All the time while Yi is trying to fall asleep, I try to ask him if he is asleep. I think it is hilarious.

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While I was in Portland we found out that the Chicago Bears were going to be playing against the Seattle Seahawks. Seattle is only a few hours from Portland so Carrie, Sara, Bahar, & I decided to go show some support for the Chicago Bears. So we found tickets, drove up to Seattle and had an awesome time.

All the fans in Seattle were crazy. Everywhere we went the fan heckled you, but that didn’t work because we won! Which is one of the few wins that the Chicago Bears had in the 2009 season.

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Just a short & quick update for February 2010. All the tumors are stable!! One grew about 5%, but that is still considered stable!! WOO HOO!! Keep up your Prayers! Thank you Jesus!

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While I was in Kansas City it was fun to listen to my Dad’s stories about his career. He looked back on his career while we were eating a very peppery steak in a restaurant that rotated on the top floor of the hotel.  He talked about sleeping in hotel rooms that didn’t have heat and he talked about hotel rooms that were so small he couldn’t really move in the room.

Dad's Retirement

The most interesting part of our conversation was when he explained how he got in his career. Throughout my Dad’s life he has been a paperboy, janitor, printer, business manage,r and more.  Fort years ago my Dad worked in a printing shop just like his father.  My Dad was the office manager/salesman of all trades at the printing shop and he became very good friends with the lead salesman.  While working at the printing shop my Dad became friends with my mom who at the time was the phone operator. Although my Dad hung out with my mom and her friends a few times, at first my Dad was interested in my mom’s friend. That later changed and he fell in love with my mom and they were married for over 35 years before my mom passed away.

The printing shop also was the catalyst of my Dad’s current job. His manager friend, Claude, left the printing shop and started to work with a few non for profit organizations. Later on he recruited my Dad to come and work under him again. My Dad learned the ropes of the businesses and became best friends with Claude. Both of their families become close to the point that I called Claude “Papa”. When I was little Claude passed away and my Dad stepped in Claude’s footsteps at the office.  However executives allowed my Dad to be the interim boss and later hired someone other than my Dad.  Then my Dad was let go from 2 of the major non for profit organizations, but he still was employed by a few smaller organizations.  He then moved the organizations offices into our own home.  My Dad worked at home for over 10 years now it is time to relax and experience new things.

One of the organizations that has been there for my Dad felt that they should acknowledge my Dad at their annual lunch meeting.  They gave him a nice plaque, a Garmin GPS, & a free flight on American Airlines.  I think all of that beats a gold watch!

I’m proud of you Dad and I’m glad you asked me to come to Kansas City to celebrate you accomplishments and celebrate your future! Of course being the vlogger that I am, I video taped the luncheon and his speech.

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On December 22 I got my results from my CT Scan.

3 out of the 4 “big” tumors have not grown and they are stable!  The 4th tumor which is the biggest tumor has SHRUNK!!!

So this chemo is working ! DUH!!!

I’m going to continue training, take my vitamins, & watch what I eat.

Keep of the prayers! Your prayers are working! Thank you Jesus! I LOVE YOU ALL!

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So, during the summer I was taking a clinical trial oral chemotherapy.  After taking that chemo everyday for 6 weeks the Dr.’s saw that the tumors were still growing. Although they did have another trial open for me. They called me the day before I left for Portland and told me to come in and sign the paper work to start another clinical trial.

The trial is 2 chemotherapies. The 1st one is an iv chemotherapy that is an insulin growth factor. The 2nd chemotherapy is just like the oral chemo that I took during the summer. I have been looking for an insulin growth factor since May of 2008. It has been hard to find this chemotherapy because of the limited amount of people who can been on this trial. Finally, I’m on the insulin growth factor chemo. Dr. Rushing from Indiana University has been talking about this chemo for a long time. I’m sure he is just as glad that I’m on this too.

Chemotherapy schedule: IV chemo every 2 weeks at the University of Chicago. Oral chemotherapy taken twice daily.

I’m not really sure how long I will be on this, but I’m just happy that the University of Chicago has given me this opportunity. They have been extremely helpful on getting me the treatment that I need on a timely basis.

Just one step closer to killing these tumors!

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While at the springs we applied mud all over our bodies. When you are at the springs you shower of the mud with cold water, then you bath into 2 different hot pools. Sorry, I forgot to warn you about some of the pictures. Some of them maybe too sexy for you to handle.

