We celebrated a big milestone last Thursday when Pippa moved into Santa Clara University for her freshman year. So so exited for and proud of her and thrilled that she is so close to home these day. What a bright silver lining. (sorry for so many photos - I can't figure out how to delete the last 3...)[...]

Friends and family,

I began the immunotherapy and chemotherapy last Monday. The insurance company tried to deny it at first, but thanks to the herculean effort of several amazing Team BGCP members, we were able to connect directly to the CEOs of Anthem, Merck and Stanford and make it happen. However, the results haven't been as hoped. I immediately started feeling worse with new pains and most importantly difficulty breathing with any movement. I've become mostly immobile. Walking is almost impossible, and even washing myself in the shower is exhausting.[...]

My coach just changed the play. He decided that going for the win with the Hail Mary pass is too risky, so he’s calling for a short slant pass to put us in better field goal position to play for the tie…[...]

It's been quite a summer, not what was expected. The bottom line is that my breathing is getting much harder and I'm on Oxygen almost all of the time. I can no longer walk more than a few slow steps.[...]

Life has continued on the same up and down pattern since my last update in January. To slow the spread of the rectal cancer in my lungs, I’m taking chemo pills (Lonsurf) mostly a week on and week or two off. I’m getting an infusion of Avastin every other week. In between I’m often injecting myself with some juice to get the white blood cell count back up. The weeks on treatment are rough, but the weeks between are pretty good. My cough remains bad, and my ability to exercise is lower as I can’t hike uphill anymore. But I have portable oxygen to use for walks and the exercise bike so at least I can do something.[...]

Friends,

Most recent scan shows the rectal cancer is continuing to spread in my lungs. My cough is worse and I'm also having a harder time exercising; I can't run anymore but at least I can still hike and enjoy the great nature around here. We've switched treatments and I'm now taking Avastin and Lonsurf, a different kind of chemo. It's two weeks on, two weeks off. The symptoms are manageable so far, but it's my first week.[...]

I’d like to share with you my latest health update as well as how we’re positioning the Boys & Girls Clubs for continued success.

On the health front, my rectal cancer continues to spread in my lungs. The past few weeks have been a whirlwind of hospital stays, doctor visits, investigative research, and decision making in the face of uncertainty without data. At this time, it appears the best course of action is to resume chemotherapy with bi-weekly infusions of Folfox, the same treatment I had two years ago. If this doesn’t work or results in complications, we’ll try something else. The reality is the doctors don’t know of any curative treatments at this time. We’ll continue to do all we can to stop the growth in hopes of a new treatment being discovered.[...]

I had my scans Monday, and the doctors report that the chemo has worked to reduce the tumors in my lung. I still have the long term bad situation of likely uncurable rectal cancer, but the short and medium term news was as good as can be hoped 😊. My reward is that I will continue on chemo, but switching from every 2 weeks to every 3 or 4 weeks. I’ll get my next scans in three months and go from there.[...]

Friends,

Things took an unfortunate turn on my personal health front: my rectal cancer has spread to my lungs. A few months ago we found a tumor on my liver and had it surgically removed. Now recent scans and a biopsy have identified that the rectal cancer has spread to my lungs. I’ve had a cough for a while and some shortness of breath when exercising. I’ve had suspicious nodules in my lungs for years, and the docs always assumed they were melanoma. It’s possible they’ve always been rectal cancer, but we don’t know, and they could be both. Either way, we need to focus on the rectal cancer now. Given how many nodules there are, surgery is not an option.[...]