Cancer Update -- August 13

Here's an update on the situation I just sent out to friends and family.

Just have had a couple of pieces of good news with regard to my cancer treatment, and we wanted to get the word out.

Back in June I was hospitalized for a week due to a very bad reaction to one of the four chemo drugs. That drug caused some permanent scarring/damage to my lungs.

On Tuesday this week I had a PET CT scan--a test to see size/locations/metabolic rates of cancer cells. The radiologist reviewing the report said that everything is shrinking very well, and that the cancer cells are no longer metabolizing anything. In other words, they're dead. The chemo has worked. I'm not officially in remission, yet, but we are getting close! :-)

I have three more chemo sessions to go. We want to make sure we really kill the cancer cells. My final treatment session is scheduled for September 24.

There was initially talk of following up on the chemo with six weeks of daily radiation treatments, which would last until around Thanksgiving in November. But because of the damage to my lungs, my oncologist isn't sure. He's going to discuss with the radiation doctor, and make a determination. If the radiation doctor is confident that he blast the cells without hitting my lungs, we'll proceed. If he can't we'll be done September 24.

In the meantime, the fine folks at Mirage--the Ninja Turtles Company--have released a t-shirt to help with our expenses. If nothing else you can look at the shirt here (I'm not schilling...it's just part of the cancer update. PLEASE don't feel like I'm asking/pressuring you to buy them. Really, I just think they're cool): http://www.ninjaturtles.com/html/scratch-shirt.htm

Michelle and I are so grateful for every note, kind word, and other display of support and affection we've received over the last four or five months. We're almost done--just two to four months left. But I have to tell you, we couldn't have done it without you. I'm most excited because I'll be *allowed* to travel to NYC and LA--my two favorite places and my good friends-(and getting back to focusing on my writing career)-toward the end of the year.

I really hope to see as many of you as I can, and we can celebrate the end of this process in just a couple of months!

With great love and appreciation,

Jake Black

There Are No Words

Over $900. There are no words to express how grateful Michelle and I are for your donations. We're truly humbled. Thank you.

Fundraising Totals

The totals are in. A few people haven't yet finished contributing, but according to the pledges and donations, we collectively raised $902.40 for the Black Family Fund. This will help Jake and Michelle pay those enormous medical bills. Thanks to everyone for rallying around the cause, and spreading the word. We couldn't have done it without you.

7th Place

The results were posted today. We took 7th place. Out of 18 teams, and our first adventure race, I think we did pretty well. We were behind the first place team by only 1/2 an hour. Or, in other words, we were only 10% slower than the winning team. I feel good about that.

We Finished!! (...we still don't know our standing)

WE DID IT!! That's us at the finish line! I had to take a picture of it or I wouldn't have believed it myself. It was a crazy ride that we finished in about 3 1/2 hours. It was loads of fun and very difficult, and we are so satisfied with the experience.

We started with the paddling portion, an aggravating 5 miles of it. It wouldn't have been so bad had the kayaks we used been anything like the kayaks we trained on. During training, we used bulky, heavy, plastic, sit-on-top kayaks that maneuver like a sedated elephant. We had gotten used to this and ran into problems when they gave us inflatable kayaks that turn unexpectadly even for the experienced paddlers. Needless to say, we didn't take a direct route to the checkpoint. That leg of the race was more like a derby of bumper-boats than a racecourse. This portion was definately the most challenging from a teamwork perspective. It's hard to be a good team-player when everything seems to be going wrong.

When we got back to the transition area, they gave us a new map of the surrounding area and 12 points that were marked with numbers 1-12. We were to go out on foot with our compass and navigation skills to find all the checkpoints. If you get any of the checkpoints out of order, or miss any in the middle, it is a 20 minute penalty for each mistake. This part of the race was about 5-6 miles (depending on our individual routes and shortcuts), and we finished in about an hour.

The last leg of the race was the mountain biking portion. We were given a different map with 12 more checkpoints on it, and we were to go out and find them on bike. Since there are no roped-off portions, there were many times where we could see a shortcut through the woods, picked up our bikes and hiked them over to another trail. The maps were super detailed, and we were able to see these kinds of features and routes to get ahead of those that took different paths.

We neglected to take a watch with us, so we had no idea what time it was when we arrived at the finish line. The officials we asked said it was 1:50pm, and after our tired heads were able to do the math (we started at 10:30am), we were elated beyond what our bodies were capable of. We had finished in just under 3 1/2 hours. We had done great by our standards. It turns out that we were about 8th to cross the finish from our division, but that doesn't say much. As I mentioned before, there are time penalties for making checkpoint mistakes. We only made one mistake, but there is no way to know what everyone else did.

The link in the previous post will take you to the results page (I updated it, it didn't do that before). I'm waiting just as anxiously as anyone to see how we did, but above all, I'm just glad we finished. We traveled about 25 miles at a very competitive pace, and sustained no injury that won't heal within the week.

I haven't finished tallying the fundraising totals. For all those that pledged per mile, you are welcome to donate through the paypal link on the left, or you can email me indicating that you are sending a check. I'll get the totals up within the next couple of days.

Thanks to everyone for the support and prayers on our behalf.

This is it!!

Spent the last 48 hours looking for paddles that were for rent. We've been renting equipment on Deer Creek Resevoir on the weekends for training, but I had no idea that it would be so hard to find gear to take with us. No one rents (or sells, for that matter) kayak paddles that are worth racing. Last night I was afraid we would have to show up without paddles and become the laughing stock of the race. Fortunately, REI in Salt Lake (the one on 33rd South) rents them, and has agreed to let us take them to Colorado for the weekend. It's quite the drive from Provo, but at this point I'll take anything.

Well, everything is set. I'm going to pick up the last minute gear in a few minutes, and make some homemade granola bars for mid-race snacking, and we should be all set. Everything, as it turns out, will squeeze into the back of our little Honda Fit - both mountain bikes included - which I'm super excited about. For a while there, I was looking at buying a car rack just for the occasion. This little discovery, fitting it all in the back, just saved us about $400.

Thanks to everyone and your support for the Black Family. I'll report on the race on Monday. If you get impatient, you can check the race website for our finishing results over the weekend: http://www.gravityplay.com/adventureracing/results.html

Wish us luck!

3 Days...

Only three more days until we embark on the largest race Michelle and I have ever attempted. Not only is it long, but I checked weather.com to find that rain is expected on the day of the race, with the day's high at 67 degrees. We're going to be cold. Over the last month, we've been training in hot summer days to build up some good resistance to it. Now it seems we need a little extra fat for insulation.

So, in response to the recent news, we dashed over to REI yesterday to pick up some new performance wear. We feel a little more prepared, but it's still going to be tricky keeping warm enough to race, but not roasting in our own layers.

By saying this, I don't mean to scare anyone out there. We've had a couple of emails from concerned friends that are worried we will hurt ourselves by doing all this. But, don't worry, safety and preparation have been the hallmark of our entire training program. Everything we have done is an effort to reduce the likelihood of injury. So...thanks for the concern, we feel loved, but there is really no need to worry.

One more update tomorrow. That will be the last before race day.