It is now day 25 on my new medication and I am continuing to enjoy a clinical remission. I am able to enjoy swimming in the pool and shopping at Costco. Simple things hold indescribable pleasure when they have been denied. Like my first road ride in 3 months when Todd came by:
My medical team wanted to see a sustained remission prior to proceeding to stem cell transplant, and it looks like we have one, so things are being scheduled for admission to hospital in early September with a week of "conditioning" followed by my procedure in mid September.
I want to acknowledge the deluge of greetings, prayers, cards, books, and gifts that keep coming my way. Every single one of them is received with gratitude and love, and they have all contributed to getting me through to this remission and will carry me on to the next phase of treatment. A large basket of gourmet goods from the Peace Arch Hospital Emergency staff is one of the most recent, and was quickly consumed by family and teenage visitors.
I now see this disease as something that has temporarily occupied my body, and will soon be purged so that my family and I can carry on, much as before.
My chance at a cure for this lymphoma is only possible because of the generosity of an anonymous donor from somewhere in the world. The donor registry includes 300,000 people across Canada and 30 million worldwide. In order to raise awareness and increase the pool of available donors, particularly in the Greek community, my family has launched a donor drive through Facebook. Donation is as easy as giving a unit of blood.
And they have booked a OneMatch Cafe event at the St George's Greek Church Community Hall in Vancouver on August 24 from 5-9:30 pm. I am told the electronic traffic on the OneMatch site has increased 100-fold over the past few days.
Please see the links below:
OneMatch Poster
Facebook Event
I want to acknowledge the deluge of greetings, prayers, cards, books, and gifts that keep coming my way. Every single one of them is received with gratitude and love, and they have all contributed to getting me through to this remission and will carry me on to the next phase of treatment. A large basket of gourmet goods from the Peace Arch Hospital Emergency staff is one of the most recent, and was quickly consumed by family and teenage visitors.
I now see this disease as something that has temporarily occupied my body, and will soon be purged so that my family and I can carry on, much as before.
My chance at a cure for this lymphoma is only possible because of the generosity of an anonymous donor from somewhere in the world. The donor registry includes 300,000 people across Canada and 30 million worldwide. In order to raise awareness and increase the pool of available donors, particularly in the Greek community, my family has launched a donor drive through Facebook. Donation is as easy as giving a unit of blood.
And they have booked a OneMatch Cafe event at the St George's Greek Church Community Hall in Vancouver on August 24 from 5-9:30 pm. I am told the electronic traffic on the OneMatch site has increased 100-fold over the past few days.
Please see the links below:
OneMatch Poster
Facebook Event
You look amazing Dr. Larigakis. I love reading your blogs and love it even more when i hear how well you are doing. Your positive outlook and the wonderful people you are surrounded by have made this time in your life a strong and powerful time. thinking of you Lynn G., patient
ReplyDeleteSteve,
ReplyDeleteSo happy to hear you are doing better and responding to treatment; your courage, resolve and positiveness as you prepare for the next part of this battle is inspiring. Pam and I think of you daily and wish you the best as you continue on your journey to recovery, John and Pam Crowley
Hey Steve,
ReplyDeleteAdd me to the list of old classmates wishing you the best. You're one of the good guys. It's shitty this happened to you, but I'll offer here my fingers crossed that you transcend this.
Rob (Steve's Med 86 classmate)