Mike Dougherty

Give me the ball...

2012-02-07T17:16:00.000-08:00

I've been thinking a lot lately about basketball. I love the game, and loved playing it when I was in school. I was thinking about this one particular game my senior year in high school. We were playing a home game against the first place team from Milpitas High. We were the classic underachievers. We had the talent to beat anyone in the league, but we just couldn't put it all together. This was just one of our typical games that season. We were trailing late in the second half by about 10 points but for whatever reason, Milpitas just couldn't put us away. With about 5 minutes left in the game, my coach told me that the game was mine for the taking. He told me to just go after it. Now this wasn't the first game he ever told me to do this, nor was this my first attempt at this feat, but for some reason this time it was different. I remember becoming obsessed. It was an out of body experience. Every time down the court, I demanded the ball, and my teammates, (perhaps seeing the foam coming out of my mouth), obliged. I was possessed, I was scoring at will. "Give me the ball", I said. Within minutes we had cut deep into their lead. All of a sudden, we had the ball and were down by 2 with about 20 seconds left. Again, I said, "give me the ball", and I started dribbling down court. I twisted and turned, and as the buzzer sounded I launched some wild heave out of a crowd of defenders. The shot was off the mark, but I could hear the soothing sound of a whistle. I had been fouled on the play, and was going to the free throw line with a chance to tie the game and send it into overtime. Since there was no time left on the clock, all of the players were escorted to the bench. I was all by myself on the free throw line. Up to this point, I had not missed a free throw the entire game, and I calmly swished the first one. I'm not going to provide the outcome of the second free throw because the result is not what's important. What is relevant to me is that I wanted the ball, I wanted to control my destiny, and that could not be a more pertinent way to tell you how I feel right now. The outcome, win or lose, is not important. All I've ever wanted in this cancer fight is a chance, a chance to have the ball, a chance to win, and I need that chance now more than ever.

Without providing the excruciating details, the results of my latest scan were not good. Nobody really knows what's going on, but it looks like after 6 years, there are a couple of spots that have grown substantially over the last 3 months. It looks like this new growth is coming from inside the chest wall as opposed to tumors that are growing inside the lungs. Earlier today, I spoke with my friend and savior, Dr. Michael Mann, who took my case to the UCSF "tumor board" for a collaborative review between oncologists, radiologists, and surgeons. Jen, I, Will, and Steve had spent last Friday in San Francisco meeting with Dr. Mann and Dr. Dormady in Mountain View. Neither one of them could really diagnose exactly what was going on, they just knew that something was not right, and that we needed to come up with a plan and quickly. That was a hard thing to hear to say the least. So we all agreed that Dr. Mann would take this to the tumor board on Wednesday and we would go from there.

Today I talked with Dr. Mann, and he gave me the "tumor board's" conclusions. The oncology group felt like there could be some solutions systemically (silver bullet chemo options) that we have yet to try, and based on the information we have about the profile of my tumor, it wouldn't be a total "needle and haystack" approach. This is actually OK news, however Dr. Dormady feels pretty adamantly that this will not provide a result quickly enough, and that we potentially could lose valuable time messing around. The radiation team felt like because of the location of the growth (outside the lung and in the lining) that Cyberknife is not an option, and any other form of radiation would not be able to be pin-pointed enough to be effective and would cause far too much collateral damage to the rest of my chest/lung area, so radiation is not a good option. Behind door number 3 stood Dr. Mann who represents the surgical option. Quite honestly, I did not think we had one based on our conversation Friday, but I still held out hope. As only he could, he provided a surgical option, god bless him. He explained to me how risky it was and also told me that he totally understood if I didn't want to pursue it. I totally lost it (emotionally) on the phone with him. I told him how I wanted to go out swinging, trying to explain that all I wanted was a chance, and if it meant that I would barely make it out of the OR versus waiting around to die, then I wanted to go to the mat with him. He and I had gone too far to give up now. He chuckled in his own unique way, told me that I would have to pass some rigorous pre-surgical lung stress tests, and that if I wanted to, we would tee up the surgery for next week. Whoa, whoa, whoa, sure no problema. Careful what you wish for!

The type of surgery is called a Pleurectomy. It is the kind of surgery they do for mesothelioma (cancer caused by asbestos). It's a different kind of surgery than the ones I have had in the past as far as I know, but the recovery is more or less the same. The situation is very fluid right now, so I don't have a whole lot more information, but I wanted to get this out to all of you. Please think of us and give us your love and prayers as we navigate through this process. The most important take away is that I DID get the ball, and no matter what the outcome, I WILL get a chance. Again, that's all I ever wanted. Thank you lord, and thank you Dr. Mann for being my teammate and getting me the ball.

xoxox,

Us (Mike, Jennie, Charlotte, and Poka)

Happy 2012

2012-01-06T08:55:00.001-08:00

The Dougherty's are entering the New Year with renewed hope and optimism. We are still buzzing from a great month of December, and a great start to January. On the health front, I am still alive and kicking......and not leaking!! No new fluid now for 2.5 months, I am hopeful that we can just chalk that up to a blip in the road, and not have to worry about it again. Phew!! I have had a little bit of a rough go with the Nexavar however. I developed a really nasty rash along my back which decided to track my surgical scar lines......I looked like Frankenstein with shingles. Because it was in my scar lines it caused quite a bit of pain too, so I had to stop taking it for a week to get the rash under control. I have been slowly ramping up the dosage this time, and it seems to be much more tolerable. Nausea is also a byproduct of the drug which is not a lot of fun, but hopefully it will be easier as I get to the maximum dosage which should be by the end of the week. The next step will be a scan by the end of February to see if the drug is doing anything worthwhile. The scan should also show us if we indeed knocked out the largest lung nodule with the Cyberknife treatment I endured in September. We certainly know that the CK treatment did something, hopefully more than just causing a pleural effusion.

We had a wonderful trip to California for the holidays. We spent our time in San Francisco, Mountain View, and Stockton. Charlotte is at a magical age right now for Christmas, and she got the royal treatment. Let's just say that Santa miraculously showed up in 3 places. Because of the rough ride I have had with the Nexavar, we decided to call in the troops (Grams and Nana) for support. I can't even begin to express how incredible it has been to have them staying with us. Everything from doing the laundry to playing games with Charlotte, they have literally saved our lives. It has also been a wonderful experience for Charlotte to have her grandparents here every day. She truly has developed magical relationships with all of them. The three of us (Jen, Charlotte, and I) brought in the New Year together. We all got dressed up, had a fancy dinner, and watched the ball drop in Times Square. Jen and I somehow managed to even stay up until midnight and were treated to a magnificent fireworks show from the top of the Space Needle that we could see from our roof deck. It was a fitting end to a challenging year, but once again we persevered. As I sat there gazing at my beautiful wife, illuminated by the fireworks, I felt our bond stronger than I ever have before. We took a big risk in 2011 in an attempt to make things better for us. And on this night, through those bombs bursting in air, and the rockets red glare, I could hear them telling us that is was all worthwhile.

For now, back to the grind, and living our lives. We are diligently applying to private school Kindergarten (welcome to living in a major city) for Charlotte as we speak. This is of particular fun, trying to craft the "perfect" answers about your 4 year old. I don't remember college applications being this difficult. In early December, we did manage to sneak in a trip to Disneyland. It was a 35 hour in and out, wham bam, whirlwind, but it did the trick and was absolutely magical. Jen continues to kick ass at Amazon, and is enjoying her work environment immensely which trickles down to the rest of us bringing harmony and peace to our family. For that we are so grateful.

Much love,

The Dougherty's (Mike, Jen, Charlotte, and Poka)

Gobble, gobble...

2011-11-23T14:44:00.000-08:00

Oh what a great time to be thankful. No news is good news around these parts. So far, I have had no need to get my lungs drained. This is a very good thing. To date it has been 23 days since the last tap. Of course, it can still come back, but each day that passes makes it less likely. There is some speculation that it might be related to the latest Cyberknife treatment and my lungs basically are saying enough radiation is enough. My breathing is much improved, still compromised, but much improved. I can walk for about 45 minutes at a moderate pace, but I will take it.

Last week I also flew to California for the day to meet with Dr. Dormady and review the results of the Caris test and plot our game plan. He seemed very encouraged by what the testing revealed in terms of potential drugs that might work on me. We decided to start small with a targeted drug called Nexavar (sorafenib). The drug has been successful with kidney cancer and liver cancer, and is currently being tested in all solid tumor types. It is part of a family of drugs called tyrosine protein kinases, and it designed to inhibit the the VEGF and PDGF pathways. Although not the same, but Avastin is also another well known drug that targets VEGF, so it's pretty exciting stuff. Kudos to Dr. Dormady for "working" it through the system. Within 24 hours I had the drug delivered to my doorstop and paid for by my insurance company. For those of you in the know, this is a Herculean feat, and Dr. Dormady deserves some serious kudos. To get a drug like this approved by insurance to use on salivary gland cancer is next to impossible. I have found in Dr. Dormady a true innovator and leader, who is willing to think outside the box to come up with the best possible solution. He couldn't get over how good I looked for having been through this whole ordeal. That sure made me feel good. Of course my parents were there to escort me from the airport to the doctor back to the airport. They actually went sat in with me with Dr. Dormady which I know was not easy for them. I'm grateful that they were there by my side.

I started taking the drug last Friday, and today is day 6. I'm starting to feel it a little. Mostly fatigue for now (nothing that a nap can't handle). Also, some muscle tremors are brewing and my stomach is pretty unsettled. But, big frickin deal, right? That's what I say. I'm sure it will get worse, but who cares, bring it on.

So the Bartlett's and Dougherty's arrived on Monday, and the kids are going like gang busters. Our house is filled with laughter, love, and warmth. We are very blessed. All my love to you this Thanksgiving.

mike

Phew...

2011-11-08T19:27:00.000-08:00

To say it's been a long bunch of weeks is truly the understatement of my life. Where to start? About 4 weeks ago, I started to feel something that I have never felt before. It had been about two weeks since my Cyberknife procedure and lung biopsy but I wasn't feeling anything out of the norm the two weeks after the procedure, so all in all, it was pretty odd. After a bad night sleep, all of sudden, I started having trouble breathing. I woke up with a kink in my back that prevented me from taking a deep breath. I thought that maybe I had just slept wrong and the kink would just go away in due time. That was not the case, and it got progressively worse. I couldn't walk up our stairs without buckling over. I knew something wasn't right, but I still thought that it would just go away. Long story short, it didn't. So on Saturday, October 29th we checked into the ER at Swedish Hospital in Seattle. After a series of tests that ruled out the most serious things, it was determined that my lungs were filled with fluid, and what I had experienced was a pleural effusion. Before completely understanding what caused the effusion, we had to get the fluid out of the lungs so that I could breathe more comfortably. Fortunately, it wasn't "mission critical" to get the fluid out immediately, and so we decided we could wait until Monday to have a specialist remove the fluid. So on Halloween morning, I had 1.5 litres of fluid removed from my lungs by a great Interventional Radiologist, Dr. Fergusson. The procedure itself was very trippy. After numbing my back with Novocain, Dr. Fergusson stuck a needle through my back and into my lung and started sucking out the fluid. I started to gurgle and heave, and then voila........we were done. Almost immediately, I could feel some relief. I had some pain at the needle sight, but I felt my lung re-expanding and my breathing capacity enhanced.

OK, so immediate crisis averted. Now where do we go from here? What is a pleural effusion? What caused this? How serious is this? What do we do about it? So many questions. First mistake we made. Reading the internet stuff. I knew this was a bad idea, I have often counseled against this, but here I was, reading all of the worst case scenarios, etc, etc. I really didn't have a choice, I really didn't know what was going on, and most importantly didn't know what it all meant. The week of October 31 was "bunker down" week and Jen and I sprung into action. After a day or so of feeling sorry for ourselves and fearing the worst, we decided to do what we do best..........dive in, kick butt, and take names. Team Dougherty, led by my unbelievable, amazing, remarkable wife Jennie got on the horn. By Wednesday, we had connected with our UCSF Thoracic team, Dr. Dormady, and had an appointment with the best Thoracic Surgeon in the state of Washington. We also lined up a call with Doc Renneker. Doc was great as usual in helping us understand what was going on, and was able to put it all in context for us. After our conversation we were re-assured that this wasn't a game changer necessarily, and could be categorized as just a bump in the road on our journey to survival. We needed a lot more information before we could really determine things. After a good cry, and squeeze of my girls, I felt my first sense of relief since the ordeal began. The most crucial things we needed to know were, number 1 was the fluid that was pulled from my lungs malignant (full of cancer cells) and how quickly (if at all) was the fluid going to come back into my lungs? Well, today we got a better understanding of those questions.

We met with Dr. Eric Vallieres at Swedish Hospital. He came highly, highly, highly (is that enough highly's?) recommended by both Dr. Mann and Dr. Jablons at UCSF. Not only was he respected for his work, but both Dr's called him a close friend as well. I immediately loved him. He cut the tension in the room right away with his confidence, sense of calm, and total command of the situation. After a series of questions trying to establish my history a little bit to determine what might have caused this, he very quickly let slip out that the fluid in my lungs came back without any cancer cells. He did caution that we would need to test additional fluid to be certain, but the initial negative was indeed a good thing. Nice way to start a meeting. We talked about what might be causing this. He feels that is most likely one of the tumors pushing against the lining of the lung and essentially creating a leak for the fluid to enter. This is certainly not abnormal. As the disease progresses, and the tumors get more frequent and larger, eventually they get in the way and cause effusions. So in a way, our main goal and objective has not changed, we need to get rid of these tumors. Dr. Vallieres also talked about things he can do surgically to prevent effusions from recurring. There are really two types of things he can do. One would be to essentially put in a drain that I could tap myself as fluid started to build up, and the other would be to put a more permanent fix in place by sealing the walls of the lungs with talcum powder in a procedure called a pluerodesis. As we listened intently to which one he would recommend, he gave his reasoning for each. He explained that he only does a pluerodesis on someone that is "going to be around for awhile", and that I was clearly in that camp. I can't tell you how great and relieved that made me feel. I didn't push him for his definition of "around for awhile", but I'll take it nonetheless. We then talked about how quickly the fluid might or might not come back. He took a listen, and didn't think he could hear any buildup, but we needed to do an ultrasound to be sure. He summoned his colleague, Dr. Gordon, to do the exam. Within two seconds Dr. Gordon said "absolutely no fluid in here". This is a very good thing. It doesn't mean it's not coming back, it just means it's not coming back rapidly. I am scheduled to see Dr. Gordon again on Monday to test the fluid level, but if I don't feel the shortness of breath, I don't even need to go in. Finally we talked about the importance of my lung re-inflating after we drained the fluid, which it did, again very important. By no means are we out of the woods, but we definitely are back in control after feeling totally helpless and confused for 3 weeks. The fluid can and most likely will come back, and more than likely we will do a pluerodesis which is a lung surgery and a 3 day hospital stay, yada, yada, yada. Just a blip on the road of life. No biggie. So now what?

Next Wednesday I have an appointment with Dr. Dormady in Mountain View. We got the results back from the tumor testing we did, and the good news is that it looks like there are many types of drugs that might work on me based on molecular profiling. So Dr. Dormady and I are going to become mixocologists with chemo and try and cook up the right combination. We will continue to monitor the effusion and possible fluid accumulation, and determine if and when to do the pluerodesis. But for now, life goes on. I can barely describe how much better I feel than I did before the tap. I am able to go for my walks again without curling over, and each day it seems to get a little better. Jennie's mom came out to help last week, and is going to stay through Thanksgiving, which is wonderful. We are getting very excited for Thanksgiving around these parts, as the whole Dougherty/Bartlett clan is making the trek North to be with us. We are going to have a full house!! And Charlotte has already figured out the sleeping arrangements (not sure everyone is going to agree). We can't wait, we have always hosted a big Thanksgiving, and to be able to do it again this year is truly a blessing.

And finally, I need to tell you about my partner and love of my life once again. I know I sound like a broken record when I describe what an amazing person she is, but she continues to reach unprecedented levels of amazingness with each hurdle we face. I know it's hard to put yourself in someone else's shoes, but imagine what this has been like for her? This truly hit us out of the blue, and we had no idea this was coming. We had just spent 4 wonderful days with the Beckmans from Concord and then all of sudden I can't breathe. Jennie immediately put the wheels in motion. We had our UCSF Thoracic team on the case within 24 hours. She tracked down Dr. Mann who was in China on personal business, and he immediately hooked us up with Dr. Valleries (I couldn't fly in my condition, so I had to have someone local). Oh and by the way, we have a 4 year old that needs constant attention and mothering, and she runs the apparel business at Amazon. The day I was tapped was Halloween (a very important holiday for a 4 year old), we didn't miss a beat. Charlotte's two best buddies from school came over for some trick or treating and had the time of their lives. Later in the week, Jen presented her entire rollout and marketing plan to the Number two guy at Amazon. He of course absolutely loved it, and allocated all of the resources she asked for. To see the relief on her face and feel it in her hands yesterday was magic. I'm not here without her, plain and simple. Thank you god for Jennie.

So that's about it for now. I will update things more frequently if necessary. But for now, remember to savor every day with your family and friends. Hug your kids, spouses, significant others, parents, etc. Tell them you love them. Don't put off something today for tomorrow. Life is too short. Take it one day at a time, and make it last a loooooong time. What's the hurry?

xoxo,
The Dougherty's

Cancer week...

2011-10-03T12:38:00.000-07:00

I just got back from spending the last week in California. Here's the rundown. Tuesday I had a lung biopsy procedure at El Camino Hospital. Everything went great. The procedure was done by an aggressive interventional radiologist Dr. Komlos. I really liked him, and his personality fits perfectly on my team. The procedure itself was a non-event, which is how I like em. I fell asleep, and 45 minutes later it was all done. If you recall, after my last surgery in May of 2009, I had a similar procedure done to try and re-inflate my lung. That procedure was a disaster because the needle struck a nerve in my chest, and to this day I still have chronic pain as a result. This time it was perfect. Thank you Dr. Komlos. Next step is to send the tumor tissue off to the testing lab to find out what characteristics it has. Once we find out, we can start to create a concoction to go after it. Should take about a month or so to reach that point.

Also last week, I had my largest tumor Cyberknifed. The process takes about a week. First you have a scan and a breathing simulation. Once that is complete, you go through a planning process, and then in a couple of days you are ready to be zapped. Dr. Gottschalk and his team were able to get this all done by Thursday, and Thursday morning I had my treatment. It had been two and a half years since my last Cyberknife treatment, so it was a little weird to be back. I'm grateful for this treatment tool, but I really didn't like being back in the treatment world. But one nice by-product was that I got to see some old friends. The guy who ran me through my 6.5 weeks of radiation treatment 5.5 years ago, Charles (I called him "Charles in Charge"), was the guy who gave me my breathing simulation and CT. He was so happy to see me, as I was him, and he totally remembered me. Imagine how tough his job must be to try and not be affected by all the people who he comes into contact with. So many of them probably don't make it, and so it must be nice to see someone still going strong.....especially someone whose outcome was so precarious 5 years ago. The treatment itself went fine, although for some reason it took longer than I thought it would, about 1.5 hours. But by noon I was at the airport, and on my way home to see my girls. I couldn't wait to get home. Jennie had taken Charlotte with her to New York the prior week, so it had been a week since I had seen them, and god did I miss em.

It's now been 3 days since my treatment, and I had forgotten that radiation doesn't make you feel really good :( I've been very lethargic, and nauseous, but I know it will pass. It also cumulates, so I'm hopeful that I'm past the worst and on the downslope. Especially because we have an exciting weekend coming up. Our good friends from Concord, the Beckman's, are coming on Friday to spend 3 nights with us. They have a four year old daughter, Natalie, who was in Charlotte's preschool class. The two girls were best friends and they haven't seen each other since February. They are both so excited and they can't wait. It's going to so fun to get them together. Not to mention, we love Natalie's parents too, so it's going to be fun for all.

Finally, I want to thank my parents for taking such good care of me this past week. They were there every step of the way. Two trips to San Francisco, a day in the hospital, listening to me complain, feeding me, entertaining me, etc. I am very lucky and I know it. Also, thank you to the Rodrigues's in Connecticut, who took Charlotte in as one of their own, as Jennie navigated her way around NYC and their house, as I was holed up in California for my treatment. Without this support network, we would not be able to fight the good fight. So thank you, thank you, thank you.

Fall has arrived in Seattle. We are ready for some good apples, and some good living.

xoxo
The Dougherty's

Frantic, fate, and four...

2011-08-08T17:08:00.000-07:00

These three words summarize the last month or so for us. First the frantic. On July 15th, I flew down to UCLA to conduct the preliminary tests for the upcoming clinical trial. The tests consisted of a full body CT, an EKG, lots of blood work, and a heart ultrasound. Pretty routine stuff. I got down there early on Friday morning, and by about 4:00 in the afternoon had completed all of my tests, not a really fun day, but in the grand scheme of things, not so bad. Since this day happen to coincide with "Carmeggedon" in LA, I decided to spend the night in Santa Monica. With one call, my pal William decided to meet me down in LA for a night of carousing, and needless to say we had a great time. Of course "Carmeggedon" turned out to be a big bunch of nothin, and I left LA the next afternoon. So what's the big deal you ask? Well the frantic part kicked in on Monday morning when I realized that nobody was willing to read me my CT scan results. Since this was a full body CT obviously it was pretty important. I had mistakenly thought that Dr. Colevas was my oncologist, and he of course would be willing and best able to interpret the results. Leaving many of the un-necessary details out, for whatever reason, he did not want to deliver me my results. Instead he left me waiting till Wednesday before I finally tracked HIM down, and then he didn't have any time to talk to me. He left me with some very ambiguous words (something you should never do) about the scan, and that sent me into a frenzy. I was able to track down a radiologist report from UCLA, and had them email it to me. Now I am not a trained oncologist, but having been through this for 5 years, I have learned a few things. One of which is to sort of read a radiologists report. So on Wednesday morning, as I sat by myself with Pokey by my side, I took a deep breath, and with a wet lick from Poke opened the radiologists report that was just emailed to me. It's hard to describe the feeling as you are about to learn your fate. Fortunately I was able to determine that things seemed pretty normal and the growth rate in the existing tumors was about what we had been seeing for the last couple of years. With a heavy sigh, and another slimy lick from the Poke.......I was able to finally call Jennie and give her the good news.

At this point, we decided that the best thing to do was to have Dr. Mann take a look at the scan, and confirm what we had read. He, of course agreed to help us, and I overnighted him a copy. Dr. Mann, one of the most brilliant thoracic surgeons in the country, figured out a way to take a quick look at my scan between surgeries, and deliver word to me that there was nothing alarming at all in the scan, and that when he had more time, he would give me a call to discuss. Eventually he called me on his way to the airport for a trip to China. He was just delightful, giddy, and so lighthearted. He told me again that he is really pleased about where we are at. We talked about using Cyberknife on one of the potentially troublesome nodules, he told me about some of the amazing things they are doing in drug research at UCSF, and encouraged me to meet with Dr. Jahan, the top lung cancer oncologist at UCSF in the near future. As I hung up the phone a sense of relief and calm overtook me. And then the emotional toll of the last week kicked in too. Thank god there are doctors like Dr. Mann, and thank god I found him. And now the part about fate.

As a result of my disconnect with Dr. Colevas, I now had to find a new oncologist. Enter Dr. Shane Dormady. I had met Dr. Dormady 4 years prior as he was a Fellow with Dr. Jacobs at Stanford. I remembered having an instant connection with him, and had been following his career path ever since. He is young, smart, and aggressive.....everything I want in a cancer doctor. Oh and you gotta like the Irish connection, right? It just so happens he also has a four year old little girl, lives in Mountain View, starting to see the bond? For the last four years he has been at El Camino Hospital in Mountain View but in a private oncology practice. El Camino Hospital just completed a state-of-the-art Cancer Center four years ago, and Dr. Dormady has been a part of it from the beginning. He is doing some really great things, and has been written about extensively, so I just had to meet him. To make a long story short, last Friday was my appointment. We bonded immediately. Call it two big Irishmen with a kindred spirit, or call it as I prefer.........FATE. After briefly reviewing my history, he quickly determined my aggressive approach, and commended me on my success so far. He then proceeded to tell exactly me how we were going to step this up a notch. But before he got into specifics, we had to put in some proper context. We began a very important conversation about the differences between academic cancer institutions, and private oncology practices. Private practices are not confined to the boundaries of an academic institution like Stanford, and is some ways, UCSF. While Stanford, MD Anderson, Sloan Kettering, Mass General are some of best cancer centers in the world, they specialize in treating the more popular cancers like breast, lung, colon, prostate, etc. But when it comes to rare cancers like mine, they are limited in what they are encouraged and willing to do. In other words, they can only be so aggressive. Deep down, this is something I have always known, and kind of explains why we really haven't done much with me with regards to systemic solutions (chemo). The institutions are great for surgery and also radiation oncology, and I have utilized these capabilities very effectively, but I really have not taken advantage of anything systemic.

So Dr. Dormady laid out the plan. We are going to biopsy some fresh tumor sample and run it through what is called the "Caris Target Now", a molecular profiling test. The test will determine what bio markers my specific tumor exhibits. These identifiers will then be run against the entire database of approved drugs (some 60,000) to determine what drugs might work on me, and almost more importantly what drugs might not work. It will also determine how to blend (cocktailing) certain drugs to get results. The "cocktail" approach is what has in many ways cured AIDS, so with logic applied, it should bode well for cancer. This test, for a variety of political reasons, would never have been suggested by a major cancer institution, but as you can clearly see, opens doors that could be invaluable. It's all part of the "personalized medicine" approach you may have been reading about in fighting cancer. And we are going to do it.......hallelujah!!

So next steps. I get to have a long needle CT guided into my lung to pull out some fresh tissue. BTW, I never knew that you could do a lung biopsy without being sliced open, but with El Camino being state of the art, they have according to Dormady, the "best" Interventional Radiologist in the country, who can pull tumor tissue from anywhere. Wow!! And we always knew that fresh tumor beats frozen any day of the week, right? Once the tissue is secured, then the test is run, and in about 3 weeks it comes up with the recommendations. Then we start experimenting. As I was leaving and in the embrace of Dr. Dormady, he whispered to me that I was going to be around for a looooong time. I felt like kissing him, but refrained. He concluded by telling me a story about a patient of his that was in his early 50's. He had the exact same cancer as me, adenocarcinoma of the salivary gland, with lung mets, and also bone mets. His cancer had behaved a little more aggressive than mine, but the closest thing yet that I have seen to anyone like me. Dr. Dormady told me that they did the exact same thing, the Target Now test, and found a "cocktail" that completely eliminated his tumors. I didn't even comment. I just started to cry. Fate, hope, back on track. No need for the clinical trial, shot in the dark approach. I also forgot to mention that I met with Dr. Gottschalk (Cyberknife doctor) and he agreed that we should go after the one potentially troublesome nodule with CK, so that will happen within the next month or so.

