i am done with cancer

I had a PET scan today and I have the preliminary result of the scan. The scan told us I have no cancer in my body. My uncle who lives in Missouri came down to DC to do some work so he took a half day off and came to visit us last Wednesday. I will have a scan every three months for a year, then once every six months for the next year, then once a year after that. The port will come out in mid-January.

I went to a wedding this weekend in Alabama. We left on Thursday night. We drove to Bristol, Virginia and stayed the night. The next day we started at 9 in the morning and got to Alabama at 2:45. We listened to Cheaper By The Dozen in the car.A friend of ours from church was getting married. The wedding reception was in a restored barn.

I am selling Christmas trees with my Boy Scout troop on Sunday from 12 to 3:00 at Better Living in Charlottesville.

This is my last PET scan 

Me and my uncle Sam from Missouri who came to see us 

This is how many shots I had during cancer 

Anne, a friend of our family, gave me a prayer shawl  

I am doing relay for life on May 16th if you want to donate this is the link, and if you want to join the Marcos Smiles team go to the same link to join my team.  The relay starts at 6pm and goes to 6 am at the Albemarle High School track in the back of the school.

Me at a wedding in Alabama this weekend 

A card from all of my teachers 

My monkey bread at my party - this link is monkey bread recipe 

My pills collection 

 I think having cancer made me stronger going through a hard thing in life. I had a lot of support behind me through cancer and I can not do it my self and I thank everyone from the bottom of my heart. If you have cancer go through it with a positive attitude and a big smile on your face to make it through.

Last day of treatment!

Today was my last day of chemo! It went pretty well, although I'm feeling a bit sick now from the medicine. I'm excited to get back to school pretty soon, but I will miss on the 15th for my last PET scan. I'm especially looking forward to go back to art, because it's my favorite class.

Here I'm giving myself a Heparin flush, the last thing we did today!

This is me with my nurse, Emily! She was with me for chemo, and I really like her.

This is one of my doctors, Dr. Belyea. I met him during the last cycle of chemo. He's really funny! He does a lot of cancer research with mice and he dressed like a mouse for Halloween.

I had a great Thanksgiving! It was really fun because we had three dinners on Thursday, Friday, and Sunday. The Stelows came over and ate with us which was great. I'm thankful for my family and all the visitors that came to see me since I started chemo!

My teachers, Ms. Nicholson and Ms. P came to see me last week

Here's me, my brother and sister at UVA Hospital

This is my family with Aunt Jean and Grandma Davis last week in Chapel Hill.

Keep checking for more updates as we get closer to the finish line! I'll put up more pictures when I feel a bit better.

An interview with Marcos + school things

I found a video of an interview that my friends Perri and Frances made with me. It was made a couple of weeks ago and it covers things like my chemo and drugs that I have to take. This is the day that I realized my hair was falling out! It's taken a while for us to figure out how to upload it. 

(Click on this to watch!)

[Marcos' Interview]

My grandmother, Barbara, is coming to visit me for two whole weeks. She is arriving tonight! I'm really excited to see her. The last time I saw her was in August, so it has been a while.

This is me getting chemotherapy yesterday. I decided to wear a couple of crazy masks because I thought it would be funny! I had to skip school so I wanted it to be exiting.

School is going well; it's hard for me to keep up with the classwork that I'm missing. Tomorrow I'm going to Career Fair at John Paul Johns. I'm excited because it might help me figure out what to do after highschool! Now I'm thinking about going into automotive diagnostic - that's when technicians figure out what's wrong with your car using a computer. Since I love cars, that would be something I would love. I also love working with people, so whatever I do I want to be around people. But, I'm keeping my options open and hopefully something will come out of the blue!

The Good News!

This foundation called Hope Cam sent me a mini tablet so I can stay
connected to my friends and to my classes when I am at home and
getting treatment.  Thank you I am going to sykpe into  my history
class on Monday.

Good News.  I got the results from my PET and CT scans.   No cancer lit up  so I have only one more full cycle of chemo and no radiation needed.  This is an answer to lots of prayers.
I had 3 days of chemo this past week and one more day on Monday to finish my 3rd round.  I hope that I will be healthy enough to go on my Confirmation retreat next weekend.  I felt better this time, but still spent 2 nights in the Hospital. 

Some of my teacher's visited me in the hospital.  Thanks for coming Mr. Davis, Mr. Osborn, Ms. Nicholson and Ms. Herman and her mother-in-law and they brought me some cool things and some carpe donuts.  Also some people from my scouts visited Mr. and Mrs. Beaver.  They brought Wayside Chicken and homemade mac and cheese.  It was really good.  The Nelsons and Frank came too.  I love visitors. 

