Gustaf Alstromer

Photo

Wed, 22 Feb 2012 23:50:12 -0800

superamit: Many of you have asked, so here’s what’s going on...

Wed, 18 Jan 2012 14:33:01 -0800

Many of you have asked, so here’s what’s going on with me.

WHAT HAPPENED BEFORE

8/1979: Born. Grew up in CT, built a killer eraser collection, fell in love with computers.

Left college to start a company. Fell hard. Fled to India for 3 months.

Started 2nd company. Learned to be an adult. Fell in love with NYC.

Moved to SF, discovered burritos & some of my fave people on Earth.

9/2011: Got diagnosed with Leukemia!

Cried. Went through 3 cycles of chemo. Hurt. Thought hard about what I want out of life. Grew up a second time.

TODAY

… After over 100 drives organized by friends, family, and strangers, celebrity call-outs, a bazillion reblogs (7000+!), tweets, and Facebook posts, press, fundraising and international drives organized by tireless friends, and a couple painful false starts, I’ve got a 10/10 matched donor!

You all literally helped save my life. (And the lives of many others.)

WHAT HAPPENS NEXT

Tomorrow, I’ll be admitted to Dana Farber in Boston for 4-5 weeks.

First I’ll get a second Hickman line to allow direct access to my heart (for meds and for nutrients if I’m not able to eat). Over the next week, the docs blast my body with a stiff chemo cocktail to try and eradicate all traces of cancer cells. In the process, the immune system I was born with, and my body’s ability to make blood, are destroyed.

Next Friday, I get my donor’s stem cells by IV. I start on immunosuppressants to prevent my body from rejecting them (I’ll be on them for 12-18 months). For these weeks I’ve no immune system, so I’m severely vulnerable to viruses and bacteria. My hospital room and hallway become my world.

Meanwhile, the stem cells make their way to my bone marrow and, with some luck, start producing platelets, red blood cells, and white blood cells. At this point, my blood type changes to the blood type of my donor. And my blood will now have my donor’s DNA, not my own.

This is science fiction stuff. I can hardly believe it’s even possible, and there’s lots of chances for things to go wrong. It’s frightening.

AFTER THE TRANSPLANT

Recovery to a new state of “normal” takes about a year, but there’s a few storm clouds hovering:

My immune system is new, like a baby’s. I’m prone to getting sick.

Just as with any organ transplant, there’s a chance of rejection. Except in this case, it’s my blood that’s the foreign body, and it touches every organ. They call it graft-vs-host-disease and it can cause health issues and organ complications for the rest of my life.

Successful transplant or not, Leukemia can relapse. Stubborn mofo.

Overall, 75% of AML transplant patients survive year one, 50% make it through year five. My odds are a little better since I’m young.

THE GREAT NEWS

I’ve got a long road ahead. But I’ve got a donor & amazing family & friends. A few months ago I didn’t have many options. Today I have a plan.

I am alive. I start tomorrow. Wish me luck!

Thank you.

eject: Nurse Reveals Top 5 Regrets of the Dying

Tue, 17 Jan 2012 23:54:23 -0800

eject: Nurse Reveals Top 5 Regrets of the Dying:

kellyoxford:

From Arise India Forum:

“For many years I worked in palliative care. My patients were those who had gone home to die. Some incredibly special times were shared. I was with them for the last three to twelve weeks of their lives

People grow a lot when they are faced with their own…

Happy New Year!! (Taken with Instagram at Östads Säteri)

Sat, 31 Dec 2011 19:07:02 -0800

Happy New Year!! (Taken with Instagram at Östads Säteri)

A Swedish Love Story by amazing Roy Andersson

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:24:04 -0800

A Swedish Love Story by amazing Roy Andersson

Roy Andersson Commercials Part 4

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 12:19:10 -0800

Roy Andersson Commercials Part 4

themattsmith: sonsonandson: Retired Philly Police Captain Ray...

Fri, 18 Nov 2011 00:19:10 -0800

themattsmith:

sonsonandson:

Retired Philly Police Captain Ray Lewis arrested at #OWS this morning participating in civil disobedience.

Photo by Lauren Thorpe

Now that’s a damn powerful image.

French people (Taken with Instagram at Mezzanine)

Thu, 10 Nov 2011 23:41:36 -0800

French people (Taken with Instagram at Mezzanine)

Instagram: The New York City Marathon 2011

Mon, 07 Nov 2011 21:22:05 -0800

Instagram: The New York City Marathon 2011:

instagram:

The annual NYC Marathon was this past weekend and we saw so many inspiring photos posted to Instagram of the 26.219 mile, or 42.195 kilometer, run through the five boroughs of New York City.

This year Kenyan athlete Geoffrey Mutai won the men’s event in a time of 2:05:05& Firehiwot Dado of…

Photo

Wed, 02 Nov 2011 13:23:26 -0700

Do this. superamit: azizisbored: BECOME A BONE MARROW DONOR...

Tue, 25 Oct 2011 17:14:32 -0700

Do this.

superamit:

azizisbored:

BECOME A BONE MARROW DONOR PEOPLE.

I posted about this a few weeks ago and just wanted to update.

Amit Gupta has acute leukemia. He needs a bone marrow donor to survive. Unfortunately, South Asians are really unrepresented and his chance of finding a match are low. So I’m encouraging all of you (in particular brown folks) to join the registry. All you do is swab your cheek with the q-tip looking things (as seen above) and send it in. It takes 3 minutes and it can save someone’s life.