Now to the four part. The reason we were in California was that Miss Charlotte Hope May Dougherty turned Four on August 6th. We decided to have her party at Grams house in Stockton. Fortunately the Rodrigues girls were all in town for their annual summer vacation. Jennie had a great idea for a girls slumber party, so on Thursday night she decided to surprise Charlotte with a hotel suite on Union Square. What Charlotte didn't know was that Amelia and Olivia (twin 7 year olds, and essentially her sisters) were going to be there to surprise her and spend the night. The "girls" met us (William, myself, and Will's 16 year old son Henry) all for dinner at Capps Corner (a classic North Beach family Italian place), and we had a great time. The girls ran wild with spaghetti and meatballs dripping all over their faces. Saturday afternoon was Charlotte's party in Stockton, and my whole family came up for the day. Charlotte had a great time, and we had such a wonderful conclusion to our very stressful 4 previous weeks. We got home late last night, and had a car pick us up. As we pulled off the freeway on a beautiful evening, I looked at my two girls sound asleep with their faces illuminated by the bright moonlight. I felt a bond like I have never felt before. They have and will continue to sacrifice everything for me. And I'm so glad that I'm going to be around for a looooong time.

All our love,

Mike, Jen, Charlotte, and Poke

Keep on fightin...

2011-06-22T18:12:00.000-07:00

Sorry it has been so long between updates, and yes everything is fine, thanks for the concern. The real news around these parts is that there is another clinical trial possibility out there. This one is for another pathway blocker in a class of drugs known as tyrosine kinase receptor inhibitors. It targets FGFR1 (fibroblast growth factor inhibitor) and FGF2 and it's called TKI-258 (Dovitinib), created by Novartis. Believe it or not, it has actually worked in a salivary gland cancer patient. Now this patient had a different tumor type than I, but at least it's in the same family for Pete's Sake! I found out about the trial through Dr. Colevas at Stanford. I love the fact that he is thinking about me. The challenge with this trial is location. It is being run at UCLA by a Dr. Britten. I got the call from Dr. Colevas last Thursday, and within an hour, I had an appointment set up the following Tuesday with Dr. Britten. Of course, there is only one slot left, and this trial is highly coveted because previous trials have shown some great success in kidney cancer. Because this particular trial is testing the drugs interaction with food, it is taking all solid tumor types (that's me). Call me Mr. Random Solid Tumor Type. So cut to the chase. Yesterday, I jump on a plane at 6:45 and fly down to LA. On a whim, I ask my business partner and great friend Brian Levy (who lives in LA) if he happens to be free that day. Without reservation he tells me that he will pick me up at the airport, go with me to my appointment, and take me back to the airport for my flight home. I can't even begin to tell you how lucky I am to have that kind of support. It is always great to have another set of ears and a solid shoulder to lean on when going to these appointments. We arrive at 10:30 for our appointment with Dr. Britten. She seems like a great doctor, we had a very nice rapport, and she thinks I will be a good candidate for the trial. If my tumor had expressed a couple of more markers (primarily BRAF and MYB) then I would be perfect, but they don't, but oh well, there's still a chance it could work. We learned about the trial, the lovely side effects, and all that it entails. Bottom line is that for the first 60 days I will be spending a lot of time in LA. I still have to pass some preliminary tests first, and be formally accepted, but I will be pursuing those next steps. There goes the summer!! Small price to pay for a possible solution. Logistics are going to be a little complicated, but we will figure it out.

What else is going on? Well, we finally moved into our new house in Queen Anne. The move was uh......enough said. Let's just say we are not moving again, you heard it here folks!! Thank god for Jennie's mom, who spent those two weeks with us moving in.....no way we would have been able to do it without her, absolutely no way. Chartie is doing great. Loves her new house, and all her space. Getting her stuff back from Concord was like Christmas all over again for her. We have decided to give her the entire basement for her play room (I passed up the opportunity for a man cave). We are still hoping for some more sun around here, have had a little tease, but they say it comes to stay around early July. Please come soon sun. We also had a wonderful visit from our cousins the Bartlett's a few weeks ago. All 3 boys and Shannon and Peter came for 5 incredible days. We had so much fun just hanging out together. We played tourists. Climbed the Space Needle, went on a boat cruise, the Science Center, the Air and Space Museum, did it all. We even had a couple of days of great weather. It was so great to see all the kids interact. They really loved being together and totally looked out for each other. It warms my heart to know that Charlotte will always have "her boys" to take care of her, and we are going to work very hard to maintain those bonds.

It would be really easy to just pass on this trial, and last night at midnight as Jen and I were melting down at the logistics involved we almost threw in the towel. Jen had a flight to New York at the crack of dawn this morning and she hadn't even started to pack. Charlotte had face planted earlier in the day and had raspberry burns all over her body, and at midnight she started to cry and wanted to climb into bed with us. I was beyond exhaustion from my long day in LA. I can't even remember what time I finally closed my eyes, but when I woke up this morning, Jen was gone, and all that was left was a note that said......"l stole 80 bucks, I lub you, and we will figure this out". God I love her. We are not going to give up without a fight. Look out cancer.

xo, The Dougherty's

Ride Like the Wind...

2011-04-26T20:24:00.000-07:00

So I got my scan results today, and bottom line is that the trial drug is not doing anything positive for me. Oh well, nothing ventured nothing gained. A 3 month scan showed a little bit of growth in the two largest nodules (very little, about 2-3 mm) and no real signs of anything new. Not enough to say that it is working, so upward and onward. The good news is that we stay the course. A couple of millimeters of growth and no real new ones in 3 months is all in all, pretty good. Tomorrow I am going to drop my scans off for Dr. Mann to make sure he has he same take on things. I really want him to take a look at the location of the two largest nodules which are now about 3 cm's in size. Dr. Colevas thought that both of them are in really "safe" locations, and could possibly be taken out by Cyberknife, but we will leave that to the experts to make that call.

So what do we do now. Dr. Colevas didn't think that it made any sense to take on anything "conventional" or toxic at this point. All that would do is make me sick, might provide temporary benefit, and would more than likely become resistant to future efforts. So what we do now is keep digging for something else. Dr. Colevas doesn't have anything immediately on the table for me to try, but that doesn't mean there won't be something in the next few months. There is something that is on trial at UCSF that might make some sense, so I am going to find out more about that. I told Dr. Colevas that I wanted him to be my primary oncologist, and I felt like we connected on that. I have scheduled my next scan and appointment with him already in July, and I know that as his patient I will not be "out of sight or out of mind" when the next exciting trial comes along. In the meantime I can talk to other oncologists, meet with my holistic team of Broffman and Renneker, and pursue my alternative course. At the end of the day, it's nothing different then the last 5 years. I'm living with this disease, and for the time being I am able to live my life at the same time. Can't ask for anything more than that. I do have to find something that will make these things go away, I just don't know how quickly that needs to happen. It's a little scary and unsettling, but I remain hopeful that we will find something.

So we live our lives. Things are getting more settled in Seattle. We are in the process of signing a lease on a really "quirky" but wonderful house in the Queen Anne district of Seattle. It will be really close to Jen's office (about a 5 minute commute) which will really be neat. Charlotte is doing great. We have her in a wonderful school in Seattle, and she is meeting lots of new friends. It will be nice to get our stuff moved out from Concord, so we can finally feel settled for the time being. We are gearing up for a visit from the Bartlett's. Charlotte and the "boys" (her cousins), are adorable together. They are so sweet to her, and she worships them. It warms my heart like nothing else to know that they have that connection. We are going to be the "Griswolds" for 3 days, Space Needle, boat cruise, museums, Pike Place market, yada yada yada. Can't wait.

Here's a verse from that cheesy Christopher Cross song, but I like it:

It is the night. My body's weak.
I'm on the run. No time to sleep.
I've got to ride.
Ride like the wind to be free again.

I am going to keep riding and fighting. There is so much worth fighting for. Love to all.

Mike, Jen, Chart and Poka

Restless in Seattle...

2011-03-16T16:58:00.000-07:00

Yes, we have arrived safe and sound......and to say the least OVERWHELMED. When Jen and I look at each other at the end of another day, all we can do is laugh. Sometimes I'm not sure how we can keep it all together, but I know it is making us stronger. For any of you that have moved, you know the drill. It's really hard, but like anything, you've got to take it one day at a time. Several observations so far: It rains a lot here, it can also snow, and there are a lot of malls in Bellevue. The city of Seattle is better than the suburbs for us to settle, the food is really good, the scenery is beautiful, and the people are really smart and nice. And finally, we have a pretty amazing little girl, who just goes with the flow. So much better than her mom and dad I might add.

The best news of all is that Jen really seems to like working at Amazon.com. I have never seen her more relaxed and content professionally. This is so important, because it drives us (Chart and I) from the top. When work is going well, it makes everything else so much more enjoyable. And once we get settled, I really think we will hit our stride here. Getting settled is still a ways away however. We still have not sold our house in Concord, so we are somewhat paralyzed by where we will ultimately end up living. We have realized that we want to live in the city of Seattle rather than the suburbs. It just has so much more to offer, plus with Amazon being located there, cutting the commute is such a bonus. But living in a city requires compromise, which we are used to after spending 15 years in San Francisco. It was just really nice being in such a wonderful town like Concord MA, but we've found out that another Concord doesn't really exist. We are Bellevue in a temporary rental till the end of May, and then, who knows. Fortunately we were able to get Charlotte into a preschool and she seems to really be enjoying it. We have a good lead on a Nanny, and when we wrap that up, things will be much more settled. Let's just say that Chartie and I have spent LOTS of "real" quality time lately. I wouldn't trade it for the world, but it's really been tiring for me. I'm not sure how many more times I can play the "prince". Thanks to the Tias for hooking Chartie up with the Princesses of Disney! Oh, by the way, did I mention the puppy? In the category of "what the ??? were we thinking?", the pup is being a typical pup. My favorite activity of hers is watching her head straight for the mud puddle when she is let out to go potty. After I dunk her in the pond and dry her off, she is then ready to come back in the house. This is especially fun to do in the pouring rain, kind of hard to keep dry. Oh well, she is cute.

I am still participating in the clinical trial. I've been on the drug for almost a month now, and I'm experiencing very few side effects so far, which is great. I am getting fatigued quite a bit (not sure if it's from my lifestyle or the drug), and some headache and joint pain, but nothing else really major. I will get scanned in about 6 weeks to see if the drug has had any positive benefits, maybe I'm cured? In the meantime, I was asked by the National Cancer Institute to participate on the Head and Neck Cancer task force as one of two patient advocates. The group has a monthly conference call in which they discuss potential clinical trials and breakthroughs. The members of the group are the who's who of head and neck oncologists and surgeons, so it will give me some great exposure to the best and brightest. It's quite an honor, and I hope I can add some value. My role will be to translate in "english" some of the takeaways that the task force comes up with to the head and neck cancer survivor community. So far, I've been on one conference call, and not much to report yet.

Another huge positive is that I found out we have a huge wonderful family here in the Northwest. My dad has some 20 odd first cousins that predominately live in the Washington and Oregon area. They all have an annual family gathering at a lake somewhere in Washington, and if all goes well, we will try and make an appearance this year. The Anderson family had a big 95th birthday party for my dad's uncle Jim a couple of weeks ago, and Jen and I decided to drop in. We were so warmly welcomed by all, and can't wait to spend more time with everyone. I must confess that I had never met any of these wonderful people but within minutes we felt the family connection. Many of them told me they hadn't seen my father in 35-50 years, but that I looked just like him. Family is family, right?

As we embark on our new journey we have to remind ourselves how fortunate we are. Next month I will celebrate my 5 year cancerversary. I know my odds were not good to make it this far......but having made it, I think my odds get better that I will get to continue my life. Each day I get to wake up with Charlotte and Jennie is a blessing. Yeah it rains here, and there are lots of malls.......but we have each other and we are living our lives. We miss everyone deeply.

Love us,

Mike, Jen, Charlotte and Poke

Turn the beat around...

2011-01-31T16:33:00.000-08:00

Love to hear percussion. Love that song. Very apropos. We got some good news finally, and we are starting off 2011 by turning this thing around!! Long story short: scan relatively stable, nothing unexpected, some growth, but nothing surprising. Largest nodule less than 3 cm, all pretty good. Best news of all, and just got the word a couple of hours ago. I got into the Trial. Yahoo!! And rumor on the street, is that this is a pretty hot Trial. Translation, hard to get into, promising, yada, yada, yada. A big thank you to Dr. Colevas and his team for making this happen for me. There is also a big lesson in here for other cancer survivors, and that is to really work at cultivating your medical relationships. To refresh, I met Dr. Colevas last July at Stanford. Dr. Wirth had known him from their days in the trenches together in Boston, and had referred me to him as a guy who was a cutting edge research oncologist who had a really good grasp on what was available in the clinical trial arena. Anywho, I really liked Dr. Colevas, he was youngish (my age), smart, cocky as hell, etc. A sort of Dr. Mann in an oncologist wrapper. When we first met last July, I told him exactly what I wanted, which was to get into some cutting edge trials for compounds that where out of the box. I told him I was a squeaky wheel, and he told me that the squeaky wheels usually get the grease. I told him I wanted the "Smart drugs" the ones that inhibited cancer pathways, and that's exactly what this is. Hey, it may not work at all, and I get that, but the side effects are minimal, the risk is low, but the rewards are high. I am at the perfect stage right now to try this. My health is good, I have tumors, but they are growing slowly, and causing no symptoms.

So what now. I start everything the week of February 21st. We also are moving out to Seattle that week as well. Should be a really, really relaxing time for us (not). The good news is that we have 3 weeks from now until then, and we are going to try and spend that time having fun. BTW, my wife somehow made it out to CA for two days to be with me for the appointment on Friday. I still don't know how she made it, but like an angel, she appeared. She is my rock, my shining star, and the light that I see when I shut my eyes. It makes every moment worthwhile. A big thank you to everyone else who was there this week to make it all work. To my amazing parents (who didn't let me out of their sight), to my friend William (who was with me every step of the way), to our nanny Judy (back home with Charlotte), to the Bartlett family (who helped me relax and truly appreciate the value of family) to the Beckman's (for their friendship and helping us stay sane) and finally to Stefanie, Dennis, Mia, and Ouia for being there for Jen and Charlotte. We couldn't do this without all of you.

All our love,
Mike, Jen, Charlotte and Pokey

Scan postponed a week...

2011-01-19T13:29:00.000-08:00

Because of the upcoming potential clinical trial with GDC-0449, I had to wait a week to get my scan. As a result, I will do the scan in CA at either UCSF or Stanford (still waiting for confirmation) next Thursday. On Friday, I will meet with Dr. Colevas so that he can approve me for the trial, and then with Dr. Mann to get his thoughts on the latest scan. Thanks for all your well wishes this week, please save them for next week. I will update when things are more finalized, as they say in the news business, it's a fluid situation. All good.

Never a dull moment...

2011-01-10T06:45:00.000-08:00

Sorry it has taken so long for an update, but as everyone always says "we have been so busy". But in our case, it really is true. Let's see, what's new?

1. Say hello to Pokey (named by Charlotte), our new 12 week old golden retriever
2. I have a scan on 1/19
3. I'm now 46
4. We are moving to Seattle

Yes, that is not a misprint. My amazingly talented wife has been plucked by Amazon.com to become part of their apparel group. It is the fasting growing category at Amazon and the fastest growing category in all of online retailing. It is an amazing opportunity, and was just too good for her/us to pass up. So after much, much, much, analysis, thought, trial and tribulation, we decided to take the plunge. It's going to be a wild ride, but we truly feel it's going to be the right thing to do. Jen's first day is 2/28, so away we go. I know it sounds crazy, and when you think of all of the things that have to happen first, you want to curl up in a ball and hide, but we are excited about the adventure of it all. We have heard great things about Seattle (despite the weather), and importantly it gets us 4 hours closer to the Bay Area.

I also have a scan on January 19th. It's been almost 6 months since the last one, so this should give us a pretty good barometer of how things are going. The hope is for more of the same.....moderation, control, etc. I sure hope so, but as time goes on, I'm getting used to coming to terms with my disease. I have it, I probably always will, but so far (god willing), it is livable. It will be 5 years in April since my parotid surgery. I realize how fortunate I have been in being able to live this long, and to be honest there are times when I forget that. I really want to work on making sure I appreciate it even more. I am hopeful that the change in scenery (even though I really don't want to leave Boston) will allow me to do that. So next Wednesday the dose of reality comes again, but this time I also have a possible plan. Last week I got a random call from Dr. Colevas (Stanford) asking if I was interested in participating in a new Phase Ib clinical trial for a hedgehog inhibitor drug called GDC-0049. The drug is designed to inhibit a key pathway in cells, known as the Hedgehog pathway, which may be involved in allowing some cancers to grow. In early testing so far, GDC-0049 has been shown to prevent or slow the growth of many different types of human cancer cells in animals. And there is a bit of reason to think that it might work on my tumor type. It's a long shot, but it seems like a relatively easy trial to participate in. If I'm selected (and that's an if), I would more or less know if it was going to work in about 9 days. It's just an oral pill/day so it would be really easy to take. Please say a little prayer that I get to participate. I have an appointment on January 25th with Dr. Colevas in Palo Alto, and I should know within a couple of days following that if I get to participate. The drug is manufactured by Genentech, and I think most of you know what a great company they are. First things first though, scan on Wednesday, and then go from there. One day at a time is the mantra. Please think of us this coming week, your support drives us.

And finally, I began my 46th year on Wednesday. I got the ultimate present. A massive snow storm grounded Jen, Chart, Pokey, and I all day together. We played in the snow, laughed, goofed around, and just hung out together. We hadn't really done that in a long time, and it was wonderful. Thank you god for that gift.

It would be really easy for us to pass up adventures and opportunities as they come our way. And in our case, we certainly have an excuse. I'm sure many of you are saying, "they're crazy". But I'm really proud of our courage to embrace life and take what it has to offer. The choice we made was not easy, we love living here, but we also know that whatever happens in life, we always have each other. Life is way too short to not take chances. Buckle up everyone, here we come.

Love the Dougherty's

(Mike, Jen, Charlotte, and Pokey)

It's all good...

2010-11-10T07:01:00.000-08:00

I wanted to get an update out, but really not much is new. I have been feeling just fine, our new normal is just living with this thing. I don't need another scan until after the holidays, so for now, it's just good living day-by-day. The plan for now is to see what the scan says, and hopefully we won't need to do anything too extreme. I would really like to try a clinical trial for something that seems promising and is not too harsh. There are many exciting compounds in the incubator right now, and with some educated research from the ACCRF, maybe we can find something that might work. Doc Renneker has some ideas with a new drug that targets ALK. I have to get my tumor tested to see if it expresses that, and I think my plan would be to go to the Block Institute in Chicago for a complete testing of everything. I have been wanting to go to Block for several years now, there just seemed to be always something else going on. But now, think I should, while I'm feeling in control of things. Essentially, a visit to the Block Institute is a several day overhaul of your specific situation. They test everything for clues and structure a treatment plan based on "outside the box" thinking....what's nice is that they are US doctors but they have open-minded thinking to any and all approaches. They believe in alternative and complementary approaches from both the East and the West. I would like to make the trip by year end, but it's already November 10th, and I might as well wait till my next scan, so probably sometime in January or February is more likely.

As far as life goes, it's been bittersweet. Jennie's dad, Jeremiah Ogden (JO, Perry, Mr. Perry-Perry), passed away on October 4th. Jennie was able to get there to be with him and her mom as he left this earth peacefully. He waited for her (his beloved Ripper) to get there and it meant the world to her. We miss him everyday, with so many reminders of his spirit and zest for life. We see a lot of JO in Charlotte, and that reminds us of all the great things that lie ahead for her. We will have a celebration of his life in Stockton the week after Christmas, and we are all looking forward to sitting around with some Manhattans and telling JO stories.

My parents came to visit for a week in the middle of October and we had a great visit. The weather was really great, and the timing of their trip was perfect from a "Fall Foliage" perspective. It is so beautiful to drive around when everything is changing colors, and we made the most of our opportunity. Fortunately this trip, we had no emergency room visits, so by all measures, a success!! The best part was being able to watch several Giants games with my dad. We both have been lifelong fans, and I must admit that their run to the World Series was one of the best times I have had in my life. I was so into it......that I just had to make a trip to Philadelphia for Game 6 of the NLCS. It turned out to be the game when the won the pennant. It was actually Jen's idea that I grab my friend Craig (who is now a diehard Giants fan) and do a 24 hour Philly whirlwind. So we did. We flew out Saturday morning, hung out in Philly for the day (had a cheesesteak, sausages, and beers on Rittenhouse Square), hit the game, crashed, flew home the next morning, home by noon. We had such a great time at the game, excellent seats, the best game I've ever seen live in my life. We were so wired after the game that we couldn't even sleep, I think we finally fell asleep at about 3:00 in the morning. Then of course, the World Series. I didn't miss a pitch, games start here at 8:00 at night, so I made sure I got a pre-game nap before each game. William, Matt, and I non-stopped texted each other throughout all 5 games, it's actually really funny to look back at those conversations now. And when Renteria hit the home run in Game 5, I dogpiled Jen and threw my back out. It took several days to mend, but I wasn't complaining. What a run!! Thank you Giants for finally giving this 45 year old what I've been dreaming about since I was a little boy listening to Lon Simmons calling the games on KSFO.

That's about it for now. Jennies mom is coming Saturday and staying through Thanksgiving. We can't wait to see her. Happy Thanksgiving everybody.

The best time of the year...

2010-09-24T12:29:00.000-07:00

Sorry it's been so long since my last update. I have just been trying to be productive during the lull between scans. The last couple of months hasn't been all bliss. I started on some new drug ideas from Michael Broffman at the Pine Street Clinic that turned out to be a little too much for me. I also caught a nasty virus from Charlotte and that coupled with the new drug regime really laid me out for several weeks. One of the drugs I had been taking is Noscapine, which is a prescription anti-cough suppressant. It has shown some positive anti-cancer properties, so I thought I would give it a try. Bad idea. I have since discovered that one of the side effects is sort of a hallucinogenic drowsiness type feeling. Not fun. I guess it is similar to the high that is achieved by taking way too much Sudafed. I never understood why the cough medicine is locked up at the local Walgreens, but now I know why. Not sure why anyone would want that high, but not for me. I think it also had some sort of adverse reaction to the Sodium Dichloroacetate that I have been taking as well. I will give it another shot, especially now that I am feeling more like myself again, probably only at bedtime, and at a much lower dosage.

BTW, what happened to summer? All of a sudden, school started, it started to cool off, and wham it was over. We did our best to enjoy it however. We were able to get away to a place called Block Island, RI. It is only 1.5 hours away from Boston, and then a 45 minute ferry ride takes you to a wonderful island. A little similar to Martha's Vineyard, but also very unique. Some new friends of ours from Concord, the Beckmans were kind enough to invite us for a weekend. Charlotte and their daughter Natalie are in the same school class, and are absolutely adorable together. The kids had a total blast, insisted on sleeping in the same bed together, and just spent the weekend like a couple of big girls. Jen and I were able to at least relax for a couple of nights as the little health scare for me and its stress, were finally behind us. A couple of weeks later, we were invited once again to Maine to spend the weekend with our dear friends the Lawry's. They have 4 absolutely wonderful kids, and the first night we were there, another family with 4 kids was there as well. Charlotte was in heaven, 8 kids in all. For an only child, I wasn't sure how she would handle the situation, she would either embrace it, or become withdrawn and want to cling to us the whole weekend. Fortunately she dove right in, and the other kids could not have been any sweeter to her. Seeing Charlotte having that much fun with a such a large group of friends that adore her brings such a warm feeling to me. Of course it would to any dad, but to me it told me that she was going be all right. That if something were to happen to me, there were others that would rise up and embrace she and Jennie. Throughout the weekend, I would sneak away and find a quiet place and just watch her.

I should admit something right now. When I had the bad drug reaction, I really thought it was the cancer taking over. I was really scared, I hadn't felt that bad really ever. I've done a lot of soul searching since, and I do realize that I will probably die sooner than I'm ready. I don't know when, or how much longer I have, but I still have Stage 4 cancer, and as of yet, there are really no treatment options available to me. Of course the irony is that I'm not sure I've ever been happier in my life. I love where we live. Concord, MA is a wonderful place. We have truly met some amazing people in just the year plus that we have lived here. I think it's natural to become complacent in any long struggle, and I think that we have. In reading back through my blog, I realized that we were much more focused on the cancer and living around it, and then we morphed into the focus being on trying to be normal and living with cancer. When you live the former way, it makes the highs and lows much easier to accept, so I think we are going to try and morph back to that way. We aren't normal, but that's OK is kind of our mantra. I'm not ashamed I have cancer, I'm not embarrassed, it's who I am now, and it's who our family is for now, and that's OK.

I had been struggling to find my way, to figure out what I should do now. I think I have figured it out. I have started writing a book about this whole experience. I'm not sure the form it will take, I am just writing and writing. I was thinking it would be sort of a "how to" crossed with a little bit of inspiration mixed in. The "how to" part would be kind of a roadmap on where to begin for someone newly diagnosed who wants to follow a so far "successful" path. Especially for someone who has a rare cancer, and is given very few if any treatment options. The book would show them how to get multiple opinions, find alternative practitioners, look under every stone, etc. I will detail my lifestyle regime, supplement plan, alternative drugs and treatments, etc. As I said, I'm just getting started, so we'll see how far I get, but at least it gives me something to do.

I've really been thinking about Jennie a lot recently too. The burden she carries is enormous. She is an only child too, and her father is really not doing well health wise. He has severe dementia, which is so heartbreaking, and recently has had to be put in a home. Her parents are 3000 miles away, and she just can't be there for them through this difficult time. Imagine that going on, and worrying about your own 45 year old husband with Stage 4 cancer. Oh yeah, and a demanding, wonderful, little 3 year old, who adores her father, and has no idea how sick he is. And also, must work 60 plus hours per week to hold down an extremely demanding high powered job, so that she can provide for her family now, and make sure she can raise and support her daughter in the future. As I've said, we've had a rough couple of months around the Dougherty household. But last week, Jen took the whole week off, and we just stayed around the house and reconnected. I love my wife so very much, and I've never loved her more. I hate that I have to put her through all of this. She never signed up for it, and she never complains. She is my rock, and there are times when she just needs a break. If you are privileged enough to know her think about that some time. Just imagine what it would be like to walk in her shoes. And dammit they better be Stride Rites.

We celebrated Jen's birthday last weekend with a home-cooked meal by moi. We were missing the Zuni Cafe, and I found the only two things I could possibly make out of the Zuni cookbook. They turned out all right I guess, although that could have been the wine clouding our judgement. The Lawry's were kind enough to join us, and make a special contribution to our wonderful week. Happy birthday sweetheart, I love you like crazy cakes.

Cheers...

