Jennifer Goodman Linn You Fearless
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Fearless Blog

12.24.2008 Posted 3:00 pm

Jen:4 Cancer:0 -Gearing up for Another Battle

I am going to keep this journal entry short because I am drained and frankly, don’t really feel like talking about my situation. I went into the hospital on Friday, December 12th because I had excruciating stomach pains. Dave and I thought that I had eaten something bad and that I was suffering from a bad case of food poisoning. When the cramps and fever didn’t disappear after 24 hours, we decided to visit the urgent care center at Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center.

The irony is that we actually had the conversation around “Why are we going to MSKCC, I no longer have cancer?” as we got into the taxicab. The truth is, it has become our safe place and we knew that they would take good care of us.
The next 5 days in the hospital are a bit of a blur. When the pain didn’t subside, the doctors ordered 1 test which led to another test to another….and unfortunately the cancer is back for the 4th time.
Dave and I …

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11.23.2008 Posted 4:27 pm

Farewell to a Friend

 
Michael Thaler,  1965-2008

I found out just the other day that someone who greatly impacted my life had passed away. Michael and I did not know each other “well” in the way that people often define friendships;
 – We met each other only one time
 – We spent less than 20 hours together in total over the course of a few days together
And I couldn’t even guess as to what his favorite color was, where he went to school etc.
 
However, I have learned that you can call someone “friend” by connecting with them on a deeper level – if only for a short time.  
 
Michael also suffered from a rare form of cancer.  We both had our surgeries at MSCKCC in July, 2007.  We wound up spending the better part of the recovery phase of our surgeries “walking the halls” and sharing stories about what we had learned from our disease.
 
Michael had an amazing spirit and a beautiful outlook on life.  I will miss him dearly.
 
What follows is a blog entry that Michael …

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10.18.2008 Posted 3:11 pm

Announcing CYCLE FOR SURVIVAL 2009!

 
Dave and I are delighted to announce that the cycle for survival website is open for registration! That’s right: not only do we have a new name—we also have more bikes, an ambitious new goal, and a great new Web site.
Register today at www.cycleforsurvival.org/
As everyone who knows me is aware, Cycle For Survival is our “baby”. An event that we created in 2007 to raise much needed money for sarcoma and other orphan cancers that rarely receive the funding they need. The event was successful beyond our wildest dreams and we have even bigger goals this year!

This event is truly the gift that keeps giving. As I said from the event inception, my dream is to host this event in multiple gyms around the country. I would love to give millions of people the chance to exercise and raise hundreds of millions of dollars for cancer research. Well, both Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center and Equinox Fitness Clubs share my vision and they are officially partnering with us this year to …

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09.27.2008 Posted 6:59 pm

My 15 Minutes of Fame

I had such a great week! Dave nominated me to be one of Self Magazine’s first ever “Women who Do Good”. Self received thousands of applications yet they chose me! In addition to donating $10,000 to CycleForSurvival (the new name of our event – please check out cycleforsurvival.org), they held an awards ceremony at The Top of The Rock in New York City. Hoda Kotb from The Today Show was the host of the evening and she invited us to appear on her show to talk about our work (see link below). The evening was truly wonderful. Self held a photo shoot (video to come) and it was so much fun…I got my hair cut, my make-up done and had a stylist pick out all of my clothes. Now I just need to grow 8 inches and lose 30 pounds so I can look like Giselle Bundchen and make this my lifestyle 🙂 I could get used to this!
http://www.youtube.com/get_player

Dave’s Nomation
At the age of 33, my wife Jen was (and still …

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09.27.2008 Posted 4:26 pm

The Highs and the Lows of Remission

 

I have been meaning to catch up on my journal for a long time. The truth is that the last 4-6 weeks have been filled with lots of highs and lows.
The highs were that I got to see two of my very good friends get married. Dave and I travelled to Uitca, NY for our anniversary weekend (5 years already!) to see Vicky and Joey get married.
The next weekend, we flew to Gorgeous Aspen, Colorado to see Karen and Ian get married. Both weddings were so special and we had such a good time. The highlight of the Aspen weekend is that my friend Jen and I went on a really tough uphill hike that I never thought I could have done. It was straight uphill and my weakened lung capacity from the chemo with the change in elevation made it really challenging. But I did it and felt really great when I was done!
The lows have been that it has been a bit hard to readjust to the new …

