Vince's Journey

Today was a long but uneventful day at the chemo parlor. I arrived at 10 am and was on my way home at 4:50 - a 'swift' 6 hour and 50 minute visit. The good news is there was no allergic reaction to the Rituxin which probably cut a good 2 hours off the length of the day. In previous first time transfusions of Rituxin, they've had to stop the process because I was breaking out all over my body in hives - today that was not the case. When the hives break out they need to pump me full benadryl and slow the process down so the lack of hives was huge! What also helped was I didn't sleep well at all last night and fortunately was able to doze off through most of the 7 hour process today. So day one is in the books. Tomorrow I'll go in for a quick dose of Bendamustine and I'll be off until next Tuesday, March 19. I think I've worked through the worst part of the stent pain. Dr. Leming said if all goes well I should be able to get it out at the end of March but at this point the pain is not nearly as bad as it was and the only real annoyance now is a constant urge to urinate which is my life anyway so we'll deal with it and hope when the stent comes out there is remarkable improvement in regard to the duration between bathroom trips. We had a couple great events for the LLS this past weekend. On Friday, we kicked off the 2013 Man and Woman of the Year campaign. This year we have 9 candidates (6 women and 3 men) and are hopeful that they'll be able to continue the great tradition this event has established over the past 14 years. Last year a group of 10 raised $406,000 in Cincinnati - what a remarkable achievement. We're looking forward to see the great efforts this year's group will put forth over the next 10 weeks - our Man and Woman finale is set for May 17. On Saturday was our annual Race to Anyplace spinning cycle event at the the Mason Community Center. We had an enthusiastic group of participants and well over 2,000 miles were pedaled over the course of the 6 hour ride. The coolest part was seeing our neighborhood survivor, Maya Collins, come out and pedal a couple shifts on the hero bike. Maya has been such an inspiration to everyone and seeing her pedal that cycle is an image I've looked forward to for a couple years and one I will never forget. Thanks to all the people who made the Ride to Anyplace such a success - especially committee chair Dave Feck and my dear friend and fellow survivor, Ken Murawski, who helped establish this event in Cincinnati a few years ago. Switching gears a little, last year on the final day of the regular basketball season Ohio State knocked off Michigan State IN East Lansing ON Senior Day to forge a 3 way championship with not only MSU but also Michigan.The Wolverines, who were watching in their putrid piss yellow and maize lounge emerged from the room as if they had just won the national championship...it was the one negative about OSU forcing the tie - it allowed Michigan a championship. Well yesterday IN Ann Arbor, ON Senior Day they Wolverines had a chance to even the score as a Michigan win over the Hoosiers would force a four way tie between Indiana, Ohio State, Michigan State and the state up north. And with under a minute to play it actually looked pretty good; Michigan was up 5 and Indiana was forced to put them on the foul line. Unfortunately, the piss and blue were not up to the task - missing 3 foul shots at the tip in to allow Indiana to escape with regular season championship. Yesterday was the first and only day I will ever root for those guys to win - even thought I think Tom Crean is a pompous, arrogant ass - I'd rather see him win those morons running around in ridiculous uniforms with 'We On' emblazoned across their warm-up jerseys. So I guess that covers the past several days. As always, we certainly do appreciate all your thoughts, prayers and support. I'll be sure to keep everyone updated. We've got a full house right now as Aaron is home for his spring break - this should be his second to last break before graduation in May - I can't believe he will soon be a college graduate! Judd came home last night and it was great to have everone together - thanks to the Bruces for having us all over for dinner! That's all for now, peace and blessings to all!