We enjoyed the time so much we all contributed $30 total for each of us to receive a 20min massage from a blind woman.(not at the same time)

After the hot springs we went to happy hour to one of Thad & Jodi’s favorite places because the view was so beautiful. Then we took a small hike down to the beach while the sun was going down. Then, this happened:

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So Jodi & Bahar decided to walk from the house to the secret beach.

Thad & I drove the car to the beach because we had all the equipment for food and water.  It was still a good hike for us with our equipment.

We set up camp and had some cactus and some left over food of the Mahi Mahi that we caught.

This was one of my favorite places to go because there was NO ONE on the beach and there was NO trash on the beach too. There were a ton of hermit crabs everywhere! I had a good time catching them plus I went on my own little adventures on the volcanic rocks that were on the shore. I was just walking around on the rocks and trying to catch crabs to eat, but that didn’t work out.

Thad driving us in Costa Rica from nickschmidt on Vimeo.

Quicktime

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Well I had an MRI in Chicago because I was going to leave the next day for Louisville.  I brought up my old scanned images for a pathologist compare.

Turns out, there was a new tumor by/in my liver. To be honest, I was a little upset. Bahar & I left everything at her house and walked about 8 miles on the lakeshore after we received the news. After the walk, I was fine and I talked to my Dad & BJ to give them the news.

The next thing was to call up Dr. Rushing in Indy to see what he thought. He wanted me to do an insulin growth factor receptor chemo.  Well I remembered a doctor at the University of Chicago, Dr. Undevia that actually was doing the hands on study for the insulin growth factor.  So I called him up and he called me that day or the very next day.

He told me that he may have a drug that is even better than the insulin growth factor and the chemotherapy was in a pill form. I immediately said, “I love you”. I was really excited to hear a oral/pill form chemotherapy!

I met with him and he told me that the insulin growth factor study is closed at the time and maybe open again back in September. There is no way that I could wait until September for chemo. Then he told me about a new study that he is “excited” about. The oral drug is called Bravanib. It’s just like the Yondelis in Louisville, the drug tries to cut off the blood going to the tumors. But this drug was in a pill form and I would take 4 pills a day.

On August 11, 2009 I started daily taking the Bravanib pills.  I have to take the pills in the morning so I can feel any of the side effects and write them down in my diary. Yes, I have a diary of when I took the pills and the side effects.

The first few days, I was hazy (I call it “drunk”) for about an hour or less. Then I feel perfectly normal. A lot of people who have been on this drug have felt tired.  I am not tired at all, I feel perfectly fine.

I actually started to get back in the water at Northwestern University. I have been swimming alone and a daily basis. I’m planning on racing the 2.5k for Big Shoulders on September 12, 2009. I have never swum anything that long (2.5k converts into 1.55miles.) before, but I know I can do it no problem. As long as all my wounds are healed up from the old and new port. I do have a stitch still hanging outside my new port, but no infection. I would like to get it covered before I jump in Lake Michigan.

I will be posting on Teamschmult.com more events that I plan to do soon. (e.g. City Chase on August 22, 2009).

It looks like I’m just going to have to kill these tumors by working out and getting back into shape, however I KNOW these pills are going to work too. Thank you JESUS! And God, well same thing.. and everyone who still prays for me, well just everyone THANK YOU!

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While we were walking on the beach we met one of the chef’s at the Four Season hotel. He owned a boat and had a mate & captain that could take us out for some deep sea fishing.

He would provide food, drinks, bait, and equipment for everyone. He even smoke of the meat if we wanted.

The next morning we met the chef, the captain, & mate at the beach and took the boat out for a 5 hour fishing battle. We drove the boat North close to the Nicaragua border in a town called Murcielago. We fished just off the No name Mountains.

The water was blue as can be, the water was a little ruff, and it was awesome to see the water crashing against the mountains. However some people didn’t like the ride that much.

Everyone on the boat was sea sick, but Thad & I. We had a great time fishing, but we made Jodi & Bahar get up and move around to stop the sea sickness. (No I don’t have any video of people throwing up.)

We caught a total of 10 Mahi Mahi!!! Bahar, Jodi, Thad & I were the only people that fished. As you can see in the picture we enjoyed our catch. Plus we didn’t have enough hands to hold up all the fish, 2 of the fish are in the cooler behind us.

It was an amazing time. We saw dolphins and turtles. We hoped to see a Whale shark, but this time we didn’t see any.

After we got on land, a local person filleted all our meat for us and he kept 3 of the little fish for his labor payment. We probably took back to Thad’s house about 30+lbs of Mahi Mahi.

And of course we ate it for days!!

Deep Sea Fishing in Costa Rica from nickschmidt on Vimeo.

Quicktime

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