Vince's Journey

Hi everyone... I wanted to bring you all up to speed on the results of my CT scans from a week ago. I visited with Dr. Leming today and apparently I have an enlarged lymph node in my abdomen that is a cause for some attention. The node is pressing up against an area of my kidney and they're concerned that it could lead to a blockage which could, in turn, lead to a more serious situation. I didn't think there could be a more serious situation than having lymphoma but damned if I didn't prove that wrong. So tomorrow I'm going to see a urologist. The hope is he'll be able to place a stint that will prevent a blockage and allow for the lymphoma to be treated in a less aggressive way. With a stint we should be able to look at the various treatment options and determine what makes the most sense at this time. If a stint isn't possible, Dr. Leming wants to get busy treating this thing immediately and aggressively - he's confident he can shrink it but he wants to make sure we do it as quickly as possible to avoid any blockage. Hopefully the stint will work but I obviously am preparing myself for whatever avenue we have to take. Dr. Leming said if the node was anywhere else he wouldn't even recommend treating it at this time - he just doesn't want to take any chances with it so close to the kidney. Bottom line - my run of boring CT scans is over for the time being. I'll know more tomorrow after the visit with the urologist. Dr. Leming said this is something we can get through so I'm going to hold him to that. It almost seems unreal - I've been talking with many other people going through treatments of his/her own and now here I go again! I've been able to knock it down twice already and I'm ready to make it 3 for 3.... Other than the obvious, things have been going very well. We had a great time in St. Louis over the weekend with our kids. Book of Mormon was hysterical - we're already looking forward to seeing it again when it plays in Cincinnati next season. We also enjoyed the Oscars last night - I thought they selected all the right winners except in the Best Director category where the person who should have won (Ben Affleck) didn't even receive a nomination. Again, I'll be sure to update you all on our next steps. There's never a dull moment in the Hopkins house!

So I'm just about to head out the door and get on the road to St. Louis with the family. we are going to visit Aaron and see The Book of Mormon tomorrow. Should be a fun trip - with Aaron scheduled to graduate in May this may be one of our final trips to the Gateway to the West - at least for a while. I put my Academy Award predictions up on another site and thought I'd cut and paste them for your reading pleasure. I also started to put them on Facebook but didn't have the time to finish - so Facebook readers, here are the rest of my predictions. we enjoy watching movies at home and the Academy Awards show is like another holiday...so have a great weekend and I'll check back in on Monday to recap the Oscars, the Book of Mormon and anything else that might be going on.... Here are my predictions for Sunday night - similar to the annual bowl contest, I'm doing in order from most confident to least confident....here we go.... Best Supporting Actress Sally Field, Lincoln Jackie Weaver, Silver Linings Playbook Anne Hathaway, Les Miserables Amy Adams, The Master Helen Hunt, The Sessions I think this one is a slam dunk. I'll be shocked if anyone but Anne Hathaway walks away with this one. She has won every other Best Supporting Actress Award this season and the Academy loves an actress who sings. Couple that with the fact she cut all her hair off on-screen and you have the supporting actress moment of the year. Only on screen for 18 minutes, her acceptance speech will probably be longer!! Best Actor Joaquin Phoenix, The Master Bradley Cooper, Silver Linings Playbook Hugh Jackman, Les Miserables Daniel Day Lewis, Lincoln Denzel Washington, Flight I think this one is probably a safe bet, too, but there are a couple variables that leave a crack for someone else to walk away with the Oscar. First, no actor has ever won 3 Best Actor Awards...Nicholson has 3 but one of his was a supporting award, Walter Brennan has 3 and ALL of his were supporting. Tracey has 2, Hoffman has 2, Brando has 2, Penn has 2...no one has 3. In addition, while 4 have been nominated (Raymond Massey, Anthony Hopkins, Frank Langella and Alexander Knox) no actor has ever won for playing an American president. I think Day Lewis's performance was the best of the year but is the academy ready to do something historic that the names mentioned above were not able to achieve. I think they should but I dont have a vote. If someone does sneak by Day Lewis, I think it will be Hugh Jackman...and a HUGE mistake. Best Picture Argo Silver Linings Playbook Lincoln Zero Dark Thirty Les Miserables Django Unchained Beasts of the Southern Wild Life of Pi Amour I've listed these in my order of preference. I have not seen Amour. I truly believe Argo was the best movie of the year. The trouble is, Ben Affleck did not receive a Best Director nomination. The last time a film won Best Picture without picking up a Best Director nomination was 1989 when Driving Miss Daisy won. That was 24 years ago. Ironically, Affleck has won Best Director at just about every other award show and Argo has swept every other best picture award. Given that Affleck is also a producer on the film, I think he'll get the last laugh when they call Argo as best picture about 1:15 am Sunday night/Monday morning. If Argo isn't the winner - I think any of my top 5 could win...if Amour wins I may quit watching the Oscars. Best Actress Emmanuelle Riva, Amour Jessica Chastain, Zero Dark Thirty Jennifer Lawrence, Silver Linings Playbook Naomi Watts, The Impossible Quvenzhane Wallis, Beasts of the Southern Wild Whlie she was pretty amazing for a 5 year old girl, Quvenzhane Wallis is just too young to win Best Actress - besides, I can't e and Nven pronounce her first name! Naomi Watts is just along for a great seat at the