Friday, December 31, 2010
Treatment #5 has been completed....
First, I have to say I'm sorry I haven't posted much lately. With the holidays, I was pretty busy and simply didn't have time to log on and post. I hope everyone had a wonderful Christmas and wish you all a safe and Happy New Year!
I've been off this week as Xavier is closed over the holidays but the last couple days were spent at Cincinnati Hematology Oncology (CHO) getting treatment #5 behind; not exactly the way you want to spend your holiday but if it gets me a step closer to the end of this sequence of treatments I guess it's worth it. Everything went very smoothly, Dr. Leming said following treatment # 6 (which will take place January 26 and 27) we will do CT scans to see how things are looking - if the scans are unremarkable I think we'll go back to a watching mode, getting check-ups every 3 to 6 months. In the last scans everything was working - there were no bad nodes in my neck, chest or pelvic areas and the effected nodes in my abdomen were definitely shrinking. I have to believe with 4 additional treatments everything should be looking as close to normal as possible. So hopefully by mid-February we'll have some great news and get back to a normal routine.
We've had a very nice Christmas break. The boys have been home for a couple weeks and won't go back to school until January 18 - that is a pretty significant break! Judd is currently in Florida with his girlfriend, Deven. Her sister lives in Orlando and works at Disney World so they are ringing in the New Year down there. Judd was pretty excited because Deven got him a pass to the new Harry Potter exhibit at Universal studios for Christmas - Judd will be in Heaven - he even plans to buy himself a magic wand. He is heading in to his final semester at UD, hard to believe he'll graduate in May! Now we need to get him focused on finding himself a job - anyone need rookie graphic designer.
Aaron will be completing his sophomore year at SLU next semester. He is also studying art and wants to do web design. He needs a summer job that will provide him with many, many hours so again, if you know of any opportunities, let us know!
Abbey is still in the college selection process. She's been accepted at Xavier, St. Louis and Cincinnati and is still waiting to hear from Ohio State, Purdue and Marquette. She also hasn't heard from Dayton but we've been in touch with them and are pretty certain she'll be accepted when they send out their acceptance letters in mid-January. I'd say her top 3 are Dayton, Ohio State and St. Louis. We are very hopeful that she'll get the tuition exchange at Dayton and St. Louis and we'll have to see how things play out with Ohio State to see if they get into the mix. We would be very happy if she winds up at Dayton - it's been a great fit for Judd and I think Abbey would do very well up there as well - plus it's only 40 minutes away. I know Aaron enjoys SLU but it's tough having him 5 hours away. We'll keep you posted on Abbey's progress!
I really didn't get to talk much about my favorite Christmas memories as I started to do earlier this month. I know one of my favorite one's as a child was when I was in the first grade and I got a new bike, my older sister, Vangela, also got a bike that Christmas. All we really wanted was a bike and when we didn't see them in the living room by the tree we figured it wasn't going to happen bt when we went into the kitchen for breakfast, our dad had hid them under a sheet next to the dinner table - we were quite surprised! In recent years Julie has sent me to a couple of the Ohio State bowl games for my Christmas present - in '97 I went to the the Rose Bowl with my neighbor, Doug Fiessinger, and in 2002/03 I went to Ohio State's National Championship game against Miami in Tempe with a couple other neighbors, Todd Downey and Marshall Esler - both of these experiences were awesome as Ohio State won both games. Our trips to the games in 2007 and 2008 were fun but definitely took a hit when Ohio State lost the championship games to Florida and LSU. Hopefully this year they'll finally get a bowl win over an SEC team.
I guess I'll end here. Again, I hope everyone had a great Christmas and wish you peace and blessing in 2011...Happy New Year!
I've been off this week as Xavier is closed over the holidays but the last couple days were spent at Cincinnati Hematology Oncology (CHO) getting treatment #5 behind; not exactly the way you want to spend your holiday but if it gets me a step closer to the end of this sequence of treatments I guess it's worth it. Everything went very smoothly, Dr. Leming said following treatment # 6 (which will take place January 26 and 27) we will do CT scans to see how things are looking - if the scans are unremarkable I think we'll go back to a watching mode, getting check-ups every 3 to 6 months. In the last scans everything was working - there were no bad nodes in my neck, chest or pelvic areas and the effected nodes in my abdomen were definitely shrinking. I have to believe with 4 additional treatments everything should be looking as close to normal as possible. So hopefully by mid-February we'll have some great news and get back to a normal routine.
We've had a very nice Christmas break. The boys have been home for a couple weeks and won't go back to school until January 18 - that is a pretty significant break! Judd is currently in Florida with his girlfriend, Deven. Her sister lives in Orlando and works at Disney World so they are ringing in the New Year down there. Judd was pretty excited because Deven got him a pass to the new Harry Potter exhibit at Universal studios for Christmas - Judd will be in Heaven - he even plans to buy himself a magic wand. He is heading in to his final semester at UD, hard to believe he'll graduate in May! Now we need to get him focused on finding himself a job - anyone need rookie graphic designer.
Aaron will be completing his sophomore year at SLU next semester. He is also studying art and wants to do web design. He needs a summer job that will provide him with many, many hours so again, if you know of any opportunities, let us know!
