He went to get his PET scan the other day, and we were all disappointed to hear that the cancer has already spread locally, so he has Stage 2 lymphoma. Thankfully, outside of his Abdomen he is cancer free. I'm 100% sure that he will beat this, but it will be a tough 5 months for him. We were expecting him to be stage 1 which only necessitates 3 21 day rounds of chemo, but with stage 2 he is up to 6 full rounds. The thing that sucks the most for us is that because of the nature of our work he won't be able to come in at all during his treatment. Why? He will likely be neutropenic (have a low white blood cell count and lowered immune response). His lab works on Methicillin Resistant Staph aureus and Vancomycin resistant Enterococci, the lab across the hall studies Clostridium difficile, and we work on mult- drug resistant Acinetobacter baumannii, E. coli, and Klebsiella pneumoniae. Just a recipe for disaster for the immune compromised. I told him that we have to get a teleconference line set up so that he can still eat lunch with us every day. We have also suggested that he get a part time job somewhere so that he doesn't go absolutely nuts sitting at home. I suggested he get a job at a running store. Keep him motivated to get back on the horse :)
I set up my Janus Charity Challenge page this week. All the proceeds go directly to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. This is not through Team in Training, so none of the money goes towards my training or race fees. So if you'd like to donate just click here . You can donate in memory or in support of people that you know who have battled cancer. And it's tax deductable. :)
In other news
My training was great this week. My knee is quickly on its way to health and I am tolerating the increased training load pretty well. It will go up again next week. I think I'll be up to:
3 x 3500 yard swims (3:45 total probably)
2 x 50 minute runs (1:40 total)
1 x 90 minute run (1:30)
1 x 1:15 trainer ride (1:15)
1 x 2:15 trainer ride (2:15)
And weight training! (1:00)
So that's a 11:25 week. Fun stuff! Is it weird that I get excited when my volume goes up?
8 comments:
Best of luck to Steve!
Sounds like a solid week of training. No wonder why you are such a strong swimmer with the amount of yardage you manage!
I am all over that donation thing. Just let me know what the time frames are. I kinda, um, got in trouble for donating so much money to MNFirefly, and I'm gonna, um, donate even more to you. So I need to let the skin where my britches are recover somewhat before risking the wrath of ms. dee dee :-)
I also want to point out, that I am going to let this opportunity:
"Is it weird that I get excited when my volume goes up?"
like totally slide, LOL. Which is rare for me. So you should mark it on your calendar.
I also want you to know your training is AWESOME. and no. I haven't been drinking :-)
Jodi i'm so sorry steve has to endure this and the pain that makes for you and his loved ones as well. i pray it all will be behind him some day soon. for steve and my sister i lost at the age of 31 to brain cancer i will be happy to donate.
keep up the excellent training
It ain't fun until you start doing those monster volumes :) I am always amaze at how much my body can handle the training and still asks for more.
Just wait until you have a week that has 20 hours of exercise in it and then let's see how excited you are.
As promised, you have another $50 towards your fundraising goal and this is in memory of Jennifer Wilks who was one of my honor heroes for when I did St. Anthony's for TNT in 2005. Sadly, Jennifer passed away at the age of 16 last year from her cancer.
I applaud you for raising money for such a worthy cause. I've done a couple of TNT events in memory of my pop (step-dad), George, who died of multiple myeloma. Sorry to hear about your friend Steve.
I donated a $1 for every mile you will cover at Ironman. Good luck friend and have fun with the building volume (I know I will)!
Sorry to hear about your friend. With the support of friends like you and your co-horts, he is really blessed!
On the training side, I hope you have some good movies for the trainer rides.
Thoughts and prayers to Steve and all those that your charity efforts will help.
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