Still LivingSTRONG!

While I’m not 100% at the moment it doesn’t mean that the fun things have to stop. If the weather report holds up I hope to get in a short bike ride on Saturday morning before we head down to Seaside to watch my crazy cousin Alyssa take the polar plunge for Special Olympics. It looks like it will be a chilly morning but I need a ride so bad I actually HAVE screamed…. so, I’ll try to squeeze in a quick 20-miler or something like that.

I also registered for a couple of cycling events so that I could hold them out as goals to shoot for. One is the “Coast the Coast” event for Multiple Sclerosis. Amy and I will ride the tandem with our friend Missy Gervasini and her Missy Express team. Click here for my fundraising page.

And since Dan Nies has the ball rolling for Mintz’s Mentschen 2011 at Philly LivesSTRONG I also registered for that event. Click here for my fundraising page.

Here we go

OK, with treatments now happening every 2 weeks I better make this blog post quickly before the next one rolls around.

Tomorrow will be one week since the last treatment and I’m just about back to myself. We left Dr. Richards office last Tuesday and I remember my first thought being “yep, I remember this feeling. We’re definitely not in Kansas anymore”. This treatment was the first complete FOLFIRI protocol I’ve had so not only did it bring the much anticipated 5FU but it included the “FOL” (folinic acid/leucovorin) , the “F” (fluorouracil/5FU), and “IRI” (irinotecan/camptosar). Having the 5FU pump for two days wasn’t nearly as bad as having it for the 5 days as I did back in 2008.

I’ve been very tired and a bit on the green side. I can deal with those but what is of more concern is the affect that the 5FU is already having on my mouth. Oh well, nothing I’m not already familiar with and we’re all stocked up with “magic mouthwash” so I’m good to go. No joke, that’s what it is called. Go ahead and Google it.

Not much else to report on that I can think of. I’ll keep you all posted as best I can going forward.

Feeling very up

Gee, how time flies when you’re having fun. Tomorrow is treatment day and I’ll get to meet my old friend 5FU. I know it’ll do what it’s supposed to do and so I say “bring it on”.

The Cycle for Survival event was this past Saturday and it couldn’t have been timed any better. It fell at the end of a 2-week treatment cycle so I was able to take my turn as the last rider behind Grace Capato, Stephanie Tobler, Doreen Dunnigan, and Dan Nies as we split the 4-hour spin across 5 riders on one bike. I was feeling pretty good but didn’t expect the instructors to be as hardcore as they were. I hung in pretty well and felt quite badass while riding up out of the saddle. I totally enjoyed the chance to get some exercise and as you'd expect the energy in the room was amazing! There were 106 bikes so it was crowded and seriously pumped up. It all climaxed with a $4.2 million check presentation to Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. They asked for patients/survivors to come up during the check presentation and that was an extra thrill for me to be up on the stage for. I have some pictures below from the event.

I had another terrific surprise at the event when I was able to meet Jennifer Goodman Linn. She is the 6x cancer survivor that started Cycle for Survival and in the 5 minute conversation I had with her I came away with a profound feeling of empowerment and positive energy. I’ve been reading her website and blog a bit today, http://youfearless.com/ . In a very short timeframe she’s given me a lot to think about with her “fearless” attitude. She is an amazing person and someone that I’m going to try and maintain contact with.

I look forward to doing this same event next year.

Presentation of $4.2 million to MSKCC

Heads down riding.... yes, I was hurting

Our team: Grace, me, Steph, Dan, and Doreen

Pre-ride quiet... 106 spin bikes

First one down

Treatment #1 for 2011 is in the books.

The discussion started, as expected, with a review of the information we received from Dr. Meng at MSKCC. Dr. Meng had agreed with the base drug we had planned, Irinotecan, but he took it a bit further by suggesting a protocol called FOLFIRI. And Dr. Richards was in complete agreement. The downside is that this brings us back to a drug, 5FU, that we used in 2008 and that is a bit on the nasty side. In 2008 I came home from each treatment with a pump to administer it over 5 days. This time it will be only a 2-day pump. Another downside of this protocol is that its standard is for a 2-week cycle instead of 3.

On the upside I’m confident that this will bring things back to where we need them to be.

