Last Saturday, October 29, 2007, was the Providence Light the Night Walk. It was a beautiful fall night and Team Gershon was well represented. Our team proudly walked down Blackstone Boulevard holding red balloons and a white one for me. Here are some pictures of this great event.
Although our fundraising totals are not all tallied, we were at about $17000 going into the event. I am not sure how much we brought in on the day of the walk. I should know within the next couple of weeks.
I sincerely thank those of you who participated in this event with me and/or made a donation to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society in my honor. I really love the support from family and friends.
I realize that I never reported about my most recent visit with my oncologist. About a month ago, I returned to Dana-Farber to check the lab results after increasing my Gleevec to 800mg. My last PCR test prior to starting the increased dose was 0.2%, my lowest reading. This reading at 800mg was also 0.2%. A little confusing indeed. Although this is good news because my levels did not go up, they did not go down either. I was anticipating some movement downward with the increased dose, but perhaps 4 weeks is not enough to see this change in my peripheral blood.
On Saturday, I am going for another blood test and will receive the results in about 2 weeks. I am feeling great and the initial side effects I had on the increased dose have dissipated.
In a little over a month, I will be heading out to Oregon for my appointment with Dr. Druker at Oregon Health Sciences University. I am very excited to meet with him and ask him some questions. If anyone has questions they would like me to ask him, please forward them to me.
Anyway, thanks again for the great fundraising effort and support.
3 comments:
Saturday night was another night to remember. All those red ballons showing the white ballons that we not only love them but support them 1000%. With the 1000's of walkers and the 10's of thousands of dollars raised I am confident we will beat leukemia.
Jon you do yourself proud. You give us hope and create the atmosphere for wanting to do more.
You set the greatest example. I'm with you all the way!
Papa Bob
Dear Jon and family
You all did awesomely! How wonderful :-)
I am also excited about your visit to Dr Druker and Carolyn, you will see how great and confident they will make you feel.
I wonder if Dr Druker has noticed any correlation between stress and bounces in pcr's?
As "Papa Bob" said in his comment, you set a great example, and thank you so much for what you have done - it will help so many, Steven included.
love and light to you all
Annie
Steven's mom
http://livingwithcml.blogspot.com
Hi John,
I'm so excited that you have the oppotunity to meet with Dr. Druker. Although I have never met him I have heard that he is truly a wonderful person.
I am so thankful for all that you have done in sharing your personal story. On behalf of the Rhode Island Chapter of the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society I thank you for continuing to spead awareness and building hope for so many blood cancer patients as well as our LLS staff. You help keep us focused on what we do every day.
Best,
Bill Koconis - Executive Director, RI Chapter
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