superamit: Many of you have asked, so here’s what’s going on with me. WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE 8/1979: Born. Grew up in CT, built a killer eraser collection, fell in love with computers. Left college to start a company. Fell hard. Fled to India for 3 months. Started 2nd company. Learned to be an adult. Fell in love with NYC. Moved to SF, discovered burritos & some of my fave people on Earth. 9/2011: Got diagnosed with Leukemia! Cried. Went through 3 cycles of chemo. Hurt. Thought hard about what I want out of life. Grew up a second time. TODAY … After over 100 drives organized by friends, family, and strangers, celebrity call-outs, a bazillion reblogs (7000+!), tweets, and Facebook posts, press, fundraising and international drives organized by tireless friends, and a couple painful false starts, I’ve got a 10/10 matched donor! You all literally helped save my life. (And the lives of many others.) WHAT HAPPENS NEXT Tomorrow, I’ll be admitted to Dana Farber in Boston for 4-5 weeks. First I’ll get a second Hickman line to allow direct access to my heart (for meds and for nutrients if I’m not able to eat). Over the next week, the docs blast my body with a stiff chemo cocktail to try and eradicate all traces of cancer cells. In the process, the immune system I was born with, and my body’s ability to make blood, are destroyed. Next Friday, I get my donor’s stem cells by IV. I start on immunosuppressants to prevent my body from rejecting them (I’ll be on them for 12-18 months). For these weeks I’ve no immune system, so I’m severely vulnerable to viruses and bacteria. My hospital room and hallway become my world. Meanwhile, the stem cells make their way to my bone marrow and, with some luck, start producing platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. At this point, my blood type changes to the blood type of my donor. And my blood will now have my donor’s DNA, not my own. This is science fiction stuff. I can hardly believe it’s even possible, and there’s lots of chances for things to go wrong. It’s frightening. AFTER THE TRANSPLANT Recovery to a new state of “normal” takes about a year, but there’s a few storm clouds hovering: My immune system is new, like a baby’s. I’m prone to getting sick. Just as with any organ transplant, there’s a chance of rejection. Except in this case, it’s my blood that’s the foreign body, and it touches every organ. They call it graft-vs-host-disease and it can cause health issues and organ complications for the rest of my life. Successful transplant or not, Leukemia can relapse. Stubborn mofo. Overall, 75% of AML transplant patients survive year one, 50% make it through year five. My odds are a little better since I’m young. THE GREAT NEWS I’ve got a long road ahead. But I’ve got a donor & amazing family & friends. A few months ago I didn’t have many options. Today I have a plan. I am alive. I start tomorrow. Wish me luck! Thank you.

superamit:

Many of you have asked, so here’s what’s going on with me.

WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE

  • 8/1979: Born. Grew up in CT, built a killer eraser collection, fell in love with computers.
  • Left college to start a company. Fell hard. Fled to India for 3 months.
  • Started 2nd company. Learned to be an adult. Fell in love with NYC.
  • Moved to SF, discovered burritos & some of my fave people on Earth.
  • 9/2011: Got diagnosed with Leukemia!
  • Cried. Went through 3 cycles of chemo. Hurt. Thought hard about what I want out of life. Grew up a second time.

TODAY

… After over 100 drives organized by friends, family, and strangers, celebrity call-outs, a bazillion reblogs (7000+!), tweets, and Facebook posts, press, fundraising and international drives organized by tireless friends, and a couple painful false starts, I’ve got a 10/10 matched donor!

You all literally helped save my life. (And the lives of many others.)

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Tomorrow, I’ll be admitted to Dana Farber in Boston for 4-5 weeks.

First I’ll get a second Hickman line to allow direct access to my heart (for meds and for nutrients if I’m not able to eat). Over the next week, the docs blast my body with a stiff chemo cocktail to try and eradicate all traces of cancer cells. In the process, the immune system I was born with, and my body’s ability to make blood, are destroyed.

