15 years ago, I was diagnosed with chronic myeloid leukemia, a rare blood and bone marrow cancer. Since then, I’ve been on a series of drugs called TKIs that reduced the number of cancerous cells in my blood to extremely low levels. These miracle drugs have allowed me to live a fairly normal life–one where I not only got to draw stuff for a living, but got married, had two kids and adopted a shelter dog.

Unfortunately, my cancer has developed a resistance to these medications. Earlier this year, my doctors recommended I undergo an allogenic stem cell transplant to cure this disease.

Right now, I am in the hospital undergoing what they call conditioning– that’s chemotherapy and radiation–to wipe out my immune system. When that is done, I’ll receive an infusion of stem cells from an anonymous donor. Those stem cells will engraft to my bone marrow and begin generating new white blood cells. If all goes well, I will get to go home at the end of July. but, it will likely take a few months longer for me to return to full strength.

While I focus on recovering, I will have a limited availability to take on new work. Please check in with Joanie Bernstein with any work inquiries.

If you’re interested in ordering subway art, I have a limited number of prints available, but any orders placed now likely will not ship until the fall at the earliest.

Many people have asked what they can do to help. If reading this makes you one of them, consider becoming a stem cell or bone marrow donor you can visit bethematch.org. It won’t help me, but joining the registry is a painless process that might help someone else who finds themself in a similar situation. You can also give blood at the New York Blood Center While that might help me, especially if you can give platelets, it will definitely help someone who needs it .

This is not how I wanted to spend my summer, but life often has different plans. I’ve got no choice but to roll with them knowing things will be back to normal soon.