One year anniversary of my last chemo treatment

It's been a year since my last chemo treatment, and I've been cancer-free for about a year. It's nice that I don't have to go to so many doctor appointments, and to be back at school full-time, and it's nice just to have a regular life again. I'm writing this post just to tell you what's happened in the last few months.

Relay for Life is an event that the American Cancer Society puts on. It's an event where we fundraise money for cancer research. It's called a relay because you walk with a team around a track and you do it through the night for twelve hours. My team name was Marcos Smiles. I had eight people on the team, and we raised almost two thousand dollars. I had designed the t-shirt for my team. I tie-dyed ten t-shirts (and I still have mine).

My family supporting me at Relay for Life. My mom on the far right is wearing the team t-shirt. My grandfather is on the far left.

On May 16th, I had a survivors' reception at around 5:00 in the afternoon. Then we went to the track at Albemarle High School for the relay. First I had to set up my campsite. The event was delayed because it was raining. But at about 6:30 I gave a keynote speech. I talked about my experience with cancer and how people helped me through it and how you can beat cancer.

Me giving the keynote speech at Relay for Life

After I gave the speech, we did a survivors' lap, where people who've survived cancer take a lap around the track. My grandfather took the lap with me because he's a survivor of cancer too. Then we started the night of walking.

My family drove to Minnesota in early June. I worked at retirement home in Minnesota 2-3 times a week over the summer. Then on August 3rd I went to Young Life Camp at Rockbridge. Rockbridge is a Young Life camp with a zipline from the hill all the way into the lake (I actually did it—you hit the water hard!). There's also a ropes course and horseback riding. We also had clubs where we'd sing and play games and hear talks.

My Young Life leader Frank. He was my buddy during camp.

This is the group that I went with from Charlottesville. We dressed up as cowboys for fun. I have a harmonica in my mouth.

Make-A-Wish is an organization that helps you take a dream trip that you want to do and that you can look forward to when for you're done with cancer. They interviewed me and asked me about different trips that I wanted to do and I gave them my top three. In my trip we went in an Airstream and drove to Monterey Bay.

We flew from Charlottesville on a 5:15 AM flight to Chicago, so we woke up at 3 in the morning. They drove us to the airport in a stretch limousine. We got to Chicago at about 7:00. Then we flew from Chicago to L.A., which was a five-hour flight. After that we got picked up by the Airstream people to go back to their base. We had a two-hour course to learn how to use the Airstream. Then we left about 3:30 or 4. We had to drive about 100 miles to Santa Barbara. It was a pretty drive. Gas cost about $4.25 per gallon in California!

On the third day of our trip we came to the Monterey Bay car show. The car show is about classic cars, and the owners have to be invited to be in the show. It was over a week long and there were 215 cars there. At one point all the cars take a 70-mile drive along Highway One, near the ocean. I got to ride in a 1931 DuPont. The driver was Dicky Riegel, who's in charge of the Airstream To Go company.

Dicky's mother is a DuPont so the car is in the DuPont family.

We saw a lot of Ferraris and a lot of Porsches and Lamborghinis.

An old Porsche. It looks unusual with the big fin.

I met Sir Stirling Moss at the beginning of the car show. He's a famous racer who drove a car in 1959 and won several races.

Meeting Stirling Moss.

Wayne Craig was our docent who took us around the car show. He was like a car dictionary—he knew a lot about the cars and the people who drive them. He had a Mini Cooper that he had souped up.

After the car show we went to Pismo Beach to go surfing. It was fun. We went into the ocean with wetsuits and surfed for about two hours. It was my first time and I managed to stand up on the board.

We also went on a whale-watch in Monterey Bay. We saw over two hundred dolphins, and sea lions, humpback whales, and flocks of birds. We were on a small raft with a 500 hp motor—you could fit six people on it.

We turned around on August 14th and went back to L.A. On our way back we saw a beach full of elephant seals.

We got home four days before school started.

After school started, I got a job at Peacock Auto, a small mechanic's shop that is family-run. I answer phones, get miles off of cars, and file documents.

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