2010-07-26T13:19:00.000-07:00

Not wasting any time, I shuttled off by myself to California last week. I was able to set up meetings with Dr. Renneker, Michael Broffman, Dr. Colevas from Stanford, and Dr. Mann. I have no idea how I was able to set all of this up in two days, but it was just an out-of-body example of squeeky wheelness. I really wanted to get some perspective from the other members of my "team", all of which (with the exception of Dr. Colevas) have known me the whole time. I arrived midday on Wednesday, and St. William picked me up at the airport. William dropped everything he had planned to be my official escort and host for the week, I can't even begin to tell you what that means to me, you can only imagine. Of course, my parents were right beside me every step of the way as well. My mom actually met William and I for lunch before our 2:00 appointment at Stanford with Dr. Colevas. Dr Wirth had suggested I meet Dr. Colevas whom she had tremendous respect for when they worked together at Dana Farber in Boston. Last week, I also found out that my dear friend Charlotte Jacobs had retired from Stanford, and she suggested I meet with Dr. Colevas as well. Thus the expectations of this meeting with Dr. Colevas were high. He was great. He spent quite a while with me going through my scans and showing me just how inexact the science of reading a scan in lungs that look like mine truly is. He also explained that several lesions in my lungs have been there all along, and that we were by no means talking about a new outgrowth or runaway pattern of disease. In fact, to be where I am at 4 plus years from diagnosis is quite remarkable, and in some ways, you could even say the disease is controlled or contained. He was very successful at alleviating my anxiety, and he even showed me a recent scan of someone with very similar cancer to me, who had been diagnosed 3 years prior. That individual had at least 50 nodules in his lungs, most of which where 4 or 5 times bigger than mine, and he was completely symptom free. In fact, Dr. Colevas said you would never know that the guy even had cancer. That was of enormous comfort to me, as I have always wondered (but been afraid to ask) how many and how big these things can get before I start to have problems. Of course, no two people are exactly alike, and things can change in a minute, but at least I have some sort of evidence that I should be around for awhile! We spent the remainder of the time talking about what to do next. Dr. Colevas feels very strongly that we should NOT endure traditional chemo at this point, all it would do would be to make me sick, and not provide much of a benefit. He was a big advocate of experimental clinical trials, of which several looked very promising. There is no hurry to doing these, just something to think about down the road. With a sense of relief, we high tailed it out of Palo Alto, and over to the beach to meet with Doc Renneker. Doc also had a similar sense of calm about him. He was very encouraged to be in the position we are in today, and held out much hope for us to eliminate all the nodules someday down the road. He talked a lot about trying to keep what we have contained and controlled, rather than eliminated. It made lots of sense. He also pointed out something quite dramatic. In some of the tumor testing that was conducted at Mass General they had measured a couple of markers (PIC3 and P53) that showed some very good scores. Mark was convinced that the reason these two numbers were so good was a result of all of the supplementation we had been doing. In fact, he asked how disciplined I was in taking my Curcumin, Resveratrol, and Quercetin. I told him I hadn't missed a day in 4 years, and that convinced him that we were on to something. We then talked about really increasing my dosages, so that is on the table now. There you have it, maybe all of those darn pills are doing some good! Of course we would never tell our Western doctors, just let them believe in miracles! It was a great way to end day one in SF. William and I then had a early dinner at my favorite restaurant in SF, NOPA.

Thursday I awoke bright eyed and bushy tailed. My only appointment was at the Pine Street Clinic at 3:00, so we decided to drive up to Glen Ellen for the day. The weather was perfect, we saw our house, met our lovely tenant, and hiked up to Jack London Park. We hit San Anselmo at 3:00, and spent an hour with Michael. He reiterated much of what Mark had to say, and of course, provided me with about 10 new things I could try as well. A wonderful day was topped off at Perry's watching the Giants beat the Diamondbacks on the big screen. Friday was my appointment with Dr. Mann. Matt met William and I at Dr. Mann's office, which is no small undertaking considering he now works in Los Angeles. A truly amazing friend. It was so great to see Dr. Mann. He is such a great guy, and a true friend. He read my scans, and concurred that there really isn't anything to worry about right now, and that none of the nodules are in bad places. He said that he was standing by if I ever need surgery again. And re-iterated our goal: keep you alive for 5 years, till we can find the pill that will wipe out all of your cancer! Achievable.....I think so!! The night concluded with Steve Tonas coming in to the City to join Matt, William, and I for a wonderful dinner at Betelnut. Just being with my buds, who have been there with me every step of the way, was perfect. The Giants thumped the D'backs as well.

I spent Saturday in Mountain View with my parents and the Bartlett family. It was really nice to just sit back and watch those little heathens running around, but I really missed my girls. I couldn't wait to get on the plane the next morning and head home. All I could think about was being able to bring them home a little bit of good news, and some peace and harmony. Jennie cooked an incredible dinner, and I got to watch some new Angelina Ballerina videos with CHD on my lap. All is good in the world.

xoxo, Mike

A little disappointed...

2010-07-15T06:22:00.000-07:00

The scan results were not what we wanted to hear. Although not surprising, disappointing is a better word. It doesn't look like there is a whole lot of new activity, but what was there has grown and become more present. It looks like I have about a dozen nodules spread between the two lungs. A couple of them have grown a fair amount since February. The largest now is about 2.5 cm, still relatively small (they can grow to 7-9 cm before they start to cause problems), so we still have a long way to go. Things are still growing slowly, which is good. But what is disappointing is that they just won't go away, they are relentless. In some ways, we are back to the start again.....dealing with multiple nodules, smallish, and widespread. The good news is that they still seem to be contained only in my lungs and haven't spread beyond. The question now is what do we do. Dr. Wirth stressed that we are by no means in panic mode, but if we wanted to, now would be a good time to try some chemo. As has been my M.O. all along, I want to be pro-active, so sitting around waiting doesn't fly with me. What is frustrating, is that with my rare cancer, nobody really has a silver bullet, it's very much trial and error. If I had breast cancer, or testicular cancer, or prostate cancer, there would be some specific chemo protocols that have been proven to work....but in my case, there is nothing. I can't tell you how frustrating that is. All I want is some medicine that might work, is that too much to ask? Apparently so. Oh well, no time to vent.....we will just have to find it. Another challenge is that none of the new "designer" drugs that we all read about have been tested on my cancer, so we really have no evidence that any of them will work. They also are designed to focus on specific gene mutations and tumor expressions that my tumor's do not have, so chances of some of them working are not high. The "designer" drugs are highly targeted so they don't have the nasty widespread side effects as traditional chemo's. For those of you that really want to know, Dr Wirth has suggested we start with two breast cancer drugs.....Adriamycin and Cytoxan. Her reasoning is that a salivary gland is similar to the breast in that it secretes a liquid and is a hard tumor. My specific tumor type is an adenocarcinoma which is a very common type of breast cancer tumor. So maybe there are some similarities in response, that is the thinking.

As always, we will be making the rounds, to gather all the best opinions. As it looks now, I will be heading to SF next week. We have an appointment with Dr. Mann on Friday, to get his view and ideas. We are trying to line up a visit to Stanford, an appointment with Doc Renneker, and a visit to an oncologist at the Univ of Chicago. I'll update as we learn more about our game plan. Rest assured we will come up with a plan to fight this f'ing bastard with all we can throw at it. GET OUT OF MY WAY!!!

Love, Mike

Taking the Hill...

2010-06-21T06:01:00.000-07:00

Hi Everyone, it's been awhile since my last update, but rest assured I'm doing fine. When I take too long between updates, I start to get emails from so many wonderful friends who are worried that something might be wrong. It touches me that you care so much. It also reminds me about how lucky I am to have such a tremendous support network. So many unexpected positives from this experience.

Things are going well. Just living our lives, trying to be like everyone else, but always have that lingering scan to worry about. Even though the fear surrounding the scans is not as great as it once was, the costs of disappointing news are higher. I no longer fear that a scan is going to show something devastating, but as more time goes by, the stakes are higher. I'm finally, after 4 years, starting to get my life back. The tough part is that I still have cancer, and I know that it is still inside me. I wish I could just let go, but I just can't afford to. It wouldn't be smart, I have fought too hard to get lazy now. I don't know if what I do works, but it has so far, so why mess with it. So I still work very hard at staying healthy. I continue to take my pills (dada's pills as CHD calls them), about 40 per day, and after 4 years, taking them is getting old. For those of you survivors that want to know what they are.......Vitamin D3 (6000 IU's per day), Curcumin, EFA oils from YES, Mushroom concoction called IMMPOWER, Resveratrol, Artemisinin, Melatonin (10mg at bedtime), Chinese Herbal Formula (from Michael Broffman at the Pine Street Clinic) and an acid mix called Sodium Dichloracetate. I also try and eat well. Very little red meat (a burger every 3-4 months), no pork, very little sugar. I get at least a half an hour of cardio per day (mostly walking and chasing my daughter). Lance Armstrong once wrote, that if I keep moving, it can't get me. I think about that every day, if I keep moving it can't get me, that's my mantra.

What's been going on around here? We've been busy settling into our new house, a few projects here and there, finishing the unpacking, etc. We really love our new house, so glad we fought so hard to get into it. I had the opportunity to represent the LAF (Lance Armstrong Foundation) at a lobbying event in Washington DC last week. An organization called OVAC (One voice against cancer) invited about 150 cancer advocates from a variety of different cancer organizations to unite and bring a unified message to the Hill. I had a very busy day as a delegate from my new state, Massachusetts. We met with Rep Tsongas, Rep McGovern, Sen Kerry, and Sen Brown. Our message was simple, continue to fund cancer research and early detection and prevention programs. In these difficult economic times, our message was more important than ever. We asked to just maintain the level of funding at both the National Institute of Health and the National Cancer Institute. This maintenance is critical, the progress that has been made so far in finding cancer cures is phenomenal....but without maintenance funding a lot of discoveries will literally die on the vine because of a lack of funding. I truly believe that my cure is in a test tube right now, and I just have to stay alive long enough for it to come to fruition.....I would hate to think that it might die in the test tube because of a lack of funding. So please encourage your Washington representatives to vote YES for the proposed level of funding in the Presidents budget bill.

A scan lingers. July 12th is the scan, and July 14th we get the results. We are not scared, but we are really hopeful that we can continue to live a normal life. Please think of us one more time on those days. I can't tell you how much we appreciate it. Meanwhile, I get to be a normal Dad (Happy belated Father's Day everybody), and hopefully a good husband to the best wife in the world. I love my girls dearly.

xoxo,
Mike

Settling in...

2010-04-21T13:05:00.000-07:00

We finally have a new house. Yaaay. It feels so good to be settling in to a place that we can finally call our own. It will be great to unpack our boxes and spread out. It's been a tough year of transition for us, but to be able to kick our feet up, with our BBQ on a beautiful night, has made it all worthwhile. This morning we said goodbye to my mom and dad after way to quick of a visit. My dad didn't feel well, and we never really got into any rhythm. But most importantly, Charlotte had the time of her life with her Nana and Papa. They are so great with her, and it makes me sad that we are so far apart. But we are just going to have to make it work, through the wonders of IChat, and other tools of modern technology. It was nice to be able to share our new house with my parents.

Other than a really hectic April (moving, and closing on a house), things are going pretty well. We were able to get away for a really special Easter celebration in Connecticut with all of our friends that live there. We went to church on Easter Sunday in Southport. After the service we got to talk to Rev Paul who 4 years ago spent some time with us as we struggled with understanding why Cancer was entering our lives and how we were going to deal with it. Paul was a great help and comfort to us then, and he was genuinely tickled and happy to see that we were still alive and kicking.

As I was watching the Masters golf tournament, it suddenly dawned on me that 4 years ago Masters weekend I went in for my salivary gland surgery. Little did I know that my salivary gland would be cancerous, and little did I know what was lying ahead for me. Ever since the golf tournament (which was two days after we moved into our new house), I have been very reflective. For the first time, I'm starting to feel like I can look ahead and make plans for the future. I never allowed myself to really think this way, primarily because I was scared. But now I'm starting to feel brave. I still kind of have one toe in the water, but at least it's in the water again. My gosh, now I have to figure out what I'm going to do with myself? I really don't have an answer to that yet, it was always easier to just not go there. Now I'm going there, and it's a good thing. It's time to start living again without being scared. I'm ready, I just need a little more time to figure it all out.

A couple of my heroes are Sue Mccormick and Marnie Kaufmann. Sue is my best friend Matt Mccormicks sister. Sue passed away on March 6 after a 17 month battle with cancer. I've never met anyone more courageous and dignified than Sue as she dealt with the ups and downs (mostly downs) of her short struggle. She inspired me with her appreciation of life and her will to fight for every day. Because of Sue, I will never forget how blessed I am to still be here. Marnie Kaufmann is the founder of ACCRF (Adenoid Cystic Carcinoma Research Foundation). Please take a look at the website, www.accrf.org. Marnie is going to save my life. She has the same cancer I do, and she and her husband Jeff have accomplished nothing short of miraculous in a few short years. Marnie lives about 15 miles away, and we had coffee about a month ago. I basically told her that I would do anything she needed to be done. That's one of the things I'm going to do........I'm going to help Marnie in any way that I can. What that is, I'm not quite sure yet, but I will figure it out soon. Yes, there is a light at the end of the tunnel. And it is very bright!! As my daughter likes to say, "daddy, it's going to be a boootiful day today"

With love,
Mike, Jen, and Charlotte

All Quiet on the Eastern Front...

2010-02-24T13:29:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update. Just got the results back from my latest CT scan. Bottom line: Stable. I still have a few little ones that were there before but nothing new developed and it didn't look like anything grew either. This is terrific news. Dr. Wirth said that she really wouldn't do anything right now except to live life large. So that's what we will be doing LIVING LIFE LARGE. God bless you all for your thoughts and prayers, it sustains us. Wherever you are tonight, please close your eyes and think about someone you love......send them an email, give them a call, or tell them in person that you love them. I sure did and it felt great!

xoxoxo,
Mike, Jen, and Charlotte

Brrr...

2010-01-22T06:57:00.000-08:00

Yeah it's cold back here. I am beginning to see why people who live in cold climates cherish the summertime. For the life of me, I could never figure out why everyone goes crazy in the summer here with activities. In California there is no need to pack everything in because for the most part you have all year to swim, play, bike, walk, run, etc. Not here, I can't wait for the summer! It's not so bad, mixed into all the cold is an occasional beautiful sunshiny day (like today), where the mercury hits close to 40˚, yippee. You also learn to dress for the elements, and then it's really not that bad. Despite the cold, just about everyday, I still go for about a 30-45 minute walk to keep my fitness up. We have also joined a local rec center (that has an awesome indoor pool). We have been taking Charlotte to Saturday swim lessons which she loves. She has also joined a gymnastics class, complete with a trampoline. Loves it, and is a great way to keep her active during the winter.

We are humming along on our big adventure. We are in contract to buy a great new house in Concord. If all goes well, we should close by March 15th. It's about 3700 square feet, so plenty of room for visitors. So will you please come to Boston in the Springtime (isn't that a 70's song?).

We spent a great week in California for the holidays, saw many of our dear friends, spent time in Mountain View, San Francisco, and Stockton, just a great visit. No travel problems, underwear bombs, it was just easy-breezy. It was the perfect dose of California. The highlight for me was a Christmas morning walk with my sweetheart through the Mountain View neighborhood in which I grew up. It was 65˚, not a cloud in the sky. We talked about the last 4 years of our wild ride, and how far we had come to reach this place.....and also about how much farther we still have to go. 4 years ago, we had just lost a baby, and now we have a beautiful little girl. 4 years ago we had just been hit with cancer, and now we have found some peace. We have learned a lot about ourselves in these last 4 years, been to hell and back, but we are still standing, stronger, wiser, bolder, and better. We don't take anything for granted any more, one day at a time is our mantra. It's a weird place to be, we don't know what tomorrow brings, but we are not afraid of it either. Yes, we have a scan coming again, sometime in February, but we are not afraid. We have a summer to look forward to, we have swim class on Saturday, we have gymnastics with teacher Jamie, we will have a new house soon, and we always have Maisy the Mouse to keep it real. God...I love my girls and my life.

With much love,
The Dougherty's

Let it snow...

2009-12-08T19:01:00.000-08:00

Just a quick update to let everyone know that all is very well in New England with the Dougherty family. We are enjoying our adventure. We had a wonderful Thanksgiving at our house with all of our dear friends (7 adults, 6 kids, and 2 dogs). I have doubled the range of motion in my arm thanks to some great physical therapy. I can't tell you how great it feels to be in a "athletic" setting again. I didn't think I would ever be able to do some of the things I am doing. On Monday I even used the Cybex machines and worked up a sweat. These little things probably don't mean much to most of you, but let me tell you the smell of sweat again is a wonder for me. Being normal is really good. I also thoroughly enjoy the "talk" of the gym.....non-stop ESPN coupled with the sports passion of Bostonians is a good thing.

For now, we are having fun in the snow.....but I'm sure the novelty will wear off. Hopefully not. I found myself almost too excited to sleep the first night it snowed. CHD can't stop talking about Santa, Rudolph, Rum pum pum, and Frosty. This warms my heart and fills me with more joy than anyone could ever imagine. It's the little things, life, holidays, snow, and 2.2 year olds. Ho, ho, ho.

Love, Mike

Fall Fun...

2009-10-30T07:12:00.000-07:00

Happy Halloween everyone. We are really enjoying the beautiful Fall season here on the East Coast. The leaves and the changing colors are breathtaking. I've never experienced what they call the "foliage" and it is everything they say it is and more. We are fully aware of the changing season here, something you really miss in California. We are partaking in all of the experiences...apple picking, pumpkins everywhere, hikes around Walden Pond, an early snowfall, frost in the morning, etc.

We have had a plethora of visitors this month which has kept us fulfilled and busy. Jennie's mom Sonnie (Grams) came earlier in the month for a week. We had a wonderful visit, and CHD wouldn't let go of her Grams for a moment. My parents just spent a week with us as well, and took wonderful care of our little girl. They were also a huge help when our furniture arrived from San Francisco. Yes, it's official, we are now here for awhile! In between the Rodrigues's spent the Columbus Day weekend with us, Stef's parents were visiting from Stockton, so they got to partake in the Concord fall experience. We are so grateful that we have so many friends and family willing to share in our new experiences, it makes this place seem much less lonely. Although, I do fear the darkness of winter looming, we are going to embrace it, and live it.

Jen is really working hard in her new job, and liking the challenges it brings. I'm adjusting to my new role as a SAD (stay at-home dad), and loving the opportunity I have to watch my little girl grow and develop. I wouldn't trade it for anything.

Healthwise, I'm getting stronger everyday, but I still have some pretty substantial pain in my upper chest. I went to a pain doctor, and he confirmed that I have nerve damage from the botched procedure we did after my surgery. Nerve damage is hard to treat unfortunately, but we have a plan. I'm taking some new drugs coupled with some physical therapy, in the hopes that the nerve slowly grows back. In the meantime my energy levels are high, and I'm not letting a little pain slow me down at all.

That's about it, I get a new scan in February, so a nice holiday break from it all. We are coming to California for the holidays so that will be nice. Have a great Halloween!

Flying High...

2009-09-14T04:48:00.001-07:00

Nothing new and nothing grew! Music to my ears. Dr. Mann delivered the scan results to William, Matt and I last Friday. Finally after at least two years, I got a good scan report. Even though nothing grew, several teeney tiny nodules are still present. Maybe 2 or 3, and nothing bigger than 5 mm. The little ones were present on the last scan, but Dr. Mann could not feel them when he did the surgery, so he couldn't pull them out. It's actually good, because we still have something that we can test some systemic treatment on, and the pressure for it to work is much diminished. So next steps are to meet again with Dr. Wirth and find out what she wants to try on me.

It was a whirlwind trip back home for all of this, but well worth it. I got to spend some real quality time with my boys, Matt, Will, and Steve (who met us Saturday night for a celebration). These guys have been with me every step of the way, and I would not be here without them. I also celebrated with my friend Kate Burke and her husband Brian. Kate is a five year survivor of a GBM brain tumor, and she is my role model. GBM's are the worst kind of brain tumor you can have (Ted Kennedy had a GBM), but Kate's survival gives hope to anyone battling insurmountable odds. What makes her my idol is how wonderful a person she is. You would never know what she lives with upon meeting her. She has a wonderful spirit, boundless energy, and one of the warmest hearts I have ever encountered. I am very blessed to have her in my life, and I look forward to getting significantly older with her. I also got to see my sister, brother-in-law and the three little amigos who are my nephews. It was great to spend some time with them, and observe what a nice family structure they have built for themselves. And finally, I was able to squeeze in an afternoon at my annual Fantasy Football draft. For the last 15 years I have been in a league with of a group of guys that went to St. Francis (not my high school, but the Catholic school in the same town I grew up in) together. Out of the 12 teams, only 2 are non-St Francis guys, myself and a guy we call Chev. We have a total blast during the season. What's been really great is that these guys that I don't know really well, have totally embraced me and the challenges I'm facing. I am very proud to call them my friends and grateful for their support. My parents have been in Europe, and fortunately my sister was able to get a hold of them Friday night and deliver the good news. I think I heard a champagne cork or 2 exploding across the pond!!

Back home, my girls waited nervously for my phone call. I could barely get the words "no changes" out. Hopefully none of us will ever know what that waiting game must feel like from Jen's perspective. To be able to deliver her some good news was the answer to all my prayers. It is all about small victories, and we just got one. Thank you for all your love and support.

Mike, Jen and Charlotte

Lots of living...

2009-08-30T08:35:00.000-07:00

Going on around here. We have been wonderfully busy adjusting to our new lives in Boston. The transition has been made much easier by a steady stream of trips and visitors. We had a house full of Holmbergs, Rodrigues, and Cobers for the 4th of July, 10 total guests plus ourselves. We had a great time exploring our new town and celebrating Independence Day Concord style! Let's just say that they take the 4th much more serious here in Concord MA than they do it California. It was a great weekend. A couple of weekends later we traveled to Maine to stay with our friends, the Lawry family. They have built a magnificent house right on Belgrade Lake just outside of Augusta. Neither Jen or I had ever been to Maine. We truly enjoyed the scenery and most of all the company. Seth and Cindy, plus two of their four kids, Hannah and Heath, could not have been more hospitable and welcoming to us. They showed us around the Lake region, gave CHD her first boat ride, and taught her how to swim in the Lake. We are very lucky to have the Lawrys so close to us, they live about 15 minutes away in Weston. Seth and I have found much in common, including an encyclopedic love of baseball history. We are both hoping for a Red Sox/Giants World Series. We've also made a couple of trips to Connecticut, one to celebrate the Rodrigues twins 5th birthday, and the other to celebrate CHD's 2nd birthday. Charlotte had a wonderful party. The theme was Curious George, or as CHD calls him, "munky". She was treated to a Curious cake, served on Curious plates, drank out of Curious cups, received 3 different stuffed Curious gifts, getting the picture? It was a great time, the weather was perfect, and so was the Sangria. And finally to top off the summer, the Mccormick family spent 6 nights with us. We had such a nice time. Madison and Mallory, the two Mccormick girls, could not have been more kind to CHD. She worshipped the ground they walked on. By the time the week was over, we had an elaborate home fort system built, and an extensive Thomas the Train internal railroad. The best part is that I got to spend some quality time with my best man, Matt. Although we lived twenty miles apart for 10 years, we rarely got together, which is so frequently the case. But you move 3000 miles away and shazam you get to spend 6 days together. Although we've been best friends since the 1st grade, it was still nice to have that concentrated time together. We went on long walks, toured the JFK library, and just generally hung out. Like anyone, Matt is going through some tough times emotionally, and it felt good to be there for him. Matt also found time to connect with Jen, and she treasured it. I am very proud of my friend and the life he has built. He has a great marriage to his wife of 21 years Kathy, and his girls are two of the sweetest, funniest, intelligent, good hearted, and kind kids that I have ever encountered. And I'm not just saying that, I truly mean it.

Oh yeah, this is a blog about cancer, I almost forgot. I met with a new oncologist last week, Dr. Lori Wirth, at Mass. General. As hopefully none of you will find out, an appointment with an oncologist isn't all warm and fuzzy. And this was no exception, the appointment started out a little cold, but by the end I determined that Dr. Wirth is quite capable of helping to find some systemic treatments we can try. She is going to do some extensive testing of my tumor, in search of any markers or mutations, that could reveal some compatibility with certain chemotherapy's. I have also set up my next scan date. I've decided to fly to San Francisco for the scan and most importantly I want Dr. Mann to read it for me. The scan is September 10th and my appointment with Dr. Mann is the 11th. I'm feeling pretty good, although I still have some residual pain from the surgery. I'm able to walk every day at a pretty good pace for about 45 minutes to an hour. My lung capacity is a little compromised, but it is getting better. I'm going to try acupuncture next week so hopefully that will help with the pain.

CHD is doing great. She starts a two day a week school program next week, and she is very excited. Her mom and I aren't quite sure we are ready to send her off just yet. Welcome to parenthood right? We are also getting ready to move up the road to an incredible situation. Out of the sky fell a 7900 square foot house on 49 acres, complete with a cow, sheep, chickens, and our own pond! Fortunately ALL of the maintenance, including animals, is built in, and is less money than we are paying now. It's a sublet only through June, but is a much better situation than we are in now. It's going to be a great adventure. Please come visit us please, we have plenty of room!

Life is great. Jen asked me the other day if I was happy. I hesitated and said something like "sure I am but...". The next day after thinking about it, I wrote her back. I told her that I have two of the greatest gifts that anyone could ever have, she and Charlotte, and that every day they put a smile on my face. Yeah, I'm happy, really really happy! Please send us your thoughts and prayers as we embark on another round of scans.

Love,

The Doughertys (Mike, Jen, and Charlotte)

Freedom...

2009-06-29T05:16:00.000-07:00

I thought it was appropriate to include this picture of CHD and I standing at the North Bridge in our hometown of Concord, MA. For the non-historians in the crowd, this is the site where the first resistance shots were fired by the colonists against the British during the Revolutionary War. Wonderfully, the bridge and surrounding national park are only a 10 minute walk from our house. I particularly love to come here because to me it represents my freedom. No matter what I'm dealing with, when I come here I feel free, and that to me is a wonderful feeling.

Well, I've been here now for 25 days. I think it has rained or threatened to rain at least 20 of those days but who's counting. I am just so happy to be with my girls. We are finally starting to settle in. Jennie, as usual, is taking care of us all, and thriving in her new job. The job is demanding and challenging, but Jen feels it represents a tremendous opportunity. She really likes the people she is working with, which makes the long hours somewhat bearable.

Charlotte is also thriving in her new environment. "Dada" has finally earned his way back into her good graces (she was a little disappointed that I vanished for a few weeks, but now I am back in), and we are having a ball. It is such a great time in her life, almost 23 months, so every day something wonderful happens. She loves running around her big new house (3 times the square footage of SF), and playing with all of her "stuff" (huge "hand me down" benefit of being the youngest of all of our friends kids). We have a playground really close by, and she loves running around Minuteman National Park. She also really adores her Nanny named Judy. We are very lucky to have someone as wonderful as Judy.

I am feeling better every day. Slowly but surely, I am starting to get my strength and energy back. I still have quite a bit of pain on the right side of my chest and underarm, but the incision location has really healed well. I am really pushing myself to build back my cardiovascular fitness. I am able to walk continuously for about 45 minutes at a pretty decent pace now. I walk everyday at least 30 minutes, and I can really notice the improvement in my lung capacity. Dr. Mann thinks I have about 66% of my original lung capacity, but I am convinced that 66% of my capacity is better than 66% of just about anyone else's in my situation! In other words, I'm getting a lot done with my 66%! I am in the process of setting up an appointment with a new oncologist at Mass General named Dr. Lori Wirth. She comes highly recommended from just about everyone we know, including Dr. Jacobs. We will probably see her in a month or so. After that we will schedule a CT of the chest sometime in September. So for now, no news is good news.