Last Sunday we were going to go on a walk with our friend Uncle Andy when we
 spotted this Aston Martin DB9 (volcanic red) parked in front of one of "Uncle"
Andy's friends house.  He was cleaning his garage and then he came out to
talk with us a little bit and tell us all about his 2013 car that he had shipped
from California.  It only has 3,000 miles on it.  To get it's oil changed it has to
be shipped to North Carolina.  Dr. Bauer took me on a spin around the
Forest Lakes neighborhood playing the James Bond theme music.  One interesting
thing is that there is a pen that comes out of the dashboard when you
press a button.  The interior leather took the lives of 7 Scottish cows and it takes
70 hours to stitch it.  It is the only 2013 Aston Martin DB9 in the US that
color.  And only about 1500 are made each year in England.  I hope my
parents will buy one for me when I am in college.  Do you think it is likely?
First I need to get my driver's license. 

Mr. Desmond my scout master-- I shaved his head at my last scout meeting, so now he looks like me.

8th Week

This would be a full week of school except that I am having a PET/CAT scan on Friday morning. This scan will show if the cancer has shrunk which will mean that the treatment is working! We will update once we have results. Since it will be Halloween, I will probably wear my mask.

Last week after the Monday treatment I felt good (better than the week before!) The quarter ended on Friday and I have missed about three weeks of school.

My cousin, April and her husband, Yaro came to visit as well. Yaro works for Ford in Detroit and he brought some Ford cars, one was a Ford Transit which he is in charge of marketing.

He brought some other trucks too. I also received packages from BMW/Mini and RAM trucks both with clothing, hats and gloves. A teacher from Burnley-Moran, Ms. Scott, and my neighbors, Mr. and Mrs. Kaplan, gave me a Volkswagon t-shirt and hat.

T-shirt from Ms. Scott, hat from the Kaplans.

My blood counts came back and were good so I can go to my usual Thursday breakfast this week and I don't have to have injections. I have a busy week, something every night (Boy Scouts, Campaigners, Young Life, Halloween/CHS football game).

Yesterday,I went to visit Mr. and Mrs. Williams in Crozet. They raise Angus cows. Mr. Williams has owned 4 Expeditions. The third one he owned for three years and he put 75,000 miles on it.

Mr. Williams and his newest Expedition. It is 2 weeks old and has 2,000 miles on it already. He makes a lot of trips to Tazewell which is 250 miles away. We have had our car 4 years and we average 8,000 in a year.

This is Big Red, one of the Williams' angus cows.

half-way done, i hope

Last Monday I went to chemo.  I started my second round.  It was a long day.  I had to have 5 drugs put through my port.  I was at the clinic from 8am to 5 pm.  Our friends the Gortler’s came to visit and brought a 28 inch pizza from Benny Deluca’s.  It is a new pizza restaurant in Charlottesville.  It is the biggest pizza I’ve ever seen.  One piec e didn’t even fit on a plate.  I had to have 2 plates.  I liked it so much I ate 2 pieces.  It was a good thing I ate 2 pieces because the chemo made me so sick I couldn’t eat or drink later.

 One good thing was that I got to open a package from Aston Martin.  Julian Jenkins and Candace Cogan sent me some cool stuff—a hat, a mug, a teddy bear.( Tuesday  started off a little better.  I only had to have 2 drugs and I got home at 2:30.  But then my stomach really started to hurt so we ended up going to the ER.  On Wednesday I only had to have 2 drugs, I was supposed to go home at 11:00, but I felt really bad so I had to go to the hospital overnight.   I also got a nice package from Evan Cygler at Miller Motorcars in Connecticut.  He sent me a cool racing jacket and shirt from Ferrari and cool things from McLaren.  Thanks!

It was a long week but I met some nice people at the clinic and the hospital.  One of the nurses in the ER named Tonya lives on a chicken farm.  She drives an Acura.  When she is at home in Harrisonburg, she helps on their family farm.  They raise eggs for Pilgrim Pride--they deliver 10,000 Eggs A Day!  So they have lots and lots of chickens at their farm.  The funny thing is even though she can have as many eggs as she wants, she doesn't like them. 

Today was my halfway point--Yippee!  I had 2 chemo drugs today and the flu shot.  One of my nurses is 6'7" and his wife is also a nurse--she is not so tall.  He used to be the kicker for UVA football and now he teaches other people how to kick. 

Do you want to hear something interesting?  I got an email from my Godfather Louis yesterday.  He has a piece of land in Northern Minnesota.  He has a wild game camera that took a picture of 4 black bears on his property when he wasn't there.

My friend Alan teaching me guitar yesterday

 


Eating the Jumbo Pizza from Benny Deluca's

 

A package from Aston Martin

Happy Halloween!

Playing UNO in the ER with my mom and sister

My tall nurse Jimmy and his pretty wife Mary

Even more gifts!

