Monday, October 18, 2010

Light the Night 2010 Final Results



The final tally is in and the team did quite well again. We raised nearly $7500 for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society's Light the Night Campaign. This was our fifth year raising money for this wonderful charity and we are pleased with the results. The walk took place on a beautiful fall night and we had a great time. I am grateful for all of you who donated money and appreciate the support.

In other news, later that week, I had another PCR test done at Dana-Farber. Fortunately, it came back as undetectable again. I have now been on the lower dose of Gleevec for about 3 months. I have noticed that my eyes are swelling less, and therefore, I am tearing less than before.

I did learn some sad news during the fundraising. Back in 2006, I had written a post called Not Alone. I had written about a friend of mine from internship who had been diagnosed with colon cancer. Deb and I had talked about writing a book together about the psychosocial aspects of cancer.

I had been out of touch with Deb and her husband, Todd, for about a year. I had sent them a donation request and that is when I learned that Deb had passed away last winter. I was pretty devastated. Deb and I had a really good connection as colleagues, but an even stronger one as cancer patients. I was so sorry to hear of her passing and the impact that it will have on her family and friends. As sad as I am, it also reminded me about how lucky I was to be doing as well as I am.