The Wedding Dress Party.

The Wedding Dress Party was a riot! It was a party that will be difficult top and impossible to duplicate. We had a perfect combination of people and the venue at Cygnus 27 atop of the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel was stellar! This entire party was Jessica Cook and Katie Kuiper's idea. They were talking about wearing their dresses and my wife was all over it. Once the three of them and others got so excited Jessica' s husband Ryan set things in motion like only Ryan could do.

The evening started out with quick refreshments in the Kooistra's room at the JW about an hour before the party. A few of the girls changed into their dresses while the boys enjoyed a few quick cocktails. The girls looked great (especially Joa) and the looks we received as we rolled out of the elevator at the JW with 4 brides and grooms was priceless! The looks continued at we walked from the JW to the Amway and the guests at the Amway looked quite confused. A quick trip up the express elevator to the Cygnus Private dining rooms and the party begins.

We had some time to mingle, catch up and view all the dresses before a fabulous slide show. The slide show was a compilation of all of our wedding pictures and was quite funny. After the slide show dinner was served by the Cygnus staff and the food was unbelievable. The meal was topped off with wedding cake for dessert. There was a best man toast given by Joel Brandt (every ones best men) and it was hilarious. Once the best man speech was given, Ryan had a surprise cooked up.

He called me up and challenged everyone in attendance to donate to my marathon fundraiser and the Cook Foundation would match the donations 3 to 1. I was astonished by the gesture and even more surprised by the $900.00 that my friends donated in about 1 minute. With the Cook family 3 to 1 match we were able to raise about $3000.00 dollars for the LLS! The total now stands around $9,000.00 given by my friends and family in honor of my fight with Lymphoma and my commitment to run a marathon to raise awareness. With this kind of money people at going to expect me to qualify for Boston!

Now back to the party. It was now time for some dancing! The girls were all on the dance floor but it took some work to get some of the boys (myself included) out there. Once the late night and sore feet set in the party came to a close. I am grateful to Ryan for throwing such a great party. It was great to see some people that I haven't seen for a while and spend a great night with my wife. I am thankful for the money that was raised as it was a truly humbling gesture.

Tim

Cycle one is in the books.

What at week. I'm sitting here on Saturday morning just relaxing and trying to rest (those of you who know me well know that I don't slow down and rest well). The kids are at my parents for the night so Joa and I are getting ready for The Wedding Dress party tonight at the Amway. I just picked up my Tux and Joa's dress still fits great so we are ready to go. Since I had a few minutes I thought that I would give you a quick update on my first week of treatment.

I checked into my oncologists office on Tuesday morning for my first treatment of chemo therapy which consisted of Rituxan and Treanda. We were underway by about 9:00 AM. First infusion was Saline and then some Benadryl to calm my immune system a bit. The Rituxan is a very aggressive protein that begins to eat cancer immediately so your immune system can "freak out" a bit without the Benadryl. All was well for the first hour or two but then I started to have some issues like rising blood pressure, stomach pain, nausea and a higher heart rate. We slowed stopped the drip and switched to more saline and a steroid to calm me down. After an hour or so we started the Rituxan back up again and slowly increased the rate every 30-40 min. I started to get the chills so I wrapped my self up in heated blankets but then developed a small fever and began to over heat. By about 4:00 I got the entire dose of Rituxan in and switched to some anti nausea meds followed by the Treanda. At bout 6:00 or so everything was down and I was feeling decent all things considered. Well enough that I could go to Max's choir concert that evening.

Wednesday morning at 9:15 was a quick bag of saline and a second dose of Treanda. This entire appointment was only about 2 hours. I felt good so I worked from my home office in the basement.

Thursday was a quick one hour appointment to have an injection of Neulasta (white blood cell booster). Since it has been my first time on Neulasta since 2005 I needed to make sure that I didn't have a reaction. I didn't so off I went to Shoreline for a few hours. I got tired around 2:00 so I worked from home for the rest of the day.

Friday I was feeling good so I went to the office for most of the day and felt pretty good all things considered.