Abbey is still in the college selection process. She's been accepted at Xavier, St. Louis and Cincinnati and is still waiting to hear from Ohio State, Purdue and Marquette. She also hasn't heard from Dayton but we've been in touch with them and are pretty certain she'll be accepted when they send out their acceptance letters in mid-January. I'd say her top 3 are Dayton, Ohio State and St. Louis. We are very hopeful that she'll get the tuition exchange at Dayton and St. Louis and we'll have to see how things play out with Ohio State to see if they get into the mix. We would be very happy if she winds up at Dayton - it's been a great fit for Judd and I think Abbey would do very well up there as well - plus it's only 40 minutes away. I know Aaron enjoys SLU but it's tough having him 5 hours away. We'll keep you posted on Abbey's progress!
I really didn't get to talk much about my favorite Christmas memories as I started to do earlier this month. I know one of my favorite one's as a child was when I was in the first grade and I got a new bike, my older sister, Vangela, also got a bike that Christmas. All we really wanted was a bike and when we didn't see them in the living room by the tree we figured it wasn't going to happen bt when we went into the kitchen for breakfast, our dad had hid them under a sheet next to the dinner table - we were quite surprised! In recent years Julie has sent me to a couple of the Ohio State bowl games for my Christmas present - in '97 I went to the the Rose Bowl with my neighbor, Doug Fiessinger, and in 2002/03 I went to Ohio State's National Championship game against Miami in Tempe with a couple other neighbors, Todd Downey and Marshall Esler - both of these experiences were awesome as Ohio State won both games. Our trips to the games in 2007 and 2008 were fun but definitely took a hit when Ohio State lost the championship games to Florida and LSU. Hopefully this year they'll finally get a bowl win over an SEC team.
I guess I'll end here. Again, I hope everyone had a great Christmas and wish you peace and blessing in 2011...Happy New Year!
Friday, December 03, 2010
Treatment #4 is in the bag....
So, yesterday I finished up treatment number 4! Nothing out of the ordinary, I feel a bit queasy and bloated today and suspect it will last a day or two more. I was able to see Dr. Leming this time and he was happy with my progress. I did learn that treatment #5 will be December 29 and 30 so I may finish up before February...that would be a bonus! The plan would then be to do scans and make sure everything is back to normal (if there is such a thing anymore) and then I guess its back to watching again. Sounds like a blast, huh?! I do have to say this treatment has been a breeze compared to the CHOP chemotherapy I did 5 years ago. I still have a lot of energy, I actually rode 16 miles on the stationary bike today and I've put in about 60 miles this week. The nurse in the chemo parlor was very impressed that I'm able to keep so active!
We had a very nice Thanksgiving. It was great having the boys home and we look forward to them coming home for the holidays in the middle of December. As a treat I was able to land 5 tickets for the Ohio State/Michigan game and we had a great time watching the Buckeyes win their 7th straight game over those nasty Wolverines; its almost to the point where I feel sorry for them but I'll never forget the way Julie and I were treated at a game at Michigan in 1991 so I doubt I'll never supass that almost threshold!
Last week I went with Abbey for a campus visit to UD. I think she really liked it and hopefully she'll be able to get the tution exchange offer there. Judd has had a wonderful experience at UD and we would love for Abbey to stay close to home. It would have been great if Aaron could have stayed close to home but given my benefit and his initial interest in Engineering, it just wasn't going to work out. He does enjoy St. Louis but it means he's not able to get home as often as we'd like. From Aaron's perspective, that's probably what he likes best about it but we do miss him being close.
It is hard to believe another holiday season is upon us; only 21 shopping days until Christmas! Hopefully you've all done more than I have which is basically nothing. I don't even have my lights up but I'm usually the last one on our block to do it so that shouldn't come as a surprise. As long as I get them up before the boys get home I'll be happy.
I have many wonderful holiday memories. I think over the next few weeks I'll highlight some of the more memorable Christmas days. Some are actually more unbelieveable than memorable and I think I'll start with the most unbelieveable of them all...
