make Johnny Venus and the band more proud than if it can help someone, somewhere, in some way.
I’m not sure who is still reading this blog, as I’m not as diligent as I should be in terms of keeping it up-to-date, and for that I apologize. For those who are still checking in on me here and there, thanks :).
What to talk about first. So much has happened in the last little while, I don’t know where to start. How about the beginning…
Sam and I had a wonderful trip out to Portugal. We stayed in Lisbon for 2 days, followed by a week in the Algarve. We saw some great little towns, and for the most part just relaxed, and enjoyed our recent engagement, which was exactly what we wanted out of the trip.
After Portugal, I had a flight booked to LA for work/pleasure…the pleasure part came first, as I spent the weekend with my cousins. We took part in some wonderful St. Patty’s Day celebrations, most of which I can’t remember (because it’s been so long, not because of what I drank that day ;).
I celebrated my 31st Birthday, which was quite welcome given the crap that was 30. The actual day I spent working (but it was fine I had a deal come through because of it), and in the evening we had dinner at a restaurant in Huntington Beach, overlooking Catalina Island. My first weekend back I had a shared Birthday Party at Wvrst on King St West. Again, I’ll spare you the details due to the haze surrounding it…there seems to be a pattern emerging…
Anyway, since then not much has happened. Playoffs have started, and I love first round, it’s nothing but hockey!!!! Bubba won the green jacket, which I was glad to see, and my own golf game this year through 5 rounds has been pretty impressive given the early spring conditions. Hopefully I can keep it up over the summer. I’m averaging about 15 over par, which in large part is due to my first round of the year at 22 over. The rest have all been quite a bit less.
Hockey is still going on (well starting again for the summer), so that should keep me active through the hot months.
I just got back from a conference in San Francisco on Friday night, and am heading out again this Thursday for 6 days, then I’m home for 4 nights, and gone again to Oregon for 3 nights. After those trips, I should be done with work traveling for a few months.
My latest appointment today at PMH came and went. I actually had my blood drawn last week in order to save some time today, and it worked. I was in and out in 20min, my fastest appointment yet. The usual went down, Dr. B came in, asked how I was, checked my breathing and organs, and said see you in 8 weeks. My platelet count has actually gone up from 98 to 123!
My last update is one that I wish I didn’t have to write. A close friend of mine whom I met through GetRecD passed away last week. She was also battling AML, and had gone through a transplant just over a year ago. She relapsed in February, and despite the bad news, she never lost the fighting spirit, and I’ll always remember her positivity and words of wisdom. She gave me a lot of inside pointers and tips about the treatments, alternative treatment/therapy, ins and outs of the hospital, and so forth. She will be deeply missed.
Until next time…
Hey people, sorry I haven’t posted lately. I’ll get to an update in a few days. In the mean time, check out this article I read today…sounds like good news!
http://news.sciencemag.org/sciencenow/2012/03/one-drug-to-shrink-all-tumors.html
Well, some exciting news to pass along. After a mere 6+ years of dating, I finally “popped the question”, and Sam said “yes!”. So, we haven’t figured out any details as yet, nor do we plan to anytime soon. We leave for Portugal on Sunday, so we’ll use that as some time to unwind, and celebrate our engagement.
Also, I had a 6 week follow up appointment at PMH today, and everything was great. My numbers basically had no change from last time. The Doctor was happy with the way everything looked. So, I don’t go back again until April, in 8 weeks, which is awesome.
All in all, after a fairly stressful week last week, this one is shaping up very nicely.
The following weekend (Feb 10-12), I was at a massive swab event at Vaughn Mills Mall, through Shari’s Mission. The sole purpose of Shari’s Mission is to get people onto the National Bone Marrow registry (onematch.ca). They even work closely with bethematch.org.
A few things I didn’t know about the registry, which makes it even more important for Canadian’s to get on there. If a recipient (me for example) needs to go out of country to get their donor, their respective country (Canada) has to pay the other country’s registry $30,000 (this works backwards as well). With only about 300,000 people on the Canadian registry, it makes it REALLY important for everyone to get onto the list (that is able to do so), to ensure that the funding stays within our system.
Secondly, research has shown that the ideal candidate for a recipient to have a lesser chance of complications is through a male donor aged 17-35 years old.
That being said, the event was a huge success. We targeted males within the age group, with a goal of 400 new registrants. We met and exceeded that goal, which is super news for potentially any one of the 1,000 people in Canada waiting for a bone marrow match.
Shari’s dad made an interesting observation as well during the event, which was that he noticed a large number of Andrews registering. If that’s not good karma, I don’t know what is.
That’s all for now. Enjoy your family day weekend.
I’m sorry I haven’t posted anything recently, but I’ve been real busy at work trying to get a few trips planned, and my weekends have been swamped.
The first story I’m going to tell is about the GetRec’d Hockey Tournament (Daly Cup) that happened on February 4. HC Toronto (my team), 7 other men’s teams, along with a number of woman’s teams registered for the event.
As with any other GetRecD event that I’ve been to, the hockey tournament was a huge success. It helped that our team won the entire thing…good times.
A lot of money was raised for GetRecD, which is used to directly support cancer patients in need. I had an awesome time!
that the media made the public more aware of certain things. I came across this drug today (DCA), and subsequently an article about it and research done at the University of Alberta. Basically, it’s a cure for cancers (brain specifically is what they’re hoping to test it on), but because it can’t be patented, is cheap to make, no one is funding the clinical trials behind it. It’d be nice if some rich philanthropist dumped a bunch of money into this in order to get it mass produced.
Here’s the article, please judge for yourself: http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn10971-cheap-safe-drug-kills-most-cancers.html
Hopefully more information about this gets out to the general public, and the proper funding is allocated so we can finally be rid of cancer, and all the crappy drugs we currently have to take to “treat/cure” it.
Had another monthly checkup today with Dr. Brandwein. I wasn’t expecting any change from my last appointment, but there’s always that question mark leading up to these. Anxiety and so forth tends to come and go in the days leading up, but I must say that I was probably the most at ease coming into today.
I ran into 2 friends at the appointment that I had been in hospital and induction with, one of which is now going through a clinical trial (as this is his third time with a relapse in 11 years), and the other is waiting to find out if there’s a better match then what he currently has (9/10), and he needs a transplant. I hope that they both get good news today.
As per my blood counts…a resident doctor came in first to ask some basic questions about my health over the last month, to which I said there’s been no change. She said my blood counts look good/stable from my last appointment, and my platelets actually went up (to 98), which is fantastic. Perhaps the naturopathic remedies are working already?
Anyway, Dr. Brandwein came in, and didn’t have much to say. They haven’t found a better match yet, and he said we now will monitor this month to month, and see how things go from there. My trip to Portugal is booked for March 4, so my next appointment is before we leave on February 27.
All in all good news…
Guys, here’s another charity that I’ve recently been in contact with, Shari’s Mission. Their sole purpose is to increase awareness and get people onto the National Bone Marrow Registry. Here’s an email that Shari sent me with another upcoming swab event. I plan to volunteer for this event, if anyone else is interested in joining me, please let me know.
A brief (or not) description of my quest to conquer leukemia...
