TRI TALK | EPISODE 7 | CHICAGO TRIATHLON STORIES EDITION W/ TRIATHLETE & CANCER SURVIVOR: ADRIAN LAM

[Music] all right hello everyone in our Tri 312 network uh coach Brian here and I have a special guest with us today we are actually here at Ohio Street Beach uh on a Tuesday afternoon for our of many open water swim clinics that are being hosted by the super Tri Chicago TR l for all of our uh new triathletes going to the Chicago trath line this year and we have a special guest named Adrian lamb and uh say hello Adrian hi I'm Adrian yeah and so we're gonna talk to Adrian a little bit about his story and why he's here and why he's participating in Chicago Triathlon this year I believe he has a pretty good story so uh look forward to hear more about who you are Adrian and why you are doing the Chicago tribe on so what what brought you here and uh why the Chicago tribe so I decided to do the Cho trath luner for two main reasons so the first one is just simple because my friend kind of dragged me into it last year but unfortunately due some medical conditions I wasn't able to do it last year so I'm kind of doing it this year as a little bit of redemption so one number one is because my friends doing it and we're kind of a competitive friendship trying to see who's doing better I I think I can beat him this year I feel pretty confident yeah but I think for you yeah I appreciate that but I think the second more important reason is because I'm trying to raise money for the hospital that I was at to treat my uh pediatric cancer so I was diagnosed with um Bell lymphoma in August is so right around the race last year so I couldn't I wasn't able to participate just because I was just super sick I was bedridden I wasn't able to get out of the hospital I was basically still stuck in the hospital so I kind want to do this this year because there's a Corporate Challenge raising money for p ped pediatric cancer research at Larry's Children's Hospital right right over there we're in know street so that over there over there but I think it's just a great cause in the way that I can help give back to the hospital that's that I owe my life to basically that's great thank you Adrian and so when did uh so going into last year when you first got talked into doing the frad line uh did you know at that time that you had been diagnosed or what was that like and was that uh like right during the middle of your training and you had to get derailed and what was your treatment and what was your recovery yeah so ding noosing cancer is really hard especially when you're dealing with like younger people because um most of the time it just goes away because we're young and we have a lot of energy and we'll naturally heill ourself that's what all the old people tell you like you're young you'll go away yeah so with given that mindset all the leading up signs that I had seemed like um like a no big deal until they got like super bad so like for example I had some heartburn which is like not normal but like I thought it would just go away after a while I lost some weight but I was like oh maybe maybe that's because I haven't been playing water polo or swimming in a long time because I just finished the water polo season maybe I was just losing some muscle because I wasn't training as intensive even though I was training for the cathlon I wasn't like training super hard so I like maybe maybe the drop in intensity is the reason that I lost and also I had some hip pain that was like a little weird I was like maybe I pulled a muscle it's just like stuff like that that you don't really expect um by the time like of early August I think August 10th I like the symptom became unbearable where as in um I couldn't eat anything like everything I would eat either it get I would feel like being stuck in my stomach and like not going anywhere and if feel like I want to puke it out it's like my feeling super full all the time and also the hip pain just didn't go away just felt really weird it's like felt it was buried inside my hip like feel something was like tight inside but I couldn't stretch it it was like a really irritating feeling so without any option other options like to deal with it quickly because I'm going to college in like three weeks or two weeks my mom's like all right we're taking you to the ER let's figure out what's wrong with you so once I head to the ER they they check everything and like oh your hemoglobin is a little bit low so they decide to like admit me to make sure everything is all right because I have some symptoms of something there's something wrong there's something wrong so the whole time in the hospital before I was diagnosed they justed like did a bunch of tests they did an endoscopy because I I had a lot of issues with my stomach they did a CT scan they did an MRI to see what was there and they basically found a mass and they found a mass in the endoscopy and also in the scan so they took a biopsy of whatever was was they found in there and as they're leading up the diagnosis they basically up this is this is cancer this is not good so thankfully but I'm very thankful that it was lymphoma not some sort of solid cancer because um solid cancers have a relatively low lower survival rate compared to lymphomas which is like more of a blood blood cancer and lymph node cancer which is more treatable we have more more cures for that so that that's not lead up to it very very very shorten down as as I could get it so for you guys to understand uh I mean I have no concept or or understanding of of what you would had to have gone through during that time um and what was your treatment timel and are you currently are you in remission are you cured uh where are you ATR um so the timeline of my treatment was basically doing six round of chemotherapy like on average it was like one round every month where I'll be like admitted into the hospital and then did five days in a row chemo chemo chemo it wasn't fun but I got through it all right if if you're if you guys are out there you got to take it one day at a time and then you'll get there I think that's my biggest advice if someone were going to going through cancer take it one day at a time um but I also had some radiation that was painful wasn't wasn't fun but now I think after finishing this I feel like um I feel more happy or feel feel like I can get more out of life in general just since uh I had a near near death experience and I've I've learned that my family loves me we should try to do as much as possible in your life and there's a bunch of things I've learned in the process as well but um speaking of my my situation right now I think right now we're basically it's just a waiting game to see anything comes back all the medicine that I took to to attack the cancer should have killed everything but if there's one cell left or maybe three few cells left um it could come back but since I did six rounds of intense chemo and radiation that's really unlikely uh especially for kids they like to give higher dosage to make sure that none of it ever comes back if if something even if like one cancer cells left it can it can still uh come back pretty easily but just given the amount of like treatment and the high doses of everything I've gotten I highly doubt that anything will happen so right now we just wait do some blood tests come back to the hospital every few months and it's just the waiting game for now so I think I haven't like technically in officially declared remission remission but I think I'm in remission like I I have no longer any symp symptoms I gained most of my