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08.3.2008 Posted 4:51 pm

Living Between The End and the Beginning

I truly apologize for taking so long to write. I can’t believe practically 6 weeks have gone by. In some ways I feel like so much has happened and changed in the past 6 weeks and in many ways, I feel like things haven’t changed at all.
The good news is that the CT scan at the end of June came back clean so I am officially “off the juice”. In fact, just this past Friday I made it official by having my port removed. For those of you who remember, the port was the device I was forced to get after a year of chemo when all of my veins had hardened and I couldn’t receive the chemo via IV anymore. I really resisted having the port but once it was implanted, the chemo, and anxiety around getting chemo, became much easier. Many Doctors like you to keep the port for up to a year after receiving treatment “just in case” the cancer recurs. Dr. Maki and I agreed, however, …

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06.15.2008 Posted 4:17 pm

A Toast to Week One

 

On June 6th, 2008 I became a survivor for the 3rd time!
I had what was hopefully my last round of chemotherapy EVER this past Friday. Dr. Maki said that there is no evidence to show that the chemo is continuing to provide an additional benefit and there is definitely evidence that proves the chemo is starting to have a detrimental effect on my body. I have a CT scan on the 25th of June and provided that the x-ray shows no trace of disease I will once again be released into “watchful waiting” – a period of up to 5 years where one actively monitors the body with the hopes that the disease never returns.
I had been given a “heads up” from Dr. Maki’s nurse the week prior telling me that most likely I would be ending soon. I was actually very grateful for this as the week gave me some time to think and “adjust” to this new way of managing the disease.
I have very mixed feelings about being …

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05.25.2008 Posted 9:33 pm

An Honor That I Wish I Hadn’t Gotten

Although I don’t talk about it often, I have received dozens of emails and phone calls from cancer patients around the country who have read my blog or heard about Spin4Survival. When Dave and I were in Redbook this past December, a number of people reached out to me who had had similar experiences with cancer or were just grateful to hear about someone who was living with the disease and refused to become a victim of it.

I received an email this past January from a woman my age who was also suffering from sarcoma. She was a private person and did not care to share her cancer with many people. She joked to me that “Unfortunately, we have this pesky ‘sarcoma’ thing in common.”

She shared wth me her experiences and her frustrations. “Everything is just different now and will be for the rest of my life. I still wake up some mornings, feel my bald head and go, “IS THIS REALLY HAPPENING????? TO ME???” And each morning I am …

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05.25.2008 Posted 6:07 pm

A Fantastic Week

I am sorry that I have not written a while but I have been very busy doing lots of fun things! The first week of May was very special as I got the chance to see my college girlfriends. 6 of us met in Austin, Tx for the weekend and it was so much fun. I was marveling at the fact that we have all known each other since our Freshman year at Duke…19 years ago! Despite the fact that we live in 6 different cities (Austin, Boston, San Francisco, New York, Nashville and Atlanta) and have 5 husbands and 13 kids between us, we still all manage to get together at least once every year or 18 months. This year was particularly fun. We spent a day at the Lake Austin Spa laying out at the pool and getting massages and facials. We all joked around that we can tell we are getting older when we would rather spend our money on a nice dinner and a spa treatment …

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04.27.2008 Posted 8:22 pm

The Novelty Has Worn Off

Hello! Sorry I have not written in a while but I have been very busy with work and fun things. The past few weeks have been crazed with lots of good things!

My mom and I went to Canyon Ranch with my friend Tina and her mom and had a great, great time! It was truly an education as well as an indulgence and we came home with lots of great tips on how to be healthy and fit. I also made a lot of “vows” about not eating processed foods which I know will wear off the minute work gets busy again 🙂
Speaking of getting busy again…I then went to Los Angeles for 3 days of work meetings. The meetings were great and I got to spend a lot of time with the actors and creators of many of the Nickelodeon shows. That was a lot of fun! For those of you who are living under a rock, the picture above is myself with the 4 stars …

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