Tuesday, September 30, 2008
"YOU'RE DONE!"
Those are the words Dr. Leming used to inform me that my Rituxin treatment yesterday was the last of a two year cycle. I'm done!! No more treatments!!! After nearly 3 years, 7 rounds of chemo, 17 Rituxin treatments, at least a dozen CT and PET scans, countless neupogen shots and God only knows how many blood tests - the treatment phase of my battle with follicular lymphoma is over. My next scheduled appointment is set for March 30, 2009 and as long as things look good, I'll have my port removed shortly after that.
I can't believe we've finally reached this point. This journey started nearly 3 years ago when I was informed on October 4, 2005 that I had a form of non Hodgkins Lymphoma known as Follicular Lymphoma. I learned some pretty sobering things about this disease right off the bat but I think the most importanat thing I learned was to simply ignore all the information you read on the internet and trust the person who we were fortunate enough to have treat me, Dr. Leming. Everytime I went to visit Dr. Leming, he gave me hope. He knew the right things to say to me and made me realize that I could beat this thing. I would not be where I am today were it not for him.
But there are many other people who played an important role in helping me get to this point and I'd like to offer some thanks in this post...
Obviously I thank Dr. Leming but I'd also like to thank the entire staff at Cincinnati Hemotology Oncology....I really spent more time with the nurses and staff than I did Dr. Leming and they were always supportive and fulfilled all my needs. They have a very difficult job and they do it with tremendous dignity. They are true heroes.
I thank the staff and board at the Southwestern Ohio Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society...they too, were very supportive of me throughout this entire chapter of my life. Had it not been for them, I probably would have never been able to get in to see Dr. Leming. And my involvement with the LLS board provided me a way to fight back against not only follicular lymphoma, but all blood related cancers. The past two years have been especially rewarding serving as the chairman for the Man and Woman of the Year event. I'd especially like to thank Christina McCarthy for her leadership of this event and the 19 contestants who raised close to $500,000 the past two years campaigning for Man and Woman of the Year. Thanks, also, to Chris Hodge and Diane Faigle for running for Man and Woman of the Year in my honor as well as Jim Pustinger, who ran the 2006 Flying Pig Marathon in my honor. I was very humbled by their efforts.
I'd like to thank Chuck Scheper for reaching out to me right after I was diagnosed to let me know that I could beat the lymphoma because he had done the same thing 13 years earlier. I also thank Jenny Bradley, another follicular lymphoma survivor, for her support as well.
Thank you to the St. Susanna Parish community. Every week I had 3,200 families praying for my recovery and those prayers helped get me through some of the more difficult days of my treatment. Just this week I met a woman, Julie Goslee, who has a daughter on Abbey's field hockey team at Mt. Notre Dame. When I introduced myself she said, "Oh, we prayed for you every week at St. Susanna and it looks like you're doing very well!" I didn't even know she was a parishioner but it made me feel blessed to know that she took the time to let me know she had prayed for me.
I thank Ken Murawski, a neighbor and friend, who was treated for Leukemia about the same time I was being treated for his support. Ken was obviously going through some difficult times but he found the time to check on how I was doing and his positive attitude through tremendous adversity was certainly an inspiration to me.
The first of truly just a few set backs during my treatment occurred on Valentines Day, 2006. I was scheduled to have a treatment that day but due to low blood counts, I was told they were going to delay it a week. When you're going through something like that all you want to do is stay on schedule. Even though I was assured there was nothing to worry about, I was pretty disappointed when I left the office. When we got home, we were suprised to find that a wonderful gorup of friends, The Church Ladies, had prepared a special Valentine's Day meal for our family. It was exactly the pick-me-up we needed. Thank you to the Church Ladies for making an other wise downer day have such a wonderful ending. And thanks for all the meals and support you provided whenever we needed your help.
Thanks to my St. Susanna football teams and their parents. Early in my diagnosis, coaching football helped take me away from the realities of what I was about to go through and maintain at least a bit of routine and normalcy in my life. The boys were champs, very supportive and I'm proud to say I'm coaching them again this year. They will always have a special place in my heart.
