I am at my wife’s childhood home in Minnesota watching the sun drop slowly behind the bare trees for the last time in 2017. As I reflect on the year during this rare moment of quiet (one daughter is napping, the other playing with her grandmother) I am overwhelmed again with gratitude. I think of all the notes, texts, cards, emails, thoughts, books, visits and prayers that buoyed me through my illness and am giving thanks to all of you and the grace that saw me through. My wife, family, friends, doctors, healers, nurses, fellow patients and colleagues — a veritable host with which to walk through the fires of treatment.
And here we are. Living. Breathing. Looking back on a year filled with love, adventure, diapers, laughter, dancing, and other bounties.
This past year I have continued to be a patient advocate and have been working with groups focused on digital innovation in healthcare, speaking and leading workshops as a technologist and cancer survivor. I also wrote a piece about fertility and cancer for Bridges, MSK’s survivors newsletter, and was included in the MSK blog, Hear From Our Patients.
The Nutcrackers are raising funds again with Cycle For Survival. Dr. Feldman, my oncologist, recently started a clinical trial using a new immunotherapy treatment for germ cell tumors, which includes testicular cancer. It is early days but if it goes well it will be refined and may one day replace the chemotherapy and surgeries that are so brutal and destructive. The trial is funded in part by Cycle for Survival as well as two trials in which I am a subject.
Please consider donating to the cause (if you do so by midnight tonight every dollar will be matched by MetLife so your donation is doubled). Click here to donate.
Below is a video about Cycle for Survival that includes yours truly, KR and Juniper.
Let’s make 2018 count. Happy New Year!
Adventures In Testicular Cancer 
ahh Jay, beautifully expressed.
i got worried when i saw this unopened email then was relieved when i read it. so good to hear from you. i still remember reading about the depths of your pain and anxiety. i have been there (different situations). i continue to battle daily with mental illness. i could just relate to all of your posts and your writing is phenomenal. i am happy i made it to your friends house in brooklyn for your book. almost finished watching parenthood on netflix whete one of the characters was fighting cancer. i thought of you. hugzzzz to kr. i hope you have the swaddling down. is that what you call it?
A beautiful letter! Thanks for sharing and continuing to help with raising money for treating cancer. Loved the video too! >