Click here to get a kit and swab your cheek.

Amit needs your kit BEFORE November 30th. Seriously, just click and do this. You get a kit in the mail, swab your cheek with some q-tips, and put it in the mail. Done. Couldn’t be easier. If you know any brown people, harass them to do this. Be racist if you need to. (Ok don’t be racist, but encourage them to do it.)

For more info go to: www.amitguptaneedsyou.com.

You should always do everything celebrities tell you to do. Always.

Discovered this on Tumblr - this is where I used to bike/swim...

Mon, 24 Oct 2011 11:57:44 -0700

Discovered this on Tumblr - this is where I used to bike/swim sometimes as a kid :)

theworldwelivein:

Autumn reflection | Floda, Vastra Gotaland, Sweden
© mackelundberg

jamesnord: Lower East Side, 7:30AM

Fri, 21 Oct 2011 18:56:43 -0700

jamesnord:

Lower East Side, 7:30AM

thingsiatethatilove: “All this time, I’d been regarding my...

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 11:23:57 -0700

thingsiatethatilove:

“All this time, I’d been regarding my single life as a temporary interlude, one I had to make the most of—or swiftly terminate, depending on my mood. Without intending to, by actively rejecting our pop-culture depictions of the single woman—you know the ones—I’d been terrorizing myself with their specters. But now that 35 had come and gone, and with yet another relationship up in flames, all bets were off. It might never happen. Or maybe not until 42. Or 70, for that matter. Was that so bad? If I stopped seeing my present life as provisional, perhaps I’d be a little … happier. Perhaps I could actually get down to the business of what it means to be a real single woman.”

Kate Bolick, All The Single Ladies, must-read.

(hyperlink metacommentary mine not hers, of course. Of the many broken-clock-right-twice-a-day things SATC nailed, Being On A Magazine Cover Is Inevitably Weird might be my favorite).

Bye Evan! (Taken with instagram)

Sat, 08 Oct 2011 02:21:03 -0700

Bye Evan! (Taken with instagram)

My friend Kristin is going to show her Chinese students how to...

Fri, 07 Oct 2011 17:56:54 -0700

My friend Kristin is going to show her Chinese students how to use the real uncensored internet. People like her are making this world a little better every day.

Help! My friend Amit has leukemia & needs bone marrow from...

Thu, 06 Oct 2011 10:18:00 -0700

Help! My friend Amit has leukemia & needs bone marrow from someone of south asian decent. Please help spread the word!!!!

superamit:

Two weeks ago I got a call from my doctor, who I’d gone to see the day before because I’d been feeling worn out and was losing weight, and wasn’t sure why.

He was brief: “Amit, you’ve got Acute Leukemia. You need to enter treatment right away.”

I was terrified. I packed a backpack full of clothes, went to the hospital as he’d instructed, and had transfusions through the night to allow me to take a flight home at 7am the next day. I Googled acute leukemia as I lay in my hospital bed, learning that If it hadn’t been caught, it would have died within weeks.

—

I have a couple more months of chemo to go, then the next step is a bone marrow transplant. As Jay and Tony describe below, minorities are severely underrepresented in the bone marrow pool, and I need help.

A few ways to help:

If you’re South Asian, get a free test by mail. You rub your cheeks with a cotton swab and mail it back. It’s easy.

If you’re in NYC, you can go to this event my friends are putting on.

If you know any South Asians, please point ‘em to the links above. Thank you.

jayparkinsonmd:

My friend Amit Gupta founded my favorite photography site Photojojo. A few weeks ago, he was diagnosed with leukemia. Amit is one of the nicest, most genuine, most creative people you could ever meet. Prior to founding the awesome Photojojo, he also co-founded Jelly in 2006 in NYC, a coworking community, that’s now spread to 60 cities across the world and helped spark the coworking revolution. It looks like Amit will need a bone marrow transplant quite soon. We can help him with that.

tony b:

Unlike blood transfusions, finding a genetic match for bone marrow that his body will accept is no easy task. The national bone marrow registry has 9.5 million records on file, yet the chances of someone from South Asian descent of finding a match are only 1 in 20,000.

This is where we come in. We’re going to destroy those odds.

How? By finding and registering as many people of South Asian descent as we possibly can.

Tests are easy– a simple swab of the cheek. If you’re a match, the donation involves an outpatient procedure. It’s not fun, but it’s not dangerous either. And doing it could save a life.

We are encouraging anyone of South Asian descent to take a test to see if you’re a match.

You can get a free test by mail, or, if you’re in New York, you can join us Friday, October 14th for a special party to rally support.

We’ll have test kits on hand at the party, as well as music, booze, and maybe even a photo booth. It will, for the first time, combine a House 2.0-style party with a New Work City-style party, and if you’ve ever been to either, you know they are always something special.

Please spread the word and please do everything you can to help Amit beat leukemia. He’s a superstar.

Much thanks to Tony and pals for organizing this event, and EVERYONE who’s been tweeting and reblogging.

Please help us get the word out any way you can. My life quite literally depends on it.

Emmylou! (Taken with Instagram at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass...

Sun, 02 Oct 2011 18:28:45 -0700

Emmylou! (Taken with Instagram at Hardly Strictly Bluegrass Festival 2011)

Taken with instagram

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 16:32:24 -0700

Taken with instagram

Ready to loose (Taken with Instagram at Dolores Park Tennis...

Sat, 01 Oct 2011 11:26:41 -0700

Ready to loose (Taken with Instagram at Dolores Park Tennis Courts)