weight back I don't I don't have any long lasting effects from it so I think right now I'm in a pretty good situation cool well I think more than anything else that's going to help a lot of us continue to root for you for that but then also going into the Chicago Triathlon this year so take us through that process when did your training for this race officially began and how has all the things you've been going through affected your training so I guess this all the things I've been through just gives me a little extra motivation especially with like when I was really sick I was bedridden and I wasn't even able to walk sometimes and there was a period of time where I was on no where I wasn't allowed to drink or eat anything so all my nutrition was delivered through IV so it just gave me a second New Perspective of being appreciative of what you can have so especially in the running portion I'm like wow every time I run I'm like oh this sucks I don't want to run but when I think about it maybe maybe being able to run is a blessing right you gota you got you got to think of it a different perspective every time of training especially it it sucks it's not going to be fun but if you get through it you should be fine so like kind of a similar mindset I had during during when I was really sick so yeah so it's just just doing it have a having a purpose this time or double an extra purpose this time to fight to help raise money and as well as just being grateful that I'm healthy enough to be able to participate in this race that's great and you've now mentioned a couple times the the the chable part of this the raising of the money to help support that amazing hospital that helps with cancer research and help combat childood cancer um tell us a little bit more about that uh with this Corporate Challenge that super TR has is organizing for the Chicago TR line uh what is your association with it and what message would you have to those out here listening uh about why they should also uh perhaps participate in this Corporate Challenge um I think that what's really important here is the people we are helping um children they have a lot more Life to Live especially the ones in like in the hospital there are definitely cases where on my floor there there are newborn babies or like maybe toddlers or maybe two like really really young kids and if we can help extend their life by maybe 70 years or giveing them a full life or give them a life that they can extend to like live like a normal person I think that would help a lot um I'm not throwing shade at other cancers but I'm saying that if we can preserve more life I feel like it's more effective to focus on those um targeted treatments that can help extend life for more years and be able more be more effective to last longer so if we target pediatric cancer um I think we're extending a lot of Liv um it's just also really sad in general to see a little kid struggling going through all this like the stuff that I went through with chemo it is not fun I don't think if I was maybe five years old I could handle that that that was a lot of a lot of nausea a lot of side effects just really uncomfortable time and another part is that when you're giv all this chemo your immune systems like suppressed a lot and there's not a lot of social contact especially since you aren't even allow to like you're trying to you're supposed to be avoiding face to- face contact just so just so you don't get like sick by virus or another disease so it's just a lot isolating and I think that's a very very like uh important part of your life your childhood so I think this will definitely help um help the future generation if if that's a good way to put it that's right thank you so much and uh and we hope that again this is the first time we're really showcasing and and putting this type of charitable connection and charitable uh fundraising effort through the Chicago Triathlon through super TR uh through this SC Challenge and I know this is new for a lot of folks here in the Chicago land area there are various races that are that happen throughout the year that have that same sort of like Corporate Challenge fundraising type of component so if you are an organization out there in the Chicago land area and have any of your members any of your employees or uh partners that are interested in participating in this Corporate Challenge in trying Triathlon and helping give back and fundraise for an amazing cause uh to help other uh adolescence and children with cancer like Adrian here that can help give them a more a fuller life a more uh complete life than they may have had before then uh please consider uh joining and participating if not this year then in the years to come with this great partnership with super TR and Chicago Triathlon um Adrian any other party message anything any thoughts that you would like to share with the rest of our audience here today um I guess what I would like to say just like another thank you to my hospital because I think they did so much to me all the nurses are great they treat me really well the doctors understand they're super experienced they know what they're doing and it just really help really really helped a lot to have uh such a great hospital for my family too in such a hard time because they're super nice to my family they like made sure they got everything make sure they knew everything make sure they knew what's going on G them detailed instructions what to do if this happens what to do if that happens when I'm not in the hospital but it's just uh so I'm just so thankful to be able to be one of the patients at lares to receive such amazing treatment that's amazing and I I know for a lot of us out in the world Healthcare in general can be very frustrating and very uh anxiety inducing but at the same time we also can get Amazing Stories like this one about knowing what the professionals the doctors the nurses all the support staff uh all those that do cancer research all the positive things that can come out of of our Health Care system so so Adrian thank you so much for being here uh we are absolutely going to be rooting for you and I'm sure a lot of others here will be rooting for you for the Chicago Tri line how are you feeling so far one month out um I think that it's going to be hard I was a swimmer I did swim team in high school so the swim portion should be the smoothest part in my opinion I'm pretty good at biking um I think I can do it maybe the bike portion 40 kilometers maybe an hour and 20 that's my goal and the Run portion is just going to see see how much energy I have left in the tank because I'm not a runner I have flat feet it's GNA be tough but I think I've been training more of that trying to get better at that recently so I'm I'm hopeful for that so my goal time is under three hours so let's hold it to that that's that's my goal I think it's very doable and I'll see you at the triy off on I guess I think that is absolutely doable that is a great goal to have and dude of all the things that you've had to overcome inin the last year or so I think that run at the end of that Triathlon will be the least of your worries and we can't wait to all experience and or see or watch you cross that Finish Line uh on that Sunday at the Chicago try so Adrian thank you so much for being here congratulations and uh again all the best to you and uh know that uh we and many of us are in your corner rooting for you and wish you all the best and and a wonderful Chicago tribe on the Str thank you very much cool all right thanks man that's great thank you [Music] he