Next Friday, I get my donor’s stem cells by IV. I start on immunosuppressants to prevent my body from rejecting them (I’ll be on them for 12-18 months). For these weeks I’ve no immune system, so I’m severely vulnerable to viruses and bacteria. My hospital room and hallway become my world.

Meanwhile, the stem cells make their way to my bone marrow and, with some luck, start producing platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. At this point, my blood type changes to the blood type of my donor. And my blood will now have my donor’s DNA, not my own.

This is science fiction stuff. I can hardly believe it’s even possible, and there’s lots of chances for things to go wrong. It’s frightening.

AFTER THE TRANSPLANT

Recovery to a new state of “normal” takes about a year, but there’s a few storm clouds hovering:

  • My immune system is new, like a baby’s. I’m prone to getting sick.
  • Just as with any organ transplant, there’s a chance of rejection. Except in this case, it’s my blood that’s the foreign body, and it touches every organ. They call it graft-vs-host-disease and it can cause health issues and organ complications for the rest of my life.
  • Successful transplant or not, Leukemia can relapse. Stubborn mofo.

Overall, 75% of AML transplant patients survive year one, 50% make it through year five. My odds are a little better since I’m young.

THE GREAT NEWS

I’ve got a long road ahead. But I’ve got a donor & amazing family & friends. A few months ago I didn’t have many options. Today I have a plan.

I am alive. I start tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Thank you.

My Favorite Sports Quotes

  • Do any of you critics realize how short a year is? -Red Auerbach. This is the only one that I think needs an explanation and it inspired the post. I watched this great video about Larry Bird earlier and I thought it skipped over one of the most interesting pieces of sports trivia that I know. Red Auerbach and the Celtics selected Larry Bird sixth overall in the 1978 NBA draft after Bird’s junior season at Indiana State. No one knew if Bird would return for his senior season. A reporter asked Auerbach why he would use such a high draft pick on a player when he didn’t know if Bird would play that season for the Celtics and this quote is how he replied. Bird did end up going back to Indiana State for his senior year but Auerbach’s willingness to gamble and follow his gut paid off as Bird led the Celtics to three titles.
  • I’m tired of hearing about money, money, money, money, money. I just want to play the game, drink Pepsi, wear Reebok. -Shaquille O’Neal
  • Whoever said, ‘It’s not whether you win or lose that counts,’ probably lost. -Martina Navratilova
  • Although golf was originally restricted to wealthy Protestants, today it’s open to anybody who owns hideous clothing. -Dave Barry
  • Somewhere behind the athlete you’ve become and the hours of practice and the coaches who have pushed you is a little girl who fell in love with the game and never looked back… play for her. -Mia Hamm
  • You miss 100% of the shots you don’t take. -Wayne Gretzky
  • There’s no crying in baseball! -Jimmy Dugan
  • Everybody pulls for David, nobody roots for Goliath. -Wilt Chamberlain
  • You can observe a lot just by watching. -Yogi Berra
  • Fans, for the past two weeks you have been reading about the bad break I got. Yet today I consider myself the luckiest man on the face of this earth. -Lou Gehrig
  • Nobody in the game of football should be called a genius. A genius is somebody like Norman Einstein. -Joe Theismann
  • It’s not whether you get knocked down; it’s whether you get up. -Vince Lombardi
  • I’ve missed more than 9000 shots in my career. I’ve lost almost 300 games. 26 times, I’ve been trusted to take the game winning shot and missed. I’ve failed over and over and over again in my life. And that is why I succeed. -Michael Jordan
  • You are never really playing an opponent. You are playing yourself, your own highest standards, and when you reach the limits, that is real joy. -Arthur Ashe
  • Don’t give up. Don’t ever give up. -Jim Valvano

“The boss drives people; the leader coaches them. The boss depends on authority; the leader on good will. The boss inspires fear; the leader inspires enthusiasm. The boss says ‘I’; the leader says ‘we.’ The boss fixes the blame for the breakdown; the leader fixes the breakdown. The boss says ‘go’; the leader says ‘let’s go!’”
H. Gordon Selfridge, American-British retail magnate via today’s Real Estate Investment SmartBrief