Vince's Journey

So I left the chemo parlor a couple hours ago and I've now completed round 5 and only have one round remaining. Round 6 will take place July 31 and August 1 and Vince vs Follicular Lymphoma Part 3, should be over. To say I'm ready would be an understatement. This is the third time I've had to go through a 6 month process of chemotherapy and it just wears on you. Don't get me wrong, I'm greatful that everything is working but I'm tired of not feeling 100%, I'm tired of answering the same questions over and over again and I'm tired of sitting in those recliners at the chemo parlor for hours at a time watching the poisons drip into my port. And I have to say I'm one of the lucky ones. I can still do anything I want to do. I left yesterday's 6 hour treatment and went right to the gym to ride the Lifecycle - I went to the gym today just before I went to my treatment. I see people come into the chemo room and they look like they can hardly walk. I sat next to Coach Brockhoff from Xavier a couple times a couple months ago and I could hardly recognize him...he barely had the strength to get into his wheel chair and go to the bathroom. Sadly, he passed away a few weeks ago. And rarely does a week go by where we don't hear about someone new being diagnosed with some kind of cancer - it's almost to the point where I'm numb to it. All I know is we have to do everything we can to put and end to it. I truly feel we're getting closer by the day but there's still a lot of work to do. Anytime you get an opportunity to support cancer research, and I'm very biased toward the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, you should do it because cancer is a hideous disease that touches us all. We've lost too many beautiful people to this disease, let's all work toward that headline we can all celebrate...CANCER IS CURED!.........Our bike training reached the 70 mile plateau last Saturday. Everyone did very well and we're right on schedule to be ready for our 110 mile ride in Scotland on September 8. This week we placed holds on our plane reservations so we're moving forward. We still have a way to go to hit our $50,000 fundraising goal so if you haven't had a chance to help please visit our TNT page, here is the link.....http://pages.teamintraining.org/soh/frndstnt14/vhopkins....we would certainly appreciate your support......So our family likes to play this game we made up called the game of lists. We all list our top 5 of a given subject and see what we have in common. We assign points (5 points for #1's, 4 points for #2's, etc. After tabulating all the points we compile our family list. It's a great way to pass time while we're driving, we actually made it up while we were on vacation in Aruba. Anyway, I'll start ending my blog with a list and if you want to add yours to the comment section, feel free to do so...here is an easy one to start, my top 5 songs....1. Let it Be, The Beatles. 2. Imagine, John Lennon 3. Loves in Need of Love Today, Stevie Wonder 4. What's Going On, Marvin Gaye 5. Yesterday, The Beatles....in case you haven't noticed, I'm a big fan of The Beatles......That's all for now. Enjoy the 4th of July holiday. I'm looking forward to the annual family picnic at my sister, Venetia's house in Vandalia. We'll also be celebrating my brother Rich's 48th birthday; good lord that kid is getting old!