Skip to main content

Round 4; Ready Start!

Another huge gap in posts which there is no excuse for.  When I started this I said I would keep everyone updated and I have been doing a terrible job for which I apologize for.  I have been pretty busy with a lot of different things and just have not sat down to update everyone.

The foundation is coming along exceptionally well and with the help of some awesome people I am really hoping this becomes something awesome.  It is slow moving and building a good web site is more work than I ever would have thought!

Last weekend I went out to Vegas to the Stupid Cancer Young adult cancer summit in Las Vegas.  I met some amazing and wonderfully inspiring people.  I also made some great contacts for the foundation and with the help of other young adult cancer fighters, we had a night of partying (which I payed for dearly the following day.  Guess Im not in college anymore! )  It was such a nice thing to just get away and clear my head for a couple days, this was my first trip since I started treatment and I now realize how relaxing just getting away for a night or 2 can be when going through this nonsense.

This past weekend I got one last chance to soak up the sun and have fun outside before I start my next round of chemo tomorrow (kinda strange how the 5 days I will be on chemo the weather is absolutely terrible and the day I finish it is supposed to be beautiful.)  With my babe of a gf, and a few of our friends, we went out to a nice lunch and enjoyed the sunshine all day Saturday and had an awesome lunch yesterday.

For the next couple months, the best way to keep track of me will be to 'Follow' me on Facebook.  Unless I personally know you, I ask you follow me opposed to become my friend just so I don't have a ton of people I dont know showing up on my wall (not that I don't care, just would probably confuse me more than anything.)  I will continue to try and update this as well, but I am becoming more and more busy with less and less time so with facebook I am able to post small updates.

If anyone is looking for something amazing to experience in Orange County in two weeks an amazing, beautiful and inspiring friend of mine is having a fundraiser to help raise money for breast cancer support.  She has now done it for the last 10 YEARS raising thousands of dollars and she is not even 30 yet!  I have been the last 3 years and it is always a highlight night of my year.  This year will be the biggest to date and I promise you will enjoy yourself.  For all the information, to donate or buy tickets check out Breast Cancer Fundraiser and at Breast Cancer Fundraiser Home Page  to learn about her mission.

Another huge thanks to everyone who has been following my story.  You guys truly inspire me and give me reason to beat this little monster in my head.  He is persistent, but I am unrelenting.

"When life gives you 100 reasons to cry, show life a million reasons to smile."

FTGF,
Ryan
xo

Beautiful people on a beautiful day.  

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Day one. For the last few days now I have been trying to figure out the best way to let all of my friends and family in on what is happening with me.  Well, I decided a blog would be the easiest and most efficient way to keep everyone in the loop.  I figure anyone who wants to know what is happening in my battle (which I am now referring to it by-since I know I can win battles) can just check out this blog.  And this will save me from telling the story 60000 times. :)  I am gonna update it with pictures, stories and all kinds of fun goodies to let you in on how much fun brain cancer is! :) So here is the back story, for the last year+ I have had these random headaches and small bouts of confusion (basically for a minute or two I would have trouble concentrating or making sense of my thoughts.  I chalked it up to stress and not being where I want to be in my life at this time.  Well, once I got my new job and finally got insurance again, I decided to go have a check since it ha

Grade IV Glioblastoma Multiforme

Before I get into my diagnosis, let me preface this all by saying I will survive this.  I will carry on and you all will get sick of me one day.  I am not ignorant and this diagnosis was the complete opposite of what I was hoping for.  I recall reading about Grade IV GBM's (GBM's are what we call them in the biz) and thinking, "Wow, I hope I don't have that."  Well, I do.  This is not easy to say and I know once you all 'google' my diagnosis you will understand why I am not in as high of spirits as I once was.  (I think I am allowed an hour or two of initial shock, but I will get over it.)  This particular cancer has a shelf life of about 1-2 years after diagnosis.  This timeline doesn't even get me to 30 and I am not ok with that.   Listening to the doctor tell me I am a Grade IV Glioblastoma (aka the worst and most aggressive brain cancer known) was like sitting through my death sentence in court.  It was hard- to say the least...  I always tried to

9 Years Later...

A few hours post-op Today is pretty bitter sweet. It marks my 9 year Cancerversary... but with an asterisk. As I said in my last post, 9 years is a long time, 9 years with GBM is a lifetime. The excitement of making it this long is not what I was hoping it would be, but 9 years nonetheless, is quite the accomplishment and I am happy to be here. I am nowhere near done with this life so I hope you all aren’t sick of me just yet. -- Surgery went off without a hitch! I’m sure everybody is super curious as to how an awake craniotomy takes place, so I guess I can go ahead and walk you through it as I am now a seasoned veteran.  I checked in bright and early (around 5:30am) and then waited.. And waited.. And waited until about 7am. Around 7am I was brought back to the initial surgery waiting area where I with 3 other patients all waiting to go to their surgeries. Once I arrived in this secondary waiting area I was greeted by countless people that would be involved in the surgery. So many intr