The wing eating contest at UC Irvine!

This week at UC Irvine I am holding my first fundraiser for my non profit organization Cuck Fancer. The response has been overwhelming. I walked around to different chapter meetings and showed people a video that I made to share my story. It was the first time I became that “cancer” patient. I usually do not publicly speak to people my age about what I am going through. I am glad I did it. People have been supporting my cause and me, more than I could ever imagine. My fraternity and Cuck Fancer are putting together events that are generating a lot of hype on our campus.

Today we had a wing eating contest sponsored by Buffalo Wild Wings and a lot of people showed up! It was a lot of fun. Tomorrow, we are going to have a huge white board and people are going to write the way they feel about cancer, and then we are going to donate it to a local hospital. Thursday is our most important event. “Be The Match” registry is coming out to our campus and we are hopefully going to add as many people as possible to the registry! It is really important that we get these young adults into the registry because someday they may need to save somebodies life, just as somebody is going to be saving mine.

On Friday, we will be throwing a benefit party for all UCI students. Unfortunately, I will not be able to go because I have treatment, but I am okay with that. This week has already been a success to me just because of the lives I feel that I have touched.

The most rewarding aspect of all of this work is that people feel more comfortable with their stories about cancer, and in return hopefully cancer will lose that negative connotation it holds. It is all about the attitude, and I am seeing a more positive attitude towards cancer every day. That is what Cuck Fancer is all about.

Ben

I cannot believe that I have not posted in over a month. I guess that is a good thing. Life seems to just be moving at the same pace. I am in a routine. School, friends, home, chemotherapy, and then back to school. I have had a total of 6 cycles of SGN-35. I have  one more treatment and then I will graduate. It is unbelievable that after all of the crap that I have been through I will be able to finally graduate. After I graduate I will have another cycle and then a scan to determine where we are at. There are not many updates with my health because I have not had a scan for a few months.

On the bright side, my website is finally up! Check it out! Cuckfancer.com! It took about 4 in a half months but we are finally done. I still have some work to do on the website. We are working on the apply now page and working on a logo to make shirts for Cuck Fancer.

Please like my page on Facebook and stay updated with my foundation!

I will keep everyone posted with my health as I learn more about.

Remember: It’s how you wear it!

Cuck Fancer

Ben

3/25

I just completed my fourth cycle of SGN-35. I have been a little bit nauseous for the past 36 hours or so, I am thinking it will pass soon. It’s nothing I can’t really handle.

I have invested the past 2-3 months working endlessly to get my new and revamped website off the ground. We are almost there. I am working on a logo, and I am trying to put together my first event, so please stay tuned.

For some juicy stuff! We have found a match! We were notified that this match was approved by the doctor a couple days ago. We know that it he a male, and he is 9 out of 10, not a 100% match, but matches good enough for an attempt at a successful transplant. It is really good news and a huge sigh of relief. We do not know when the transplant will be, that all depends on when the doctor thinks I am ready. We are thinking sometime in July or August.

That’s all for now.

Cuck Fancer.

Ben

It is a day after my 3rd treatment of SGN and I have no side effects. It is still pretty remarkable that I can feel this good after chemotherapy. We got the results from the CT scan and good news, we saw a lot of reduction from most of the lymph nodes in my body. The ones  around my spleen and liver shrunk a good amount, which is probably why I have my appetite back. The lymph nodes surrounding my chest are pretty much gone, and the ones in stomach did not change that much. This is great news considering I only had two cycles of SGN before this scan. The doctor was very pleased. This means that we can keep going ahead and treating me with SGN, and we can hope for a full reduction of all the lymph nodes in my body and then move on from there.

We have scheduled treatments all the way up to June 15th, which means I will be able to graduate. That is the best part. My doctor wants a minimum of eight cycles of SGN, and after June 15th that will be my 7th. After being pulled out of school twice because of cancer, I am going to be able to finally graduate in the spring.

We spoke with the part of the hospital that deals with finding a match. They have 4 possible matches. We found out that one person matches on about 9 out of the 10 things they are looking for. This is not ideal, but it could work. There are three other people that they are doing high resolution testing for to see if they match on all of the ten categories. We will hear about that in a few weeks. If those don’t match, they will throw my information back in the computer and see if any more matches show up. Because of insurance reasons, we can only do four people at a time.

