It’s now been over a year since I’ve been declared with No Evidence of Disease (NED)! After my, for lack of a better word “anniversary” I’ve had a lot of things swirling in my head and I’ve been a little hesitant on sitting down and putting them down because I didn’t want to come off as braggadocious, but I think that with everyone that’s supported me and my family up to this point getting a happy update would be nice to share.
This year has been truly amazing and I feel like I’m making up for lost time from last year. Every once in a while, I’ll run into someone I haven’t seen in a while and they’ll ask how things are going. Everyone knows I’m not a sports guy but to use a sports metaphor, I can’t help but describe this last year as me sinking 3 point shots from half court.
Let’s talk about my physical health first. I started doing a little bit of weightlifting in January. I attempted a single pullup at the gym in Joanna’s apartment. I pulled up and audibly heard my ribcage crack all the way down the middle and I pulled my lat muscle. Clearly a sign that I needed to slow down.
I signed up for yoga at Corepower and REALLY forced myself to slow down and take baby steps.
This actually allowed me to focus on my breathing as it was still quite shallow, worked on my flexibility that I totally lost from laying in bed for weeks, and I built up my physical strength. I told one of the instructors about why I was doing yoga and she immediately perked up and said that she was a breast cancer survivor and started doing yoga for the same reasons. She loved it so much that it lead her into being a yoga teacher.
I thought it was interesting that now I’m part of this new “club” where I can find an instant connection with someone as a result of this horrible disease.
Did yoga for about 2 months while I was on medical leave and then felt confident enough to move up to weightlifting again.
I called up my friend Daryl who manages the West Bloomington Anytime Fitness if he could be my personal trainer for 3 months. At this point, I still couldn’t do pullups or even pushups because it was still causing strain on my sternum. Again, a lesson in taking my time and being patient with myself.
The next 3 months were spent CLAWING my way back to physical fitness thanks to Daryl’s support and me practicing discipline and patience which lead to some really great results.
I made a photo transition of what my body went through from right before I was diagnosed to when I got back to “normal”.
By the end of our training sessions in July, I was able to do 12 pullups without a break and now I’m at about 19.
Next, job stuff.
In April, I had an opportunity to go to a product owner’s conference in town. One of the keynote speakers was the VP and CIO of General Mills. I had a voice in my head urging me to approach him and introduce myself. I’m super glad that I did because he got me connected with a manager and director in the project management office.
They invited me to casually come in and meet with the team which I did and that lead to an opportunity to throw my hat in the ring as they had a job opening they thought I would be a good fit for.
Long story short, I started a new job at Gen Mills about 3 weeks ago as a Sr. Project Management Lead in Data and Analytics! This has been a dream job of mine for the last 7 years and a total validation for going back to school and setting a pile of money on fire for 3 years.
I was worried that with getting diagnosed with cancer 3 weeks after graduating and being out of the loop for a year from the analytics space, my knowledge and skills wouldn’t be relevant anywhere but I’m SO excited to be part of this company working with some very smart people. After I interviewed, the HR department told me that several hundred people applied for this job. Kind of cool to know that my charm and good looks worked.
Another perk is that my sister Kimberly moved back to Minneapolis from Buffalo where she was for the last 2.5 years and now I get to bug her every day at work and eat her snacks.
How are Joanna and I doing, you might ask? Well….we’re married now!
Around Febuary, I put together a joint venture proposal where I asked her what her thoughts would be on getting married sometime this year. Her response was “Eh ok” (very romantic I know).
I spent 3 months putting a proposal idea together and executed it on 5/4 or more importantly, Star Wars day.
I reached out to a local ice cream shop asking if they could make my girlfriend Joanna’s favorite flavors: Cherries Jubilee and Almond Biscotti because that would be the only way I’d be able to get her out of the house without raising suspicion. They were super excited to be involved and even offered to reaname Cherries Jubilee to Joanna’s Jubilee.
When we got in line she saw the label and she’s like “Wait what? Why is my name on the ice cream label?” I said “must be some kind of marketing campaign” Then she asks the guy behind the counter and he said “oh it’s our new marketing campaign” and she burst out laughing. Then asks, “Is the ring inside the ice cream?”
We started walking through the park and the whole time I’m sweating because it’s 70f/21c and sunny outside but I’m wearing a thick coat to hide the backpack that has the scrapbook that I had been working on for two months and ring hidden underneath. When we got to the top of the hill, I asked her if she knew what was going to happen next and she said she had no idea.
I pull the scrapbook out and give it to her and she LOVED it.