We are getting excited for this coming week and the 4th of July. It looks like the Holmberg's and the Rodrigues's are bringing the troops (4 kids all under 10) to Concord! CHD will be in hog heaven, and I am going to prepare for the onslaught by getting some pre-rest in before they all get here. We are really looking forward to having everyone.

Happy 4th of July to all. Please take some time between brews and brats to think about what the day means to you. To mean it represents the freedom of life.

Love,
Mike, Jen, and Charlotte

Eyes on the prize...

2009-05-27T12:34:00.000-07:00

So last Friday I had my follow-up appointment with Dr. Mann. Saint William and I hightailed it down to Mt. Zion for a chest X-ray and a progress report. The X-ray showed that a portion of my lower lobe had not re-inflated after the surgery like the doctors had hoped. The reason is primarily due to the fact that I have some trapped air and fluid that is essentially blocking the opening. This is not uncommon at all. But lo and behold, Dr. Mann recommended a procedure whereby a tube could be inserted into my lung (miniature version of a chest tube) that could possibly drain the blockage and allow my lobe to re-inflate. This would give me additional lung capacity but it would be so minimal that I might not even notice. As he explained the details of the procedure he kind of ended the discussion by saying "you done so much so far that you might as well give this a shot". It was hard to get a real read on what he thought, but he didn't seem real confident in the procedure working. It was more or less, "you might as well give it a shot". He made an appointment for me first thing Tuesday morning, and told me to think about it over the weekend.

Well after a weekend of thought I decided to follow my mantra of "never give up", and showed up at Parnassus on Tuesday morning. Essentially the procedure consisted of sticking a needle through my chest and inserting a small tube into my lung. The procedure was done with a local (lidocaine) to numb the chest and insert the needle via a CT scan so they could tell where they were going. Now mind you that I have a 5 inch scar running down the length of my back and my chest and shoulders hurt like hell from the surgery 3 weeks ago. Let's just say that this procedure was the most pain I have ever felt in my life, and I would gladly have both sides of my chest opened up before I would ever do this again. To make a long story short the procedure didn't work, I had to wait 3 hours with this tube in me to figure that out, and they couldn't give me any pain killers other than through my IV. Not a good day, but once they pulled that god damn tube out, I felt a gazillion times better. Nothing ventured nothing gained! And to top it all off, Dr. Mann's comment once he found out it didn't work, "it doesn't matter at all".

Other than "crap Tuesday", my recovery is coming along great. I walked for an entire hour on Sunday, and today just finished a 45 minute walk. Dr. Mann gave my clearance to fly, so next Tuesday June the 2nd, my mom and I are flying to Boston! My mom is going to spend a week with us, and I am going to stay for good. I can't wait to see my girls, I miss them so very much. Charlotte is doing wonderful. She has incorporated herself into the Rodrigues and Holmberg families (Jennie's best friends from CT), and is in hog heaven! I am seeing a very bright light at the end of this tunnel, and I can't wait to get to Boston.

Thanks to all for the amazing letters, emails, visits, random acts of kindness, I am a very lucky man to have all of you alongside of me. BTW, picture of me last week holding court at my local cafe with Saint Will.

Much love,
Mike

Home sweet home...

2009-05-15T11:47:00.000-07:00

Nothing feels better than getting out of that damn hospital. I finally was sprung Wednesday night. My friend William has moved in with me and is taking such good care of me that I seriously think he needs to open a business. On the surface, William would appear to be the least likely of all of my friends to take on this enormous responsibility, but deep down I knew he would be the best. And he is, times 10. I don't want to jinx things but I really feel great. I have found the right blend of pain meds and TLC to really ease the discomfort. Jennie comes home tonight (can't wait to see her), and CHD returns from Nana and Papa's this afternoon (can't event think straight because I'm so excited to see her). CHD and Jen leave for Boston on Sunday morning, William moves back in Sunday, and I continue to heal. I've been able to walk about a half mile a day (took me a couple of weeks to do that 3 years ago). Dr. Mann got the SOB cleanly, pathology showed no surprises (most importantly no lymph node involvement). Upward and onward, life is great. More detailed updates to follow.

Love, Mike

update from jen

2009-05-05T22:48:00.000-07:00

Mikes surgery was today and I wanted to post a quick update. the surgery took a LONG time. we were in the hospital by 6 am, Mikes surgerys started at 8 am and was 8 hours long. the good news, they got the entire tumor. the bad news, it couldn't have been trickier. the placement of the lesion was in THE most difficult spot, that coupled with the fact that the radiation has taken its toll on his lung tissue, made things very tricky for Dr. Mann. One of the most established and leading thorastic surgeons in the country was called in. Mike lost and had to have transfused the equivalant of his body's entire blood supply. Dr. mann was amazed by how resilient he was throughout surgery. his vitals never waivered. he's currently uncomfortable, he hates hospital beds, is watching Seinfeld reruns and already sat up and put his feet on the ground (first step to walking).

thank you all for the thoughts and prayers. we love you all.

jen and mike and charlote

Cinco de Mayo...

2009-05-02T05:42:00.000-07:00

I've always wanted to do something big for Cinco de Mayo. Well, I'm not sure this qualifies but that's the date of my surgery. Careful what you wish for! After much back and forth, we finally have the date set. It's the first surgery of the day, so Dr. Mann, his manliness (that's what his team calls him), will be fresh as a daisy when he walks into the O.R. at 7:30 am. Although this date is a little sooner than I was mentally prepared for, no worries, I am ready.

Needless to say, this past week has been a mad scramble to get everything lined up for the surgery. Jennie took the reins, and whipped us all in gear. While managing to thrive in her new job, THIS PAST WEEK she was able to find us an amazing house in Concord, MA, so that she and CHD have a place to live when they go back to Boston. Buy a car, begin the nanny search process, move all of our stuff out of Glen Ellen and send it on its way to Boston, get Glen Ellen is shape for our tenants that moved in yesterday, go with me to my appt with Dr. Jacobs, coordinate the post surgery tumor collection process (which is the most delicate and cumbersome task you could ever imagine), spend time with Charlotte, and did I mention thriving in her new senior executive job? In a word, incredible.

Two other people deserve mention for not only their support this week, but for what has truly been 44 years of love and dedication. My parents Joyce and Dennis, or as CHD so affectionately calls them, Nana and Papa. From my swim meets as a 7 year old, to supporting me every step of the way through adolescence and adulthood, to then having to watch their child battle for his life. They have always been there for me. Never asking for anything in return, just wanting me to be happy, I couldn't ask for anything more. And to see them, and their relationship with my daughter is truly remarkable. In the last month alone, Nana and Papa have spent at least two days a week in San Francisco with Charlotte. That may not sound like such a big deal, but let me add that it is an hour drive, there is no place to park, they always bring dinner, they stop and bring coffee (Peets of course), and are totally engaged with a smitten 20 month old for at least 7 waking hours. Oh by the way, they have 3 other grandchildren who also receive the same amount of time and attention. In a word, incredible. Thank you mom and dad for everything, I love you more than you know.

Please think of me when you're having that margarita (or Corona) on Tuesday, and raise your glass. I'll be enjoying a cold one with you really soon.

Love, Mike, Jen, and Charlotte

Fighting on...

2009-04-21T21:15:00.000-07:00

The results from my latest scan were not what I was hoping for. The scan showed several new (albeit small) nodules on both sides of my lungs, and far more concerning was that a previously treated nodule grew a centimeter to 2.3 centimeters. The problem with this nodule is not so much its size, but its location. It is centrally located near my windpipe, and if it continues to grow bigger or in the wrong direction it could eventually compromise my breathing. The good news is that this is really the only nodule that is concerning, whatever else I have is located in the periphery of my lungs and very small. Upon receiving the news we immediately got the wheels rolling in putting together our team of experts to determine our plan of action. The very next day I was able to get in to see Dr. Mann (our brilliant thoracic surgeon). Getting that appointment in a day is almost impossible, but we have such a good relationship with Dr. Mann's team that all it took was one phone call, and they got us in. For all of you that read this blog and are battling cancer you need to do whatever you can to nourish those relationships because they are invaluable.

So last Friday I had my appointment with Dr. Mann. Now my beautiful wife is 3000 miles away in Boston and can't get a flight out. I don't want to go to this appointment alone, so on Friday morning I send out an email to my posse letting them know the results of the scan and invite them to go to my appointment with me if they happen to be in town. Having no expectation of anyone being able to be there on a Friday afternoon, imagine my surprise when Steve, William, and Matt drop everything and are in the Mt Zion waiting room by 3:00. I have the most incredible friends anyone could ever hope for. The "boys" truly helped settle my anxiety, provided comic relief when necessary and also provided priceless support and friendship. The bottom line is that Dr. Mann wants to go in and surgically remove the nodule. He explained to us that surgery is the only option that provides certainty, and this wasn't anything we wanted to mess around with. In his usual style with complete confidence he assured us that he could get it. If we get rid of this nodule than I should be in good shape. Now unfortunately it will be a big surgery, full thoracotomy, tough recovery, yada yada yada. There is also a chance (not likely) that when he gets in there he might have to remove my entire lobe, which would really suck. But as he so routinely explained, he has many patients that are thriving lobeless, playing championship tennis, climbing mountains, running marathons, etc.

Obviously I'm making light of a very serious surgery, but with Dr. Mann it really is the way he makes you feel about it. It's a gift. So that's the plan, lung surgery number 3. We are trying to schedule it as we speak, most likely sometime in May. We have a few logistical challenges. like the fact that Jennie works in Boston, Charlotte is in San Francisco, and I'm going to be out of commission for at least a month. Welcome to our world. As more details emerge I will update the blog. For now please keep us in your thoughts and prayers. There is no way I wouldn't do this surgery......I have signed up for this fight and I am in it for the long haul. Whatever it takes, I'm going to do it. Bring it on. All I have to do is look into my 20 month olds beautiful blue eyes and I've got all the strength I need. Please grab your kids and hug them tightly for me tonight.

Love, Mike, Jen, and CHD

2009-04-15T09:02:00.000-07:00

As I type I sit in Lexington, MA, 8 minutes late for a meeting with very senior muckity mucks in the children's shoe business while Mike has his three month scan and Charlotte plays happily 2,000 miles away with our beloved caretaker, Thelma. Surreal life indeed. This month marks my remarkable husband's three year cancer survival date and he's here, healthy, happy, a dedicated dad and a grateful son, brother and friend - in short, better than ever. He excels in the day to day business of battling an unpredictable disease and, in short, living in the world of the unknown. It's all of our worlds but one that most of us aren't forced to be as aware of as he is. I am grateful for his attitude, his health, my amazing daughter, our family, friends and this new, crazy, wonderful job we've landed.

Please join me in thinking good thoughts for mike's scan today. He's amazing and I'd like to relish in it through our 80's (: Love you all.

jen

Please come to Boston...

2009-03-07T13:14:00.000-08:00

After much deliberation, we have decided to move to Boston. Jennie was offered an outstanding opportunity to become the Chief Marketing Officer for Stride Rite Shoes. It really is an incredible opportunity with a wonderful company, and in this economy it was just too hard to turn down. Our heads are spinning to say the least.

I know I have said this many times, but my wife is truly amazing. She went through a 5 month endurance test, consisting of 3 interview trips, assessment tests, and a significant amount of butt kissing to land the job. I am so incredibly proud of her, and it should come as no surprise that upon meeting her, Stride Rite absolutely had to have her. She is one of the most talented marketing professionals in the country, and at the same time one of the most sincere, warm, and big-hearted individuals I have ever known. Stride Rite is very lucky to have her.

Ok, so we are moving to Boston. What the....? We are considering this our big adventure. We spent the week in Boston looking at houses and researching communities. Of course, Jen was sick as a dog, and it snowed a foot on Monday. Nonetheless, we learned a great deal. We learned that it is very cold in March, we learned that the freeway system in California is far superior to MA, and I learned what Schrod is. In addition we found two towns that would work well for us, Wellesley and Lexington. Unfortunately we didn't find the right house yet. We are hoping that more inventory comes on at the beginning of April, which the Realtors say should be the case. Jen starts already on March 23rd, and Charlotte and I probably won't move East until May.

Charlotte hit 19 months last week while we were in Boston. She stayed with Nana and Papa Dougherty in Mountain View. Apparently it went very well with the exception of the 5am wake up calls she gave them. They truly are wonderful with her, and she absolutely adores them. Two of her favorite words are Nana and Papa, and she wants to see their pictures non-stop. In a good sign, my parents were still smiling when we picked her up yesterday, not sure if they were delirious or not.

And that cancer thing. Almost forgot for a minute. A big consideration for us in this move was the stability of my health right now. I really am doing well. I feel great. Obviously my medical "team" has been a big reason for my survival, so the thought of building a new one is a bit overwhelming. The good news is that there are excellent care facilities in Boston. Dana Farber, and Mass General are 2 of the best cancer centers in the country. I will still keep my docs here, especially Dr. Mann and Dr. Gottschalk, so it's really not a big deal. I will do another CT scan of my lungs in the middle of April (before I leave), and hopefully it will be all clear. We decided that cancer is not going to run our lives, nor would we allow it to take away what could be the adventure of a lifetime.

So that's about all for now. My three year cancerversary is this month, and that's supposed to be a good thing, not a hallmark holiday that we will be celebrating. And please, please, please, come to visit us in Boston. But wait till the spring. And thank you President Obama for opening up the stem cell research flood gates, now get cracking all you biologists out there.

Much love,
Mike, Jennie, and Charlotte

I will survive...

2009-01-17T09:46:00.000-08:00

I think I survived, not cancer (yet), but 4 nights of Miss CHD. Jen is due home this afternoon from a interview back East, and I got the babysitting gig. Wow...what a workout, but I wouldn't trade it for anything. Charlotte has figured out that there is a difference between Mommy and Daddy, and that Mommy lays down the law and Daddy is a softie. She took full advantage of my weakness. Naps were strategically missed, vegetables were shunned, sleeping in your crib was not happening....you get the picture.

I also survived my 44th birthday, and 3 Cyberknife treatments. Once again, no real side effects from the Cyberknife, just a little fatigue. It also didn't help that I was fighting off a nasty cold, but I survived. We scan again middle of April, so we are welcoming the 3 month respite.

Jen and I enjoyed a day of pampering at the Carneros Inn, primarily as a birthday present, but also to celebrate our survival of the holidays. I think we overdid it with trying to squeeze too much in, but we still enjoyed being with all of our friends and family.

It should be a great week ahead. I'm looking forward to drawing strength from a new administration, and hopefully a new direction for the country. Miracles happen every day, and if you don't believe me ask anyone on the US Air flight that landed in the Hudson River. I better sign off, as a certain somebody decided she wasn't interested in a very long morning nap.

Love, Mike, Jen and Charlotte

Tis the Season...

2008-12-21T09:15:00.000-08:00

Happy holidays to everyone. We are all looking forward to spending the next couple of weeks with our wonderful friends and families. The holidays will be much more enjoyable as I found out on Friday that nothing has changed in the six weeks since my last CT scan. Small victories!!

I am all ready to start Cyberknife Round 3 in early January. We will treat 3 small nodules, and hopefully obliterate them. It would sure be nice to never see any more again, that's what I really want for Christmas. I continue to feel great, in fact the best I've felt in the last 3 years.

We've had a very active last couple of months. Jennie has started to job hunt, and her incredible talents are in much demand from some very interesting companies. A couple of weeks ago, Jen had an interview back East and I flew out to meet here in Manhattan on Friday for the perfect weekend. Charlotte stayed with her Nana and Pappa Dougherty, and didn't seem to even know we were gone (note to file for future trips). NYC in December is magical, if you ever get the chance to go at this time of year, you really should. We spent one perfect Saturday. The weather was ideal (nippy, sunny, and crisp). Strolled around town as absolute tourists, even waiting 15 minutes in line to get into FAO Schwartz. It was really fun to be in that wonderful store and actually be shopping for your own daughter, it was a pinch me moment in time. We had a great late lunch at Bergdorfs, and met the Holmbergs and Rodrigues's for dinner. They graciously drove in from Connecticut for the night, and we had a great time. A perfect day.

Miss Charlotte surprised us the night after we got home from NYC with a case of the croup. Scared the bejesus out of us, but as we quickly learned after arriving in the Emergency room, quite common and not too serious. Unfortunately, the Emergency room visit is all too common for us.....hopefully we have spent our last night in one. Each day with my little girl is a new adventure for me, and I look forward to seeing her every morning. I never knew I could love someone so much.

Well, that's about it. We will be in Glen Ellen for the week after Christmas and New Years, please come visit if you are in the area. Count your blessings this holiday season, and raise a glass to hope and happiness for all.

Love, The Dougherty's

All in all pretty good...

2008-11-07T09:11:00.001-08:00

In the last two weeks I have had a MRI done on the head and neck and a CT scan of the lungs. The MRI came back totally clean, that makes 2.5 years with nothing coming back in the head and neck area. What we have learned about salivary gland cancer is that if it is going to come back it would come back quickly, so this is excellent news. Unfortunately that is not all we have to worry about. The CT came back with mostly good news, but with cancer it always keeps you on your toes. The good news: it looks like Cyberknife wiped out all of the nodules in the right lung, that is excellent news and again affirms that Cyberknife works. With the good comes some concern as well, two new tiny nodules (5 mm) appeared in the left lung, and one nodule (centrally located but close to a gold seed) that was totally missed before has now grown to just over a centimeter. Of course I would have loved to hear that I was all clear, but realistically it is too soon for the battle to be over. I still think I'm winning, if you consider that 2.5 years ago, I had multiple nodules in my lungs "too numerous to count", and now I have 3 very small ones. I do wonder, and nobody really knows, when and if these nodules will ever stop coming. I believe they will, and that's all the matters, right?

So Cyberknife is again an option with these remaining 3, but we will make the rounds and try to uncover any other options that might make sense. Speaking of Cyberknife, on Tuesday of next week, I am giving my talk "Never give up", to the employees of Accuray (makers of Cyberknife). I'm very much looking forward to it, and hope to inspire them to keep doing what they do. I've actually given some serious thought to making a career out of speaking, and telling my story. I've spent a significant amount of my professional career public speaking so I'm pretty good at it, and now I have such a great story to tell. So if anyone reading this knows someone looking for a "inspirational" talk, I would love to give it a shot.

On to the more important things in my life. My family and friends. Have I mentioned that I am beyond belief in love with my daughter? It's hard to imagine that she is already 15 months old. Walking is her latest thing, that coupled with a insatiable appetite for having the same 5 books read to hear 15 times a day. We had a great time on Halloween, our little neighborhood in SF had a wonderful little parade and block party for the kids. Who'd of thunk that in a major city you could pull off such a thing? It really was wonderful, and Jennie (decked out in full "friendly witch" regale) deserves a lot of the credit as she was the welcoming committee at the Halloween party. Charlotte was darling in her flower costume (the hat lasted about 2 minutes) and watering can.

And finally, thank you again for sticking with me through all of this and sending all your thoughts and well wishes. I wouldn't be here without it. I am so optimistic about the future. No matter what your politics, you can't not be proud of our country for electing Barack Obama. It's time that being President is more about leadership, and inspiring others to make the world a better place, not politics as usual. As my daughters T shirt says "give peas a chance".

Happy November, Love, Mike, Jen, and Charlotte.

Everything is just fine...

2008-10-05T08:48:00.000-07:00

Sorry it took me so long to update the blog. It has been a nice break to not have to think about my cancer life. I feel frickin great, that's what makes this so hard. I know what may be lurking inside me, but on the outside everything is very normal. I am working full steam ahead trying to salvage my financial services career, while I watch firms like Merrill Lynch and Lehman Brothers evaporate overnight. I am fully engaged as a father in raising an incredible and demanding 14 month old. And I am a committed husband married to an amazing wife, trying to build a foundation and household for our family. I am very much like Joe Six Pack (Mrs. Palin's offensive characterization), but without drinking a six pack every night.

Where did the summer go? We've been keeping busy. We spent a marvelous week in Martha's Vineyard with our friends the Cober's, and Rodrigues's. Every summer we rent the same house on Chappaquidick. The house is the quintessential summer house with 6 bedrooms, right on the water, tons of room for all the kids to run around like chickens with their heads cut off, you get the picture. It's wonderful. Charlotte was in heaven the whole week. Until the flight home. Nightmare. Let's just say it took us 22 hours to get home, and she slept about 1 of those hours. You can fill in the rest.

What's next on the cancer front? I've got a MRI of the head and neck area in a couple of weeks (not worried about it), and a CT of the lungs in early November. I've looked into immunotherapy as a potential cure but decided to wait for now. It's an exciting area but it is just not ready yet, and I am fortunately not needing to try something so experimental at this point. Mentally, I am not sick, and I believe that is what allows me to have a leg up in this fight. With the support network I have, the mental part is easy. There are so many reasons to keep up the fight. All I need to do is look at Charlotte's smile and into my Jennie's eyes to see it. For that I am so grateful.

Love, Mike, Jennie, and Charlotte

They say it's my birthday...

2008-08-06T10:58:00.000-07:00

And were going to have a good time. Darn right we are, in fact we already did. We celebrated Miss Charlotte's first birthday on Sunday in Glen Ellen. On a spectacular summer day we had 9 kids and 18 adults gather for an afternoon of games, frivolity, good food, good wine, and lots of fun. Charlotte was so excited for her big day that she forgot to sleep the night before. Starting at 10:00, she was up every hour on the hour, which is of course something she has never done. Needless to say, she and her mom were a little worn out Sunday. Being the trooper that she is, Charlotte rallied for the cake and most of the party, refusing to go down for a nap.

We are also celebrating the end of Cyberknife for me. I finished a week ago yesterday, and so far I'm not feeling any side effects. I was pretty tired during the sessions, but nothing long term. Looking forward to a 3 month break until my next scan, and our annual vacation to Martha's Vineyard in September. Please tune in to Stand Up for Cancer airing on September 5th, this is the best initiative I've seen yet to get at the heart of the matter.....WE NEED TO FUND RESEARCH, and all of the money that is raised by Stand Up for Cancer will go directly to All Star teams of researchers that are on the cutting edge of major breakthroughs. Trust me, Katie Couric gets it, and I hope you will support this cause. It could be the most important thing you do to protect your life.

Love from all of us,
Mike, Jen, and Charlotte

What's new...

2008-07-18T06:43:00.000-07:00

Well, quite a bit actually. It's Jen, I had to jump in and post a blog update myself because I wanted to brag a bit about my husband. First of all Mike ran the Kenwood Footrace 10K on the Fourth of July and came in at 58 minutes, beating his goal of 60. He loves this race and ran it from 2000-2005, missed 2006 due to the fact he'd just had major lung surgery, and ran the 5K last year. He's been on the move over the last two years, building back his strength and lung capacity. First he walked, then ran (sound familiar) for 5, 10, 15 minutes at a stretch. It's a tough race with a lot of uphill climb. Stace, Dan and baby Will spent the 4th weekend with us in Glen Ellen and we were all at the finish line when Mike came across with a huge smile on his face. He feels great and supplements his daily workouts chasing Charlotte "the new crawler" around our now seemingly danger riddled flat. In the midst of managing his health, spending lots of time with Charlotte, working full time and romancing me up with dinner and
a movie last week (we live LARGE), Mike was asked to be the key note speaker for the annual meeting of a company called LivHOME. The meeting was in southern California and his presentation was really amazing. Charlotte and I went for the last 10 minutes so I was able to see everyone's reaction. He got a standing ovation (and was holding Charlotte at the time, who SOAKED IT UP, the limelight didn't bother her one bit) and many people came up to us after with just remarkable comments. His message of hope and living life to its fullest really seemed to move people. I have to share an email he received the next day from one of the kind LivHOME folks. "Again, thank you Mike for sharing with us your story. I hope you understand how thankful I am.
I can not stop thinking about the presentation you gave to us last Tuesday! I just don't know that I have spent any other one hour time period in my life that made such an impact or had such a positive effect in my life. "Make no excuses, say I love you more, say I am sorry more and there are no bad days, only good and great days" are things you said that have inspired me in ways I have never felt before. I find myself wanting to grab people, shake them up and recite all these things to them. And of course, there were so many more messages you relayed that have left me thinking in ways I never had before." Thank you LivHOME group for being such gracious hosts, you are a special group of people. Our only regret is that we didn't have the presentation taped. We'd love to, so if anyone needs a inspirational speaker for an event, group or poker night, give us a ring. Who needs Deepak Chopra, Yossi Ghinsberg (I'd argue that getting lost in the Bolivian Amazon for three weeks is a walk in the park compared to navigating the halls of UCSF) or Zig Ziglar when you can have Mike Dougherty? Mike's presentation was all the more remarkable on Tues. given that we got a little kick in the stomach Monday night. As the doctors are pouring over Mike's most recent CT (7/11) for the cyberknife planning they have discovered a few more tiny nodules. They've traced them back to at least Feb. but were so teenie, tiny they weren't noted. So we are up to six now that they are targeting with the cyberknife which begins next Wed. and will last for 6 days. No fun for Mike as he has to lay motionless on a cold steel platform for hours for each treatment. Our household's plan is to zap them with this fancy radiation and be done with it. In the meantime it would be really great if we could cure cancer. The real power in this country, Hollywood, is finally stepping up big time. There is a program, StandUp2Cancer, spearheaded by Katie Couric (maybe I do like her after all) that airs on all three major networks on 9/5 that will raise much needed $ for research, which is exactly what we need. We are on the precipice of MAJOR medical breakthroughs regarding cancer and need to support the true scientists, not just the ph'in pharmaceuticals, to get it done. No thanks to the geniuses in the White House now, funding is a huge issue. Sorry for the inappropriate diatribe but "its our blog and I'll rant if I want to." Cancer takes 600,000 American lives a year, 1 in 2 men and 1 in 3 women will contract cancer in their lifetime, let's make it a national priority for Pete's sake.
On another note, Charlotte turns One on August 6th. Can you believe it? She's a fuzzy headed, wobbly, chatterbox of martian speak with complete hand gestures and emphatic pointing and pounding. She's just pure joy (with the exception of some mild screaming in restaurants and hurling of cheerios).
Keep us in your prayers, we'll keep you in ours.

Charlotte Squared

2008-06-10T20:16:00.000-07:00

The picture above is of the two greatest Charlotte's I know, Charlotte Dougherty of course and Dr. Charlotte Jacobs. Seeing the affection between the two is a wonderful sight. Charlotte Jacobs is genuinely moved by our Charlotte and it is really sweet.

After rounds with Dr. Jacobs and Dr. Gottschalk it looks like we have a plan. Dr. Gottschalk took the time to actually walk us through my scan and show us just how inexact finding tiny nodules truly is. Not only are they hard to find and identify but they are also very hard to measure. It looks like we have 3 left, one we treated with Cyberknife before (and may have missed, maybe I took a breath who knows), and 2 that were always there but were teeny tiny. The great news is that of the 4 we treated last time, 1 is completely gone, 2 are in various stages of obliteration, and 1 is still around. As Dr. Gottschalk explained to us those results are excellent. It proves that Cyberknife worked and is an excellent weapon to use moving forward. Speaking of which we are going to Cyberknife the remaining 3. Dr. Golden will most likely need to place a fiducial (gold peg) or two down my throat and into the lung again, and we are awaiting his take on that. Then we zap.