And while I'm thanking teams, a big thanks to the Moeller High School volleyball team and their parents. When I learned my treatment would last 6 months I told myself all I had to do was get to the end of the volleyball season and the treatments would just about be over. That became my goal, get to the end of volleyball season and see where we stand. I'll never forget the day I learned there were no longer visible signs of the Lymphoma in my scans....April 17, 2006. The volleyball team played at Roger Bacon that night and I think I got a hug from everyone in attendance and the biggest hug came from our oldest son, Judd. It meant so much to me. And after the match, Mike and Mary Beth Emming treated Julie and me to a blizzard at the St. Bernard Dairy Queen. I've since made it tradition to get a blizzard from that Dairy Queen every April 17th. I'd also like to offer a special thanks to one of the volleyball moms, Maureen Brandel. Maureen still reads my blog to this day and the many messages she's left the past three years have always brightened my day.
Thanks to Gordy Massa and Mike Hanson (as well as their wives, Lianne and Ann) for riding in Americas Most Beautiful Bike Ride this past June in Lake Tahoe as well as everyone who supported our efforts. When I completed my chemo treatments in June of 2006, our family (along with Jerry Judd and his family) took a well deserved vacation to Tahoe. We had a great time but I was still pretty wiped out from the treatments and remember thinking it would be great to go back to Tahoe when I was feeling stronger to truly enjoy everything it had to offer. I also remember seeing a poster during our first visit for the bike ride and thinking to myself, how could anyone ride a bike 100 miles around that lake. Well, on June 1st this year; Gordy, Mike and I did it with 13 other team members from the LLS and it was one of the truly wonderful experiences of my life...just an incredible feeling of accomplishment; it was as if I had returned to the place that had wiped me out two years earlier and kicked it's ass!
A big thank you goes out to my colleagues at Xavier University. Everyone was so supportive and from day one our Vice President, Garry Massa, told me not to worry about anything work related and do whatever I had to do to get better. That meant a great deal to me. I knew I was in the right place to face what I was about to go through. I have to thank Brian Maley for his special friendship and Bob Hill and Pete Owendoff for running with me throughout the first couple years of this journey. Those runs actually helped me maintain my strength as I went through the chemo treatments and even though I've transitioned into bike riding, it meant alot that you guys would drag me out everyday for a jog through the surrounding neighborhoods.
A huge thanks goes out to my Buckeye buddies; Marshall, Toddsky, Bookman, Dick, Sam and everyone else. I started chemo the day after Ohio State beat Notre Dame in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl and when the game was over, I actually wondered if I had just watched my last Buckeye game. Fortunately, it wasn't the last and we've shared many great times watching Buckeye games together...especially the trips to Phoenix and New Orleans. They may not have turned out the way we wanted them to but we had great times in the process. You guys are all wonderful friends and never forget...Vinnie Ettouffe!
To our friends and neighbors, thanks for all your support and concern. Thanks to Ron Vogler for snow blowing our drive this past March 8 when the blizzard hit. I still get achy as a result of the treatments and I would have died shoveling that snow. Thanks to Doug Fiessinger for visiting me one of the days down at the chemo parlor and bringing a Dewey's Pizza...I'll never take your friendship for granted.
I've saved the best for last...THANK YOU TO MY WONDERFUL FAMILY!!! I can't imagine going through something like this alone and thanks to all of you, I certainly didn't have to do that. You were always there for me and kept my spirits up. You didn't let me feel sorry for myself and life went on as normal as possible. So thanks to the Judds, Riestenbergs, Bruces, Owens', Schmitts and all my brother and sisters for everything you've done for me - I'm very blessed to be part of such a loving and caring family. To my little family at 3354 Paddock Lane...Julie, Judd, Aaron and Abbey...you guys were my rocks. You have been so remarkable throughout the past 3 years. You kept me focused, you kept our family life as normal as possible and I am so proud of all of you. I love you all so much and look forward to many, many memories that we have yet to create.
Finally, and I do mean, finally...I have to thank my hero through all of this; my mother-in-law, Viv Riestenberg. I'm sure you'll recall that when I was diagnosed, Viv was living in a Hospice facility. She was at peace with her situation and it appeared we were going to be losing her. I remember being in her room at Good Sam one day (prior to going to the Hospice facility) and her doctor telling her it might take 6 months for her to regain her strength...I don't think she wanted to hear that. I think the thought of 6 months of rehabilitation was overwhelming and in her mind, too much to face. But I think she realized it was not her time to go, she fought back and is still with us today. She is just an incredible woman and I'm so proud to call her not only my mother-in-law, but my hero. Afterall, how can you not be inspired by someone who was evicted from Hospice!!
