Update [Aug. 24 - Oct. 5]
In my last timeline post I ended off of August 24th, which was the date that I was discharged from the hospital and got back home, so we’ll kick things off from there and take it up until my most recent infusion on October 5th. Let’s get right into it!
What Have I Learned From Fundraising?
When I first began processing the fact that I had cancer, my first instinct wasn’t to look for a hand from anyone else - this was going to be my battle. However, it didn’t take long to figure out that financial help was going to be needed. What lessons did I learn from having a GoFundMe page set up to provide that help?
What Does My Treatment Look Like?
Before diving into the specifics of my treatment regimen, I think it’s worth covering some of the basics about cancer treatment. It’s an extremely complex topic, as I’ve come to find out, but sticking with a general overview should be sufficient for the sake of this post. The first thing to know when it comes to cancer treatment is that there’s no one-size-fits-all solution.
What is metastatic renal cell carcinoma?
I mentioned in my previous article and on my GoFundMe page that I’ve been officially diagnosed with a type of cancer called metastatic renal cell carcinoma (RCC), but what the heck does that actually mean? In this article I describe my particular type of cancer in greater detail, because not all cancer is created equally.
How Did I Get Here? (A Not So Brief Timeline)
The past few months of my life have been a whirlwind. I’ve gotten a lot of questions about how all of this happened and how I went from working aboard a ship in Svalbard to receiving cancer treatment back home. Rather than trying to explain it piecemeal, I put together a comprehensive timeline of the events that brought me to where I am today.