Troy and Jody's Community Against Cancer
Donation protected
If you are visiting this page, then your life has likely been impacted in some small way by Troy and Jody Anderson. This is the official GoFundMe for helping Troy and Jody as they navigate the uncertain waters ahead. If you have some questions about diagnosis, prognosis or ways in which you can help, those questions will be answered here.
If you have been wondering how you can help and you are short on time, the nuts and bolts are that we could be a huge help to Troy and Jody by reaching $10,000 to help cover a small modicum of their out-of-pocket medical expenses. We want Troy to get the absolute best nutritional coaching, mental training, physical therapy and consultations to be sure he has the absolute best chance of knocking this for good. We want to keep Troy motivated as much as possible to help him preserve as much normalcy and strength as possible through this process. This goal will also allow them not to cancel the 20th anniversary trip they have been planning for the last few years. Any amount raised over the initial goal will be donated to Troy’s Obliteride team https://www.obliteride.org/ More details to come—but please consider joining our team to ride in Seattle on August 8th! You can click on the donate now button and get back to work if your boss is looking over your shoulder and you wanna save the in-depth reading until you have some more time.
Official Diagnosis: Non-Hodgkin’s Follicular Lymphoma, Grade 1/2 stage 3
Prognosis: “If you are gonna get lymphoma it’s the one you wanna get” -Troy’s Oncologist
It is important to note that no one wants to get cancer, but this is a slow moving cancer and there are a lot of treatments available to oncologists in 2020 that enable patients to live essentially normal life expectancy. The downside is that as of now, there is no “cure” for this lymphoma. It can be knocked down for a while, even years, but this is something that will likely be a part of Troy and Jody’s life until there is a definitive cure. Until that cure is found, it will be life altering.
The progress so far:
In early December, while visiting Troy’s physical therapist (shout out to Dr. Nick at Vida Integrated Health in the U District). They noticed an enlarged lymph node on the left side of his neck. Fast forward thru biopsies, PET scans, blood work and some brutal waiting, the full diagnosis was determined in early January.
At first the doctors felt the "monitor" approach was the best route since he is young and had minimal symptoms. That is the standard response for this type of cancer, but soon after that conversation came an opportunity to join a research study at UW Medicine through Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. The study is for people who have this specific type of lymphoma and have not had any previous treatment utilizing an immunotherapy drug called Keytruda, which is already widely used to treat many other forms of cancer.
The first round of treatment (1 infusion every 3 weeks), went great until day 11 when his immune system got hyper stimulated and turned against his pituitary gland. That resulted in 102 fever, chills, nausea, all sorts of beastly side effects. The doc said this was the most active immune system he's seen in 30 years, "it was ready to sprint out of the starting blocks" (a little track and field humor there?) Those 2 weeks were bleak given the symptoms and the uncertainty.
Because of this advanced response to treatment, the treatment is on pause, as they get his endocrine system back in balance and see if there is any lingering damage done. He will see an endocrinologist this month and they’re also going to do some more scans to see if the drug was successful in knocking back the cancer.
Troy feels blessed to work at a company which provides excellent insurance and his team at Microsoft is committed to walking with him through the journey. They have insisted that he continue to communicate his medical needs and to make sure that work is not an undue burden in his recovery.
This is a life-changing event for Troy and Jody, indeed, things will never be without this new reality in their lives. We all know them well enough to know they will carry on with their infectious positivity. They have also made it clear to me that though this is a significant financial cost, it will not bankrupt them. So if things are tight for you or you have other ways you choose to support, then they wouldn’t want you to stretch things for them.
Really we see it this way: Troy and Jody have consistently given their time and energy to us, their community. They have always invited us to be a part of their team with the guarantee of their love and encouragement when we need it. Here is our chance to show them they are not alone in this.
On behalf of Troy and Jody, thanks for taking the time to be a part of this story.
If you have been wondering how you can help and you are short on time, the nuts and bolts are that we could be a huge help to Troy and Jody by reaching $10,000 to help cover a small modicum of their out-of-pocket medical expenses. We want Troy to get the absolute best nutritional coaching, mental training, physical therapy and consultations to be sure he has the absolute best chance of knocking this for good. We want to keep Troy motivated as much as possible to help him preserve as much normalcy and strength as possible through this process. This goal will also allow them not to cancel the 20th anniversary trip they have been planning for the last few years. Any amount raised over the initial goal will be donated to Troy’s Obliteride team https://www.obliteride.org/ More details to come—but please consider joining our team to ride in Seattle on August 8th! You can click on the donate now button and get back to work if your boss is looking over your shoulder and you wanna save the in-depth reading until you have some more time.
Official Diagnosis: Non-Hodgkin’s Follicular Lymphoma, Grade 1/2 stage 3
Prognosis: “If you are gonna get lymphoma it’s the one you wanna get” -Troy’s Oncologist
It is important to note that no one wants to get cancer, but this is a slow moving cancer and there are a lot of treatments available to oncologists in 2020 that enable patients to live essentially normal life expectancy. The downside is that as of now, there is no “cure” for this lymphoma. It can be knocked down for a while, even years, but this is something that will likely be a part of Troy and Jody’s life until there is a definitive cure. Until that cure is found, it will be life altering.
The progress so far:
In early December, while visiting Troy’s physical therapist (shout out to Dr. Nick at Vida Integrated Health in the U District). They noticed an enlarged lymph node on the left side of his neck. Fast forward thru biopsies, PET scans, blood work and some brutal waiting, the full diagnosis was determined in early January.
At first the doctors felt the "monitor" approach was the best route since he is young and had minimal symptoms. That is the standard response for this type of cancer, but soon after that conversation came an opportunity to join a research study at UW Medicine through Seattle Cancer Care Alliance. The study is for people who have this specific type of lymphoma and have not had any previous treatment utilizing an immunotherapy drug called Keytruda, which is already widely used to treat many other forms of cancer.
The first round of treatment (1 infusion every 3 weeks), went great until day 11 when his immune system got hyper stimulated and turned against his pituitary gland. That resulted in 102 fever, chills, nausea, all sorts of beastly side effects. The doc said this was the most active immune system he's seen in 30 years, "it was ready to sprint out of the starting blocks" (a little track and field humor there?) Those 2 weeks were bleak given the symptoms and the uncertainty.
Because of this advanced response to treatment, the treatment is on pause, as they get his endocrine system back in balance and see if there is any lingering damage done. He will see an endocrinologist this month and they’re also going to do some more scans to see if the drug was successful in knocking back the cancer.
Troy feels blessed to work at a company which provides excellent insurance and his team at Microsoft is committed to walking with him through the journey. They have insisted that he continue to communicate his medical needs and to make sure that work is not an undue burden in his recovery.
This is a life-changing event for Troy and Jody, indeed, things will never be without this new reality in their lives. We all know them well enough to know they will carry on with their infectious positivity. They have also made it clear to me that though this is a significant financial cost, it will not bankrupt them. So if things are tight for you or you have other ways you choose to support, then they wouldn’t want you to stretch things for them.
Really we see it this way: Troy and Jody have consistently given their time and energy to us, their community. They have always invited us to be a part of their team with the guarantee of their love and encouragement when we need it. Here is our chance to show them they are not alone in this.
On behalf of Troy and Jody, thanks for taking the time to be a part of this story.
Organizer and beneficiary
Bryan Reynolds
Organizer
Seattle, WA
Troy Anderson
Beneficiary
