Vince's Journey

Sorry it has been awhile since my last blog post. May has been a busy month and for some reason I was having a difficult time getting on to the internet from my Ipad at home. Since I’ve had a few questions about the stent and my progress through my treatments I thought I’d try to get something out to bring everyone up to date…so…here goes…. The stent was removed on May 13. The relief was instantaneous; I could tell a difference the second I woke up from the anesthesia. As a result, life has been tremendously more comfortable. I’m getting far more sleep, I can mow my lawn, I can ride my bike without needing to go to the bathroom every 10 minutes, I can work around the house, I am a new man (or at least the man I was before the stent was put in on February 28)! I was held hostage by that miserable piece of tubing for 75 days and since it’s been removed I have my freedom back – it’s a wonderful feeling. Of course the best part of having the stent removed is knowing that the treatments are doing the job. The node by my kidney is definitely shrinking and they’re no longer worried about it blocking the ureter. Now all I need is a couple more treatments and this episode should be behind me. I have to say that I’ve felt pretty good lately. I’ve been riding my bike quite a bit and getting my stamina back. I’ve lost about 8 of the pounds I gained while sitting around eating ice cream every night throughout the month of March. Unfortunately, I’ll be getting treatments on Monday and Tuesday so I probably won’t be feeling 100% for a few days after that. The treatments make me feel nauseous and everything tastes kind of strange. If this cycle is like the previous ones, I won’t have much of an appetite and very little desire to do anything. Simply put, the next week to 10 days won’t be much fun. But as I said, we’re getting to the end of the treatments so I’ll just suck it up and get through this as best I can. The other big news of May was Aaron’s graduation from St. Louis University! Hip, hip HOORAY! We had a great weekend in St. Louis and now Aaron is back home looking for a real job. If you know of anyone in the market for a recent studio art graduate please let us know, we have just the kid for you. In the meantime, he’s been picking up hours working at the Courseview Restaurant at Kings Island. It’s hard to believe his college days are over – seems like yesterday we were moving to SLU for his first semester. Now, as the president said at graduation – he is a Billikin…FOREVER!!! So Aaron is home but Abbey is up at UD for summer school. Since she was on co-op last semester she’s taking a full load this summer to complete her sophomore year. She’ll be back home in August and will do another co-op semester in the fall. That should be fun; both Aaron and Abbey will be living at home in the fall – fortunately I’ll be coaching football! Training for our Scotland bike ride is coming along. Our fundraising is also going pretty well. We had a beer booth at Taste of Cincinnati which pushed our raised total to over $11,000 of our $50,000 goal and the ride is not until September. If you’d like to be part of the fun, just let me know!!! I guess I’ll end here. Thanks for checking in and I’ll try to post more frequently. Just remember, no news is usually good news and if I’m not posting I’m probably out mowing the lawn or riding my bike!!

I have to admit I'm pretty excited today. Dr. Leming said it's okay to move forward and have the stent removed from my ureter which means a couple things; I'll soon no longer feel like I have to 'piddle' 24/7 and more importantly, the treatments are working!!! What a relief on both ends (no pun intended). I'm not sure when the procedure will be scheduled but I'm hoping on Friday....I think I can 'hold on' for a few more days. Should it be removed on Friday it would mark day #71 of this very difficult episode. And I'm not exagerating - I have literally felt like peeing for 71 straight days; in fact, I'll bet I've gone to the bathroom an average aof at least 15 times a day over that stretch. My Ohio State math tells me that's over 1000 trips to the 'pisser' in a little over two months time and yes, I washed my hands every time. Not sure what I'm going to with the exit time! Hopefully it will lead to more quality time on my bike, watching tv, driving to work, I can resume running and I'm really looking forward to mowing my lawn. Our neighbor, Ron, has been such an amazing help mowing our lawn while I've been going through this but I really enjoy mowing our lawn and I'm confident that I'll be able to resume that activity next week. I did get a little negative news, my white blood counts are a bit lower that usual so I'm getting a neulasta shot on Wednesday to give the counts a boost. Since I'm going one a month now, that should help get the counts to where they need to be. They're not drastically low - I was a lot lower back in 2005 - but a boost will give us peace of mind. So the treatments are working, the stent is coming out and next week I won't have to pee all the time - today was a good day. On the family front, Abbey has wrapped up her co-op semester at Amylin and will be heading back to Dayton for summer school on Mother's Day. Aaron only has two weeks left and he will be graduating from St. Louis University and Judd's brief career as a horse whisperer appears to be over. Some day I may tell that unbelievable story but I still can't truly laugh about it. My only advice is if you go to Kenneland for a day of horse racing, don't try to do your best Dr. Doolittle impersonation and try to talk to the horses, it's not worth the effort....or fine. As I announced on my Facebook page, we are training for our next LLS century bike ride - this year we're going to Scotland for a 110 mile trip through the lower uplands. We're hoping to raise over $50,000 for LLS and if you'd like to join our efforts - check out our webpage. http://pages.teamintraining.org/soh/frndstnt14/vhopkins So that's about it; as always, thanks for checking in! I'll let you know when the stent comes out...it will be a happy day!!!