Dad - 1, Cancer - 0

Wednesday’s PET scan (the first after starting chemo) showed TOTAL REMISSION!  Boo-effing-yah!

He still has to complete the chemo regimen, which is three more treatments in the STL, but he is totally kicking lymphoma’s ASS.

Woot!

Blessed

This?  Followed me home last night from the Travelers game.  I made the comment to A that “hey, the rain stopped” without thinking, “Because that’s what happens when a TORNADO comes, duh.”   When I got home, my MIL called and said, “It hit the Buick dealership!”  The Buick dealership I had just passed TWO MINUTES before.

Yeeaah.  

I’ve been dealing with phone calls from relatives all morning (All is fine, just shaken up.  And our driveway is filled with insulation from g-d knows where.) and I had to cancel a hearing scheduled for this afternoon because we are completely cut-off from Little Rock due to water over the interstate.  Good times.

We’re lucky and blessed.  Some are not.  Please keep those people in your prayers.

For the boys (especially Val)

We were lucky enough to attend the Miami/St. Mary’s game last weekend at Alltel Arena (we sold our other tickets to Memphis fans) and I managed to get some photos of, um, important stuff:

Oh, you want closer?  Okay.

I’ll even throw in their mascot for good measure.  (Seriously, a duck?  That reps the HURRICANE?  Don’t ducks get their asses kicked by hurricanes?  Makes no sense.)

And under the guise of the fairness doctrine:  Here’s a pic of the St. Mary’s fan session.  I thought they had a good-sized crowd considering they came more than halfway across the country.  (The people in striped rugby shirts spelled out “Go Gaels SMC.”) Very cool.

Sorry, Texas fans.  The boys got bored and we left before that game started.  I hear  Rick Barnes had to have a police escort to, from, and during the game.  You stay classy, Austin!

In five years, he’ll deny he ever said it

Scene:  My bathroom.  Sunday morning, 6:00 a.m.  We are leaving in 15 minutes for a 8:30 a.m. baseball game.

A:  I don’t want to wear this cup.  It sticks out too far.

Me:  I think it’s just the fly on those pants.  It’s thicker than the one on your old pants and sticks out more when you have on a cup.

A:  I don’t like it.  I’m not wearing it.

Me:  Why not?

A:  It makes my pen*s look big!

D:  And the problem is?

A:  I’m a LITTLE BOY, my pen*s shouldn’t look BIG.

Me:  Well, go get your other, crotch-shrinking, cup.

A:  I *will*.

As if there were any question. . .

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The Waiting Game

Thanks for the well wishes, everyone.  It means a lot.

My dad had his first dose of chemo yesterday and did great.  My mom said he wasn’t sick at all.  Let’s hope it stays that way.  They’re waiting (AGAIN with the waiting.  Ack!) for the Head Doogie to come in and do the chemo in the spine some time today.  They were going to get to go home tomorrow, but now they’re saying they want to do one more dose in the spine tomorrow and THEN send him home on Thursday.  Good heavens.

Luckily (?) (Is there a “luckily” with cancer?) he “only” has to have one dose of chemo every three weeks for four and a half months.  That should “take care of it.”  I hope so.

Again, thanks for all the thoughts and prayers, and keep ‘em coming!

Happy Birthday, dear Cancer

You’re one week old today.  Please die soon, ‘k?

My dad is impatiently waiting for an oncologist to either treat him or release him (for treament at home) today.  He had surgery on Friday to remove his testicle (where the lymphoma has been camping out, making itself at home) and did great with that.  He has “activity” in the lymph nodes in his groin, his abdomen, armpits, and neck.  All we know so far is that it is “B-cell Lymphoma” which the Doogies have said responds very well to chemo.  They were supposed to start the chemo Saturday, but do you know oncologists don’t work on weekends?  Sad, but true.

So my mom is up there, waiting on word as to whether they can go home today or have one treatment and then go home tomorrow or Wednesday.  Obviously, they want to go home today and do his treatments there. 

We could use any prayers you got, or good thought and well wishes if you don’t pray.

Things I have learned since my dad got cancer on Tuesday

• When you are at a large Jewish hospital and you get lost (oh, and you WILL get lost), you will find yourself having conversations with your brother that go like this:  “But you said SHOENBERG Pavilion, NOT STEINMAN Pavilion!  What?  SteinBERG?  There’s a SteinBERG?  Where’s Shoenberg?  Please don’t tell me there’s a Shoenman.”
• Teaching hospital=doctors that look like Doogie’s younger brothers.  I half expected them to text him with, “Dood! It’s in ur lymf nodes, killin ur cells.”
• I never knew much about my father’s genitals.  Now I know too much.  (Oh, and the next person who mentions Lance Armstrong?  Kick in the shins.)
• My mom is the strongest woman in the world.

Opponents Beware! Opponents Beware!

Happy Birthday, George!

Attack of the Fundies!

For your enjoyment (and my mortification) — here is a recruiting film from the college that I attended. As you can tell from the high hair and even higher jeans, it is c. 1988, blessedly after I graduated, so no chance of seeing me. Suckas!

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cFff_bV_8Jw&rel=1">

Part II

And Part III

Good lord. How did I turn out so normal?