Student Visionary of the Year


Floyd's Student Visionary of the Year Campaign benefitting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society has come to a close. His team, "Cancer's Collapse," took first place in the Golden Gate chapter. Thank you to everyone who contributed. You can read about the gala and more in this blog post.


Talk About Your Plenty, Talk About Your Ills

Blogging tunes: Lemonchill - The Chill Spectrum

It's been a pretty amazing few weeks with several big milestones.  I didn't intend to blog so soon after my last entry, but the news is too good not to share.  Plus, there's a call to action.

So here's the latest and greatest:

First and foremost, I saw Dr. Damon on Monday and finally got two pieces of info I've been waiting to hear for a long long time:

He said, "I really don't see your AML ever coming back" <--- ding ding ding ding!
He said, "I think we can get you off the tacrolimus" now

Now we've all known -- or at least I have -- that the first bullet was coming, but it was really great to hear.  The second bullet, for me, really symbolizes my full recovery.  Once we're completely off the tac, two other meds can be phased out too.  Here are the specific post-appointment instructions:


1. Decrease tacrolimus to 0.2 mg 3 days per week for 2 weeks - if you are fine, then stop tacrolimus.
2. Contiune Gleevec at 200 mg daily
3. Continue Acyclovir at 800 mg daily
4. 2 weeks after stopping tacrolimus, then stop fluconazole
5. 4 weeks after stopping tacrolimus, stop septra
6. Return to clinic in 2 months


You kinda get used to taking a crapload of meds when that's what you have to do, bur I'm ready to be done with them.  Going from 5 meds to 2 will be huge.  Of course I'll probably need to be on the Gleevec for some time, and all I can say is, thank goodness for top-notch medical insurance -- that 200mg of Gleevec daily costs about $4200/month!  My co-pay?  $20.  Jeez'l peez'l.

Next, and arguably more important, my donor Martin and his girlfriend Jenny had their baby! Welcome, Simon!  He almost feels like a nephew!  :)  He was born a few weeks early, but he's doing just fine.  Here are some pics of the little guy:

Cute, little Simon

Happy Jenny and the little guy

As soon as they get him home, I'm sure we'll have some pictures of Martin holding him in his Eagles, Phillies, or Flyers gear.  We know he'll be all safe and snuggly with his Eagles bear:

Snuggle, Simon Snuggle, on the road to victory!

In other news, Floyd and I have been doing regular Garage Band sessions on my new iMac.  How appropriate that this happens in the garoffice?

Here's Floyd tracking some vocals and playing along to a Phish loop I sequenced.  He can actually play a simple (4 or 5 note) melody over a little loop.  Pretty cool.

The purple track is his vocal

now if I could teach him to use more than one finger

Last, but certainly not least, we are only days away from the San Francisco Light the Night walk benefitting the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. While I've hit my personal $10k goal -- THANKS EVERYONE!! -- we're a bit behind in our HQ fund-raising efforts this year, so if you haven't donated, and you're so inclined, please consider supporting this amazing cause by donating directly to the Salesforce HQ Technology team.

Let's (walk to the) End (of) Cancer

This year, Salesforce.com is walking in 20 cities across North America!  Fortunately, most of the walks are in October and November, so the non-HQ teams still have some time to fund raise.

We're going great, but we've got a ways to go!


Comments

  1. This is the news we've all been waiting for. BEST STUFF!!!!!! Huge hugs all around. :-)

    ReplyDelete
  2. Hi there John! I was just checking a few of your posts and had a quick question about your blog. I was hoping you could email me back when you get the chance -emilywalsh688 (at) gmail.com- Thanks : )

    Emmy

    ReplyDelete
  3. Hey - so.... it's been a few months. Are you off the other meds too, at this point or WHAT???? :)

    ReplyDelete

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