Meanwhile we met with Dr. Jacobs at Stanford. She was pleased with the Cyberknife results, and suggested that I take a drug called Toremifine in addition to Cyberknifing the remaining nodules. Toremifine is actually an estrogen receptor blocker and is used in conjunction with metastatic breast cancer. What I love about Dr. Jacobs is that she has actually seen Toremifine have success by blocking blood flow to tumors in other cancers, and thought it might work with me. So I have been taking it for about a week now. It is a once a day pill with very few side effects thus far, just a little bit of a headache and some fatigue. And no I am not growing breasts or experiencing hot flashes!

Once again I feel like my "cancer fighting team" is on it. My supplement schedule has been tweaked by Michael Broffman, Yumiko Bamba is pricking me in all the right places, and most importantly both Dr. Gottschalk and Dr. Jacobs have agreed to stay aggressive. I feel like I am in great hands. It was really comforting to see the scans and realize how tiny things are right now. As Dr. Gottschalk explained, my nodules could grow five hundred percent (to 5 cm, my largest is barely 1 cm now) and still be treatable. That is very encouraging when my nodules appear to only be growing 1-2 mm every 3 months. As I heard Jen describing it to one of her friends "maybe we Cyberknife a couple of times a year, and then eventually they stop appearing". I'll take it.

I am really looking forward to spending my very first Father's Day. There was a time when I didn't think that would be possible. It really isn't just a Hallmark holiday, please remember to tell all the Father's in your lives that you love them very much.

Love The Dougherty's

Pretty good...

2008-05-24T07:46:00.000-07:00

So the news was pretty good. We'll take it. First of all, nothing is in the liver which is great news. One of the nodules which we thought might be a lymph node grew a bit so now it looks like it's probably not one. Two others that were also there grew a bit as well. The growth on all three is minimal, which is very good news. The other good news is that nothing new appeared.

All 3 nodules are candidates for Cyberknife, so we will talk with Dr. Gottschalk next week about that. We'll also see Dr. Jacobs and talk to her about possible systemic treatment. I would like to try something systemic as I feel that it actually could make this go away, what a concept. The problem is finding the right drug, there are many targeted compounds in various stages of clinical trials, so we may take a look at getting into one with Dr. Jacobs.

Dr. Mann was very pleased. Considering where we were two years ago, this growth is not at all unexpected. These things will most likely linger around for awhile, and then maybe they will just stop. The longer we go the better. The fact that we haven't seen things "shower" all around is very encouraging. We will just knock them out and we have found the right tool in Cyberknife to help us do that.

Granted, we would have wanted to hear that nothing changed, but all things considered we'll take it. It took me a night to digest it all, but I awoke this morning ready to kick some ass. I feel great. I plan to put on my running shoes and take it out on the park.

Thank you all for sticking with us, here's a line from one of my favorite Tom Petty songs "I won't back down".

Well I know what's right, I got just one life
In a world that keeps on pushin me around
I'll stand my ground, and I won't back down.

Have a great memorial day weekend with your family and friends.

With gratitude and love,

The Dougherty's

Think of us...

2008-05-20T08:36:00.000-07:00

It's scan time again. Wednesday we will scan the lungs and liver for the first time (not worried about the liver, just being cautious). It's also our 3rd Anniversary. Considering we spent our first in the hospital after my lung surgery, we are definitely moving in the right direction. It speaks volumes of a spouse who has to spend her anniversary in the radiation center. I know I have the best. Please think of us and give us your powerful juju. We will get the results Friday afternoon. Thanks for all of your connecting vibes, I can feel them.

Love, Mike, Jen, and Charlotte/the female Mozart

Big Night Out...

2008-04-30T15:51:00.000-07:00

Last Wednesday night, Jennie and I got all dressed up and attended the 2008 UCSF Founders Day banquet at the Ritz. We were invited by Dr. Eisele (Chairman of the Head and Neck Department) and sat at his table. We had no expectations, it just sounded like a great opportunity for a much desired night on the town. It turns out that it was a very special occasion at UCSF as they presented the annual "UCSF Medal" to individuals who made the most outstanding personal contributions in areas associated with University's mission, goals, and values. This years recipients included former mayor Willie Brown, Warren Hellman, and two outstanding Dr's. It was a great night, probably the most rewarding part was spending time with Dr. Eisele's other guests that were all seated at our table. We met a very distinguished English gentleman, H/N survivor, who had contributed a significant amount of money to UCSF to establish fellowships for residents. He was very charming, and sat right next to my lovely wife, who in turn charmed his socks off. He was so enamored that he procured her telephone number and demanded that they "must have lunch". I should also add that my wife looked absolutely stunning, by far the most attractive woman in the entire place! We also met another couple that were exactly like us, young, highly educated about the disease, determined to fight it every step of the way, and most importantly wanting to give back and help others going through what we have. We also learned that the "cancer survivor" plays lead guitar and sings for a major rock and roll band. We exchanged information with them, and talked about things we could do together (can you say benefit concert?) to help Dr. Eisele build his new head and neck center. Also at our table was a woman with a very famous last name who had a relative that was treated at UCSF for neck cancer by Dr. Eisele and his team. Her family had donated a significant amount of money and will continue to do so.

For the big night, Ms. Charlotte was treated to an evening with both sets of grandparents as babysitters. She was in all her glory. Not much else to report. I have my next scan scheduled for May 21st (our 3rd anniversary), that's good karma. I also have been selected to attend the Livestrong Summit in Columbus Ohio at the end of July. It should be a great opportunity to brainstorm with the amazing supporters and survivors that make up the Livestrong organization. We will win this fight.

Love, Mike, Jennie, and Charlotte

Ready for spring...

2008-04-04T16:15:00.001-07:00

It feels good to tell you all that I have absolutely nothing new to report on the cancer front. No news is good news. The Dougherty family has been enjoying the respite, but a certain member of our family is keeping us on our toes. Charlotte will be 8 months on Sunday, I can't believe how fast the time has gone. I'm am ecstatic to report that the only news we have is Charlotte has 2 bottom teeth, and she says "daddy" on a very regular basis!!

Love, Mike Jen and Charlotte

Living Strong...

2008-02-22T19:03:00.000-08:00

We were blessed with the best news today. My chest CT came back with nothing new to report. In other words, no new cancer, nothing. Dr. Mann was downright giddy as he told us that he was very pleased with the results. He said that my lungs are really getting much healthier. There still remains a small something that may or may not be a nodule, but it was there before and really hasn't changed at all in 3 months. We will look at it again in 3 months, and if does grow it is in a very reachable spot for Cyberknife to wipe it out. Most importantly the scan showed the success of Cyberknife in wiping out the nodules that were in there. This is very encouraging for the future as we can rely on it as a valuable weapon in our arsenal. Dr. Mann also let slip some things like "this may be gone for good", and "we have it under control". I must tell you that this is the first time I have felt like I am finally in control of this thing and that I am winning. It's truly an incredible feeling.

We brought Charlotte with us to the appointment, and Jennie's mom came with us as well. The nurses completely fawned over her as we waited for Dr. Mann to arrive. It really is so comforting to know that we have a real medical "family" behind us. We introduced Miss Charlotte to Dr. Mann and he was clearly moved.

After the good news it was time to celebrate. So Jennie and I hightailed it over to Zuni Cafe for a late lunch. Zuni is our place to celebrate. It was also what I visualized myself doing after our appointment, having a glass of Champagne and a Zuni burger (I hadn't had beef for a year and a half). Stacey and Dan joined us for our celebration.

It's been 2 years since this Odyssey started and I am still alive and kicking. When I asked Dr. Mann if this was in fact good news, he confidently said that coming from where we started when this was completely out in control, and now we are in control, you bet this is good news. I can honestly say that I am breathing my first sigh of relief since this all started. I really feel we have turned the corner, and I know that you are all behind me every step of the way. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.

Love, The Dougherty's

My Valentines...

2008-02-16T10:02:00.000-08:00

I wanted to put it on the official record that Charlotte agreed I could be her first Valentine. I told her that I would agree to share this honor but I would never relinquish it. We are having so much fun with her. Jennie just returned home after taking Charlotte back East to spend some time with her friends Kate, Chris, and Stefanie. It was nice to have a couple of days to myself, but by the 3rd day I realized the void that had been left. The house was uncomfortably quiet, and I couldn't wait for them to come home. They returned the day before Valentines Day and everything is back to normal.

It's an eerie sort of normalness. I haven't quite embraced it completely because I am holding back reserves for the burden that hangs over me. Speaking of which, I have another CT scan of my lungs scheduled for Wednesday. We will get the results from Dr. Mann on Friday. Please keep me in your thoughts and prayers that day. I continue to feel great, which is very important. My spirits are high, and I am confident that whatever we find out, we will handle in stride.

I feel everyone's strength as you stick with us through our journey. Please stop and smell the roses along the way.

Love, Mike, Jen, and Charlotte

Here's an idea...

2008-01-20T16:19:00.000-08:00

What if everyone donated their $800 tax windfall to fund cancer research? Instead of helplessly watching government take our tax dollars and allocate them in directions out of our control, this is an opportunity to seize that control. The tax refund amounts to $145 billion dollars. Does Wal Mart or Target really need that money to boost their profits? Or better yet, what about the oil companies? They sure have had a hard time recently. I'm putting my money where my mouth is, anyone want to join me? Tell a friend.

Not much to report on as far as the cancer goes. I will have a CT scan of my chest sometime around mid-February. Always a scan looming in cancer land. I sure don't feel anything. In fact, I feel great. I've put on weight. Most cancer survivors lose weight, but I am putting it on. I think it's a good sign. I continue to exercise as much as my body will stand, so the weight I'm putting on is not excess fat. Carting around a 17 pound bambino has also done wonders for my arm strength.

I celebrated my 43rd birthday last weekend. Remember the Chicago song, "Saturday in the Park"? That was me on my birthday, Jennie, Charlotte and I on a gorgeous day walking through Golden Gate Park. We were joined by Stacey and her son Will (11 days older than Charlotte), and had lunch at Park Chow. I could not have wished for a more perfect way to spend my day.

I had an appointment with Dr. Eisele week before last. Everything went great. He does not feel worried at all about a recurrence in the head and neck area. We talked some more about working together to raise money for the world class head and neck center he is building at UCSF. He also let me know that his passion was salivary gland tumors, which I did not know. Thank goodness someone of his stature has taken an interest in them.

I hope your 2008 is off to a great start. Mine sure is.

Love, The Doughertys

Happy holidays to all...

2007-12-24T22:06:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to drop a quick update, realizing it has been awhile since my last. From the bottom of my heart, I wish all of you and your families the very best this holiday season. We have been savoring every minute of ours. I wanted to share something special. Recently, my daughter received this note from Dr. David Eisele, the Chairman of the Department of Head and Neck Surgery at UCSF. It speaks volumes of the kind of person he is, and gives you an idea of the kinds of people that are helping fight cancer each and every day.

Dear. Ms Dougherty,

Thank you very much for your wonderful gift to the Head and Neck Cancer Fund at UCSF. Your gift will help us to cure more patients with cancer and I am most appreciative for your kind generosity. Your father is a brave and inspiring man and we are most pleased with his progress. Thank you again for your kind gift. I wish you and your proud parents a healthy New Year.

Sincerely yours,
David Eisele

P.S. You have a beautiful name

A little background, I had written him a note from Charlotte with a contribution. In the note Charlotte thanked him for helping her daddy and asked him to please continue to help other kids daddys get well. On this Christmas Eve night, I think I will conclude with that. There is much good in the world we live in, please don't forget it.

All our love,

Charlotte, Jennie, and Mike

The Best Time of the Year...

2007-11-26T16:13:00.000-08:00

What perfect timing for a 3 month cancer break. From now until mid-February, our house will be declared a cancer-free zone. No treatments, no testing, no stress, nothing. Cyberknife treatments ended a week ago today. They were a total trip. I had no idea what to expect and it was pretty much nothing that I expected. Go figure, right? For two hours a day over 4 days, I was strapped down to a metal table, told I couldn't move at all, and I watched a laser gun shoot at me from what seemed like a million different angles. The "don't move" part really sunk in as I was staring at a laser gun pointed directly at my heart. I was not comforted much when they told me it took them awhile to perfect the chin-less shot, as some of the first patients took a few hits in the chin. Now for the positives: felt nothing, very little fatigue, no pain or stiffness. All in all, no biggie.

We had a wonderful Thanksgiving, hopefully everyone did as well. Jennie's parents, my parents, my sister and brother-in-law and their 3 boys, and our good friend Lorraine all joined us in Glen Ellen. This is the 4th year we have had everyone up to Glen Ellen and it has been nice to establish a new tradition. Every year we cheat by having our local little market roast our turkey for us, and this year almost backfired on us. In a pure Seinfeldian moment, I showed up to pick up the turkey at 3:00, and the guy behind the counter had that "deer in the headlights" look. I quickly learned that he had mistakingly given our turkey away to another customer, but he was confident he could get it back, and he would deliver it to our house. When I showed up back home with no turkey and a gift certificate in my hand, my wife knew that something was not right. Needless to say, several more bottles of wine were opened at this point, and we became comfortable with the idea of a turkey-less Thanksgiving. I of course had no doubts that the turkey would appear, and in a positive omen of things to come......15 minutes later the turkey showed up at our door. All's well that ends well. The next day the Tonas's joined us for the traditional "day after" wine tasting event at our local wineries, and we thanked god for such a wonderful weekend.

I am so excited about Christmas this year. Last year I was in the depths of chemo and don't really remember much of it. What a difference a year makes. I get to witness my daughter and her first Christmas. Jen and I plan to take it nice and slow. I have already received the greatest gift I could ever have wished for. I'm alive and kicking.

Enjoy every day this holiday season.

Love the Dougherty's

Unsung Heroes...

2007-11-13T12:15:00.000-08:00

Today I went to UCSF for my first Cyberknife treatment. As has been the case with this treatment, it should come as no suprise that the Cyberknife technician was out sick today. Thank goodness it was only a 30 minute walk away, as all of the other patients were from out of town. Rather than recruit the junior varsity to fill in, the Dr's thought we should just wait until tomorrow. I did get to see Dr. Gottschalk who finally delivered to me the zapping plan. We will zap over the course of 4 days. One of those days will be about an hour and a half, the other 3 about an hour. At least I now know what lies ahead and I am so ready to sizzle these buggers away.

While I was waiting the room became filled with a different breed of cancer patient than the ones I had previously encountered. It finally dawned on me that this was wear the brain cancer patients were coming for their treatments. Cyberknife was first used in the brain (called Gamma-Knife), and now has become a very effective treatment option. A well dressed, well to do, attractive couple (early 60's) walked into the room to check in. I could overhear them saying that they were here for a consultation with a Dr. I saw the familar briefcase with the scans, notepads, films, etc. They were getting frustrated because they were being asked to fill out paperwork that they had already completed. Eventually the woman (cancer patient) lost it and started to cry. She moved over to an empty couch near me, and I could hear saying "I can't do this anymore, I can't". Her husband was still at the desk trying to deal with the paperwork snafu. Without even thinking about it, I walked over to her and grabbed her hands. She was looking down at the ground, and I told her "You can do this, come on now", "This is the one of the best hospitals in the world, you can do this". "I've been in your shoes, you're going to get through this". She finally looked up and me and squeezed me hands and said quietly, "thank you". As I got up to go back to my chair, I met her husbands tear laced eyes, and he whispered to me, "thank you". A couple of minutes later they were called to their appointment, she got up and marched in, that lady is a hero.

Yesterday morning we had brunch with another one of my heroes. At Livestrong Day I got to meet Kate Burke. Kate is one of my fellow California delegates from Santa Rosa. We immediately gravitated toward each other as we soaked in all of our training that day. She is an amazing person, so full of life, hilarious, sarcastic, intelligent, the center of the room. As we got to know each other better throughout the day, I learned of her cancer experience. Over 3 years ago she was diagnosed with a Stage 4 GBM, the worst brain tumor you can have. She was given virtually no chance to survive. A perfectly healthy 38 year old mother of two suddenly hit with this. After groundbreaking surgery at UCSF, radiation, and chemo.....Kate is absolutely thriving today. She is a gifted public speaker and is taking her message of hope to the cancer survivor world. I feel so fortunate that I know her. She and I have been in contact ever since Livestrong Day in May, and we have been wanting our families to meet. We finally put it together and Jen, Charlotte, and I had a wonderful brunch at their house yesterday morning. Her husband Brian is an incredible man, you could tell the minute you meet him. They have two kids, Colin and Riley, really sweet kids. The whole family is just such an inspiration, nobody is angry, bitter, you can tell that they just value life and all it has to offer. As we were driving home, Jen and I couldn't stop talking about how lucky we were to know them. The gift of perspective that we have gained through all of this has been invaluable.

I also had a very fruitful meeting with the UCSF Head and Neck people. It turns out that Dr. Eisele is going to build a state-of-the-art Head and Neck Center at the new UCSF Cancer Center in Mission Bay. This is a very exciting initiative and he has big plans to become the leading Head and Neck Center in the world. The exciting part for me is that he wants me to be involved in not only the planning but also be involved in helping to promote the effort. Of course, money will need to be raised to build the center, and Doc Eisele wants me to be a spokesman of sorts at fund raising events, etc. He wants me to tell my story, but a face behind the cause so to speak. We still need to hash out all of the details, but I am touched by the opportunity to help.

I am happy to talk with any of your friends, friends of friends, family, etc. Not a week goes by where I am not talking to somebody who is newly diagnosed or just trying to navigate the waters. Whatever I can do, please don't hesitate to ask. I think the only way to beat this dreaded disease is with a collective approach. Nobody has all the answers, but if we share our experiences "collectively" we might be able to use all of the "best practices" to knock out this beast. All the best.

Love, The Dougherty's

Happy Halloween...

2007-10-27T08:16:00.000-07:00

We have learned more about fiducials (tiny gold seeds) than we ever wanted to. To make a long story short, we are still awaiting the placement of the final one. This will make a total of 8. We started out (and so did our doctors) thinking we might only need one, and we ended up needing 8. I guess when you are doing something groundbreaking, you have to accept a little trial and error. Lucky number 8 will be placed bronchoscopically on Tuesday by the amazing Dr. Golden. Numbers 2-7 were placed last Friday by the amazing Dr. Mann. We do another CT scan the following Monday to track how the nodules move when I breathe, and then finally we start to zap. Soup to nuts, the whole thing looks like it will take a total of 3 months. As Jennie so encouragingly points out, we don't have to have another CT scan till February. Hallelujah!!

I had an appointment with Dr. Eisele on Thursday. He seemed quite confident that a recurrence in the head and neck was remote. He also told me that he recently hired a big wig researcher that will focus on head and neck cancers. This researcher will specialize in salvary gland tumors and Dr. Eisele wants him to meet with me. I am having coffee with him next Wednesday which should be a wonderful opportunity. Salivary gland tumors are incredibly rare, and receive very little research attention. But interestingly enough they do behave quite differently from other cancers. One of the most distinguishing and encouraging behaviors is that they seem to only spread to the lungs and once there stay somewhat indolent. In that setting you can attack aggressively with surgery and radiation. We still need to find a chemo option that works, so hopefully I can help find one. Very cool stuff.

I finally met Doc Renneker. I was at the Yumiko Bamba's (acupuncturist) and heard his booming voice in the room next to me. I told Yumiko to ask him to come in when he was done. He's a stud, and why wouldn't he be. He jumps out of helicoptors into massive surf in Antartica. Oh, and in his spare time he helps cancer patients conquer the beast. What a great man.

Life continues to bless us. Charlotte is getting ready for her first Halloween, so we had to hit the Pumpkin Patch. Not sure she enjoys her mermaid costume as much as her mother and I do. Of all of the gifts she gives, the best is a consistent 11 hours of sleep at night. Happy birthday to my dad today, he's 73 years young. Thanks for all of your well wishes and outpourings of love, it sustains us.

Mike

I think I can vs I know I can...

2007-10-14T21:22:00.001-07:00

Remember the childrens book, "The Little Engine that Could"? That is where the classic phrases, "I think I can" and "I know I can" come from. The reason I bring this up is because it is the perfect segueway to describe where we are at with Cyberknife. In going through the preparation for the treatment, a CT scan determined that the lung nodules I have would probably be better found if we placed another gold seed or two into my chest. The initial hope was that the one seed that was placed down my throat would be enough for them to find all of them. As Dr. Gottschalk explained to me: "I think I can get them all with the one seed already in place, but I know I can get them all if we put a couple more in". Hence the think I can vs know I can. The CT scan was performed to track the range of motion that the nodules go through as I breathe, and evidently my breathing moved them a little bit out of the range of the first gold seed. What does this all mean?

It just means a little more time and another procedure. The procedure would be done by a team of pulmonary interventionists that would most likely insert the gold seeds through my chest wall into my lung via a needle of sorts. I think I would be awake like the last procedure but with plenty of kook juice. Once the seeds are in place, then we would commence the zapping via Cyberknife. Jennie, Charlotte and I actually have already received the Cyberknife tour. We got to see the machine and the facilities and were very impressed. The machine is a carbon copy of a battle station from Star Wars. It looks like the zapping will be about an hour a day for 5 straight days. The tough part will be that I have to be motionless, and I have never been good at sitting still.

The good news in all of this is that the nodules are not really changing. It had been about 7 weeks since the last CT scan of my lungs, and the most recent one showed basically no change, which is very good. The hope is that we can wipe these suckers out with Cyberknife and that they are gone forever. If they do come back, we can always do Cyberknife again, and also surgery, so I feel really good that I have such great defenses. I continue to eat right, take my supplements, and exercise. I am actually starting to really get my running back in gear. My speed has improved dramatically and so has my stamina. I feel great which also helps keep me focused and confident.

Life continues to humble me. On Saturday we attended our families annual Stanford football tailgate party. We have been getting together with the same group of family and friends for the last 30 years. It's the same thing every year, same spot, same menu, same people, same great time. Very few even went to Stanford, we just all grew up in Mountain View and Los Altos which I guess is close enough. This year had special meaning to me as we were able to bring Charlotte and introduce her to all of our wonderful family and friends. Among the several moments I grabbed in my head was one in particular. I noticed a huge smile come over her as she sat with her mom watching all of the other kids frollicking around. I knew at that instant she would be safe because she was surrounded by all of those people who would protect her. And that made me smile.

Love The Dougherty's

I'm Golden...

2007-09-29T08:54:00.000-07:00

We continue to break new ground with my treatments. Yesterday a tiny gold fiducial (little bead) was placed in my lung via a bronchoscopy and the amazing Dr. Golden. Yes, can you believe a Dr. Golden inserted the gold.....yes I am truly Golden. What we thought would be a fairly straightforward procedure, turned out to be quite innovative. Over the course of these last 6 weeks we learned that placing a fiducial in the center of my lung is a groundbreaking surgical achievement. Dr. Golden perfected the technique by using a special needle that he "gerryrigged" to be able to go down the throat and up into the lung without puncturing it and gently placing the gold seed next to my nodule. We got the pleasure of meeting Dr. Golden a week ago Friday, and we instantly fell in love with him. He is cut from the same cloth as Dr. Mann, aggressive, funny, confident, eccentric, and relaxed. He was very excited about our case, which struck me as odd because all along I thought what we were doing was pretty routine. We also learned that Dr. Golden is one of the leading lung transplant surgeons in the world. He told us that he had been experimenting with this technique for about 6 months, and that it had been very successful. We also learned of his fondness for Dr. Mann, as he expressed that doctors like Dr. Mann were the reason he worked at UCSF. Pretty strong stuff. And when we learned that he went to Medical School with Dr. Charlotte Jacobs, and that she was his great friend, we knew the "cosmos" were all lined up perfectly. He assured us that he would take care great of me. One of the valuable take aways from all of this is how important relationship building is in getting the best medical care. If Dr. Mann doesn't know Dr. Golden, we have no connection and have no idea of the work he is doing. And when he finds out that Dr. Jacobs is our oncologist and we think the world of her, he instantly takes us under his wing. I should also mention that ever since we introduced Dr. Jacobs to Dr. Mann (essentially cementing the surgical option for indolent lung mets) they have become quite close, and Dr. Jacobs has referred numerous patients to Dr. Mann for lung ressections. Pretty cool.

Well the surgery yesterday went great. The actual procedure took about 20 minutes. First they completely numb my throat, then I got some "kooky juice" that sedates me but doesn't knock me out. I didn't feel a thing but I could hear them talking, the surgery went perfectly and they were very pleased. Dr. Golden was giddy, and he even invited Jennie and my mom into the surgical room to show them the gold seed on my xray. It turns out that one of the many observers in the room was most likely from a medical device manufacturing company, and we overheard Dr. Golden telling him something to the effect of "now you need to go to the toolshed and design me the right tool". Translation, Dr. Golden wants to design the right tool to perform more of these and be able to promote this beyond his small circle of influence. Once again we are breaking new ground.

What next? We have a CT scan of the lungs next week, and then the Cyberknife people plan the radiation. The planning takes a couple of weeks, and then we blast away. The blasting will probably be over a 2-3 day period, a couple of hours a day, and then hopefully we are done. Also last week I got the results back from a MRI that I had done on my head and neck. The results came back all clear. Good news. No signs of anything to be worried about, but they do want to continue to monitor that area and rescan in a few months.

Wow, what happened to September? Our 8 week old is just perfect. She keeps us on our toes constantly and never for one minute lets us forget who's the boss. To me, it serves as a reminder of how remarkable life truly is. We are truly blessed in so many ways. Happy October, and the beginning of Autumn!

Love The Dougherty's

The Plan...

2007-09-04T13:55:00.001-07:00

We had a perfect 3 day weekend. The weather was beautiful in the City. 75 degrees every day not a cloud in the sky. Jen's good friend Katie Holmberg spent the weekend with us. Hung out with my nephews, saw my parents, watched the US Open plus some good college football, plenty of good eatin, lots of laughing, great living. It was just perfect. Ever have one of those weekends?

Charlotte is really starting to delight. She is beginning to smile, and starting to interact with us. When she smiles at me, I totally start to melt, I swear to God. So far (fingers crossed) she is giving us 4-5 hour sleep stints at night. We'll take it. We are starting to get a little more adventurous with her as well. She spent the weekend hanging with mom and Tia Kate all over the City. She's starting to really get to know Chestnut Street, The Panhandle, and Laurel Village.

A little update on my plan for now. After going around and around we found out that my little nodules are too small for the clinical trial. That was a little disappointing but I'd rather have them too small. Dr. Jacobs said that if necessary there would be plenty more trials to participate in down the road. The good news is that there are many smart drug compounds in various phases of testing. This class of drugs is sort of the next generation of Tarceva/Eribitux/Avastin/and Herceptin, in that they target multiple anti-cancer processes in one pill.

