Day +30 ... Big day in Sports!

Hope this finds everyone safe and well recovered from the New Years celebrations. I am reversing the order of my blog today, so, if you are not a sports fan....skip to the CANCER UPDATE. Plus, I figured we dont always have to start with the cancer stuff. Lets start putting cancer in the rearview mirror.

What a great day for sports today. Molly, Adie, and I are planning on watching the Winter Classic...great outdoor hockey game...AND how can you not watch the Rose Bowl!! I am a little worried about the Wisconsin Badgers in today's game. It is going to be fun to watch, that is for sure. Mark May said that he likes the match up the Badgers have and I agree with him. I totally disagree with Lou Holtz who said that the Badgers offensive line was fat and slow...that the weight they carried was a spare tire. DISAGREE, have you see those linemen get out in front of Ball and White to block? Those guys are athletes! I am always impressed that the lineman can get around the corner and protect our running backs. So, that being said, I hope that the Badgers can keep up with the Ducks. I am more worried about our defense. Either way, after last years Rose Bowl, whatever happens this year will be fun to watch. I do not feel like the Badgers are going to get blown out, and that would be the only way this game is a dud to watch. As far as the hockey game goes, I am not a fan of Philadelphia at all. I dislike them completely. This is a team, whose fans booed a Cancer Awareness ad in their own arena because some of the NHL stars in the ad were from rival teams. What a bunch of hacks...ok, so I am not a fan of the Flyers. That being said, they are playing the New York Rangers. I am also not a huge fan of the Rangers. I do not dislike them, but I wouldn't chose them over many other teams. So, I am hoping for a Ranger win with lots of goals and excitement. Make people see how much fun hockey is to watch. I am also excited for this new sports network...which was versus but is now NBC Sports. I am hoping this means we'll get some more televised hockey games for those of us who don't have NHL Network or Center Ice. At any rate, good day for sports and hopefully things go the way of Big Red!

CANCER UPDATE
So far, things are pretty consistent. The medications are a little annoying, but I know they are a necessity. I am taking 35 pills a day total, spaced out 4-5 times during the day, one IV that takes 2.5 hours to finish, and an inhaler 2 times a day. It gets to be a lot to remember even though it is pretty much the same everyday. It is also a lot of pills to swallow. Hopefully, at my appointment tomorrow, they will discontinue the IV drugs and possibly take away some of the other meds. I do not know the plan though. As far as the 'hometel' goes, things have been pretty good. The people here are incredibly nice. They do a great job cleaning, and they also do that all according to our schedule. Very handy, especially because there are still some strict rules that I have to go by. I have to use a new towel every time I shower, I have to have new sheets at least 1 time per week, I need to have my own set of dishes, or have dishes cleaned a lot. So this has been great as they change the sheets whenever we ask, give us new towels everyday, and I can run the dishwasher as much as I need. It is hard because I know it is not very environment friendly, but that is the way it is for now. This week will be tough...My mom is coming to stay with me while Molly works. Molly has a very busy work week, I will have at least two doctors appointments, and of course, Adeline. It is going to be tricky getting her and all of us into a routine between hometel, Port, work, Dr. appointments, weekends....I am sure it will work out. As I have said before though, anything is better than being in the hospital. As far as any side effects from the transplant, I have been spared...knock on wood. Want to keep that up for as long as possible, if I was one of the 20% of people who didn't have side effects, I would be ok with that. Molly and I have said numerous times that we put in a lot ... A LOT ... of hard work in at the beginning of this whole cancer business, having an easy-ish go of things post transplant would be pretty darn nice. I KNOW that the prayers and thoughts have helped. It feels like, now that we are 1/3 of the way through things, or close, that time will go a little faster. By 1/3 of the way through things, I mean the 100 days that are most critical after transplant. I am excited for my life to get back to normal. I really want to see friends and get back to work.

Enjoy the final days of break, for those that had time off, and Go Badgers!!!
Tony