1983 - I had literally just started dating Julie, our first date was December 22nd. I was 25 at the time. I was kind of a vagabond back then...I still 'lived at home' but probably only spent the night there a couple times a week. Many nights I'd stay with friends from work and when I was home I usually slept on the couch in the living room. My dad always got in a very 'Scrooge-like' mood around Christmas. Probably because he had to buy presents for 8 kids on an Ironworkers' salary. Maybe because his oldest son slept on the living room couch! I never really asked him why. But I, on the other hand, loved Christmas. And I was in a great mood that year because I had just started dating Julie and I had Christmas presents for everyone and was looking forward to them opening their gifts. The only problem was, dad wasn't coming out of his bedroom to do Christmas...he was actually boycotting it! We were dumbfounded and adding to this scene was the fact that one of my sisters had invited a Jewish friend to come to our house to see what a 'typical' Christmas was like...boy did she pick the wrong house! So there we were, mid-afternoon and dad is still in bed playing his gift that he had bought for himself...electronic checkers, most likely kicking that computers ass! (I wish I was making this up, but I'm not.) The Jewish girl was probably wondering what kind of lunatics we must be and I could only imagine what she must have told her parents when she went home..."Well it was kind of wierd, the dad stayed in bed playing checkers until everyone went into his bedroom...." Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself! Anyway, I finally decided - enough is enough; I picked up my present that I had bought for dad (a spiffy pair of new bowling shoes) and marched into his bedroom along with the rest of the family (little Jewish included) and announced, 'If you're not going to come out for Christmas, we're bringing it to you!' My dad looks at the little Jewish girl most likely wondering 'who the hell is she' and almost on cue she asks, "Are you having a Merry Christmas?" to which dad replies, "Maybe I will someday." We all preceded to give him his gifts and you could see the look of humiliation grow on his face until finally he says he'll be out in a minute....Christmas was going to officially begin at about 2:30 in the afternoon! Very bizarre to say the least. I couldn't tell you what I got that year, I think it might have been a 'Janie Frickie's Greatest Hits Album', but the pleasure I received from getting the old man out of his funk was more than I could have ever hoped for. After that year, he was actually civil at Christmas. Needless to say, it was the first and last Christmas that the little Jewish girl attended at the Hopkins house.
I'll have more memorable Christmas stories in the weeks to come. If anyone can top the one I just described, I want to hear about it! Have a great weekend everyone! Peace and blessings!!!!
We had a very nice Thanksgiving. It was great having the boys home and we look forward to them coming home for the holidays in the middle of December. As a treat I was able to land 5 tickets for the Ohio State/Michigan game and we had a great time watching the Buckeyes win their 7th straight game over those nasty Wolverines; its almost to the point where I feel sorry for them but I'll never forget the way Julie and I were treated at a game at Michigan in 1991 so I doubt I'll never supass that almost threshold!
Last week I went with Abbey for a campus visit to UD. I think she really liked it and hopefully she'll be able to get the tution exchange offer there. Judd has had a wonderful experience at UD and we would love for Abbey to stay close to home. It would have been great if Aaron could have stayed close to home but given my benefit and his initial interest in Engineering, it just wasn't going to work out. He does enjoy St. Louis but it means he's not able to get home as often as we'd like. From Aaron's perspective, that's probably what he likes best about it but we do miss him being close.
It is hard to believe another holiday season is upon us; only 21 shopping days until Christmas! Hopefully you've all done more than I have which is basically nothing. I don't even have my lights up but I'm usually the last one on our block to do it so that shouldn't come as a surprise. As long as I get them up before the boys get home I'll be happy.
I have many wonderful holiday memories. I think over the next few weeks I'll highlight some of the more memorable Christmas days. Some are actually more unbelieveable than memorable and I think I'll start with the most unbelieveable of them all...
1983 - I had literally just started dating Julie, our first date was December 22nd. I was 25 at the time. I was kind of a vagabond back then...I still 'lived at home' but probably only spent the night there a couple times a week. Many nights I'd stay with friends from work and when I was home I usually slept on the couch in the living room. My dad always got in a very 'Scrooge-like' mood around Christmas. Probably because he had to buy presents for 8 kids on an Ironworkers' salary. Maybe because his oldest son slept on the living room couch! I never really asked him why. But I, on the other hand, loved Christmas. And I was in a great mood that year because I had just started dating Julie and I had Christmas presents for everyone and was looking forward to them opening their gifts. The only problem was, dad wasn't coming out of his bedroom to do Christmas...he was actually boycotting it! We were dumbfounded and adding to this scene was the fact that one of my sisters had invited a Jewish friend to come to our house to see what a 'typical' Christmas was like...boy did she pick the wrong house! So there we were, mid-afternoon and dad is still in bed playing his gift that he had bought for himself...electronic checkers, most likely kicking that computers ass! (I wish I was making this up, but I'm not.) The Jewish girl was probably wondering what kind of lunatics we must be and I could only imagine what she must have told her parents when she went home..."Well it was kind of wierd, the dad stayed in bed playing checkers until everyone went into his bedroom...." Oops, I'm getting ahead of myself! Anyway, I finally decided - enough is enough; I picked up my present that I had bought for dad (a spiffy pair of new bowling shoes) and marched into his bedroom along with the rest of the family (little Jewish included) and announced, 'If you're not going to come out for Christmas, we're bringing it to you!' My dad looks at the little Jewish girl most likely wondering 'who the hell is she' and almost on cue she asks, "Are you having a Merry Christmas?" to which dad replies, "Maybe I will someday." We all preceded to give him his gifts and you could see the look of humiliation grow on his face until finally he says he'll be out in a minute....Christmas was going to officially begin at about 2:30 in the afternoon! Very bizarre to say the least. I couldn't tell you what I got that year, I think it might have been a 'Janie Frickie's Greatest Hits Album', but the pleasure I received from getting the old man out of his funk was more than I could have ever hoped for. After that year, he was actually civil at Christmas. Needless to say, it was the first and last Christmas that the little Jewish girl attended at the Hopkins house.
I'll have more memorable Christmas stories in the weeks to come. If anyone can top the one I just described, I want to hear about it! Have a great weekend everyone! Peace and blessings!!!!
