Day 1995 - How to Have a Five-Year Remission Party

This post is longggggg overdue, but with my 3 1/2 jobs and graduate class, I got kind of busy and forgot to blog. But this is too important to ignore!

It is official. As of November 23, 2016, I have been in remission from acute myeloid leukemia for five years, a milestone that so many people with the disease never even come close to reaching.

I remember waking up from my bone marrow biopsy on that Wednesday before Thanksgiving 2011 to Dr. Roth telling me that they didn't find any traces of cancer and that they would proceed with treatment as planned. I must've been too drugged and too focused on the fact that I had to be on a chemo backpack for Thanksgiving to fully process what that meant. And I didn't realize until months later that you are considered "in remission" as soon as they stop finding cancer cells, whether that's during or after treatment.

I could spend the majority of this post reflecting on my journey and emphasizing how grateful I am to be alive, but I'm sure you all know that already. Let's talk about the fun stuff - my remission party.

Unfortunately, if you Google, "5-year remission party," you get pretty much no results. So hopefully this blog post will inspire other cancer survivors to celebrate in the ridiculous way that I did.

The overall theme of the party was "High Microbial." As anyone who followed my story knows, I was neutropenic for months at a time, requiring me to be on a low-microbial diet. This meant I couldn't eat foods like yogurt, fresh fruit or salad, sushi, fast food, and similar things that were not particularly "clean" foods. Since I was 106 pounds and jaundiced five years ago, alcohol was added to that list as well. Derek and I made red sangria and a rum and pineapple punch to represent blood and platelets. Finally, the last sentence of the event invite said, "Guests will be required to bring a recent CBC or submit to one at the door to make sure they can handle the amount of microbes at this party." I don't mess around.

Ben committed and literally brought his CBC.

Blood and platelet punch.

High-microbial food!

I was unsurprised to learn that there weren't any good five-year remission party game suggestions on the internet, so I had to make my own. The first one, which made a ton of people uncomfortable, was "Pin the Triple-Lumen on the Cancer Patient." I printed out a bald cartoon girl and about 25 pictures of a triple-lumen, and people were spun around and had to pin it on her chest. 

Later in the evening, everyone partook in the smashing of the cancer piñata. We LITERALLY BEAT CANCER. I wanted a big white circle piñata to represent a white blood cell, but since Party City doesn't have a cancer section, I had to settle with an iridescent white star that I labeled "CANCER." As the guests left, I gave them orange (leukemia ribbon color) goodie bags filled with tattoos, whistles, bouncy balls, and bubbles.

Honestly, probably the best thing about the night was that despite the absurdity of these activities, everyone was really into it and had a great time. Like, no one had ever been to a party where you've been encouraged to tape a printout of a medical device on bald cartoon girl or consume copious amounts of chicken fries from Burger King, so it was new and exciting for everyone! Had this party been thrown by anyone else, everyone probably would've been too uncomfortable, but you know me...I live for pole-vaulting over the line. =)

I did it! I survived! Five years ago, I didn't think I would make it to 20, and now here I am at 25, living like a healthy, normal(ish) person (normal people don't make cancer piñatas, I know). And in all seriousness, I am so incredibly grateful to my friends, my family, God, and most importantly, my doctors and treatment team, who did everything in their power to keep me alive, comfortable, informed, and well-taken-care-of since the day I was diagnosed. I'm not one for overstatements, but I would literally be dead without them, and I will never forget that.

So that's it, Internet. That's how you throw a five-year remission party. If you or someone you know is looking for party ideas, please feel free to direct them to this blog post.

P.S. I know I usually go for months without blogging, but I'm getting my fertility testing done next week, so I'll probably write about that soon!