Consensus is that we should deploy Cyberknife sooner rather than later and obliterate all of the damn nodules. It's a little tricky to get the "fiducials" in place so that the Cyberknife knows where to aim. Pulmonary specialists take it from here, as they figure out the best way to place the fiducials. It will most likely be a procedure in which they install them via my throat. Sounds nasty, but apparently it is an outpatient procedure with very little pain. As I write this, these appointments are being set up. Once the fiducials are in place the actual radiation is customized by Dr. Gottschalk and a physicist. The customization process takes a couple of weeks to plan, and then it's zap time.

I'm glad we are going to get rid of them. I've never been comfortable with the wait and see approach, and fortunately I have found the right team that supports my goals. My guess is that we will be ready to zap in the next 3 to 4 weeks. Most everyone feels that these new nodules were there all along and that they are not a new outgrowth of cancer, but you just never know. Hopefully we knock these out, maybe a few more crop up, knock those out, and then were done. Bye, bye, see you later alligator.

We continue to be touched by the outpouring of love from all of you. It is what makes us go every day. We have received so many wonderful baby gifts, rest assured the thank you notes will be out soon. I'm going to try and put together a late October open house in Glen Ellen for everyone to drop in and spread your good cheer. Enjoy your September, the best month of the year. For proof, pour yourself a glass of wine, and take a listen to "September Grass" by James Taylor.

Love, The Dougherty's

Team Dougherty...

2007-08-22T18:55:00.000-07:00

This week has been busy assembling our team and figuring out our next steps. By Monday (remember we just got the results Friday afternoon) my remarkable wife (mother of a 2 week old) had lined up everyone. On Tuesday we met with Dr. Gottschalk who heads up Cyberknife at UCSF. Today we met with Dr. Jacobs at Stanford. Tomorrow I meet with Michael Broffman at the Pine Street Clinic and Friday we have a call with Doc Renneker to help us sort through all we have learned. Nobody I repeat nobody could put together this diversified and talented of a team within a week. My wife got it done in a day all with a 2 week old by her side. Not a minute goes by where I don't thank my lucky stars that I have her in my life.

Yesterday we met with Dr. Gottschalk at UCSF. He is a radiation oncologist. He explained the Cyberknife procedure to us in detail, all of the pros and cons, etc. Then we got into specifics about my case. It looks like I have 3 small nodules in my left lobe, 2 of them are totally fine as they are on the periphery of the lungs.....1 of them (the largest at 8mm) is more centrally located (near an airway). Because of its location the centrally located one is harder to get at. The way the technology works is that you put things called "fiducials" (little gold pegs) in the tumor before the procedure so that the Cyberknife can find them as you breathe. Putting the fiducial in the centrally located one is doable.....it's just more challenging. The Catch 22 is that right now it is almost too small to even try (sort of good I guess). From the beginning with me it's always been about the rate of change in these nodules. How fast are they growing and are there any new ones? They really don't become troublesome until they reach the 2-3 centimeter range. Since the beginning the largest one I ever had was 1.5 cm, so they are pretty confident that these are not going to grow exponentially. Bottom line is the Dr. thought that we should wait at least 3 months and do another scan to see if they grow or any new ones crop up. At that point we don't really lose anything and we are in the same boat as we are today. Sounds reasonable.

Today Charlotte, Jennie, Jen's mom Sonnie, and I headed down to Stanford. We met my dad there and Grams and Papa Dennis gladly whisked their grandaughter away. Dr. Jacobs take on things was that she was not too concerned. She thought Cyberknife was a nice option and wants us to meet with the head oncologist for Cyberknife at Stanford Dr. Loo. In the meantime, while we are waiting, she wants to get me in a Phase 3 clinical trial for a new compound that is a targeted blocker, kind of like Tarceva but blocks more things that cause cancer cells to grow. It's in pill form and has some of the same side effects as the Tarceva that I have been taking. The nice thing about this trial is that its a Phase 3 which means you get the drug and not a placebo, and it has shown some promising results thus far. I do have to quit the Tarceva for 30 days before I can start the trial. I should find out shortly if I can get into it.....Dr. Jacobs assured us that she would give us high priority status. We introduced Charlotte Dougherty to Dr. Jacobs as we left. BTW, it is not a total coincidence that Dr. Jacobs first name is Charlotte also, and that clearly moved her. A very special meeting it was.

To summarize, it sounds like we will probably wait 3 months and do another scan. The Dr's are pretty confident that things will not grow exponentially based on the history so far. Cyberknife is there if and when we need it. Maybe the new drug wipes it out. I am comforted by the fact that I have some very good lines of defense to throw at this if it gets out of control. I'm also very comforted by the fact that I have such an amazing team behind me. God bless you all for your thoughts and prayers. Kiss your loved ones for us please.

The Dougherty's

Take that...

2007-08-19T12:25:00.000-07:00

What a beautiful day. I decided to take on my new fight by going for a run. I went further and faster than I had gone post surgery. I was soaring, I felt with each breath and each step that I was sending a message to the nodules. Don't mess with me. I'm going to kick your frickin arse! 40 minutes and a nice sweat later, I thought of my daughter's middle name. Hope. Anything is possible.

Mike

A Setback...

2007-08-18T09:47:00.000-07:00

Nothing in life is easy. One day you are blessed with a beautiful baby girl and the next day you find out your cancer is back. The scan yesterday showed 3-4 very small nodules (the largest is 8mm) had returned to my lungs. Dr. Mann admitted that it wasn't totally unexpected given where we started, but with his patented confidence he did not seem at all worried that we couldn't take it down. He described a type of new radiation called Cyberknife that can shoot a powerful dose of radiation right at the intended target, and obliterate it. It sounds a bit StarWars-esque, but it is a technology that has proven to be very effective in eliminating small nodules without surgery. Both UCSF and Stanford are two of the few centers in the country that have this technology so we feel fortunate.

Next week we will put the research bus in motion to find out more. We have an appointment on Wednesday with Dr. Jacobs at Stanford, and we are trying to set up Doc Renneker and Michael Broffman.

My friend Kate, whom I met at Livestrong Day, sent me this quote last night: "the task ahead of us is never as great as the power behind us". I know I have the greatest support team in the world behind me, and we just added a very important new member, Charlotte Hope. Rest assured that I am going to fight this setback with everything I've got. Please keep us in your hearts and prayers.

Love, Mike, Jennie, and Charlotte.

Back to Reality...

2007-08-12T20:58:00.000-07:00

I just spent the best week of my life. I would give anything to be able to spend many more of these weeks with my family. I am hopeful that I will. On Wednesday I have another CT scan of my lungs. I will get the results on Friday as I meet with Dr. Mann. I'm a bit scared this time, not because I think something might be wrong, but because I can't bear the thought of having a recurrence after receiving such an amazing gift last Monday. I feel good, and I feel hopeful. Please keep me in your prayers.

Love,
Mike

Proud and tired parents...

2007-08-09T12:28:00.000-07:00

We survived the first night at home. Little Charlotte apparently has a strong set of lungs! It's all good. Jen's friends Stefanie, Stacey and Chris are here taking good care of us. As is Jen's mom. It's a bittersweet day for us as well, as we learned our precious golden Benjamin passed away on Friday. He lived 14 incredible years, and the solace is that he never spent a day of that life without someone who loved him. We will miss him dearly. Attached are some candids of the our little girl.

What's my name?

2007-08-08T10:24:00.000-07:00

It's Charlotte Hope May Dougherty. Everything is great. We are going home later this afternoon. Met our pediatrician this morning, and she's great. I will update with pictures once we get home. Stay tuned...

She's here...

2007-08-07T09:42:00.000-07:00

Our little angel made her appearance last evening at 5:50 pm. Weighing in at 7 lbs 15 ounces. Her mom is a frickin champ! Today we are working on her name, but for now we are just basking in her glory. Mom is doing great, stay tuned for pictures and more info. Thanks to everyone for all your welll wishes.

The Waiting Game...

2007-08-04T11:32:00.000-07:00

40 weeks ago, August 4, 2007, was the winning number on a wheel of fortune type device our OB was playing with. At the time it seemed so far away. Well, now it's here. It's pretty surreal to think that I will be a father on Monday at the latest. Everything is just great with Jennie and the baby. The OB decided to induce on Sunday (her thinking is why not just bring her into this world rather than waiting any longer), and if all goes well she will arrive on Monday. Of course it could happen sooner. Stay tuned.

Love,

Mike

Connecting with cancer

2007-06-23T10:48:00.000-07:00

Lately it seems like more people are getting cancer. Maybe it's just because I'm more aware. But the overwhelming conclusion I draw is that people need help in figuring out how to fight the beast. I have found myself in touch with fellow cancer comrades who are interested in the approach I took. It has started me thinking about the need to "connect" people fighting cancer. Some approaches are universal, meaning they work for all cancers, but some approaches are unique to the type of cancer (especially with regard to the types of drugs used). I talked with Doc Renneker this week. He seemed very content with where things currently stand with me. I am now 100% vegetarian (not vegan, couldn't quite cut out dairy and fish), I am walking or running at least 30 minutes a day, I will continue on Tarceva for another 6 months, I take Zadaxin shots twice a week, I have a 1 hour "meridian method" Japanese acupuncture session each week, and I continue to take about 12 different supplements daily. I will have another CT scan of my lungs in the next couple of months, and an MRI of my head and neck at the end of July. Hopefully if I can get through these two scans "all clear" then I can rest a little easier and not have to do another one for at least 6 months. Oh please lord let that be the case.

In my discussion with Doc, we talked about the importance of an "integrated" approach to a cancer battle. He is a staunch supporter of this approach and I must say that I am a believer in it as well. By "integrated" we mean put everything and everybody together and essentially create your own "cancer team". I consider my team to be Dr. Jacobs (Stanford oncologist), Dr. Eisele (UCSF head and neck surgeon), Dr. Mann (UCSF thoracic surgeon), Dr. Quivey (UCSF radiologist), Michael Broffman (Pine Street Clinic), Doc Renneker (personal consultant), Yumiko Bamba (acupuncturist). I am always open to adding more members to my team at any time. I think my next addition might be to add Reiki to the mix. What I have discovered is that many people go into a fight with a limited team. My approach has always been to throw everything and everybody at this mess because I felt like that would give me the best result. Now I'm not stupid enough to think that by any stretch of the imagination I am out of the woods. Nor do I think that luck and divine intervention don't have a significant role, all I'm saying is why not try an integrated approach.

Putting together this team for yourself is not easy. That's where I think I can help people. And I think I could do it by connecting cancer patients via an on-line community (ie like a myspace). I think there is incredible knowledge to be gained by grouping people with the same cancer together, so we would connect all of the "head and neck" cancer survivors for example. I have spent some time specking it out with my brother-in-law who has some experience creating on-line communities. We have a long way to go but it is a start. In the meantime, if you have friends, family, etc that need help in putting together their integrated "team" feel free to direct them to me. Or if you have any thoughts or ideas on building a "cancer connections" on-line community please let me know.

I almost forgot to mention the most important member of my team, and that is my remarkable wife Jennie. No approach works without the support of your friends and family, and in my case I have the best family in the world. My family will be getting bigger hopefully within the next 6 weeks as little "Sparky" makes her appearance (Sparky is a nickname we have been using, just wanted to alleviate concerns that it would be her real name). I also can't reiterate the value of the perspective I have gained from all of this. It's responsible for the tears that come streaming down my face each time I look at the Father's Day card that my wife gave to me. It doesn't get any better than this.

Love to all,

Mike

LIVESTRONG Day

2007-05-20T07:45:00.000-07:00

I am back from Capitol Hill and I wanted to update you on my experience advocating for the Lance Armstrong Foundation (LAF) to our nation's lawmakers. 200 of us, armed with passion, powered with knowledge, and united by strength took the hill on Wednesday May 16th.

Our message was simple: 560,000 lives are lost to cancer each year, that's 1500 each day, and it's high time that our lawmakers get the message that they must provide the resources necessary to start defeating cancer. We specifically asked them to approve a 6.7% increase in funding for important research at the National Institute of Health and the National Cancer Institute. In addition we also launched a new bill from Senators Harkin and Snowe and Representatives Schakowsky and Myrick that would provide an early detection program for colorectal cancer. The bill is modeled after the highly successful early detection programs for breast and cervical cancer that have proven that early detection saves lives.

We arrived on Monday night and first thing Tuesday morning we started our training. They sat us at assigned tables by state and I started to meet my amazing colleagues that would be joining me in this fight. I met people who had survived brain cancer, survived multiple cancers, lost children to cancer.......incredibly inspirational. As the morning progressed we learned all about the LAF and their cancer policy platform, met the leaders of the organzation, and at about 11:00 am were greeted by the Chairman himself, Lance. When he stepped up to the podium the hairs on the back of my neck stood straight up. In a very emotional presentation he explained how important our work was. The room was electric as we broke for lunch. The afternoon consisted of media relations and lobby training as we began to focus on our meetings the next day. At the end of the day I learned that I would be meeting with Nancy Pelosi's chief of staff, Terri McCullough........by myself!! I also learned that we would be meeting with staff from Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein's offices.......but I wasn't so stressed because all of the California delegates (5 of us) would be meeting together. That evening we had a reception and dinner, and watched Lance's live interview with Wolf Blitzer from CNN. Lance joined us after the interview and we all relaxed at the ESPN Zone. I retired early as I knew I needed to polish up for my meeting with Nancy Pelosi's office.

I awoke with an abundance of energy. I put on my best suit and a brand new yellow tie. I felt strong and invincable. After a mandatory breakfast we were all dispatched to the Capitol. My meeting was at 10:00. I arrived at my destination around 9:45 and paced nervously. At about 9:50 it suddenly dawned on me that this was precisely what I had done for a living for the last 15 years. It was wholesaling. Once I realized this, I finally relaxed. Terri McCullough could not have been more gracious. We chatted about San Francisco and how important it should be in the cancer fight. Especially as we build a new cancer center and develop Mission Bay with UCSF and every important biotech company in the industry. She also told me that the Speaker was very interested in doing more in her community and that cancer was a very important cause for her. I volunteered myself as their liason and she enthusiastically accepted. I also learned that cancer had affected her on a personal level. Her mother was battling lung cancer (non-smoker) and had just been through successful lung surgery at UCSF. I explained my connection with lung surgery and how it was being used with other patients with lung metastases, and possibly even children. It moved us both to tears, and as I learned later if you can get them to tears you've done good. She said that Nancy would support the funding increases and felt like it would make it through the House. In conclusion, it could not have gone any better.

The afternoon consisted of a press conference with Lance and the sponsors of the Bill. Behind them were all of us in our bright yellow t-shirts. If you have a magnifying glass you can see me on the right side in the 2nd or 3rd row. You can see my mug much better in the shot of Senator Harkin speaking. After the press conference we met with Senator Boxer and Senator Feinstein. The meetings went very well. Both of the Senator's are extremely supportive of the Cancer cause. In fact Feinstein actually circulated a letter that 30 Senators signed supporting the 6.7% increases to NIH and NCI. What a day!!

I spent the rest of the week in DC seeing the sights. My mom came out on Wednesday night and she and I had a great time. We toured the Holocaust Museum......left us speechless. All else is well. I'm feeling pretty good, got my running up to 35 minutes 3 days a week. Our little angel is 29 weeks old and weighing about 3 pounds. Jen is hanging in there and we both are starting to get really excited about this finally happening.

Please do me a favor and join the Livestrong Army @ www.livestrongarmy.org.

Livestrong,
Mike

One more down.......

2007-04-14T06:35:00.000-07:00

I wanted to post a quick update. Yesterday we got the results back from my latest CT scan. ALL CLEAR!! I love those two words. The routine was very much the same as the last time (early January). The scan itself is done on a Thursday and we have the results delivered to us by Dr. Mann on Friday. The scan is not so bad, you have an IV put in your arm, then shot up with some contrast formula so that they can read the scan better. You go into the machine twice, hold your breath for 10 seconds, and then you're done. It's the waiting for the results that's the hard part.

Our appointment with Dr. Mann was at 2:15 on Friday (we were the last appointment of the day and no one was even in the waiting room). At 2:45 Dr. Mann walks into the room and immediately our hearts jump. We love Dr. Mann for so many reasons, but his best quality is his uncanny ability to assuage the situation. He enters the room with a smile on his face, asks me how I'm doing, how the fitness is coming along, etc. It's almost as if he doesn't know why we are there. He asks "it's been 3 months already?", and starts to look up our scan results on the computer. It's dead silent as he starts looking through pictures of my lungs, I'm watching him but I have no idea what I'm looking at. He slowly reads a report, I mumble "we had a scan yesterday", Jennie finally says "is the report in". Finally he says, "let's eliminate the suspense, the report says no new nodules found". But, as he did last time, he tells us how much he loves the radiologists, however he wants to go through the lungs thoroughly himself. So again we sit and watch him go through the lungs picture by picture, although a little relieved this time. Finally he says something along the lines of "excellent, everything looks great". He also comments "geez you sure have a lot of lung left". What is amazing about him is that he never makes you feel like the situation is serious or dire. If he ever finds something bad on one of these I'm sure he will tell us in a very light way with a confident smile on his face that says "no problem we can treat this". I can't even begin to tell you how important that is to us. We wanted to make a quick exit, hastily thanking and practically hugging Dr. Mann. As we left, I noticed the waiting room was still empty and the place was shutting down. I thought to myself what a great way for Dr. Mann to end his day.

Alongside me every step of the way was my incredible wife. She took Thursday and Friday off from work just to be there for me. I'm pretty sure that she takes this harder than I do, but I would never be in the position I'm in without her unconditional support. To be able to deliver to your wife the sheer pleasure and joy from good scan results is indescribable. Our baby girl will be very lucky.

Thank you to everyone for all your good juju, thoughts, and prayers. It's the little things you do that make this all so rewarding for us. We thank you, we thank you, we thank you.

Love, Mike

Livestrong Day May 16th

2007-03-29T07:38:00.000-07:00

It is an exceptionally beautiful spring morning here in the Bay Area. Not a cloud in the sky, crystal clear after a day of cleansing winds. It feels great to be alive. Can you believe that close to 11 million Americans are living with cancer? I found that both astonishing and comforting at the same time. It would hard not to think about it with the recent recurrence announcements made by Elizabeth Edwards and Tony Snow. Obviously cancer doesn't discriminate by political party.

As an admirer of Lance Armstrong, I was drawn to his writings and inspired by his courageous cancer fight. Naturally I became a disciple of his Livestrong foundation. And when he called me to tell me he was thinking of me the week before my lung surgery, I was a convert for life. It was very moving for me to see the Edwards family (both Elizabeth and John) wearing their yellow bracelets as they made their press appearances announcing Elizabeth's recurrence. Their support of Livestrong gives me hope that the cancer fight could become a national priority. It certainly should be.

The LAF (Lance Armstrong Foundation) has declared May 16th national Livestrong Day. A series of grassroots events throughout the country are planned simultaneously with an invasion of Washington DC by 200 cancer survivors. The purpose of the day is to raise awareness and push to make cancer a national priority. Why aren't our political leaders talking about what they plan to do about cancer? I certainly know what they plan to do in Iraq, and selfishly I'm really starting to get sick of hearing about it. 1300 people are dying of cancer every day but we don't really talk about it. Why? What are we doing about it?

Remember that invasion of DC by 200 cancer survivors that I mentioned.? Guess what? I was selected to be one of them. I am very honored to be part of such an esteemed group. I had to go through an extensive application process to be selected, so I guess my lifelong outspoken ways are finally going to pay off! The LAF flys us out there and puts us up for a couple of days. We spend all day May 15th in a training class so that we are equipped to give Congress a piece of our minds. The 16th is spent in meetings with our congressional representatives. Fortunately for me, Nancy Pelosi and Diane Feinstein are my representatives. Very powerful and supportive women, and quite influential too. I can't wait. After DC I plan to be an "on the ground" foot soldier for cancer survivors so look out.

Everything else is going great. Jennie is getting bigger and more beautiful every day. Our little angel now kicks on a regular basis and she wants to vote for Sanjaya on American Idol. I told her no. It may be the last time I ever do that.

Fondly, Mike

Alive and Kicking

2007-03-08T15:34:00.000-08:00

Remember that 80's song by Simple Minds? The words are silly, but I heard it the other day and it kind of described where I'm at with my life. I'm alive and kicking. Many of my Sigma Nu bros will remember how we used to "airband" to that song up in the birdcage. It's very apropos now.

There is one very important thing that is alive and kicking as well. We continue to be blessed. Last Thursday we found out that our 19 week old angel is not going to have any genetic problems. Yes, Jennie is pregnant, and if the good lord willing, we will have our baby girl sometime the first week of August. These 19 weeks have been filled with milestones that we have surpassed, but not without incredible angst. I continue to be amazed by the courage of my beautiful wife as she faces each obstacle and knocks them down. A little girl has never been wanted more by her parents, and we're praying that everything goes well from here on out.

I'm doing my best to get back to normal. I'm back at work full strength and our business, Envoy Capital Partners, is firing on all cylinders. Most of the credit for keeping our business thriving goes to my partner Brian Levy. I am very fortunate to have such a talented business partner and most importantly a true friend. I've been slowly but surely trying to get myself back into physical shape. Fitness is a very important part of the cancer fight, and I truly feel that being in good physical shape when this hit me allowed me to fight through the treatments and expedited my recovery. If you need further proof look at Lance. I am now able to run for about 30 consecutive minutes 3 times a week. Thanks to Doc Renneker who told me to slow my pace I am able to go the longer consecutive distance. The feeling I get when I finish is indescribable and it usually brings tears to my eyes.

I'm still taking Tarceva everyday. The only complaint I have is a nasty itchy rash all over my back and chest. It looks like adult male acne, pretty gross, but it's evidence that the drug is doing what it is supposed to do. My acupuncturist explains that it is heat moving out of my body to the surface which causes the rash. The buildup of heat can cause tumors so this is a good thing. I'm taking about 70 supplement pills a day to hopefully keep this thing away. I'm also taking Zadaxin shots twice a week, which boost the T cells and natural killer cells in my immune system. Zadaxin is not yet FDA approved (controversial and a long story) but should be shortly, so we import it through Panama (Michael Brofman connection).

So the Dougherty's are alive and kicking, including our little angel who's been kicking her mother every day! I apologize for not keeping the blog updated, I will try to update more frequently in the future. The next steps are another CT scan sometime in April. Thank you to everyone for your support and prayers. It's working!

1/19 Update - good news

2007-01-19T19:59:00.000-08:00

We had our appointment with Dr. Mann today at UCSF to review the results of Mike's CT scan on Wed. This was his first CT post his 9/26 lung surgery so was a big one. All was clear!! We love Dr. Mann but those office visits put at least 5 years on me. He arrived 45 minutes late (can't blame him, surgeons are busy) and then hadn't had time to review the results so pulled them up on the computer in the exam room in front of us. He then read the radiologist report and reviewed all the CT slides (a gazillion) to make sure they hadn't "missed anything." This felt like it took about 3 hours, in reality probably took 10 minutes. Again, grey hair sprouted, crows feet deepened, and the perkiness of youth dissipated. Mike, of course, handled it all beautifully. All well worthwhile when he pronounced that Mike had no signs of new cancer. Mike will have a CT scan of his chest every three months for about a year, then will go into a less frequent cycle. Not sure what the scan plan is for his neck area, he has his next appointment with Dr. Eisele on late March.

In the meantime Mike has broken into a mild rash on his chest and back, a side-effect of the Tarceva. A little itchy but is good news as it indicates it is more likely to work. Really not sure of the physiological reasons for this but both Dr. Jacobs and Dr. Mann brought this up so we'll take it.

We continue to consult Pine Street Clinic and Mike is on a revised supplement protocol. He is also still going to acupuncture regularly.

Mike is doing great. He is frustrated because he can only run 7-8 minutes at a stretch (usually uphill to help expand his lungs). As Dr. Mann said, "That's about 5 or 6 minutes longer than I can run right now."

here's to the new year!

Happy 42nd old man!

2007-01-11T22:35:00.000-08:00

Happy Birthday Deeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Welcome to the "42nd club".

Matt

Happy New Year

2007-01-08T21:28:00.000-08:00

I hope everyone had a wonderful New Years celebration and that 2007 is off to a great start for all. We had a great time up in Glen Ellen. On New Years Eve we were joined by Dan and Stacey, Steve and Roula Tonas, and Barry and Dina Thompson made the trip up all the way from Los Angeles. We had a great time and Jennie and Stacey put together a fabulous gourmet dinner. I opened up some great wines and we even made it till midnight.....complete with the midnight unveiling of my scars! That should give you a pretty good idea of how much wine we had to drink.

Today we actually had our post chemo follow-up with our oncologist, Dr. Jacobs, at Stanford. Originally it was scheduled for Wednesday but she had some time today and asked us to come in. It felt very strange to be back in the Cancer Center, as I had started getting used to a normal life again. Although I looked and felt better than just about everyone who was there, it still brought back the grim reminder that I am in the fight of my life. But this time I felt different than before, it's hard to describe but I just felt like I was now winning the fight.

I gave my blood and had a chest X ray done. The results were great, my blood counts are almost back to normal and my chest exam showed no problems. Dr. Jacobs wants us to schedule a CT scan of my chest within the next few weeks so we will get that on the books. The CT scan will give a much closer read on the lungs so that is our next hurdle. Meanwhile, Dr. Jacobs thought that we should try the drug Tarceva for the next 6 months. Tarceva is one of a family of new "smart" drugs that target the growth factors in cancer cells. Essentially they can invade the processes that cause cancer cells to grow, and cause those messages to stop. Tarceva is a pill that I take every day and has far fewer side effects than chemo. It is very unconventional for me to be taking Tarceva in the adjuvant (post surgery) setting I am currently in. It's mostly used in patients that have measurable disease (which currently I do not have and hopefully never will). But as Dr. Jacobs has told me all along, "nothing about you is conventional" and that's how she has been treating me. She is from the school of thought that it isn't worth saving your bullets for a rainy day, she believes that we should use all of the guns we have in our arsenal. I love her philosophy and I really feel like she is pleased with the results so far.

Thank you so much for your continued support and prayers. If there is anything I can do to help any friends or family members that need to talk to someone, please don't hesitate to ask. Cheers.

Mike

Merry Merry Christmas from Mike

2006-12-23T08:48:00.000-08:00

I really can't believe it's Christmas time again. I think people say that every year but this year for me I really mean it. It's been a whale of a year for Jen and I, and at times I honestly wasn't sure if I would make it to Christmas. Well thanks to the good lord, some great doctors, good medicine, and most importantly an incredible support system of friends and family.....I'm alive and kicking.

I'm feeling pretty good, the cumulative effects of the chemo are finally starting to lift and I've got my energy back. Fortunately I was able to keep most of my hair, it helped that I had horse hair going into this, and now I just look like most 40 year old men with thinning hair. I know I have a long way to go before this fight starts to wane, but I really do see a light at the end of all of this. I'm filled with peace and hope this Christmas, and that's all I've ever wanted, I feel so blessed and fortunate that I have these feelings.

Jen and I are just going to relax over the holidays. We are going to spend Christmas and New Years in Glen Ellen, so if anyone finds themselves wanting an excuse for a getaway please come up for a visit. This year we also wanted to send out a pretty loud goodbye to 2006 and warm welcome to 2007, so we will be celebrating in grand style. Thank you to everyone for all of your support, prayers, and love....I wouldn't be here without you. Also thank you to everyone for all of the great Christmas cards and pictures of your wonderful kids.....Merry Christmas to all.

