Cancer Email Archives

  1. To: Family & Friends

    Date: April 30, 2014

    Subject: Back in the saddle again

    Hi Everyone, I’m back from my trip – I had a great time. The only bummer was I didn’t get a chance to work on my golf game enough before I left for the trip, so I want a second chance at some of the great courses I played. A quick overview: – flew in…

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  2. To: Family & Friends

    Date: February 24, 2014

    Subject: Status update

    Hi Everyone- Things are going well. On Feb. 14th we closed the deal to sell my business – the combined company is now going forward as “Crowd Favorite” and I have moved into the role of CTO (Chief Technical Officer). I wrote more about this here: On Selling Crowd Favorite So far, this has been…

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  3. To: Family & Friends

    Date: January 13, 2014

    Subject: PET scan results

    Hi Everyone— I’m back in the hospital for treatment today and we also got the results of the PET scan from last week. The scan shows some reduction in the lung nodules (there are a few, they are small) and lymph nodes, and no additional areas of concern. Additionally, the previously “indeterminate mass” that was…

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  4. To: Family & Friends

    Date: December 30, 2013

    Subject: Back on chemo

    Hi Everyone– I’m writing from the infusion room at the hospital – I’m back on chemo. This is my 4th treatment since I’ve been back “on the horse”, such as it were. The 2 months I was off was great. I got my strength back, did some traveling (a golf trip and some conferences), but…

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  5. To: Family & Friends

    Date: August 27, 2013

    Subject: Treatment 12 of 12

    Hi Everyone– I’m quite glad that today is the start of my last scheduled treatment – hopefully the last one for a while. I will have another PET scan on the 16th, and we’ll be meeting with the doctor the following week to review the results (likely the 24th). Hopefully we get another clean scan…

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  6. To: Family & Friends

    Date: August 13, 2013

    Subject: Chemo #11

    Hi Everyone– I’m very glad that this is the next-to-last treatment in this round of chemo! Nothing too exciting to report. The side-effects and fatigue are piling up a bit as expected – the chemo has a cumulative effect, but everything is still manageable. There aren’t too many surprises about the process, effects, etc. at…

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  7. To: Family & Friends

    Date: July 31, 2013

    Subject: Treatment #10 Update

    Hello All– Yesterday I received my 10th FOLFOX chemo treatment – 10 down, 2 to go. So far this is progressing much like the previous treatments. I’m still on the reduced dose of Oxaliplatin and that probably will be dropped in treatments 11 and 12. My next PET scan will be at the end of…

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  8. To: Family & Friends

    Date: July 16, 2013

    Subject: Treatment #9 Today

    Hi Everyone– Today I’m receiving my 9th of 12 FOLFOX chemo treatments. My doctor reduced my dose of Oxaliplatin so hopefully we’ll see a corresponding reduction in side effects. This is “on schedule”, and it’s likely that drug will be dropped entirely for treatments #11 and 12. While I’ve been impressed at how well the…

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  9. To: Family & Friends

    Date: June 26, 2013

    Subject: 8th Treatment Yesterday

    Hi Everyone– I’m 2/3 of the way through my chemo treatments! The doctor isn’t going to let me shave off any treatments, even with the clean PET scan, but I can appreciate his “this is the time to be aggressive” approach. I’ll be done with the 12 treatments at the end of August. Assuming that…

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  10. To: Family & Friends

    Date: June 13, 2013

    Subject: Chemo round 7 (we’ve crossed the 1/2-way mark)

    Hi Everyone– Happily there hasn’t been too much of note to report. I just came off the bottle to end my infusion for my 7th round of chemo this morning. We got the formal report from the PET scan and it supported the initial findings – no areas of cancer are visible to the scan…

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  11. To: Family & Friends

    Date: May 29, 2013

    Subject: Treatment #6 (the halfway point!)

    Hi Everyone– I’m currently at the hospital getting my 6th round of chemo. Last treatment they reduced the dose of the Oxaliplatin[1], which is the drug responsible for some of the less pleasant side effects, and that did help during the previous treatment. I’ll be continuing with the lower dose again this time around as…

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  12. To: Family & Friends

    Date: May 14, 2013

    Subject: Treatment #5, day one

    Hi Everyone– Things are trucking along for me. I had another productive “off” week, while the side effects continued to extend longer from the treatment day. The checkin with my doctor yesterday confirmed that everything is still on track. This is my 5th of 12 potential treatments. Because my cold sensitivity extended for 11 of…

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  13. To: Family & Friends

    Date: April 30, 2013

    Subject: 4th Treatment, 24 hours in

    Hi Everyone– So far so good with the 4th treatment. I’m doing a good bit of resting, but the nausea has been controlled so far and the other side effects aren’t any worse than before. I’ve also been able to be on my laptop for a few hours this morning with a pretty good concentration…

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  14. To: Family & Friends

    Date: April 20, 2013

    Subject: 3rd treatment – 1 week in

    Hi Everyone– I’d say my 3rd treatment has been in between the 1st and 2nd in terms of how I’ve tolerated it. I didn’t get sick, but had a good bit of fatigue, fought nausea a bit and have had trouble with my fingers (cold sensitivity and neuropathy). As my surgeon put it, I’m in…

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  15. To: Family & Friends

    Date: April 15, 2013

    Subject: 3rd round of treatment today

    Hi Everyone– I had my 3rd round of chemo today. My parents are in town so my dad came and hung out with me for this treatment – the first one Heather hasn’t attended. The “off” week last week was excellent. I’ve been working on a project with my team and we made a lot…

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