This week has been tough but the outpouring of support from my friends, family, church, LLS teammates, customers and Shoreline has been totally humbling. The chemo is working quickly as the large mass of lymph nodes in my left axillary are gone after only 5 days. I'm moving slower than normal but feeling OK. My next treatment won't be until April 19.

Everyones prayers have been felt and the support appreciated.

God Bless,

Tim, Joa, Max, Liv and Charlie.

Here We Go Again!

The weekly miles have been piling on and weekend long runs are now 15 miles but I have hit a little snag. Over the last month or two my fitness level (which should be really getting good about now) has not been improving but rather deteriorating. I have been a little fatigued (which is somewhat normal for marathon training) and my perceived effort during my runs has seemed really high based on the pace I was running. In addition my heart rate (which I monitor closely) during my runs has been slowly rising over the last month or two and I have been very winded after running up stairs. I thought that most of this was just training fatigue or related to the fact that every one in the house has been sick for the last 6 weeks. That was until I had "soaking night sweats" 3 nights in a row which is a normal symptom of Hodgkin's Disease.

My oncologist performed a blood test and determined that I am about 2.5 grams (I think that what he said) low on Hemoglobin. I was a little stressed out and I'm not sure I heard everything exactly right. Anyway the symptoms of being low by 2.5 grams (or whatever) of Hemoglobin is like being a pint or so low of blood hence the shortness of breath and high heart rate during exercise.

So to make a long story short it is time to start up the Chemo and put this disease back into remission. My marathon efforts are off for now (Doctor's orders) but after treatment I will likely do a fall marathon for the LLS instead of the Bayshore this spring. My treatments will start on Tuesday March 22nd and will go for up to 6 months but will likely be 4 months. I will have an 8 hour drip of Rituximab on Tuesday and a 1 hour drip of Treanda on Wednesday followed by a dose of Neulasta on Friday. MMM.... Sounds delicious! I will be on this schedule once a month and the chemo will be administered in Holland. Based on the drugs and my overall health I should do pretty well.

This is not a "knock down the symptoms" type of treatment but rather a "put it into remission treatment". Since the Cancer is not curable it will come back but it may be 1,3,10 or 20 years until it reoccurs.

This won't be fun but Joa and I are ready to fight and get this behind us. I have been prepared for this day for along time so I am well prepared for what is ahead. I guess I'm going to learn how to slow down a little and listen to what God is trying to tell me.

On a side note I am flattered by the donations that have come in to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society on my behalf for committing to run the Bayshore Marathon. Although I will not be running Bayshore the LLS will be moving me to a fall marathon after my treatments are complete. I will continue to be fundraising throughout the summer. I love endurance events and I can't wait to start training again, and I only stopped yesterday! It's going to be a long 4 months although I am excited to play lots of soccer with the kids instead of logging miles.

We are so thank fun for all of the donations, support and most importantly the prayers.

Tim, Joa and Family

Bayshore 6 Week Training Update

I am officially ready for Spring! I am into week 6 of my Bayshore Marathon training and I haven't been able to take my Yak Traks off yet. I love to run out side but the cold dark mornings are getting old. The mileage is slowly creeping up so I am running about 25 miles per week and riding my mountain bike at lease twice per week.

I had one small set back last Sunday when I stepped on something under the snow and hurt my foot. In a effort to rest I have been riding the bike most of this week and spending a lot of time icing my foot and stretching. It seems to be working so I am hoping to be back on the road by Tuesday or Wednesday.

I have not had much time to do any real hard workouts due to the snow but I was able to race my mountain bike (which is a very hard workout) twice. One race was in 4" of snow and the other was in 3" of mud (see the pic's below). I am thrilled that my health is still good and that I am able to do the activities I love! I am inspired day by day when I think about all of the people who are struggling with blood cancers and are struggling through treatments.

Fund raising for the LLS is going great and I am just over half way to my goal. I am humbled by the generosity of all those who have donated. Words cannot describe my gratitude and I am so thankful for your donations, thoughts and prayers. Never hesitate to call if you want to join me on a run or ride.

God Bless,

Tim