Mike

Mike's Last Round of Chemo (posted by Jen)

2006-12-10T19:21:00.000-08:00

Hi everybody. We crossed a big milestone today so we wanted to send out a quick update. Mike just got the pump removed from his last (third) round of chemo, so the infusions are over. happy day!! he also had his PIC line removed today. His recovery from each round gets more and more difficult so he has a rough week ahead but big picture he's doing great. As usual, all his doctors are impressed with how well he's doing. prior to his last infusion he had his usual blood work done and a chest xray. his blood levels are impacted from the chemo (ie white blood cells declining) but that's to be expected and the levels were still healthy enough for him to move forward with his last round. the chest x-ray showed that he is continuing to recover nicely from his surgeries. the scar tissue is healing and an air pocket that was between his right lung and his chest wall seems to be resolving itself which is great. there was a chance this air pocket would remain intact and could have continued to decrease his lung capacity a bit. his next appointment is January 10th with Dr. Jacobs, where she'll check his blood work and chest x-ray again. At that point she'll order another chest CT scan for sometime in mid-January.

Mike should be feeling much better by the holidays so we're looking forward to spending time up in Glen Ellen and having a very Merry Christmas.

Mike continues to inspire all

2006-11-29T21:27:00.000-08:00

Wednesday, November 29th was a GREAT day. Why you ask? I spent my morning catching up with Mike and hearing the life back in his voice as he recovers from his second chemo treatment. His recovery seems to take a full 10 days or so and then the final few days are spent gaining the energy he needs to start the next treatment. His final planned treatment will start the 6th and end the 10th. A check-up soon after will determine next steps. We all pray that the final chemo treatment is next week and the next 60 years are back to normal.

Watch out world! The man is on fire and 2007 will be a year to remember. His attitude, lack of fear for anything and his passion and love for Jen make him "Man of the Year" in my book. I recently met someone who has a tumor or lump in the side of her neck and I could see the fear and uncertainty in her eyes as she is going in next month for surgery to remove this undetermined lump. She has been following Mike's treatment (through the blog) and I mentioned her situation to Mike this morning and without hesitation he wants to meet with her and provide assurance, support and information to help prepare her for next month. I firmly believe Mike will take this experience and use it to inspire others going through a similar situation.
Mike, thanks for making my day. I look forward to closing this chapter in 2006 and begin 2007 with a bang!
Matt

Give thanks......

2006-11-20T16:33:00.000-08:00

Two down and one to go. I give thanks that this will all be over soon. It seems like I will only have to endure three treatments instead of four, and for that I give thanks. I have had a rougher time this time around, and I was not sure why, but leave it to my amazing Jennie to put in perspective. This morning she calmly reassured me that the reason I was having such a rough go was because the cancer was all gone and there was nothing left for the chemo to do. I give thanks for Jen and her ability to keep this all in perspective and continue to lead and inspire me everyday. This Thanksgiving I hope everyone will give thanks for what they have. I know I will. All our love to everyone.

Mike and Jen

One Week Down......

2006-11-04T11:43:00.000-08:00

Whoa........that about sums it up. Since this all started I have been fearing chemo the most. For some reason, I haven't been too scared of the surgeries, the scans, or the radiation but for some reason I have been fearing the chemo. What a weird experience. Today is Day 9 (# of days after the first infusion) and I'm finally starting to come out of my "chemo coma". The chemo coma is the byproduct of the battle going on between the poison killing every cell it can find versus my body trying to get it the heck out of there. For the first 10 days or so the chemo wins creating this comalike feel. Basically I sit around all day and experience various waves of nausea, fatigue, chills, sweats, ringing in my ears, mouth sores, and various other aches and pains. But alas I feel like I'm getting control back.

The fact that I'm feeling better can only be attributed to my incredible care team, led by my dear Jennie. I haven't missed a meal or lost a pound (which is incredible) thanks to the amazing casserole talents of Sonja Perry and June Barone, and my labor intensive AM shake made with love each morning by Jen. My dear friend Tracey Musik (Dowie) came to visit me last weekend all the way from Colorado which really raised my spirits on a particularly tough day. And I can't even begin to thank my parents for all they have done, driving me back and forth to Stanford, feeding me, talking to me, tolerating me, walking with me, and meticulously nursing me back to health. Our house-mates Stacey and Dan.......who will drop anything at any time to help us. And a special thank you to our incredibly thoughtful neighbors in Glen Ellen, Ray and Bonnie Fredricks, whom we are so lucky to have in our lives. The letters, calls, cards, emails, pictures, and gifts from so many others just inspire and amaze me. Not a day goes by without a touch from someone. From the bottom of my heart I thank you all so much for that, you have no idea how valuable that is.

Finally, as I was in the hazy mist of my acupuncture session on Wednesday, which happened to be a particularly bad day, I swear I really saw the future for the first time. All of a sudden, I saw brightness and clarity and felt a huge sense of relief. I immediately got my energy back and I realized that for the first time that I was winning this fight. I marched home with a big smile on my face. One down and the rest of my life to go, bring it on!!

Mike

First Day of Chemo (posted by Jen)

2006-10-26T20:59:00.000-07:00

Mike had a long day today. We had to be at Stanford today at 7 in the morning for Mikes blood work then an appointment with the doctor to OK him for chemo, then the infusion. The infusion took 7 hours, Mike left at about 7 tonight. The process is that he gets a 7 hour transfusion of Cisplatin at the clinic (day one) then goes home with a pump that gives him a continuous transfusion of 5-FU for the next four days. On days two and three (tomorrow and Sat) he goes back to the infusion clinic to get hydration (1-2 hours on a saline IV). Then back on Monday to have the pump removed. The total cycle time is three weeks and he will complete three cycles. There is a possibility that he'll do four cycles if hes doing really well. He survived his day in good spirits (who knew the infusion clinic had individual flat screen TV's?) and is feeling fine. Week two is when side effects (if any - we're thinking positive!) are expected to appear.

We're in the business of blood work now. Appartently its all about the white blood cell count, and about a million other measures that Mike understands and I haven't wrapped my head around yet.

Joyce and Dennis have rescued us. Mike is staying with his parents through Monday in Mountain View (except for Sat. nite) to take him to his appointments at Stanford, to watch over him, and to fatten him up with Dennis' yummy food so I don't have to take the time off work.

We'll keep the blog updated on Mike's progress.

Chemo starts tomorrow

2006-10-25T17:55:00.000-07:00

We have all watched Mike surpass these key milestones as he continues the process of removing the cancer. Tomorrow, 10/26 he will start the chemo process in order to "throw the kitchen sink at it" since he has taken the aggressive approach to have this disease removed from his body. It is a 4 day process at Stanford and he will be recovering for three weeks and continuing the same process for two additional treatments around 11/16 & 12/7. This will most likely be the toughest task of all since he is still recovering from the surgery, yet taking on a strong chemo.
We mentioned they will need assistance with meals and grocery shopping and please be patient as we are still figuring out the need and where.

A nice card with some encouragement always helps.

Mike, if you read this before tomorrow morning, know that you have MANY friends and family thinking about you constantly and would do anything to rid this disease from your body. Remember, you are an Ironman and an inspiration to all of us. You have conquered everything else thrown at you and this will be another victory in the end. Plan on a celebration we will not forget when this thing is behind us.

Love you brother,
Matt

10/16 Recovery Update from Jen

2006-10-16T21:44:00.000-07:00

I'll make this a quick entry. Mike's recovery continues to go well. Tomorrow is three weeks from his surgery and he is improving bit by bit. Yesterday we went on a 25 minute walk. Today he went to the corner cafe to pick up lunch for himself and ventured a couple more blocks to get his haircut (by the way, his hair is growing back from where the radiation blasted it). He is eating and sleeping well and has put back on five of the ten pounds he lost in the hospital. He is still in a fair amount of pain but claims its getting a little better every day. His acupuncturist is coming to our place twice a week and we visit the Pine Street Clinic tomorrow to talk to Michael Broffman.

We had an appointment with Dr. Jacobs last Wed. at Stanford. She shared the pathology with us and its good news. Of the ten nodules they removed, four were malignant, far fewer than we expected. She also had the results of the chemo pretesting and it looks like the cancer may be sensitive to many of the drugs they tested. This indicates that chemo stands a good chance of being effective in tackling any microscopic cancer cells remaining in his body. She did recommend we proceed with chemo (plantinum, 5-FU protocol) for three, three week cycles. Mike will need a continuous IV for four days, then 2 1/2 weeks off = 1 cycle. He may have to stay in the hospital for the four days. The lung tumors also tested positive for the EGFR marker which means they may throw a targetted drug like Tarceva or Herbatux in the chemo regime too. Jacobs is now out of the office for a month so we need another doctor to administer, we're meeting with Dr. Kramer this Thursday here in SF. He will probably begin chemo in 1-2 weeks, pretty quickly.

We'll update the blog after we meet with Dr. Kramer and have a better idea of the chemo plan.

Mike's Recovery 10/9

2006-10-09T09:44:00.000-07:00

Mike's been home a full week now post his surgery and he's doing really well. He's eating and sleeping well and was able to walk around our block yesterday. We had a follow up appointment with his surgeon on Friday and his chest x-ray looked good. It looks like his right lung will always be a little smaller than his left due to the tissue removal. His lung expansion has progressed since his discharge from the hospital which is great. The surgeon predicts he will recover 80% of his lung capacity (people have run marathons with only 50% capacity). We have an appointment with his oncologist at Stanford this Wednesday. It's possible he'll recover for a month and then have some form of chemotherapy but we need to discuss again with the oncologist. One school of thought is to "throw the kitchen sink" at this thing in hopes of eliminating any remaining microscopic cancer cells. Mike really wants to explore the pros and cons before we charge into it though as it will most likely be a pretty toxic regime.

In the meantime he's back on a new regime of supplements as prescribed by Michael Broffman at the Pine Steet Clinic. We'll visit Michael again as soon as Mike is well enough to make the trip. Mike's acupuncurist (Yomiko Bamba, who we HIGHLY recommend) has volunteered to pay house calls until he's able to make it to her clinic. He had his first appointment this morning with her and she maintains that his pulse is better now than the first time he visited her post radiation. She was amazed by how well he's doing.

We're also looking into visiting the Block Institute in Chicago. Dr. Block comes recommended by Broffman and Dr. Renneker (our medical consultant/advisor/surfer) and is an expert in an integrated approach to oncology.

I'm planning to return to work tomorrow - everyone at Old Navy continues to be incredibly supportive.

another thank you to all who helped keep us fed (hospital food is INEDIBLE) and sane over the last few weeks. I know I sound like a broken record but I have to say it again - Mike and I are very blessed.

Update on Mike-1st day at home (10/1/06)

2006-10-01T16:34:00.000-07:00

I would have bet a million dollars yesterday that Mike would not have made it home today or even Monday. Again, he surpasses everyone's expectations and rallied this afternoon to come home. The doctors thought Mike would be there until Wednesday until he miraculously recovered today (rough night the last two nights). He is sitting in his favorite yellow chair relaxing and very happy to be home.

His current condition:
-Takes short breaths and can walk slowly
-Physically looks the same, but a little fragile (as to be expected)
-Plans to walk in the home to build up energy for longer walks at the end of the week
-Mental condition is 100% as the first thing he did when he got home was pull up his Fantasy Football update and complain that kickers should be allowed to have unlimited points (Tied with Neal Stephens for the moment) He also proceeded to comb his hair and look sharp as usual.

This week
Jen has taken off the entire week to support Mike and his needs. Her mom is staying with them now and Christy is coming to help Tuesday through Saturday. Grant Thompson will be here Wednesday. Which leads me to discuss the following 12 weeks. All of you have expressed interest to help Mike and Jen and this is the time we need you most.

What are their needs?
Right now, there are two essential needs:
Prepared meals & groceries. We are asking people to sign up and support them with a prepared meal or grocery shop for those who are physically in the area. I will attach a sign up sheet & local contact numbers for the establishments Mike & Jen support for meals and groceries in the next blog update.

Plan on sending an e-mail with your "sponsorship" to spbartlett@sbcglobal.net or mmccormick@spunkmeyer.com

Overall, this is a healing period for Mike and each day is a countdown towards full recovery. I witnessed a few smiles this afternoon which tells me he is already accelerating his recovery.

Have a great week and count your blessings!

Matt

Time to celebrate-Mike's surgery considered a success

2006-09-26T14:34:00.000-07:00

Mike had a very successful surgery this morning. :-) Dr. Mann shared the results at approximately 1:30p.m. and you could feel the tension in the room turn to celebration once our 300 questions were answered. Jen looks like she is 29 again and a big smile and lots of tears flowed following this announcement.
Here are some preliminary results at 3:00p.m. today.

-Surgery took approximately 5 hrs.
-Started in the left lung and removed all 5 nodules. No other surprises and the lung looks clean.
-The right lung had 6-7 nodules and no other surprises. Dr.Mann said he didn't see anything else and the right lung looks clean.
-Dr. Mann stated it didn't look like it would grow exponentially, but recommends when Mike is completely healed from the surgery that he take some doses of chemo just to insure all of the cancerous cells have been treated.

Mike will be in the ICU recovery this afternoon and will most likely be here the next 4-5 days. Everyone at the hospital today is now walking much taller similar to the IPOD commercial where the person walking down the street has a shadow of themselves dancing on the walls.
Jen and Mike made the right decision to stay in the states and have Dr.Mann conduct this surgery. Well done.

Jen wants to send a special thanks to all of the friends and families who have been calling to show their support during this process. She stated that every call is huge emotional lift for both of them right now. Finally, a special thanks to the following people who could take the time today and show up for emotional support:
Sonja Perry
Dennis & Joyce Dougherty
Stacey Isacs
Darlene Isaacs
Cheri Baldo
Kate Holmberg (Flew in from Conneticut)
Shannon Bartlett

Mike,
You are a champion and an inspiration to all of us for having the guts to confront this disease and take it "head on".

Jen,
Thank you for being there every step of the way and making sure that Mike had the best care and options available. Your unselfish ways will provide so much joy in the future. Well done.

Dr.Mann,
We can't thank you enough for taking on this surgery. Mike and Jen were very nervous the day they met with you of whether you would take on this challenge. You took it on and have created many new "fans and supporters". GREAT Work!!!!

Thank you all for the support and prayers. Later this evening, I ask all of you to toast Mike and Jen for their will and perseverence during this challenge.

Have a great week!

September 8th & September 26th

2006-09-24T19:47:00.000-07:00

September 8th & September 26th are dates to remember.
The night of September 8th was a special time for old friends. The Fantasy Football league boys hooked up in the city for a Fantasy Football draft at Acme Chophouse and proceeded into the Giants game against the San Diego Padres. It was a perfect night for Mike as he enjoyed time catching up with friends (he has known for over 25 years) and the Giants pulled out a victory over the Pads. It gave Mike a chance to catch up with everyone and update us all on what is happening with his life. We finished the night in typical fashion by playing pool at Savoy Tivoli in North Beach and reminisced about great times together. Each of the St.Francis boys in attendence that evening quietly asked about the details of Mike's surgery on September 26th and mentioned they would like to help out where possible.
This leads me to part two: September 26th
Mike and Jen will update everyone about this Tuesday and the details behind the surgery. My note is simply to ask you to keep him in your thoughts and prayers as this is MAJOR surgery and recovery will most likely be twice or three times longer than his first surgery. Mike is one of the strongest people I know and once recovery is complete and he is mentally free of these cancer spots showing up in scans, then we can all celebrate over a "designated weekend" in the near future. (details to come)
Jen or I will also update the blog Tuesday night letting you know the outcome of the surgery since they project the surgery to take over 7-8 hrs.
Finally, I couldn't help but find myself watching Mike converse with the boys on September 8th and seeing him smile and enjoy himself. He insisted on taking a cab late that night since he didn't want me going out of my way. (He can be stubborn about those things) As he was about to jump in the cab, he turned and gave the boys high fives and hugs stating "I love you guys". Mike continually reminds me of the importance of friendship and how family and friends are the support system you never want to break. It's times like these that you count on love ones and friendships to get you through it.
Take time Tuesday morning and say a prayer for Mike as he enters the surgery room. He will come through with shining colors as he has for the past 41 years on earth.
We love you Mike!!!

9/24 Update from Jen

2006-09-24T19:44:00.000-07:00

Hi there all.

Mike and I just returned from our annual trip to Martha's Vineyard last night. We went with our great friends Stacey and Dan, Kate and Dwight, Stefanie and Dennis, and Christy and all thier kids Grace, Ian, Amelia, Olivia and Sadie. I had a little birthday on 9/18 and the girls and Mike conspired to surprise me with a catered lobster/clambake on the beach (I've always wanted one). Christy used her restauranteur knowhow to dig up the best clam slinger on the island and we had a beautiful sunset party (sitters even showed up to entertain the little ones back at the house). We had beautiful weather all week.

Mike is scheduled to undergo lung surgery this Tuesday, 9/26. Our doctors have decided to go after the nodules in Mike's lungs. Dr. Mann, who performed Mike's original lung surgery, will do the procedure at UCSF Parnansus Campus. It's an extremely agressive surgery. He'll have a VAT procedure on his left lung and a full thorocodomy on his right. The VAT is less invasive and is the procedure that was used on Mike's right lung only last time. Since this surgery is on both lungs and includes the full thorocodomy on the right, Mike's recovery will probably take some time. We think he'll be in the hospital for about a week. Usually they don't operate on both lungs at the same time but since Mike is so young and healthy they want to take care of both. Tomorrow, Monday, Mike has appointments all day long as prep for the surgery.

Upon the recommendation of Michael Broffman and Dr. Renneker, our "medical consultants," we are going to use two unconvential processes to hopefully help with further treatment for Mike post surgery. The first process includes us sending samples of the tumor tissue to a specialist lab that runs tests on the tissue to try to predict what chemo drugs will be effective. We are also sending the tissue (if there is enough) to a facility that cryobanks it (freezes it) for further use as medical developments/discoveries warrent.

Oh and by the way, Mike got a call from Lance Armstrong the other day. That's right, LANCE ARMSTRONG, called to lend Mike his support and let him know that he was "there for Mike in all ways, spiritually and physically." My assistant and good friend at work, June, decided Mike might like it if Lance called him so (despite my eye rolling and muttering about how it'll never happen) she contacted someone who knew someone who, it would seem, asked Lance if he'd call and he did. As fate would have it, Mike was out running at the time (after his two surgeries and seven weeks of radiation), but Lance left an amazing voicemail on Mike's cell. His assistant called me after to get Mike's schedule because Lance supposedly really wanted to catch Mike but they haven't connected live yet. I've had my doubts about Lance the last couple of months, him running wild in Los Angeles with all those Hollywood bachelors and all, but those doubts are in the past. I'm a fan.

Please keep us in your thoughts and prayers over the next few weeks, they keep us strong.

It was a good week......

2006-08-28T18:07:00.000-07:00

Once again we made the medical rounds with our "team", and learned a great deal in the process. First of all we learned that the actual number of nodules still left in my lungs is 14. 8 on the right side and 6 on the left. The largest nodule is about 8 mm and it's on the right side, and the largest on the left side is about 4-5 mm. Intially that may sound like a lot, but we started out in the first scan at "too numerous to count". In reality 14 is a workable number and many of them are very small. Of course when counting something that small it is not an exact science but we are pretty comfortable with the fact that it could be far far worse. It's even possible that the total number went down from May to August, which would be great news.

We started the week with Dr. Jacobs at Stanford. She continues to seek the most aggressive course for us as she knows I want to give it everything we can. Dr. Jacobs advised us to pursue a surgical option rather than chemo at this point. She explained her rationale by convincing us that if surgery could be performed it would be my best chance at something "curative". And most importantly she felt that my case at this point was a possibility for surgery. She felt that chemo was always something that we could pursure "down the road", but it would never be a curative strategy. Dr. Kramer at UCSF was next and he concurred with Dr. Jacobs, reiterating that if you could remove the nodules then you should do it. Michael Broffman at the Pine Street Clinic also agreed that if surgery was possible then it should be pursued. He also armed us with several promising cancer fighting protocals and strategies that we will pursue once the surgery is over.

The Friday before we met with Dr. Jacobs, we had met with our lung surgeon at UCSF, Dr. Mann. We wanted to get his take on my scan, to feel him out about possible future sugery and to get his opinion about a novel new surgical technique currently being used by a German surgeon. Dr. Mann convinced us that he could accomplish very similar results but he could do it in a less invasive way. He told us that his team at UCSF has been achieving fantastic results in lung surgery while maintaining the full functionality of the lungs, and even explained that he had recently successfully removed up to 26 nodules on a patient. He told us to talk to the oncologists and see what they would reccomend first. So we did, and one week later there we were back in his office. He laughingly greeted us with "not a day has gone by this week without me talking to someone about you". Apparently both Dr. Jacobs and Dr. Kramer had lobbied him to take my case. He immediately told us that he would be happy to take me on, and began to explain the surgery. He will start on my left side (the side he hasn't been on before) and use the VATS approach (small incision, video assisted). Assuming he doesn't have to use a bigger incision on my left side he will then move on to the right side. Unfortunately since he has already done a VATS on my right side he can't do it again, so he will have to do a thorachotomy (much bigger incision). A mere 7-8 hours later I will hopefully be cancer free!! I like the sound of that, but I also realize that in all likelihood cancer cells will be left behind, but hopefully they will be few and far between. We may use a round of low dose chemo before the surgery to make sure that we provide some defense to prevent the cancer from spreading to other parts of my body. The surgery is scheduled for September 26th, a day after Matt McCormicks birthday and a day before my Uncle Pat's. I certainly feel blessed being scheduled between those two special occassions.

We got the great news from Dr. Mann on Friday and Jen and I headed up to Tahoe on Saturday to celebrate my parents 50th wedding Anniversary. My sister and I (mostly Shannon) had planned a surprise dinner for them on Sunday at Plumpjack restaurant. Several of their dear friends would come up to Tahoe and surprise them for dinner. Ed and Peggy Mihm, Nan Brown, Lorraine Smith, Shannon (Peter had to babysit), Jen and I successfully surprised them with Champagne (graciously provided by my mother and father in law) at the Plumpjack hotel. We had a lovely dinner full of love and laughter, two things that are so very important in life. Reflecting on my parent's achievement I realized that the strength that I have to fight this fight comes from them and the foundation that they have built for me. Congratulations mom and dad, and thank you for the gifts that you have given me.

All I've ever wanted in life is a chance, and that certainly applies to my cancer fight. I now feel that I have that chance and I will do my best to take full advantage of it. On a hike through Squaw Valley today, Jennie and I happened to stop at a random spot along a waterfall on some rocks. We sat in silence for awhile and took in the sheer beauty of our surroundings. I knew at that precise moment as I looked at my beautiful wife that no matter what happens to me I have everything I have ever wanted in life. God bless all of you.

Mike

Follow Up Scan Debunked

2006-08-17T20:01:00.000-07:00

As anyone with cancer or who cares deeply about someone with cancer can attest, follow up scans are no fun. They're just scary. Mike had his first follow up chest CT on Tues. morning (three months after his first chest CT) and we had the appointment with Dr. Quivey this morning to hear the results. Sleep has been a bit scarce in the Dougherty household this week. To cut to the chase, the news appears to be, all in all, positive. There doesn't seem to be any new nodules appearing, although we have to wait for an official count. The existing nodules have evidence of "slight growth," the largest growing from 6mm to 8mm. There was also concern about the lymph nodes under Mike's armpits that upon physical examination about six weeks ago were inflamed and haven't yet receeded. They scanned those too and they appeared clear on the scan. These probably are just still a result of Mike's lung surgery. So the good news is that although there is some slight growth, this doesn't seem to be growing wildly. I asked the doctor if we could trust that this pace of growth would hold, she said that it is likely but there are no firm rules with cancer. Of course we want to hear the interpretations from our other doctors too to piece together the whole story.

We just got off the phone with Doc Renneker. He is very encouraged by the CT results and has lots of suggestions. One of which is to visit the Block Institute in Chicago, a cutting edge, integrated facility. There is a lot of work left to do with supplements and diet. The Block institute can have additional tests ("marker tests") run on Mike's tumor tissue that can apparently really help with directing treatment (tests far beyond the standard 4-6 that UCSF ran).

Mike has also had a check up with Dr. Eisele last week to look at his neck and that all seems clear. He'll have a head and neck MRI probably in November sometime.

So now we do the rounds with all the doctors and lay out our treatment options. Dr. Mann (UCSF Lung Surgeon) is tomorrow, Dr. Jacobs (Stanford Oncologist) is Monday, Dr. Kramer (UCSF Oncologist) is Tuesday and Michael Broffman of Pine Street Clinic is next Thursday. We'll also have a follow up call with Dr. Renneker next week. He actually put us in contact with a Dr. Rolle in Germany who has a new technology to remove multiple nodules in the lungs. I don't want to jinx it by going into it too much yet but we've been in contact with Dr. Rolle and there may be something interesting for us in Dresden. Net is we have to talk to all our doctors and sort through a plan, may include chemo and/or more surgery and/or more alternative treatments. Our friend Stacey is going to tag along to most of the appointments and Mike's parents are coming to Stanford to help us absorb all the information that will be heading our way.

In the meantime, Mike's recovery from radiation is progressing. He is feeling better and continues to walk just about everyday, in fact we just got back from a four mile walk in the park this evening. His taste is still pretty much absent but his mouth is healing nicely. Dr. Renneker recommended acupuncture to help with the (significant) residual pain he has from his lung surgery. The pain has been pretty consistent since his surgery, about three months. He's been going to acupuncture for about three weeks and it has helped tremendously, he has less pain everyday.

We're looking forward to celebrating the Bartlett twins first birthday this weekend. We're also still hoping to make it to our annual Martha's Vineyard sojourn in September with the Cober, Rodrigues, Holmberg and Isaac clans.

Setting all of the above aside, Mike and I both truely believe the biggest factor in his healing is the care he's received from all of you, our amazing friends and family. The steady stream of cards, emails, calls and, importantly, prayers have made all the difference in the world. I'm sure the supplements, shots, sea cucumber, powders, pills and acupunture all play a role in his current outstanding health but it all pales in comparison to the effect of your love, "light," thoughts, laughter and very broad shoulders.

Today when we had returned from the doctor's office I noticed Mike slip something out of his pocket. It was Matt's IronMan Finisher medal. Matt had inscribed on the back of the medal "Dee, You are my Ironman! Challenges can be stepping stones or stumbling blocks. It's just a matter of how you view them. Your biggest fan, Matt" Now I don't know much, but I do know that regardless of what that scan said today, with that piece of treasure in Mike's pocket, and all the good will it represents from all our friends and families, we are blessed beyond belief.

One final thank you to my friend June, who, regardless of how I show up every morning to 2 Folsom - grumpy, anxious, numb, panicked, boarderline crazy - continues to help me put one foot squarely in front of the other on a daily basis. You are a gift.

