Brian and his wife Catie, and their beautiful children Savannah and Turner
It's time for my second interview! This interview subject happens to be the OG member of Team Awesome, Brian Ross. You were first introduced to him in this post, and I teased there that you would be getting a more in depth, behind the scenes, Barbara WaWa look into his life and here it is! As I mentioned before, Brian and I met in college (Hook 'Em), and became good friends when he began to date and eventually marry one of my best friends Catie. He's pretty cool for a lot of reasons (super smart, seriously funny, actually looks decent in brown), but what makes him the most awesome for this blog is that he is a Lymphoma survivor (SUCK IT CANCER!)! Lets learn a little more about that, shall we?
Katie: Tell me a little about yourself?
Brian: I
grew up in Houston. I’m 39 years
old, which generally still feels pretty young to me, although lately I have noticed
an alarming trend of people calling me “sir” at concerts! I am blessed with an incredible family,
including a stunning, kind, funny wife, 2 amazing little kids, and even a set
of pretty great parents.
K: How do we know each
other?
B: You
and I met in college at UT, about 20 years ago. I’m a little foggy on the details, so I am just going to
assume it was at the library or the science lab. Later on, our friendship really evolved once I met my wife
Catie, who was already a close friend of yours. (That is according to your bitmoji post on your blog, which
is where I do most of my research).
K: When did cancer come
into your life?
B: When
I was 31, I was diagnosed with lymphoma.
Most of your readers probably have already heard this, but it’s kind of
impossible to tell the story without mentioning that we had learned just days
earlier that Catie was pregnant with our first baby. So that turned out to be a pretty wild year, but with a very
happy ending.
I will never forget when I heard that Brian had cancer and that Catie was pregnant. Granted I had just had my first baby and my hormonal state was, to put it nicely, tumultuous, but I just couldn't imagine how they were going to go through everything that goes along with having your first child at the same time as going through the rigors of a cancer treatment protocol. So many unknowns with both, so much anxiety with both, so much joy prepping for and having a baby, so much suffering with a chemo regimen. Can you even imagine those two HUGE life incidents happening simultaneously, all when you are 30? I cried and prayed a lot for them, for their unborn baby, and for that baby's sick daddy.
I will never forget when I heard that Brian had cancer and that Catie was pregnant. Granted I had just had my first baby and my hormonal state was, to put it nicely, tumultuous, but I just couldn't imagine how they were going to go through everything that goes along with having your first child at the same time as going through the rigors of a cancer treatment protocol. So many unknowns with both, so much anxiety with both, so much joy prepping for and having a baby, so much suffering with a chemo regimen. Can you even imagine those two HUGE life incidents happening simultaneously, all when you are 30? I cried and prayed a lot for them, for their unborn baby, and for that baby's sick daddy.
K: What was your initial
diagnosis? Your treatment plan?
B: The
initial diagnosis was just “B-cell lymphoma,” but that apparently can mean a
number of different things. When I
got over to MD Anderson, they did all kinds of fancy tests and a surgical
biopsy to figure out the more specific diagnosis, which was: Stage 3,
Non-Hodgkins diffuse large B-cell lymphoma, arising from nodal marginal zone
lymphoma. In layman’s terms, it
was a slow-growing kind of lymphoma that was changing into a fast-growing kind. The treatment plan was 5 months of
chemo called “R-CHOP,” which is about as charming as it sounds!
K: What did you do when
you heard your diagnosis?
B: If
you’re asking about the initial diagnosis, I was in a deposition in Austin when
I got the call. The doctor who was
my GP at the time left me a voicemail, so I called him back during a break and
got the news. So the first thing I
actually did was go back in the room and finish the last couple hours of the
deposition. I don’t remember a
whole lot about that deposition. After
that, I got in the car, drove towards Houston, and started making phone calls.
K: What were those next 6
months like?
B: It
wasn’t exactly a ton of fun, but it also wasn’t as bad as you might imagine. Before I started treatment, the chemo
side effect that I was most concerned about was nausea, because I’m the kind of
person that gets car sick when the Uber guy asks me to sit in the back
seat. But honestly, the nausea
turned out to be pretty much a non-issue.
There were other side effects and inconveniences that got a little old,
but remember, I was a 31-year old, otherwise healthy young dude that knew the
chemo was working. It really was
not the kind of situation where you want to let yourself sit around and feel
sorry for yourself, particularly when almost every time
you go up to the MD Anderson waiting room, there’s a 9-year old kid or an
85-year old grandma having to endure the same treatment as you. Not to mention the fact that Catie and
I had the excitement factor of talking about baby names, going to ultrasound
appointments, finding out the gender (by opening the envelope minutes before my
first chemo), etc. to distract us the whole time. That was a blessing in so many ways.
Its no coincidence that when their daughter was born that they named her Savannah HOPE Ross. Nailed it, don't you think?
K: Who came up with
"Suck it Cancer"?