If I've left anyone out, I apologize. That's what happens when you start naming people, you're always afraid you're going to leave someone out. So to everyone who has touched our lives in such a caring way these past 3 years, thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Peace and blessings to all....
Vince
I can't believe we've finally reached this point. This journey started nearly 3 years ago when I was informed on October 4, 2005 that I had a form of non Hodgkins Lymphoma known as Follicular Lymphoma. I learned some pretty sobering things about this disease right off the bat but I think the most importanat thing I learned was to simply ignore all the information you read on the internet and trust the person who we were fortunate enough to have treat me, Dr. Leming. Everytime I went to visit Dr. Leming, he gave me hope. He knew the right things to say to me and made me realize that I could beat this thing. I would not be where I am today were it not for him.
But there are many other people who played an important role in helping me get to this point and I'd like to offer some thanks in this post...
Obviously I thank Dr. Leming but I'd also like to thank the entire staff at Cincinnati Hemotology Oncology....I really spent more time with the nurses and staff than I did Dr. Leming and they were always supportive and fulfilled all my needs. They have a very difficult job and they do it with tremendous dignity. They are true heroes.
I thank the staff and board at the Southwestern Ohio Chapter of the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society...they too, were very supportive of me throughout this entire chapter of my life. Had it not been for them, I probably would have never been able to get in to see Dr. Leming. And my involvement with the LLS board provided me a way to fight back against not only follicular lymphoma, but all blood related cancers. The past two years have been especially rewarding serving as the chairman for the Man and Woman of the Year event. I'd especially like to thank Christina McCarthy for her leadership of this event and the 19 contestants who raised close to $500,000 the past two years campaigning for Man and Woman of the Year. Thanks, also, to Chris Hodge and Diane Faigle for running for Man and Woman of the Year in my honor as well as Jim Pustinger, who ran the 2006 Flying Pig Marathon in my honor. I was very humbled by their efforts.
I'd like to thank Chuck Scheper for reaching out to me right after I was diagnosed to let me know that I could beat the lymphoma because he had done the same thing 13 years earlier. I also thank Jenny Bradley, another follicular lymphoma survivor, for her support as well.
Thank you to the St. Susanna Parish community. Every week I had 3,200 families praying for my recovery and those prayers helped get me through some of the more difficult days of my treatment. Just this week I met a woman, Julie Goslee, who has a daughter on Abbey's field hockey team at Mt. Notre Dame. When I introduced myself she said, "Oh, we prayed for you every week at St. Susanna and it looks like you're doing very well!" I didn't even know she was a parishioner but it made me feel blessed to know that she took the time to let me know she had prayed for me.
I thank Ken Murawski, a neighbor and friend, who was treated for Leukemia about the same time I was being treated for his support. Ken was obviously going through some difficult times but he found the time to check on how I was doing and his positive attitude through tremendous adversity was certainly an inspiration to me.
The first of truly just a few set backs during my treatment occurred on Valentines Day, 2006. I was scheduled to have a treatment that day but due to low blood counts, I was told they were going to delay it a week. When you're going through something like that all you want to do is stay on schedule. Even though I was assured there was nothing to worry about, I was pretty disappointed when I left the office. When we got home, we were suprised to find that a wonderful gorup of friends, The Church Ladies, had prepared a special Valentine's Day meal for our family. It was exactly the pick-me-up we needed. Thank you to the Church Ladies for making an other wise downer day have such a wonderful ending. And thanks for all the meals and support you provided whenever we needed your help.
Thanks to my St. Susanna football teams and their parents. Early in my diagnosis, coaching football helped take me away from the realities of what I was about to go through and maintain at least a bit of routine and normalcy in my life. The boys were champs, very supportive and I'm proud to say I'm coaching them again this year. They will always have a special place in my heart.
And while I'm thanking teams, a big thanks to the Moeller High School volleyball team and their parents. When I learned my treatment would last 6 months I told myself all I had to do was get to the end of the volleyball season and the treatments would just about be over. That became my goal, get to the end of volleyball season and see where we stand. I'll never forget the day I learned there were no longer visible signs of the Lymphoma in my scans....April 17, 2006. The volleyball team played at Roger Bacon that night and I think I got a hug from everyone in attendance and the biggest hug came from our oldest son, Judd. It meant so much to me. And after the match, Mike and Mary Beth Emming treated Julie and me to a blizzard at the St. Bernard Dairy Queen. I've since made it tradition to get a blizzard from that Dairy Queen every April 17th. I'd also like to offer a special thanks to one of the volleyball moms, Maureen Brandel. Maureen still reads my blog to this day and the many messages she's left the past three years have always brightened my day.