I reached out to about 20 of her friends who have all moved out of state to ask them to write a note for Joanna as if they were signing her yearbook, take a picture of it, and send it to me. I took all the notes and photoshopped them together. This is one of the pages looks like:
I told Joanna that she’s been my best friend for over 12 years, that we’ve been through a ton together, bla bla bla and if she would marry me. She said “Yes of course!”
I project managed the CRAP out of the wedding planning and we got married exactly a month ago today on November 8th. It was a crazy amount of work but we pulled it off in 6 months. As a result, the day went off without a hitch.
I almost lost it while giving my speech as we had about 160 of our closest friends and family in one room celebrating our marriage but the fact that I was alive to experience this day with Joanna got me choked up a little.
Everyone was telling us after the wedding how much I was smiling throughout the day. Our photographer Bryan wrote this in the description of our wedding photos “I’ve been to hundreds of weddings and you smiled more than any other groom in recent memory, including when no one was looking or telling you to smile.”
I couldn’t help but smile, it was such a great day.
I posted our entire wedding on youtube: Link
If you’re going to watch any of it, I would recommend jumping to 17:50 in the ceremony video as we wrote each other’s vows and read them for the first time in front of everyone. It was a lot of fun.
I married a total babe
Last thing, cancer stuff.
In the last 6 months I’ve had 2 bacterial lung infections which caused me to cough for almost 3 weeks each time. I can’t shake that first thought that comes forward of “What if cancer’s back?” Thankfully, antibiotics took care of the cough but I’m not going to be able to escape that worry for probably the rest of my life.
I’m still having to go to Mayo every 3 months for the next year before they decide to reduce my visits down. It’s slightly annoying because it’s a 7-8 hour round trip visit but at least I’m not having to go back as often as I did before.
Getting poked and prodded still doesn’t get easier….
My dad has graduated to 6 month appointments as he’s doing very well. We’ve actually synchronized our next appointment to go back on 12/26 together.
I’m really glad that I put in the time and effort to blog all those months while I was going through treatment. I go back every once in a while when I’m having a rough day to remember when I REALLY had it rough. It sounds weird but I’m actually thankful that I went though the experience because it lead to a lot of good things. A few of my friends in med school used my story as a case study to discuss humanity in medicine as the importance of treating the patient as well as the disease. My faith in God dramatically increased as there was so much that I didn’t have control over besides relying on him that there was a plan in all of this. Most importantly, I went through a rare and awful experience not many people are burdened with and can now empathize with those going through it as well. Joanna and I were talking about this a few weeks ago and she said that she can also support the people who have a sick spouse which I never though of.
Since I got better last year, I’ve had one friend get diagnosed with Leukemia, one get RE-DIAGNOSED with Non Hodgkins Lymphoma, my friend’s 23yr old son get diagnosed with Hodgkins Lymphoma, and my friend John died in June from stage 4 gallbladder cancer.
I went to John’s funeral and could NOT keep it together. The dude was 54 years old and at peak physical fitness as he did triathlons, biathlons, and even traveled to Athens to run a marathon. There was an open mic portion, I went up and told everyone that my friend meant a lot to me as he was my coach when going through chemo and he sent me gifts too to keep my spirits up.
So that’s the one year update! We still don’t know if we can have kids yet and probably won’t know until next spring when I see a urologist at Mayo. It is what it is and I’m not going to worry about it and throw it up to God to decide if that’s in the cards for us.
Joanna and I are returning to Japan at the end of March to catch the cherry blossom season for our honeymoon so expect blog posts for that trip.
Life is just so good right now and I’m just happy to share it with all of you!
My sweet Andrew. You are absolutely the most amazing person I have ever known. You REALLY are the whole package! Your outlook on life and love is far beyond your years. There are a hundred things parading through my head concerning you, and they linger there, not knowing where to begin. So, I’ll just say, you mean the world to me, and have since you were a small boy. May all the years ahead be a beautiful for you and Joanna as they are at this moment. I am SO PROUD of you. 🥰😘
Andrew and Joanna, I am so proud of you both and I stand in awe of God at how He has been at work in your lives. Over the years I’ve watched both of you grow in your faith…and what incredible opportunities for growth He has given you through unimaginable challenges! As you continue on your journey as a husband and wife, I’m confident God will continue to use your experiences to help others. Watching the clip of your wedding vows made me happy for you but sad that my circumstances changed so that I couldn’t be part of your wedding. Please know that you will continue to be in my prayers in the days ahead.