Even though I've gotten a lot of car things, I'm still getting more from different companies. Some executives have even sent me personal letters, like Peter M. Grady from Chrysler. He told me I should replace my Camaro shirt with one of his! They sent me some stuff by Hemi, like a shirt, a hat, and a model car which is really cool.

That's my friend Nathanael; he's helping with the blog

My aunt Kathy came to visit last week. Here's me with a Land Rover sweatshirt and Jaguar hat, and her.

This is my brother Carlos with his friend David. This is his first time on the blog! He goes to school at Fork Union.

Carlos, left - David, right

My next treatment of chemotherapy is October 13th. I'm a little nervous for it, but hopefully it will go well. It's Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday of next week, which means I'll miss the PSAT test!

I've also been losing hair for the past week or so, and it isn't fun! But at least I don't have to wash it. It's also a fun excuse to wear lots of hats.

This is me last Wednesday, opening a box from Audi / Bentley. I got a cool Lamborghini model

This is me today, with a nose pencil sharpener from Mr. Dunnenburger and a harmonica from Amanda at Youth Farm

The Lamborghini model from the picture before last. It's super cool! 1:18 scale  

My dad's cousin Cathy who lives in Northern Virginia sent me these cookies! They're really cool.

They also taste amazing!
 

Two Sundays ago I went apple-picking with Frank's (my Young-life leader) family. His family lives in Northern Virginia and they are very nice.

That's it for today, stay tuned!

My growing Hat and Car Stuff Collection

A lot of people are sending me hats, especially people from different car companies.  Thank you very much for the car stuff.  It makes feel happy to get all of this.  It's good timing because my hair is really coming out.   I'm going to post some pictures of my gear and my hair cut at Charlottesville Barber Shop last week.  My next chemo treatment begins on October 13.

Here I am with some gear from Land Rover and Jaguar.  Look at all
the stuff they sent me in the background.



I have about 20 hats now--some baseball and some knit ones

Jack is my barber.

Haircuts and Hats and Interview

Thank you Ms. Herman for cutting off 15" of you hair for me. It'll make a lot of wigs!

 

This is my hat collection. Thank you for the hats!

 

I was interviewed in a Young Life video on Tuesday, September 30. You should watch it, it's very good.

Chemotherapy

Chemotherapy is a treatment that kills cancer cells. It can also kill hair and other fast-growing cells. It makes me nauseous, and my bones ache. Every day I have to take medicine in the morning and near bedtime so I don't get sick.

This is me getting my daily shot.

I took a blood test today, and because the results were so good, I don't have to take the shot anymore. If my blood counts go down, I'll have to start taking it again.

My tumor has been shrinking because of the Chemo, as you can see in these pictures.



Before Chemo
 

 

After the first round of  Chemo

This is Dr. Peterson.  He is one of my oncologists and the one that did my bone biopsy.  He shaved off his hair last week because his nephew found out he has cancer--the same kind my cousin April had called Wilm's tumor.    My hair is starting to fall out today.  I think I'm going to get my head shaved.  Stay tuned.
Do you like my new shirt?  It is from my former Scout master who drives a 2010 red Camaro.  Thanks Mr. DiMeglio!

Test Results

 Today we heard from Dr. Peterson that my bone marrow test results came back clear. That means my cancer is stage 3A. Stage 3 is because it is below the diaphram.The PET scan showed cancer cells in my spleen and in two nodes in my stomach area.

Last week I had three days of chemo. The first day they pumped 6 drugs into me, one turned my pee pink. This is the first of 4 rounds of chemo treatment that I have to do.

Ms. Erin giving me chemo. She had a 1978 punch buggy for 5 years and sold it on Craigslist. She is using the money for a mission trip and was upset that the the car sold in one day, she thinks she should have upped the price.

Lots of caution signs since they are putting poison in my body to treat the cancer.

Chemo going into the powerport

My friends at Youth Farm sent this sweatshirt. I had an internship this summer at Youth Farm for 8 weeks, 3 days a week for 6 hours each day. I planted and harvested and cooked.

Some friends sent these magazines since they know my love of cars.

Hospital visitors

My best friend, Malloy, helped  me with the blog and we played Monopoly in the hospital. He is now in Chicago at college.

Ms. Penny, the hospital teacher. She talked to my teachers at CHS and asked if I could do work on-line. They said yes. Ms. Penny visits students twice a day for an hour each. She helped me with Personal Finance.

Girls from Young Life and school. Maddie, Ellie, and Nan. They brought balloons and chocolate cupcakes. They have nice smiles.

Campaigners friends are Facetiming with me in the hospital since I couldn't go to the meeting.

Mr. Allen Goode, Asst scout leader and the man at UVA in charge of all the complicated machines that take pictures (the Siemens machine for PET scans is the Porche of machines and costs $2 million dollars) and Fr. Mario from St. Thomas.

Sasha came to visit. She is 10 years old and is a Bernese mountain dog.