show. That leaves Chastain, Riva and Lawrence. Lawrence is the youngest actress ever to be nominated for 2 best actress awards - she is only 22. Riva is the oldest actress ever nominated at 85 (and Wallis is the youngest). I've picked Lawrence from the beginning, her performance was the heart of the movie and if they are going to recognize anything about SLP, it should be her. But I have a gut feeling that says the Academy is going to go with Riva. She appears to be gaining momentum based on her win at the BAFTA's. I hope I'm wrong and Lawrence gets the award but the Academy has a history of awarding foreign language roles and it would not be a shock if Riva wins. I'm still going with Lawrence, though. Best Supporting Actor Alan Arkin, Argo Robert DeNiro, Silver Linings Playbook Tommy Lee Jones, Lincoln Christoph Waltz, Django Unchained Phillip Seymour Hoffman, The Master I could see any of these guys winning and they've all won before. The leaders appear to be Waltz and Jones - they have been the one's recognized at previous award shows. I'd like to see Robert DeNiro win - it's been over 20 years since his last nomination. And I thought Arkin stole the show in Argo. Hoffman would appear to be the guy destined for fifth place. So who wins, it's just a guess but I'm going to say Tommy Lee Jones for Lincoln. Waltz played a similar type a role just a few years ago in Inglourious Basterds and won and personally I thought his role was more of a lead actor - he was on screen almost the entire film. So it's between Jones and Waltz but DeNiro or Arkin would be a pleasant surprise. Best Director Michael Haneke, Amour Steven Spielberg, Lincoln Benh Zeitlin, Beasts of the Southern Wild Ang Lee, Life of Pi David O. Russell, Silver Linings Playbook The person who should win, Ben Affleck, is not nominated. And there's something about all of the above that suggests they could win...Amour is making a late surge with Riva so perhaps that plays into Haneke's hands, Ang Lee is an Academy favorite having won before for Brokeback Mountain, Zeitlin coaxed some brilliant performances out of relative amateurs and his film was the art house favorite, Russell made a brilliant comedy about an entire cast of people suffering from mental illnesses and Spielberg brought one of America's greatest political icons to life in Lincoln. It would have been a lot easier had they nominated Affleck but I'm going to go with Spielberg to win with Michael Haneke being the most likely to pull the upset. We'll see how it goes Sunday night!

So I’m back and it’s only been 4 days since my previous blog post – I’d say that’s progress. I had hoped to write Sunday night but my I-pad needed charging and we had to watch our Netflix DVD or we’d have it another week – Sunday nights are movie night! The movie, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, wasn’t bad but I think the target audience has an average age of about 35 years younger than me. The movie does prove that unlike Ron Weasley, Hermione Granger may have a post-Harry Potter acting career although I did see that Ron is starring in a movie about the ‘famed’ ski jumper, Eddie ‘The Eagle’ Edwards, which I’m sure is destined to be one of the all-time classics. This past Saturday, we attended a party to honor the recent marriage of Julie’s brother, Jerry, and his lovely bride, Erika. A wonderful time was had by all and thanks to several bottles of liquid courage (as well as a rousing version of ABBA’s mega-hit, Dancing Queen) I’m sure I was the most watched person on the dance floor that evening. I’m usually not much of a participant when it comes to dancing but when the second song played is Dancing Queen and the band just keeps pumping out classic hits – September, Walking on Sunshine, Don’t Stop Believing, Living on a Prayer, Sweet Caroline and of course the most iconic of all Ohio-born rock songs, Hang on Sloopy (O-H-I-O!) – I challenge anyone to drink 5 or 6 beers and not be lured to the dance floor! Besides, as the old saying goes you’re supposed to ‘dance like no one’s watching’; unfortunately I’m afraid there were about 250 people at the party who most likely were and wondering what the hell I was doing out there – I’m sure a few new moves were learned watching this, ‘Dancing King’ in action. Seriously, dancing aside, we are very happy for Jerry and Erika and we wish them many years of happiness together. So this is one of those ‘scanxiety’ weeks. Yesterday I had scans taken and next Monday I’ll have my follow-up appointment with Dr. Leming to go over the results. I continue to feel fine but I always prepare myself to be ready for any type of news we may receive. I’m typically pretty good about blocking everything out but when the time comes to drink that rancid contrast solution, get hooked up to the IV (congrats, by the way to Miss Jocelyn for getting the IV in with one stick this time – I knew she could do it!) and crawl on to that imaging device it obviously makes it a little more difficult to not think about it. Bottom line; we’ll be a little nervous this week but we’ve been through the routine before and hopefully around 3:30 pm next Monday we’ll be able to breathe a huge sigh of relief until the next ‘scanxiety week’ – probably sometime toward the end of summer. We’re looking forward to a trip to St. Louis this weekend to see Aaron; it will be great to have the entire family together. On Saturday we’re going to see ‘The Book of Mormon’ which is playing across the street from the SLU campus. Judd has been asking to see the show so when we saw it was playing in St. Louis, we thought it would make for a nice family roadtrip. Julie bought the soundtrack for Christmas and we’ve all taken our turns learning the music. All I can say is there is nothing sacred in this show, I hope I don’t sit next to an 80 year-old couple because they will surely be offended – it should make for a very entertaining afternoon at the Fox Theater! I think that’s all for now. I’ll be sure to let everyone know how my appointment with Dr. Leming goes. Thanks for checking in and have a great week….