I will keep everyone updated with the information as soon as I get it.

Cuck Fancer

It’s how you wear it,

Ben

Wow, I can’t believe that it has been 2 weeks since I last updated. I feel like that’s a good thing because I haven’t really been thinking about cancer that much lately. I haven’t been home since my last treatment, so I have been able to stay at school and enjoy myself. But it’s that time again on Friday, where I will go in for my 3rd treatment of SGN.

I will be heading to the City of Hope today for a CT scan. My doctor wants to see the progression or lack there of (hopefully) the lymph nodes in my stomach. The lymph nodes in my stomach was the first and only symptoms I have ever had from my 3 experiences with cancer. They caused me a lot of pain, and in the end caused me to lose a good amount of weight. Since SGN, I have not had any stomach pains. I have been trying to gain all my weight back and I have been able to do whatever I want too. We are thinking that since the stomach pains went away, that the SGN is working, but we will find out for sure on Friday.

So as of now, I am in a good place. I live a life that is not that much different than yours. I still go to school, play sports, work hard, and try to stay motivated for what lies ahead. I just have to deal with this other problem once in awhile. Sometimes cancer burdens my life entirely, while other times I am blessed that I can do so much while having it.

The re-design of my website is looking great and I can’t wait to show everybody soon. I am crossing my fingers and hoping that I will have my first fundraising event for Cuck Fancer sometime in May.

I will update everybody again on Friday.

Remember, It’s how you wear it!

Ben

This treatment was not that bad at all. I was a little bit nauseous, but with some quick meds and a nice nap I was feeling completely fine within a few hours. It is now Monday and I feel 100%. It amazes me that I can feel like this after treatment, when 4 years ago, I would be knocked out for at least 48-72 hours. It makes you think what If you were just diagnosed this year for this first time, and how much different the treatments would be.

Anyways, I am working diligently to get my website up and running, with new products to raise money for my non-profit. I am hoping to launch within the next month or so.

I came across this quote over the weekend and I really wanted to share it with everybody. Steve Jobs once said—

“… you can’t connect the dots looking forward, you can only connect them looking backwards.  So you have to trust that the dots will somehow connect in your future.  You have to trust in something; your gut, destiny, life, karma, whatever.  Because believing that the dots will connect down the road will give you the confidence to follow your heart even when it leads you off the well worn path and that will make all the difference.”    

Remember: It’s how you wear it

Cuck Fancer

Ben

I will keep this one short and sweet. In about an hour I will be recieving my 2nd cycle of SGN 35. I am much better from the flu I had last week and my counts are back to normal.

I will let you all know how this one goes.

It’s how you wear it

Cuck Fancer

Ben

So it’s Sunday night now, and I am feeling pretty good. I couldn’t say that on Wednesday of last week. As I was studying for my corporate finance midterm I started to have a really bad headache. Right afterwards, I felt warm. As I walked outside I got the chills. When I went home that night I could not get warm. I had a minor fever of about 100. I took some Tylenol and it worked for the night, but I could not shake the intense headache. On Thursday, I rested the whole day up until my midterm, as I was feeling a little under the weather. I took my midterm (which I think went well) and then I started to feel like crap again. As I was walking outside I got the chills again, and on the way home I couldn’t even open my eyes the headache was so bad. I went home to take my temperature and it was 102.5. I called the doctor and they told me I needed to come to COH (City of Hope) or go to an ER to make sure everything was okay. I opted for COH just because they take the best and quickest care of me. When I got there I had to spend the night just to be monitored in case the fever spiked again. They put me on different antibiotics and gave me a lot of pain meds for my headache. I was able to leave on Friday at about 12. I rested at home for the next day or so until I headed back to school. The doctor will get definite results of what this was by Monday, but they think it was just a flu. We originally thought it was related to the SGN, but the doctor thinks that it is to far from my last treatment, which was 13 days prior. I have my next one on Friday btw.

I am not really having by headaches anymore and I hope that the worse is behind me. It is just crazy to think how quickly I can get sick and how intense it can get in such a short period of time. I am hoping that all is well by Friday and we can go on with our scheduled treatment of SGN-35. Until then, I will enjoy school, my friends, and anything else unrelated to cancer.

Remember…It’s how you wear it!

Cuck Fancer

Ben

This is the truth. #donate #life (Taken with instagram)