B: Haha…
“Suck it Cancer” was the brainchild of one Jason Dillee, one of my oldest and
best friends. After I finished
treatment and received the “all clear” in the summer of 2008, my parents threw
a party at their house to celebrate.
Jason showed up to the party with the original small batch of the now
iconic “SUCK IT CANCER” block letter t-shirts (no graphics and no punctuation,
unlike a lot of the cheesy imitations you’ll see out there on the interwebs!) Probably my favorite fact about those
shirts is that Jason apparently took the time to iron all the letters on by
hand himself, which is definitely the most experience he’s had with an iron in
his whole life. In
2012, we produced several hundred replicas of those shirts in the process of
raising a great deal of money for LLS, but to me nothing will ever fully
capture the essence of those handmade originals!
I actually asked this question for real. I had no idea how "Suck it Cancer" (does it feel like there's a hashtag missing or is that just my 2016 self talking?) came about, but it ended up being his tag line for his campaign for LLS Man of the Year in 2012 (which he won!!) so I was curious about it. I love this answer, and could totally see Jason Dillee doing that for Brian (he's a really great friend), yet at the same time its hard to imagine (don't perceive him as very domestic). Ha ha, its a funny combo for sure! And how great is it that Brian has been cancer free for almost 8 years now?!?!
Brian and Catie with the t-shirt maker and tag line genius Jason Dillee.
I actually asked this question for real. I had no idea how "Suck it Cancer" (does it feel like there's a hashtag missing or is that just my 2016 self talking?) came about, but it ended up being his tag line for his campaign for LLS Man of the Year in 2012 (which he won!!) so I was curious about it. I love this answer, and could totally see Jason Dillee doing that for Brian (he's a really great friend), yet at the same time its hard to imagine (don't perceive him as very domestic). Ha ha, its a funny combo for sure! And how great is it that Brian has been cancer free for almost 8 years now?!?!
K: How has having cancer
changed your life?
B: Honestly
it is hard to answer that question in a super precise way, because the “before
cancer” and “after cancer” chapters of my life coincide so closely with my
“before fatherhood” and “fatherhood” chapters. So it’s difficult to separate out in my mind which events
were responsible for changing me in exactly which ways, but I’d like to think
that through some combination of it all, I’ve gained a big fat pile of
perspective about what matters in life.
K: You are a former
"Man of the Year", any advice for me?
B: And
give away the secret sauce in this public forum? Don’t you know your competitors could be reading this?? I will call you tonight when no one’s
around. I bought an untraceable
burner phone for exactly this kind of occasion.
The night his reign as Man of the Year began!
K: What did/does the
campaign mean to you?
B: It
really means quite a lot. When I got
nominated, I had been in remission for almost 4 years, and I was feeling sort
of a yearning to give back to the cause in some significant way. So the timing was perfect, and we had a
lot of fun with it. It really was
one of the most rewarding things I’ve ever done. It makes me so happy to see people like you carrying the
torch forward, and doing so for all the right reasons. We are all so proud of you and your
family!
When Brian approached me about doing this campaign he stressed how much he got out of doing it personally and promised me I would have the same experience. I am only 4 weeks in and he is 100% right about that, and what I have gained is greater than all of the dollars donated X100. So a big thank you to Brian for getting me involved in this great organization and this crazy fun competition. I have a feeling this won't be just a 10 week stint with them...
On a more businessy front - John and I are headed to Dallas this weekend for the Love Bug Crawfish Boil this Sunday at the Barley House. Please come if you live in the area and can make it! The whole fam is welcomed. I would love to see you and all money goes to LLS through my campaign! Also, tickets are now on sale for our Houston fundraiser, The Friends and Family Roll and Bowl, on May 14th. Bring the whole family to help us strike out blood cancers!!
Finally, if you haven't already, please donate now to my campaign for Woman of the Year. Every dollar is a vote, but more importantly, every dollar is one step closer to finding a cure for these blood cancers that have affected all of us. You truly can make a difference!
When Brian approached me about doing this campaign he stressed how much he got out of doing it personally and promised me I would have the same experience. I am only 4 weeks in and he is 100% right about that, and what I have gained is greater than all of the dollars donated X100. So a big thank you to Brian for getting me involved in this great organization and this crazy fun competition. I have a feeling this won't be just a 10 week stint with them...
On a more businessy front - John and I are headed to Dallas this weekend for the Love Bug Crawfish Boil this Sunday at the Barley House. Please come if you live in the area and can make it! The whole fam is welcomed. I would love to see you and all money goes to LLS through my campaign! Also, tickets are now on sale for our Houston fundraiser, The Friends and Family Roll and Bowl, on May 14th. Bring the whole family to help us strike out blood cancers!!
Finally, if you haven't already, please donate now to my campaign for Woman of the Year. Every dollar is a vote, but more importantly, every dollar is one step closer to finding a cure for these blood cancers that have affected all of us. You truly can make a difference!
John, Patrick, and me at the official "Suck it Cancer" party 8 years ago!!
Man, we were all babies! Ha!
No comments