After years of enduring relentless waves of cancer challenges, mostly in private, I’ve decided to document my journey through photos, videos, and writing to share my story and connect with others amidst the chaos. I am doing this to help process what has happened, to compel myself to record the seemingly endless twists and turns, including life and death decisions, and, if I am fortunate, to inspire a few people to reconnect with their forgotten animal selves through movement and exercise🏃

• 2018-2019: Experienced concerning symptoms, including slight pain when urinating, dark stool, and subtle pain in the lower right abdomen.
• 2019: Intermittent pain while urinating continued.
• 2020: At age 48, requested a colonoscopy but was denied due to age. A year later, screening guidelines changed to age 45.
• March 2021: Severe abdominal pain led to an ER visit during COVID-19. A CT scan revealed a tumor in my colon and inflammation in the bladder wall.
• March 2021: Colonoscopy results were negative for colon cancer.
• April 1, 2021: Underwent a right hemicolectomy to remove the tumor.
• April 8, 2021: Pathology confirmed the tumor was colorectal cancer. A second surgery was performed to remove margins from the large and small intestines.
• April 2021: Told my children about the cancer diagnosis—one of the hardest moments of my life.
• May 20, 2021: Six weeks post-surgery, I backpacked with my son in the Adirondack Mountains.
• May 2021: Reported level-10 pain while urinating. My concerns were initially dismissed as stress.
• May 2021: A urine cytology test suggested high-grade urothelial cancer.
• May-June 2021: After biopsies I am diagnosed with high-grade urothelial carcinoma (cancer in situ) after two cystoscopies. Began considering adjuvant chemotherapy for colorectal cancer (Stage II, T3).
• May-June 2021: Underwent three TURBT procedures to extensively scrape bladder cancer.
• June 2021: Switched care from Kaiser Permanente to Johns Hopkins University after doubts about treatment quality.
• July-August 2021: Started BCG immunotherapy for bladder cancer but saw no improvement.
• September-November 2021: Began Gem-Doce chemotherapy for bladder cancer. A treatment scheduling error reduced confidence in my care team.
• September-December 2021: Concurrently received Oxaliplatin (IV) and Xeloda (oral) for colorectal cancer, alongside Gem-Doce treatment.
• January 2022: Gem-Doce was unsuccessful in treating bladder cancer.
• March 2022: Switched bladder cancer care to a new urologist at JHU.
• May 18, 2022: Underwent a radical cystectomy, replacing the bladder with a neobladder made from small intestines. Post-surgery complications included severe scrotal swelling (soccer ball sized!).
• June 2022: Foley catheter removed; experienced recurrent (X4) sepsis, requiring ER visits and intensive care. On one occasion doctors were unsure if I would survive the ambulance trip from Sibley Memorial Hospital to Johns Hopkins Main Campus Hospital.
• July-September 2022: Continued physical activities, such as running and kayaking, while using a Foley catheter.
• September 2022: Received corrective surgery to address neobladder complications. This was ultimately successful and stopped the sepsis from recurring.
• March 2024: After reporting blood spots in urine, had to push JHU urologist to test and was dismissed as being form running, got a cytology test, that Urine cytology showed atypical cells.
• November 2024: Blood continued, so I continued to push for tests, Urine cytology came back as positive for adenocarcinoma or colorectal origin. This translates to metastasized colon cancer.
• November 2024: I run my the Philadelphia Marathon @ 4:18. Tons of blood after this race, feeling both joy and severe trepidation.
• December 2024: Surprise! The metastasized stage 4 colon cancer diagnosis was a mistake from JHU pathology, but it appears that I now have recurrent bladder cancer, potentially in the upper tract ureter(s) and kidney(s).
• January 2025: JHU tumor board meets, waiting for results and guidance on my case.
• February 2025: I run the Rocky Racoon 50 Miler in Huntsville Texas. Bucket list goal achieved.
• February 2025: Offered immunotherapy by JHU oncologist although later that option is withdrawn by a higher ranking onc. I am pissed. Everyone acknowledges cancer recurrence but because they cannot get eyes on it and can only detect through cytology they are refusing to treat.
• April 2025: Met w/ Georgetown Lombardi Cancer Institute Team, they’re recommendation is a double nephrectomy. JHU tumor board recommends a wait and see approach. My main concern continues to be progression.
• March 2025: @ JHU surgery, Antegrade ureteroscopy w/ possible tumor biopsy/ablation. Surprise nephrology tubes are installed and I am not happy. Now I have to run an ultramarathon with tubes hanging out of me. Life continues to be brutal, deep down part of me is enjoying this, on top of the psychological and physical pain, I find a way to add more through ultramarathons.
• May 2025: I run the Highball to Thurmond 50k ultramarathon with the nephrology tubes coming from my kidneys and hanging out my back, flapping about the entire race. I stop occasionally not just to pee but to drain the accumulating blood form the freshly installed kidney tubes. I get to see my cancer drain from these tubes.
• June 2025: @ JHU surgery, cystourethroscopy, using holmium laser, w/ ureteroscopy. Third JHU surgery and they still cannot successfully obtain biopsies.
• July 2025: Time to switch care again, this time to Memorial Sloan Kettering (MSK). Surgery is scheduled. MSK suspects lower tract involvement.
• August 2025: Memorial Sloan Kettering surgeries, Cystoscopy, With Retrograde Pyelogram And Ureteroscopy (Bilateral) & Biopsy, Prostate, Stereotactic.
• August 2025: Finally received positive biopsy results from MSK, which revealed that I have cancer present in the ureters, renal pelvis, and prostatic urethra. While a cancer biopsy is usulaly not welcome news, for me it was because now that biopsy unlocks therapeutic action rather than the wait and see approach recommended by JHU.
• September 2025: I begin treatment with Padcev and Keytruda, a combination of targeted chemotherapy therapy and immunotherapy – that brings both uncertainty and hope.
• January 2026: After five cycles of enfortumab and pembrolizumab, which caused complete hair loss and significant fatigue, I underwent a bilateral cystoscopy with retrograde pyelogram and ureteroscopy. Cytologies and biopsies showed some atypia, but for the first time in a year and a half, the pathology revealed no evidence of high-grade urothelial carcinoma. This is encouraging news, though EV/pembrolizumab therapy will continue until the side effects are no longer tolerable.