Paul's bone marrow search and life beyond
Donation protected
Hi Everyone,
So in the last two months I've relapsed with my cancer and done somewhere over 15 chemotherapy sessions. Then, just a few days ago, I learned that I've gone in to my second remission which means that they couldn't detect any leukemia in the bone marrow, blood, spinal fluid, lymph nodes or brain. Pretty much everywhere they checked has shown up undetectable (most likely none) amounts of leukemia!
This is good for a few reasons:
1) No cancer = good
2) Now I can go to bone marrow transplant.
The next few months will be a lot more chemotherapy and eventual radiation therapy; then a bone marrow transplant. Needless to say all very scary and for someone who has been fighting cancer - hard - for over 4 years, I'll be doing something new (transplant). That is a bit unnerving but with this amazing community and support around me and how far we've come, I feel like I can do anything.
I'm setting up this page because I've gotten a lot of requests to donate money to my recovery. I have health insurance (go ACA) but people still seem to want to support me financially during this time. To be honest, I've been in and out of the hospital for over four years doing procedures and chemotherapy and a whole host of other awful things and if that wasn't enough, the year with the least amount of chemo just happened to be the year of a pandemic. So, all in all, it's been hard to have a career or nurture it the way I'd want to. I've had to adapt everything to what my body will allow me to do. Working from home and learning to work from the computer have been interesting hurdles but compared to chemo and the hospital, it wasn't that bad.
Thank you to everyone who decides to contribute. I'll use most of the funds to cover my day to day life and bills but anything we make above that I'll put forward to my next feature film! There's so much to tell but essentially, part of my adjustment to cancer was a realization and pursuit of my dreams . I started making films instead of working on them and we eventually worked up to a successful feature film.
Our last film, Evergreen , which is featured in the video above, was written shot and edited all during my last bout with cancer. It was a huge mental motivator and emotional crutch to get me through some really tough days and months. I didn't think I'd be making another film during cancer treatments but here we are, veterans in more ways than one. Regardless! It will be done and once I bounce back from a successful bone marrow transplant (probably before) we'll be diving into another film. No doubt full of cheer and gratitude that I live, in part, because of all of you.
Love,
Paul
So in the last two months I've relapsed with my cancer and done somewhere over 15 chemotherapy sessions. Then, just a few days ago, I learned that I've gone in to my second remission which means that they couldn't detect any leukemia in the bone marrow, blood, spinal fluid, lymph nodes or brain. Pretty much everywhere they checked has shown up undetectable (most likely none) amounts of leukemia!
This is good for a few reasons:
1) No cancer = good
2) Now I can go to bone marrow transplant.
The next few months will be a lot more chemotherapy and eventual radiation therapy; then a bone marrow transplant. Needless to say all very scary and for someone who has been fighting cancer - hard - for over 4 years, I'll be doing something new (transplant). That is a bit unnerving but with this amazing community and support around me and how far we've come, I feel like I can do anything.
I'm setting up this page because I've gotten a lot of requests to donate money to my recovery. I have health insurance (go ACA) but people still seem to want to support me financially during this time. To be honest, I've been in and out of the hospital for over four years doing procedures and chemotherapy and a whole host of other awful things and if that wasn't enough, the year with the least amount of chemo just happened to be the year of a pandemic. So, all in all, it's been hard to have a career or nurture it the way I'd want to. I've had to adapt everything to what my body will allow me to do. Working from home and learning to work from the computer have been interesting hurdles but compared to chemo and the hospital, it wasn't that bad.
Thank you to everyone who decides to contribute. I'll use most of the funds to cover my day to day life and bills but anything we make above that I'll put forward to my next feature film! There's so much to tell but essentially, part of my adjustment to cancer was a realization and pursuit of my dreams . I started making films instead of working on them and we eventually worked up to a successful feature film.
Our last film, Evergreen , which is featured in the video above, was written shot and edited all during my last bout with cancer. It was a huge mental motivator and emotional crutch to get me through some really tough days and months. I didn't think I'd be making another film during cancer treatments but here we are, veterans in more ways than one. Regardless! It will be done and once I bounce back from a successful bone marrow transplant (probably before) we'll be diving into another film. No doubt full of cheer and gratitude that I live, in part, because of all of you.
Love,
Paul
Organizer
Paul Goodman
Organizer
Tustin, CA