Timing really couldn’t be any better for the Cycle for Survival event since it is at the very end of this 2-week cycle. I’m very excited for this and expect to have lots of fun with close friends while absorbing the good karma that I know will be flowing. I received an email today indicating that total fundraising for the event is now over $3 million. That is a record total for this event. Again, heartfelt thanks to all that have donated so generously.

Game on.... again

Our visit to MSKCC last week went well.

Dr. Meng was in complete agreement with the primary chemo drug selected by Dr. Richards, Irinotecan. He mentioned some options for a second drug to use with it that we’ll have to discuss with Dr. Richards when we go tomorrow for the first treatment of 2011. Woo-hoo!

What was especially good about the trip into Manhattan is that Dr. Meng was able to suggest some other drugs that we can queue up as treatment to use down the road. That gave me some good peace of mind.

Since the visit went well Amy and I were in a decent place mentally to stay and have dinner in Manhattan. I knew a place nearby and weren’t we surprised when the hostess sat Jay Manuel from the America’s Next Top Model TV show at the next table. Before you wonder too long about how I could possibly have known who this guy was please remember that I have 3 daughters. Enough said.

I won’t whine about the snow since I’m sure that everyone is sick of it at this point. But I’d kill for a decent bike ride! Actually there’s a lot of excitement building for the Memorial Sloan-Kettering spinning event on February 12^th. Thank you so much for the donations that are continuing to come in. For anyone still considering it here is a link to my donation web page è http://mskcc.convio.net/goto/jmintz

Sloan-Kettering tomorrow

It seems that my comments in recent posts about MSKCC, while trying to generate some excitement and donations for the upcoming Cycle for Survival event, were somewhat prophetic. After Amy and I met with Dr. Richards last Tuesday I knew that we really needed to visit Sloan-Kettering as soon as possible.

The meeting with Dr. Richards set a course for yet another chemo protocol and we had even scheduled the first three treatments. But, as I mentioned, before we get too far ahead of ourselves I want to touch base with Dr. Meng at MSKCC to get his perspective and to see if there are any other options we should consider.

Amy and I will be braving the expected wet weather and heading into Manhattan for a late day appointment with Dr. Meng tomorrow.

I’ll post an update as soon as I can.

Thanks very much to all that have donated to Cycle for Survival. We’re nearing our minimum fundraising amount. I received an email today and was thrilled to see that the overall event fundraising is already over $2.2 million.

Déjà vu all over again, all over again

I spoke with Dr. Richards yesterday morning and I’m sorry to say that the results of the PET/CT were ridiculously familiar. I was expecting this and, therefore, I was prepared for it but nevertheless it was still disappointing to hear that the lesions on my liver have had some growth yet again.

Amy and I have an appointment to see Dr. Richards on Tuesday afternoon where the mission will be to decide on the chemo protocol that we’ll be using. In my mind this discussion with Dr. Richards could prompt a visit to Sloan-Kettering for a consultation and/or a prompt start of treatment by late next week. Dr. Richards has been in contact with MSKCC directly over these past 3 years so we may be able to reach out via telephone. I’d expect though that MSKCC would want to see the PET/CT so luckily I was thinking ahead and asked for a CD of the PET images before leaving Princeton Radiology on Thursday.

There’s not too much more to say until I get more details. I’ll post new information as quickly as it becomes available next week.

I will be making every effort to still ride in the Cycle for Survival on February 12^th. Minimally I will be there to cheer on my Mintz’s Mentschen teammates. If you can consider a small donation I had included the link in my recent blog posts, below. Thanks!

As all of you know by now, over these past 3 years I've been blessed by friends that came together and formed a cycling team "Mintz's Mentschen" and we've collectively raised over $105,000 for the Lance Armstrong Foundation via their LiveSTRONG Challenge events. Dan Nies spoke with our amazing contact at LAF, Dylan Trakas, just yesterday. Dan had a follow-up email exchange with Dylan and I happened to notice the following in Dylan's signature block at the bottom of his email. It's definitely something that I had to share here. Words to live by that's for sure.

LIVESTRONG means doing my part to kick cancer in the face.

Tic toc

As my friend Dan Schneider so often reminds me, and in the words of Tom Petty, the waiting is the hardest part. I saw all my friends at Princeton Radiology this morning, Betsy, Nick, and Shane and now I wait for the phone to ring.

But the day has been a productive one since I was also able to take the car for an oil change. LOL.