William & his Mom raise over $3,000 for Livestrong

2006-08-06T22:45:00.000-07:00

As most of you know, William is a VERY close friend of Mike. They were college buddies and their friendship has lasted over 20+ years. William and his Mom stepped up to do something about this fight against cancer and raised over $3,000 from family and friends to support the fight against Cancer. The event was the Run for the Roses in Portland Oregon as Lance Armstrong was there in full support. William and his Mom ran the 10K event.
Way to go William and congratulations!

On another note, these next two or three weeks will be a healing time for Mike as he prepares for follow-up tests and scans related to the nodules in his lungs. The doctors will be looking to see if any of the malignant nodules have shown movement or basic growth. If there has been no change since 2 months ago, then it could be a monthly check-up to carefully watch and see when growth occurs and then address it. If there has been change or scans dictate action, then Mike and Jen must decide (with doctors direction) whether Chemo or other forms of medical action are needed. Mike & Jen have been doing an incredible amount of research and have found alternative methods in Germany they are now exploring. I will let Jen articulate the details as she does so well.

I wish each of you could have been there last Thursday when Mike walked out from his final radiation treatment. As always, he was smiling and dumbfounded that everyone was there to support him. In typical Mike Dougherty fashion, he makes sure everyone is comfortable and finds us a perfect location in the cancer treatent waiting room. Stacey and Dan did a GREAT job in replicating a picture from the January 2006 SF 1/2 marathon into a banner that states "Way to go Doe" August 3, 2006. They also brought sparkling cidar as a symbol of celebration for the big man! Nice work Stacey and Dan for making this extra special.

On a final note, I witnessed something very special that I hadn't seen in months. Steve, William and I were standing outside the hospital conversing about Mike (after the celbration) and we heard a honk across the street as Jen was driving her new vehicle carrying Mike, Sonja, Stacey & Dan. (Very nice car I might add) The look on Jen's face was worth millions. For the first time in quite awhile, she looked relieved that Mike finished a huge chapter in this healing process. I would describe her facial expression as relief, celebration, motivation, inspiration and pure happiness & love all wrapped in one smile.
They both deserve a celebration and I can't wait to watch them continue to blossom once we get this cancer stuff into remission. If you know Mike, watch out, he can only stay caged so long!
Have a great week!
Matt

Pictures from the BIG DAY

2006-08-03T23:36:00.000-07:00

Last Day of Radiation

2006-08-03T20:57:00.000-07:00

So 33 treatment days under his belt, Mike finished his last treatment today. I wanted to make it a special week so Peter picked Mike up on Monday, me on Tuesday, his parents Joyce and Dennis drove in from Mountain View on Wednesday and today a few friends surprised him when he came out of his appointment. Stace, Dan, Matt, Will, Steve, Cheryl, Shannon, Jake (his fiesty four year old nephew), my mom and myself were all waiting for him. We toasted his success with sparkling apple cider.

Weight loss is a huge issue with this kind of treatment and the doctor told us in the beginning that he could lose up to 20% (34 lbs in Mike's case) of his body weight. As of today he's lost exactly two pounds. A testimony to Mike's ability and sheer will to choke down Ensure under almost any unpleasant circumstance. The nurses continue to be shocked by how well he's handled the treatment. He's expected to regain his taste and probably 70-80% of his saliva production within three months.

The next step is his follow up chest CT scan which is scheduled for August 15. We will then meet with his surgeon Dr. Mann and oncologist Dr. Jacobs over the following couple of days to discuss the results.

4 More Days

2006-07-31T10:19:00.000-07:00

Mike only has 4 more days of radiation. Please send him a quick note of encouragement in order to help him through this final period. The treatments are every day at 4:30p.m., so say a quick prayer that he finishes the week full of strength & perseverence.
Way to go Mike!

Update from Jen 7/19

2006-07-19T21:22:00.000-07:00

Hi everybody, I've been so negligent with blog postings, I apologize. This will be just a quick one. First, thank you, thank you to Matt for his sweet thoughts. One correction, our zip is 94117, just one digit off what Matt has posted!

We are ticking off the treatment days. He has just 11 left. He is doing really, really well. His mouth got pretty bad about two weeks ago and Michael Broffman suggested he up his Glutamine intake. Something worked because his mouth healed itself completely. May also be the sea cucumber from Asia a friend of our friend Dwight's hooked us up with. So far Mike hasn't lost ANY weight, highly unusual for this stage of treatment. The nurses at UCSF are calling him the miracle patient. His biggest side effects now are fatigue and nausea. He has lost almost all sense of taste and has a really yucky, mineral, chemical taste in his mouth - makes it tough to work up an appetite.

We have our phone call with Dr. Renneker next week. Ironically, our friend Chris Isaac is good friends with Renneker - they surf together. Chris was kind enough to invite us to his concert last night as his guest. We got the full on vip treatment. Fancy parking, great, great seats (actually sat next to Chris' mom), a backstage visit and a perfectly beautiful night in Saratoga. Chris put on a great show and we had an amazing night.

I wanted to call out a few well deserved thank yous: to the UCSF shuttle service team (Peter, Sheryl, Stacey, Steve, Peter S. and Brian) thank you for picking Mike up after his treatments and making him feel like a king, to Joyce, Shannon and Parm thank you for our home chef who has prepared delicious meals to keep us on our feet, speaking of food, thanks to Cheri and Sheryl for yummy pesto, soups and more, thanks to Stace and Dan who moved a comfy sectional into our living room (top floor) and resorted to sawing our old uncomfortable couch to bits to get it out of the house, thanks to Cath for giving us aforementioned sectional, thanks to my mom who is coming up to take care of us for the next couple of days, thanks to all at my work for continuing to be incredibly supportive, thanks to EVERYONE who sends us thier kind thoughts, wishes and gifts, lend us (mostly me) thier ears and shoulders and pass on pictures of thier kids that make us smile and thankful for our very full and wonderful lives.

Mike Dougherty-An amazing person

2006-07-17T19:58:00.000-07:00

Mike asked that I post a couple pictures from our day in Coeur d'Alene. You will notice in the picture that Mike wants nothing to do with touching a sweaty salty body, but he did later when he, Grant & I took this together. How many people do you know that would jump on a plane and fly out to a small town in 100 degree weather while under going radiation to support a close friend? He is the only person I know that would do it and never complain about his condition. Mike, you are amazing!

Update on Mike: Steve Tonas and I had dinner last week and Mike looked GREAT! His attitude was incredible and other than a rosy flush colored right cheek and neck, you would never know what he is going through. His throat is sore and gets tired after 4 hours on his feet, but he has the tenacity to fight this thing through. We went back to his home to spend a little time with Jen and I loved watching Mike take a black felt pen and cross out another day counting down the radiation treatments. BTW, we are now 20 days through 33 treatments. YES!!!!! (60.6% done) We are already talking about a getaway celebration once the doctors approve of his bill of health following radiation. Pray that the nodules have not grown in his lungs. We can't have that checked until after radiation.

My personal observation:
I noticed something special Thursday evening. Over a year ago, we celebrated the two of them coming together (during an amazing ceremony I might add) and it was refreshing to see them so in love and right for each other. What I noticed Thursday night is that they share a love for one another that is rarely seen in couples. They are so right for each other & their love and focus on each other is at a level few experience. It's inspiring to be around them!

Finally, I am asking all of you to take the time this next week and write Mike a note inspiring him to fight these final weeks of radiation with a vengence. Shannon (his baby sister) sends off a card each day with a big number counting down his days of radiation and inside are pictures of his nephews and drawings to keep his spirit up. The look on his face when he opens the letters is pure joy and it's fun to watch. Way to go Shannon!
Don't procrastinate. Have your children or yourself write or draw a card and send it to:
Mike & Jen Dougherty
1669 Grove Street
San Francisco, CA 94118

e-mail: mdoeman@aol.com

Mike wants all of you to wrap your hands around your loved ones and appreciate every day you have on earth. It won't be long before he has on the running gear and participating in his typical 1/2 and full marathons.

Thanks Mike for being an inspiration to all of us!

Sincerely,

Hundreds of friends & family who read this post

Update on Mike as of 7-12-06

2006-07-11T23:26:00.000-07:00

I spoke with Mike yesterday and he sounded great. He mentioned the radiation is starting to take its toll as his throat is very tender and his energy level has declined in the past couple of weeks. He stated after 4 hours he needs to sit down and rest, but overall his attitude is positive and glass is always full. Tomorrow is a big day, he will be over 50% through his radiation treatments (17 out of 33) and we will start to count down to completion. Feel free to send him encouraging notes as this will be the toughest 3 weeks he has yet to face. Steve Tonas and I plan to have a milkshake dinner with Mike and Jen Thursday evening and finish it off with a Banana Split Ensure. :-)
Jen continues to be an incredible support as she has had to manage SO MUCH in the past 8 months. The more time I spend with her the more I understand what an inspiration she is to others. She sure inspires me. :-)

Finally, two weeks ago I had the opportunity to compete in my first Ironman event and mentioned months prior that I wished Mike could be there for support. We have always chosen athletic events to train together, but I knew getting him on a bike was not his thing (yet he is a "great" swimmer & runner). The event was in Coeur D'Alene Idaho and we experienced a heat wave that was 96 degrees and 110 degrees off the cement. As I was heading into the run transition (half delirious), Kathy was screaming at me and pointing to two faces I did not expect to be there. Grant Thompson and Mike were there cheering me on. I wanted to quit based on the heat as over 20% of the participants did not finish, but I made a deal with Mike that if I finish this event, he would fight his cancer into remission. After 14+ hours, I stumbled my way to the finish and with Mike, Grant, Kathy and my two daughters, we ran down the final tunnel holding a big sign that stated "Cancer Sucks" on one side and the other side listed "My Inspiration" with Mike Dougherty listed right at the top. It became very emotional for us as the crowd were cheering in support as the announcer read the sign as we all finished across the tape together. The finishing photo has Mike raising his arms high in the air as if he was letting everyone know he will fight this thing to remission. I told him later that night that I did my part to finish and he gave me his word that he will do his part in battling this terrible disease. As I viewed the pictures of our event, I also noticed pictures around our house where Mike has always been there for special events in my life. I am lucky to have a best friend that always thinks of others first before himself. Thank you Mike for making a huge effort during a difficult period in your life. You are the best!

Don't be afraid to drop him a line or send him an e-mail as he finds your notes of encouragement helpful during this period and don't be surprised if you're watching a Giants game in late August and you see Mike celebrating in the stands.
Have a great week!
Matt

Update from Jen 6/25

2006-06-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

We've had a big week. Mike completed his first week of radiation to his jaw/neck (5 down, 28 to go!) and we both went back to work. So far the only side effect seems to be a bit of fatigue. Regardless, he's been running every other day and walking every day to the hospital for his treatment. Michael Broffman has Mike on a slightly different schedule of supplements to compliment the radiation. Thanks to everyone who is helping to keep our fridge bulging with healthy and delicious food. Sheryl, Stacey, Cathy and Dennis, we'd be much hungrier without you. So far Mike's weight is holding steady, which is great, and his blood work looks good as well.

Mike flew to Idaho this morning to surprise Matt McCormick who decided to take on an Iron Man triathalon in Mike's name (that's a 2 mile swim, 125 mile bike and full marathon). Grant flew in as well and met Mike in Spokan and the two of them drove to the race. Mike, Matt's wife Kathy and daughter Madison all ran the last bit of the race with Matt to cheer him on. I just spoke to Mike and despite the 95 degree temperature today, Matt completed the race in great form and is doing well. Mike is a bit tired but probably not quite as tired at Matt at this point. Mike will be home tomorrow afternoon in time for his radiation appointment.

I'd like to send a special thought out to our friend Maya who was diagnosed with breast cancer and had a double mastectomy on Friday at UCSF Mt. Zion. Stacey and I visited her in the hospital on Saturday and she's doing just great. She has a calm and very positive attitude that is inspiring. God bless.

Update from Jen 6/17

2006-06-17T17:53:00.000-07:00

Well we've finished our post-travel appointments having seen Dr. Jacobs, Dr. Kramer, Dr. Quivey and Michael Broffman at the Pine Street Clinic on Thurs/Fri of last week and we have a plan of action. Mike will start radiation on Monday to minimize risk of local reoccurance to his head/neck. Everyone agrees on this course of action (now, originally the UCSF oncologist didn't). Apparently if there is a reoccurance to this area it can be really nasty surgery. His standing radiation appointment is at 4:30 in the afternoon. He'll go for 33 treatments, Mon-Fri. and his treatments will be at UCSF Mt. Zion on Divisadero. The side effects (skin burns, mouth sores, sore throat, fatigue) probably won't appear for 3-4 weeks. Although the side effects can be uncomfortable, we've been told everyone responds differently and in the long run the radiation is pretty well tolerated. Nutrition is really important through radiation so we'll be focused on that as well. We can't afford for Mike to lose weight, particularly if he needs to go to chemotherapy shortly thereafter. An additional note: UCSF and MD Anderson are also running more pathology tests to look for additional markers that may be helpful if Mike needs systemic/chemo therapy. Although we were originally excited that the tumor tested positive for a marker that would indicate Gleevac may be effective, it turns out that the pathology was only "weakly postive" for that marker so none of the doctors are recommending Gleevac at this point.

After radiation he will have another chest CT (everyone has a different opinion on when so we haven't decided on that one yet). They will compare this to the scan he had beginning of May and at that point we have a decision to make. Dr. Jacobs and her colleague, Dr. Harlan Pinto (Stanford), feel we should go quickly to chemo at this point regardless of the uptake of the disease. The consensus of the rest of the doctors (Anderson, Memorial, Johns Hopkins, UCSF) is only go to chemo if we see significant growth in the disease in his lungs. The rational for this is that there just isn't a proven protocol of chemo for adenocarcenomo of the parotid gland and when the disease has spread to this point they don't consider it curative. We've heard that only 25-35% of patients have a positive response to the chemo and the chemo is very toxic. Mike may have to be admitted to a hospital four days every three weeks for the chemo when and if we need it. This cancer can also be very slow growing so it is possible that it remains "indolent" for years. That, of course, would be fantastic. In addition cancers can also develop a resistence to chemotherapy so most of the doctors want to save it for when we "really need it." The other benefit of waiting is that we can try some of Michael Broffman's recommendations, most of which he does not recommend using with radiation so we have to wait. We've decided to take this step by step and to get through the radiation first before we think about how agressive to be with the systemic treatment (chemo).

All in all, we feel that we have a great network of doctors across the country to tap into if and when we need them and who are looking out for additional information/potential treatments options for us. We think this is really imporant with this kind of very rare disease. We're not done our investigation of course and still have a couple of stones to look under. We've heard that the University of Arkansas does a fair amount of parotid cancer research so we've been in contact with them and they will review Mike's records shortly. Michael Broffman also recommended we contact a Dr. Rennecker who apparently is an extreme surfer (extreme like gets dropped in Alaska with a tent and a surf board for a week for fun) and a brilliant doctor who loves to investigate rare cancers. He acts like a medical research consultant and can help us dig into international work related to parotid cancers. We're hoping we can get ahold of him soon to help (if he's not on the edge of glacier somewhere for the next couple of months). We can't wait to talk to him. Michael is also trying to get us some time with a Dr. Bloch in Petaluma, who is amazing with creative and integrative cancer treatment plans.

Update from Mike

2006-06-14T13:54:00.000-07:00

You know it's going to be good trip when your original middle seat on a completely full flight suddenly becomes two bulkhead seats together. Miracles do happen. We had a amazing trip back East. We got in late Friday night and woke up Saturday morning to a spectacular bright sunshiny day. The first thing on our Agenda was a hometown parade in Southport CT for the blessing of the fleet. We had a great time watching this little town celebrate its heritage and traditions with all the pomp and circumstance that goes with it. We went to church on Sunday at the Holmberg's 200 year old cathedral where we met a very special man, Reverend Paul. Jennie and I spent over an hour with Paul on Monday really connecting with him on a variety of levels and he really helped ease our minds and put our fears to rest. We are so grateful to Dwight and Katie for setting us up with Paul, it was really one of the highlights of the trip. Tuesday morning Stefanie, Katie, Jennie, and I headed off to Manhattan to meet Christy and head in for our appointment at Sloan Kettering Memorial. As many of you know I have always loved New York and I immediately felt its energy as we walked into the hospital. It already had a different feel for me and I felt myself charged with energy as we meandered up to our appointment. I gotta tell you that walking into the waiting room with 4 hot stunning women can boost your confidence like nothing else. We met first with a Fellow doctor that works with Dr. Pfister. He spent about an hour with us answering all of our questions and sharing with us his thoughts. One of the best takeaways we got from him was that what I have is a non-curable disease but it's something that you can live with, like diabetes or heart problems, and it will require life-long maintenance. I'll take that. Dr. Pfister reiterated a lot of what we heard at MD Anderson....chemotherapies are available but they have not proven to be very effective (about 20-30% of the time). The big issue is at what rate activity is occuring in my lungs, or in other words how fast are the nodules in my chest growing. The only way to know this for sure is to compare CT scans of the lungs every 3 months. The good news is that right now the nodules are so small that they really are nothing to worry about. I'm hoping that they continue to stay small and keep out of the way. The "catch 22" in all of this is that chemo or any other treatment for that matter can't be measured on something so small, its only when they get bigger that anything can be done. The tough part is that you just have to be patient, which has never been my best trait. I want to feel like I'm doing something and I believe that's where my diet and "eastern" medicine come in. Radiating the parotid sight also has come back into the picture and I'm pretty sure that I will start my 6 weeks of radiation on Monday. The thinking behind the radiation is that I want to prevent any recurrence in the head and neck area that would be very painful and difficult to treat, take that off the table so to speak. Dr. Pfister agreed to keep the door open at Sloan Kettering any time I want it, which is exactly what we are going to do. He confirmed for us that we have seen all of the very best doctors that exist in this country for head and neck cancer, and we were very pleased to find out that his college roomate was Dr. Eisele, the surgeon at UCSF who did my parotidectomy. Tomorrow we are meeting with Dr. Jacobs at Stanford to get her final take on things, initially she wanted to start chemotherapy right away but at this point the "wait and see" approach seems to make more sense. We want to find out why she wanted to start chemo right away. So for now, baring anything really radical from Dr. Jacobs, we will start radiation on Monday for 6 weeks and do my first CT Scan to see what's happening in there. I continue to be blown away with the outpouring of strength that I am getting from people, today I heard from my dear friend Gill Newton and he shared with me a saying that he uses and I abolutely love it..... "I'm reduced to hope, but I'm full of it!!". Darn right. I wanted to give a special thanks to the Holmbergs, Rodrigues's, and the Cober's for their love, strength, peace, warmth, and friendship. I am so very lucky to have you in my life, and I just want you to know that these past 5 days were 5 of the very best days of my life. Everybody please give all of your kids a big hug and kiss from me tonight. All my love.

A message from Stefanie Rodrigues

2006-06-13T07:29:00.000-07:00

We have had the good fortune of having Mike and Jen in Connecticut
with us since Friday, as the appointment at Sloan Kettering is
today. I know they will fill you in on the medical details. I just
wanted to convey, a few things about the moments in between
appointments.

Mike is a true inspiration. He is not bitter or angry or looking for
something or someone to blame. He continues to embody every single
one of those positive attributes that we all know and love about
him. He shows no interest in focusing on anything negative, but only
on finding a way to be well. His heart and his mind are open to any
and all things. And he looks great.

Together, they form a formidable team. A cohesive, well-oiled piece
of machinery. I have never been more proud to know two people in my
entire life.

As I see it, our goal is to follow their lead. As Mike said, winning
this fight is about hope not fear. And he is living that every
single moment. I think it says volumes about a man who, given many
options, has chosen to spend the last few weekends with collectively:
1 seven-year old, 2 four-year olds, 2 twenty-two month olds, 1- 18
month old, and 2 nine-month olds- on two different Coasts, rather
than at a spa or a game or in his own living room. Intuitively, Mike
knows they keep it all in perspective and Mike and Jen know and have
a great deal to teach us all about perspective.

I wish for all of you a moment or two to bask in just a little of his
sunshine sometime soon, his spirit is truly uplifting. I know we
will all continue to find ways to continue the momentum, to keep him
well, make phone calls, read, learn, and pray.

Stefanie

Update from Mike

2006-06-08T20:39:00.000-07:00

Well we made it back from Houston and I must admit that I've never been happier to finally get home. MD Anderson is very hard to describe, it's one of those places you just have to see to appreciate. If anyone has read Lance Armstrong's first book he does a nice job of describing his experience and I must say he was right on. It is full of some of the best and the brightest minds in the world and they do amazing things, but to be honest it scared the crap out of me. It seemed very cold and clinical to me and left me feeling scared instead of hopeful, and I've been trying all day to get that hopeful feeling back. Part of the reason I wanted to update this blog was to tell everyone that I have all of my hope back again. This battle is going to be about hope not fear. All of the wonderful people in my life give me that hope and I know you are reading this blog right now and it feels awesome. I feel so amazingly special right now and I can't even begin to describe how hopeful and strong that makes me feel. When I hear that kids that don't even know me are including me in their evening prayers I get this overwhelming feeling that I can't let them down and that powers me like nothing I have ever felt before. I also want everyone to know that my wife is the most remarkable person that I have ever known. She has been right by my side every step of the way exhibiting her tenacity, her courage, her inspiration, her perserverance, her strength, her patience, her undying love and dedication, her sense of humor, and her inspiration. Without her there would be very little hope. That's it for now, somehow Jennie was able to get us in to see Dr. Pfister (medical oncologist for Head and Neck) at Sloan Kettering on Tuesday afternoon so tomorrow (Friday) we are heading back East. We are looking so forward to spending time this weekend in Connecticut with our dear friends the Rodrigues's, Holmberg's and Cober's. We will update you with the MD Anderson plan sometime tomorrow. All my love.

Mike

Houston Update from Jen

2006-06-07T06:01:00.000-07:00

So here we are in Houston. Our registration at MD Anderson was at 6:30 am yesterday and doctor's appointment at 7:30. We finally met Dr. Weber, Head and Neck Surgeon, at 9:30. This is an amazing, huge place but part of the price you pay is paperwork and administration - to be expected I guess. At MD Anderson the surgeon acts as the case coordinator so its a good thing we did choose to meet with Dr. Weber and not only come out for the oncologist. Dr. Weber agreed that the way Mike's case is presenting itself, having spread to the lungs so quickly after detection, is rare and a bit confusing. He thinks that this is potentially cancer of the saliva duct vs saliva gland. He definitely recommended doing localized radiation to the head/neck and wanted us to meet with an oncologist to discuss chemo. Thanks to our friend Dr. Jasmer at UCSF, we did get an appointment with Dr. Kim, Anderson Head and Neck oncologist, today. Dr. Weber is having Mike's pathology run again at Anderson. Thier Head and Neck group meeting is Thurs. night so they will discuss Mike's case then and we'll hear from Dr. Weber on Friday with a final recommendation.

Mike has also made contact through his partner and friend Brian Levy with Dr. Calciterra, retired chair of Head and Neck at UCLA, who gave us his home phone and spoke to Mike Monday night. He was very helpful and warned us to be cautious with the chemo as some cancers develop a resistance to chemo. He's offered to help us through this process which is fantastic.

We've also gotten good advice regarding where to have the pathology run from Peter's father-in-law, Dr. Doo (who reconfirmed with Dr. Fee at Stanford). Originally we were considering having it run by AFPI, the Armed Forces Pathology Institute, a specialized group, but given that Anderson and most likely Memorial will also look at it, we think we're fine.

Lastly, thanks to Stacey and Darlene Isaacs (my dear friend and her mother), we've made contact with Dr. William Brody, the president of Johns Hopkins who it putting us in contact with an oncologist there who may have additional advice.

So we've got a tremendous amount of information coming our way, already much of it conflicting (from do nothing now to head straight into radiation and chemo). We'll update the blog when we have more news.

Thank you EVERYONE for the phone calls, notes and emails of encouragement, each and every one is amazing and gives us just a bit more energy and hope. Mike and I continue to feel incredibly blessed.

Pre-Texas Update from Jen - 6/4

2006-06-04T14:46:00.000-07:00

We're headed to Texas tomorrow to meet with Dr. Randy Weber, head of Head and Neck Surgery at MD Anderson. Unfortunately, the Head and Neck oncologists are all at ASCO (the big cancer convention in Atlanta) next week so we need to return to Houston the following week (6/12) to meet with an oncologist. We debated whether or not to meet with Dr. Weber, as we really don't need a surgeon right now, but we were able to get an appointment with him and he has such a phenomenal reputation we felt it was worth the trip. Who knows what words of wisdom he may have or what establishing a contact like that in the future may be worth? Our friend Dr. Bob Jasmer helped get us an appointment with a lung/thoracic oncologist at Anderson this week so we'll meet with him while we're there, again the philosophy now is speaking to as many people as possible where it makes sense. Everyone seems to think that since Mike's cancer started in his parotid gland, we should be under the care of a Head and Neck oncologist vs a Thoracic oncologist. It still will be interesting to see what this lung guy has to say next week. Our appointment at Memorial/NY is on 6/20 now so we'll be traveling the next three weeks.

Mike's feeling much better, thankfully just in time for all this travel. He had his follow up (2 weeks post surgery) appointment with Dr. Mann and the doctor said he's recovering well. It looks like the infection in one of his incisions has healed. He still gets tired and hurts if he pushes it but is definitely making progress.

Update on Mike as of 6-3-06

2006-06-02T06:22:00.000-07:00

It looks like Mike and Jen will be off to Houston (MD Anderson) the week of June 5th and New York the following week. They are gathering as much information about this rare cancer and how it should be treated. Mike explained that as of right now, he would start chemo treatments in a couple of weeks and that each treatment would be every three weeks for a total of 18 weeks (6 total treatments). This could all change based on the feedback from doctors at the cancer centers in Houston & New York. Many moving parts right now as Mike is healing from surgery (much better from a week ago) and trying to gather the best information on his condition. Your e-mails of encouragement have helped! Continue to keep them in your prayers.
Matt

6/1 Update from Jen

2006-06-01T21:50:00.000-07:00

We went to the Pine Street Chinese Benevolent Center yesterday afternoon and were really impressed with Michael Broffman. He has studied and specialized in Eastern medicine and oncology for 25 years (he looks 35 by the way - proof positive he knows his stuff about maintaining a healthy life). He was a wealth of info and was amazingly knowledgable and conversant in Westen medicine as well. He knew all our doctors, drugs, procedures, ins and outs of parotid cancer, etc. His focus is to compliment, not replace, traditional Western medicine. He is going to research any pockets of "parotid" expertise that we haven't identified in the US and Asia. He's also going to help build up Mikes immune system with Chinese herbs and hopefully, if we can proceed with chemo, he'll help Mike maintain his health during and after treatment. He actually has been the best "holistic" resource we've come across to date.

Finally landed an official appointment with Dr. Pfister at Memorial but it was postponed until 6/20. I'm calling tomorrow to fight that one. Christy is working her NYC/EH connections to help us manuveur through the Sloan Kettering world - thank you Mark Smith. We're still scheduled to see Dr. Weber at MD Anderson next week. We're in the process of collecting all Mike's records, slides and scans to take with us on our travels, not a small task. Matt helped by picking up Mike's PET scans in Oakland and shuttling around SF to collect more info today.