Thanks to Gordy Massa and Mike Hanson (as well as their wives, Lianne and Ann) for riding in Americas Most Beautiful Bike Ride this past June in Lake Tahoe as well as everyone who supported our efforts. When I completed my chemo treatments in June of 2006, our family (along with Jerry Judd and his family) took a well deserved vacation to Tahoe. We had a great time but I was still pretty wiped out from the treatments and remember thinking it would be great to go back to Tahoe when I was feeling stronger to truly enjoy everything it had to offer. I also remember seeing a poster during our first visit for the bike ride and thinking to myself, how could anyone ride a bike 100 miles around that lake. Well, on June 1st this year; Gordy, Mike and I did it with 13 other team members from the LLS and it was one of the truly wonderful experiences of my life...just an incredible feeling of accomplishment; it was as if I had returned to the place that had wiped me out two years earlier and kicked it's ass!
A big thank you goes out to my colleagues at Xavier University. Everyone was so supportive and from day one our Vice President, Garry Massa, told me not to worry about anything work related and do whatever I had to do to get better. That meant a great deal to me. I knew I was in the right place to face what I was about to go through. I have to thank Brian Maley for his special friendship and Bob Hill and Pete Owendoff for running with me throughout the first couple years of this journey. Those runs actually helped me maintain my strength as I went through the chemo treatments and even though I've transitioned into bike riding, it meant alot that you guys would drag me out everyday for a jog through the surrounding neighborhoods.
A huge thanks goes out to my Buckeye buddies; Marshall, Toddsky, Bookman, Dick, Sam and everyone else. I started chemo the day after Ohio State beat Notre Dame in the 2006 Fiesta Bowl and when the game was over, I actually wondered if I had just watched my last Buckeye game. Fortunately, it wasn't the last and we've shared many great times watching Buckeye games together...especially the trips to Phoenix and New Orleans. They may not have turned out the way we wanted them to but we had great times in the process. You guys are all wonderful friends and never forget...Vinnie Ettouffe!
To our friends and neighbors, thanks for all your support and concern. Thanks to Ron Vogler for snow blowing our drive this past March 8 when the blizzard hit. I still get achy as a result of the treatments and I would have died shoveling that snow. Thanks to Doug Fiessinger for visiting me one of the days down at the chemo parlor and bringing a Dewey's Pizza...I'll never take your friendship for granted.
I've saved the best for last...THANK YOU TO MY WONDERFUL FAMILY!!! I can't imagine going through something like this alone and thanks to all of you, I certainly didn't have to do that. You were always there for me and kept my spirits up. You didn't let me feel sorry for myself and life went on as normal as possible. So thanks to the Judds, Riestenbergs, Bruces, Owens', Schmitts and all my brother and sisters for everything you've done for me - I'm very blessed to be part of such a loving and caring family. To my little family at 3354 Paddock Lane...Julie, Judd, Aaron and Abbey...you guys were my rocks. You have been so remarkable throughout the past 3 years. You kept me focused, you kept our family life as normal as possible and I am so proud of all of you. I love you all so much and look forward to many, many memories that we have yet to create.
Finally, and I do mean, finally...I have to thank my hero through all of this; my mother-in-law, Viv Riestenberg. I'm sure you'll recall that when I was diagnosed, Viv was living in a Hospice facility. She was at peace with her situation and it appeared we were going to be losing her. I remember being in her room at Good Sam one day (prior to going to the Hospice facility) and her doctor telling her it might take 6 months for her to regain her strength...I don't think she wanted to hear that. I think the thought of 6 months of rehabilitation was overwhelming and in her mind, too much to face. But I think she realized it was not her time to go, she fought back and is still with us today. She is just an incredible woman and I'm so proud to call her not only my mother-in-law, but my hero. Afterall, how can you not be inspired by someone who was evicted from Hospice!!
If I've left anyone out, I apologize. That's what happens when you start naming people, you're always afraid you're going to leave someone out. So to everyone who has touched our lives in such a caring way these past 3 years, thank you from the bottom of my heart!
Peace and blessings to all....
Vince