Crunch time..... again

The extended silence is because things have been going well during my 3-month chemo vacation. Until the recent rounds of snow/rain my cycling fitness was improving surprisingly quick. On December 19^th I rode solo for 56 miles from Princeton Junction to Brick and on other rides with Dan Nies I was doing some respectable climbing. Unfortunately the weather clobbered our Tour de Hot Chocolate plans. We'll be watching the weather with the hopes of making it happen at some point.

Without chemo by early December my nickname could easily have been “fuzzy”. No other nickname suggestions necessary, thank-you. And although it’s making an attempt my hair isn’t really coming back very well at this point so I think I’ll probably be shaving it very soon.

Now that I’ve reached the end of my 3-month break I’ve been a bit distracted and anxious to get my PET/CT done this Thursday morning. Good or bad the results will allow me to get down to the task at hand. If it’s back to treatment then so be it. And if I get to extend my chemo vacation a bit longer then my focus will be toward continued fitness improvement, hopefully some weight loss, and also goal setting for some near term cycling events. But the waiting is wearing me out so I’m glad the time has come for the scan.

And since I haven’t seen the gastroenterologist in a while I have an appointment with Dr. Dhar tomorrow afternoon. My expectation is that she’s going to want to schedule an endoscopic ultrasound to take a closer look. It’s an easy procedure and the results will help us to know more clearly what my status is.

December was fun since both Sasha and Bailey were home for a few weeks. Erin even did a couple of fly by's and it was truly bizarre having the house completely full. We had fun watching family video that we recently converted from VHS to DVD. Today though I came home to the empty nest and it’s going to take some time to get used to the quiet again.

My participation in the Cycle for Survival event to raise funds for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center is only 4 weeks away. 6 of us will be wearing our Mintz’s Mentschen jersey and sharing a single spin bike for a 4-hour spin at a health club in mid-town Manhattan on Saturday, February 12^th. It’s a mass spin event and there will be hundreds of other teams cycling as well. The event has already raised over $1 million. All funds that are raised will be allocated directly to MSKCC research and clinical trials within 6 months of the event. If you’re able to consider a small donation I’d appreciate it very much. Thanks so much to those of you that have already donated!

Link to my fundraising page è http://mskcc.convio.net/goto/jmintz

Happy holidays

Since Dr. Richards says that he uses what I’m able to do on the bicycle as a gauge for my overall condition and because my past two cold weather weekend rides have been so awesome I’m going to make this quick post to pass along some positive vibes.

In short, my past two rides have definitely kicked things up a notch and I’m doing the type of riding that while still quite challenging is really helping to improve my physical strength. I’ve been riding with Dan in the area of the Sourland Mountains and Washington Crossing State Park to tackle some of the more significant climbs we have here in this area of NJ. Last weekend we covered 44 miles and yesterday we did 41 that included two of the steeper hills we climb (Van Dyke and Mine Roads). I couldn’t be happier as it’s been this anaerobic climbing strength that I’ve been struggling to get back.

Meanwhile we’re just a few weeks from our Tour de Hot Chocolate that will be a metric century in that same general area. We have our probable stops all picked out (two hot chocolate and one hot apple cider) and can only hope for no precipitation on the tentative date of January 2^nd. Erin will be leaving for her trip to China on that day but with Sasha and Bailey home and coupled with the gathering of many Mintz’s Mentschen teammates this proves to be a fun day.

Happy holidays!

Gobble Gobble

Time to go to blogging confessional…. It’s been so long that my kids are starting to give me grief about not having posted in such a long time.

First and foremost, Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. Best wishes for a joyous holiday.

I did see Dr. Richards on the 8^th and I did ask him to look forward into January and the possibility that we’ll be discussing treatment options in that general timeframe. He said that he is not going to make that assumption and, therefore, hasn’t given treatment specifics a lot of thought. I didn’t want to press it since when we last had a discussion about treatment options back in April I recall that there were several chemo-based protocols to choose from. So I guess we’ll cross that bridge when we get there. For now I’m happy that my medi-port just keeps right on ticking. My next visit with Dr. Richards is on December 20^th and I’ll get the Rx for my next PET/CT at that time.

Physically, aside from a bit of fatigue I'm feeling quite good.

OK… and now for the cycling update. You knew it was coming.

