Good news, True-Believers,
   
     My cancer is in full remission!!! That's right, this morning I went to my Oncologist and she had the results of the Petscan I got last week, and they could find no trace of the cancer in my body.

Remission doesn't mean cured, because cancer can come back, but there is a good chance that it won't.

So this is super good news! I have to go back to the doctor every 3 months for a few years, but it looks like things are looking up for me for the first time in a year.

Thanks to everyone who has supported me, financially and emotionally, throughout this rotten year. All my friends have made all the difference. Thanks to everyone who has come out to all the benefits and events and donated to the cause. I love you all! I hope things stay positive and good, but at least for now things are great!

-Sean

More Thanks!

I felt like I needed a second installment of my monthly cancer updates because so much has been happening lately.

First off there were two benefit shows this month, the first one was a Halloween Artshow/Fashionshow/Concert featuring my friend Ryan's band: The Vile Blue Shades...The show was organized by Christel Edwards and Stephen Simmons and I would like to thank them again for the support. You can check out what that was all about at OctoberEvening.com.

And then all the way up in Portland, my good friends Josh and Mandy Kubish organized a benefit concert in my behalf and I would like to thank them for the love and support, and thank the bands that played for free so I can pay my medical bills: SwimSwamSwum, Eat Your Heart Out, and Microtia. Thanks rockers!

Finally I would like to thank one my oldest friend's Jeff Pugh for donating a painting to sell in my artshow at the Niche going on right now until the end of the month. Thanks to everyone.

November 4th I get my Petscan and November 12th I get the results, so that is the moment of doom or reckoning, whichever way it turns out, makes a huge difference on the direction my winter will take. So I will be updating this section with the results in about 2 weeks.

Finally check out the November issue of SLUG for a half page ad detailing the final 2 benefits we are having this year. The first being a Artist Messenger Bag Show at Frosty Darling on Friday December 5th so I would like to thank all the artist participating and Gentry Blackburn for donating the gallery space, it should be pretty cool...The second this the following night at the W Lounge and we will be auctioning off the arcade machine that Jonas, Matt, John, and Marshall have poured their time and heart into. Don't miss either of these sweet benefits....

See ya soon, Thanks...........................Sean

Recovery and Waiting.

I am now about one month out from finishing the Radiation Therapy, and let me tell you, it sucked. I don't want to go into the crummy detail of how I felt, but just imagine that you have the flu and a hangover plus you are super exhausted. That's pretty much how I felt. Also my hair fell out of the left side of my head and I look pretty silly, but that's cancer for ya.

Anyway, the doctors can't test me until November to see if the cancer is in remission or what, and that is terrifying, but it's something I have to deal with. I am hoping for the best and everyday i feel better and better. My hair should grow back in 4-6 months and then we go from there.

Thanks to everyone for donating and supporting me and doing a million things to keep me going. See ya soon.

Sean

I Have Cancer

So yeah, you read that right.

On May 23rd 2008, I was diagnosed with Follicular Lymphoma Cancer, it came as quite a surprise, as you can well imagine. Here is a real quick synopsis of what led up to this:

I noticed a lump on the left side of my neck that felt like a swollen lymph node (which it was) that was almost completely painless. Being the genius that I am, I was slightly concerned, but didn't really worry about it.

At the time, I was working part time, and since most of my jobs are private help for elderly and disable people, most of the time insurance isn't even offered.

But who needs insurance, right, when you are so young and healthy???

So what I usually do when I get sick is go into the low income clinics which have a sliding scale based on income and get my prescription or whatever.

So I made an appointment  and went in. The first doctor thought it was the flu or a cold and just told me to go and get some rest. I got some rest and the lump didn't change.

I went in a couple months later and the second doctor said that it was strep throat and sent me home with some pennicillen (sp?). I took the antibiotics and the lump didn't change.

I went in one more time and this doctor finally looked concerned and told me to go to my family physician! (good god! If I had a family physician that I could afford to go to, don't you think I would go there????)

So still nobody seemed very worried, so I went on with my life. Around this time, I decided that I would just apply for private insurance and then just go to the doctor when I could.

So I applied and the agent guy acted like 'no big deal' 'no problem, you will get coveraged, without a doubt!'

Then about a month later, I got a rejection letter from SelectHealth telling me that I was rejected because of 'swollen lymph nodes in the neck.'

Holy Shit!

I didn't even know you could be rejected because of a SYMPTOM and not have any sort of official diagnosis of a disease or sickness.

This made me very very nervous. An insurance company is about the most evil greedy entity on the planet and if they WOULDN'T take my money, that was a baaaaaaad sign.

So I finally coughed up the $200 bucks to go see my family physician within 5 minutes he told me he thought it was Lymphoma....CANCER!!!

Thus began my nightmarish last two months of biopsy surgery, blood tests, Pet and CT scans, Oncologist visits, and then last week a bone marrow extraction surgery.

If these horrible and astronomically priced events weren't bad enough, I also had to deal with the rollercoaster emotional ride of someone telling you that you had a deadly cancer and you have to go into treatment.

So here we are basically, I wanted to announce it to everyone so that the rumor mill wouldn't go crazy, although it probably already has, and if I didn't call you personally, forgive me, this has been so emotionally draining and devastating that I can't talk about it over and over with everyone. It just gets me too upset.

I have begun my cancer treatment and I don't have insurance and I have already accrued a humongous debt, but that is sort of the least of my problems.

Thanks Everybody!