So after 8 months of silence, I'm ready to get back in to the blogging business. I really can't explain why it's been so long. I guess it's similar to a movie I recently watched (a very bad movie, I might add) called Ruby Sparks. It was about a brilliant writer (and I know I'll never be considered a brilliant writer) who had lost his creative edge and couldn't come up with anything good to write about. He finally makes up a fake woman who comes to life, he falls in love with her and he spends his days writing what she's going to do next. As I said, it was a pretty stupid movie but I guess writers' block is the only explanation I have as to why I haven't felt like blogging....that and laziness. So why did Woody Hayes'100th birthday inspire me to get back in to the blogging business? His birthday was actually yesterday - Valentines Day. Pretty ironic isn't it. Well there's a web site I go to to catch up on all the latest Ohio State news and yesterday everyone was telling their personal Woody Hayes stories. While I was a student at Ohio State I would see Woody occasionally walking across the Oval and say hello; he'd always smile and politely say, "How are you young, man." I'd also go to the Friday night pep rallies and watch him go berserk until they'd lead him off the stage. He'd have you so fired up you'd be ready to run through a brick wall; no one could motivate quite like Woody. But I think what I remember most about Woody is he'd always talk about 'Paying forward'. Here's an excerpt from his 1986 Ohio State commencement speech where he talks about this very subject.... "I would like to start with something I have used in almost every speech, and this is, "paying forward." And that is the thing that you folks can do with your great education for the rest of your life. Try to take that attitude toward life, that you're going to pay forward. So seldom can we pay back because those who helped most--your parents and other people--will be gone, but you'll find that you do want to pay. Emerson had something to say about that: "You can pay back only seldom." But he said, "You can always pay forward, and you must pay line for line, deed for deed, and cent for cent." He said, "Beware of too much good accumulating in your palm or it will fast corrupt." That was Emerson's attitude, and no one put it better than he did." 'Paying forward' has become a very important part of my life. So yesterday as all the posters on the Buckeye site shared their stories, I wanted to share about the impact Woody's words have had on me. I started this blog in October of 2005 when I was diagnosed with follicular lymphoma. This came as quite a shock but through the support of many, many people I'm still here 8 years later and my family and I have made aiding the fight against blood related cancers our most important cause. Currently, I proudly serve as president of our local Leukemia and Lymphoma Society (LLS) chapter and I've met many wonderful and dedicated people as a result of our involvement. I've been asked to speak on behalf of LLS on multiple occasions and once I actually talked about Woody being the inspiration behind me 'paying it forward'. I'm keenly aware of that I'm here today because of the work and sacrifices of close to 50 years of volunteer efforts for the LLS. Many people weren't as fortunate as I've been, back when the LLS was founded a blood cancer diagnosis was basically a death sentence - today that is not the case, today being told you have leukemia or lymphoma doesn't mean you're going to die - you can beat it. That's why Woody's words are so important...people who I never met sacrificed so that I could live. It's very humbling and it's the reason I'll continue to do all I can to help the LLS strive toward achieving a mission that 50 years ago may have seemed impossible - to cure all blood related cancers. I can't tell you how many times I've heard it said, "Someday we're going to cure cancer." To the LLS, someday is today. So Woody has inspired me to not only 'pay it forward', but get back to blogging, as well. It's an honor to pass his message along whenever I get the chance; Pay it forward and great things will happen. You'll be glad you did....Happy birthday, Woody...you were one of a kind.