Thanks to Dan Nies who broke me out of my rut of flat ride after flat ride I’ve enjoyed a bit of hills the last couple of weeks. My long ride reached just over 50 miles a few weeks ago and I’m definitely feeling stronger. Aerobically I’ve been fine but trying to build back anaerobic strength for climbing has been tough.

I did register for the Cycle for Survival spinning event to raise funds for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center in NYC. The event is in February and I’m expecting to have yet another fun and emotional experience. MSKCC has been part of my personal cancer journey and it will be good to give back a bit to them. For anyone that wants to read about MSKCC, the event, or to consider a small donation here’s the link: http://mskcc.convio.net/goto/jmintz

Meanwhile the Tour de Hot Chocolate is still on the calendar for a date in December that hasn't been decided. One decision that HAS been made is that it will not be a 100-mile century ride. Cooler heads have prevailed and we'll be doing a metric century (that's 62 miles for those of you that are metric deficient, LOL).

Best wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season.

Chemo vacation month 1

Without being in treatment the roller-coaster ride levels off very quickly. The past few weekends have been terrific with regard to bike riding. I had two solo 37 mile rides and then last weekend Amy and I enjoyed a 39.5 mile ride on the tandem. This blew me away given that Amy hasn't been on the tandem in quite some time. Guess she can be a bit badass herself!

My plan is to get out early tomorrow before we get busy with other stuff. Unfortunately the time constraint will limit me to a max of around 30 miles but I'm looking forward to it.

This chemo vacation also brings an opportunity for me to use the remainder of my 2010 vacation days on something other then treatment days. Novel idea, huh? New Jersey teacher's convention is next week so Amy and I will have an opportunity to take a long weekend. Our plans are to head down to St. Michaels Maryland for an oyster festival and a relaxed weekend with good friends. Joe and Elisa Duch will join us and we're going to spend time with my good friend Mark Cheben and his wife who live in that neck of the woods.

That's about all I have to talk about right now. I'll be seeing Dr. Richards on November 8th for a checkup and I expect it to be a very short visit. Basically it will just be a flush of my port but I may also ask him if he has any thoughts for the next set of chemo drugs we might try when the time comes.

Treatment respite for the holidays

Amy and I met with Dr. Richards this afternoon and the punch line on the PET/CT results is that I’ve earned myself a break from chemo for a bit. While the results weren’t pristine the SUV values (standard uptake) were in the range of what Dr. Richards considered to be “background noise”. So I’ll be treatment free for a few months and the next PET/CT will be in mid-January when we get to do this all over again.

In the meantime I’ve already had preliminary discussions with my Chief Sales and Marketing Officer, Dan Nies, and we may be adding an event to the 2010 bicycling season. Before I found myself back in treatment this past April I had been eyeing what I hoped to be a year full of challenging cycling events. Now knowing that I have a minimum of 3 months without treatment I want to get assertive about recovering as much fitness and strength as I possibly can. Maybe I'll even be able to lose a few pounds. Therefore, the Tour de Hot Chocolate may squeeze into the mid to late December timeframe as an end of year 100-mile bike ride. I know it sounds crazy to some of you but considering how I felt on the bike this past weekend I think I can pull it off. We’ll have to come up with a mostly flat course but I think that I’ll be able to cover the distance. And to have a miles ridden number that has 3 digits come up on my bicycling computer will be incredible to see again. It's been a while.

As I mentioned, we did have a ride this past weekend that was absolutely awesome. Considering that I was only 9 days out from my last treatment I’m not quite sure how/why I was feeling so good but I didn’t question it and in beautiful weather I covered just over 37 miles with Dan Nies, Steph Tobler, and Jim Grassi.

I’ll try to not bore you with the play by play of my biking exploits in the coming weeks but please stay tuned for more information regarding the Tour de Hot Chocolate as it all starts to come together. Maybe we can make this a little more interesting then just a cold weather century ride.

Wait for it.....

Because I know there are folks out there that will be anxiously checking in on the blog this morning for news of the PET/CT results I want to let you all know that I haven't heard anything yet.

The scan itself went well. As always it was nice to see my Princeton Radiology friends Betsy, Nick, and Shane. And then last evening Amy reminded me that Dr. Richards was taking an extended weekend wrapped around the Columbus Day holiday.

So it will be today that I get the news. If he doesn't call me this morning then I will be seeing Dr. Richards in person when I have my post-treatment checkup at 2:00pm this afternoon.

Stay tuned....