Quick Update

Hope all is well with everyone. As it has been so long since my last update, I am going with a general info update.

Health update:
Things are amazing normal at the moment. I have been getting to school everyday and pick Adeline up from the day care almost everyday. Taking all of my medications, slowly weening from my anti-rejection medicine, and feeling pretty good. I have avoided the flu bug, although my sinuses are making a mean comeback. Those headaches...you know the ones where the back of your eyes hurt...are a pain in the...head, but they are deal-able.

Hockey:
The season is incredibly busy, but going very very well. We had some struggles at the beginning of the season, but we have slowly started to put some things together. The goal for each game now is to match or improve our intensity from the game before. Combine that with fewer and fewer mistakes and we will be a tough team come playoff time. Coach Craig keeps me on my toes, reminding me of all the things I forget to tell him. It has been great getting to know Coach B. My fantastic (and one year older as of yesterday) wife led me to a Green Bay native and he has fit right in with the Homestead staff. JV has had a solid run as well, competing at a high level with all the teams they are matched up against. Coach Jake and Spartz are keeping those guys working at a high level. The whole staff has been great and fun to work with.

Do I dare bring up the game the Packers had against the 49ers? No, it just makes me angry. The NHL is coming back...although it has been a crazy disappointment that they had a lockout at all. Brewers will start soon enough and I'll have something else to whine about.

Finally, congrats to all of my friends who have taken the leap into parenthood for the first time, or once again! Deckers, Bergers, Olsen's, Kurth's and a few others who may or may not have let the cat out of the bag (literally)! Don't want to spoil any surprises. GOOD LUCK!!

Hope all is healthy and happy!!
Tony

A BIG Day!

Tomorrow I have all of my testing:

Bone Marrow Biopsy
Bone Density
Pulmonary Function Test
Blood
CT Scan of Chest and Head
Meeting with Dr.
Plenty of others that I'm sure I'm missing at the moment

I am very excited.  Can't wait, actually.  It's a huge milestone.  Pray for negative for the biopsy-That's a positive! 

Hockey has started.  Going well.  We haven't had an official game yet but we had a monster scrimmage with Green Bay Notre Dame, Whitefish Bay/Nicolet/Shorewood, Cedarburg, Marquette and Fondulac.  My coaching staff has really come together: Todd Butkovich-A Green Bay Southwest alum who Molly knows from high school, David Craig-old buddy of mine and former high school hockey teammate, Jake Waraksa-Wausau West alum and back again to help the HHS program is Chris Spartz.  Looking forward to a fun and hopefully successful season.

Please pray for good things again tomorrow.  Leukemia sucks but you guys/gals don't!

Hope everyone is healthy and happy,

Tony Navarre

Update: Latest Appointment

Hello all:
I hope that everyone is healthy and doing well. My last appointment went very well. I have been lucky that Froedtert has scheduled my appointments in chunks, or right as my lunch at school starts. I have been able to get to Froedtert for my tests and check ups without having to take any time off at school. My last set of blood tests came back with a few results coming back better than my last test. That was reassuring. It is great to get good news. Dr. Palmer was running late so I did not get to see her, but I will at my next appointment. We have talked the last few appointments about beginning the weening process again with my prograf (anti-rejection). I am looking forward to finding out my prograf level at my next appointment, and finding out when my year eval is going to be. I cannot believe we are almost at a year already. In some ways it feels like I am still hearing that I have Leukemia for the first time, and in others, it seems like forever ago. So many things have happened, and really it has all been the same. When you spend so much time in the hospital, you don't really see all the things that you care about....but you also feel so busy. Tests, exams, meetings, staying active, resting, sleeping, but missing all of the things that you care about. Thinking about it makes me even more happy to be back doing the things that I love to do. From the small things like being able to go out to eat with the family, or spend time outside...it was amazing. Molly, Adeline, and I had the chance to go to a small party at a friends house to watch fireworks. Just being out with the family, seeing friends was hard to express. Traveling up to Green Bay or Eau Claire to see family, or meet some friends in Madison...there aren't words to explain how great those things felt. Got back to a Packer game thanks to my friend Cal and his Dad...who gave me his ticket to the season opener for the Packers. While at the game, getting to meet and hang out with two other cancer survivors...wonderful. It is strange to have such a great connection to someone who I have only met once. I got back to coaching...officially...with the boys soccer team starting in August. Unfortunately, the boys had a rough loss in regionals, but they worked hard and improved through-out the season. With also having the head hockey job as well, it was such a great start at getting back to the things I love to do. I cannot believe that the hockey season is almost here. Try-outs on November 5th...wow. Teaching and being back in the classroom has been amazing as well. The saying that, you don't know how much you love something until it is gone applies well. I knew that I loved my job, but didn't realize how much I would miss the kids. Even the hard times, when they are stressful, or mad, or tired, just feels great to be back in the classroom. Days have been really busy, and by the time Saturday is over, I am tired...but it is a good tired. Molly continues to be saint-like...although, at times, I am pretty sure she liked it better when I couldn't talk :) The "cancer card" doesn't work on her anymore either...I mean come on!! Some of the things I missed have still weighed on me pretty hard...the things I missed with Adeline, some of my very good friends weddings, I still feel like I have missed some important things. However, I think the fact that I am still here is so important, as one of those friends recently had his first child!! Congrats to Nick and Rachelle...amazing you guys!! Crazy enough, I have three friends left to go...Clark, Thane, Brent....good luck gentleman! I cannot wait to meet all the awesome kiddos. I was cleared to start doing some more activities, such as hitting the golf ball and running around on the soccer field. I know that school is going to continue to be great, and I am excited for my first birthday on December 3rd. This situation has been so great, I get to have two birthdays now.

In more disappointing news, I am sending a ton of prayers to my friend, mentor, neighbor, and an amazing person Chuck. This man is one of the most genuine, caring, and amazing people I have ever met. I know that anyone who has had a class with him at the University of Wisconsin at Eau Claire knows this. For all those who prayed for me and for anyone that was sending thoughts my way, please make the effort to say a prayer, think good thoughts...and even more, hug a person that you may take for granted. I love you Chuck, I am thinking about you and praying for you.

I know that there may not be a real pattern to this blog. More of all the thoughts I have had over the last 2-4 weeks. There are probably a million small mistakes as Molly isn't close by to tell me that what I am writing is hard to understand and that my sentences run on and on and on and on......

Thank you Molly, thank you Adeline, thank you friends and family, as we move forward, I hope that I can continue with good news and follow that with an amazing report from my one year appointment. Wear some pink for breast cancer, orange for Leukemia, find your color...hopefully you aren't impacted directly by cancer. I hope that everyone is happy and healthy...Tony

Sorry

Sorry it has been so long. Being back at school...yes back to work...has been great, but so busy.

Health report: Things have been going smoothly. I will have my year exam soon. I cannot believe it has almost been a year since my transplant. My blood tests keep coming back positive and I have been feeling good. Still taking quite a few medications and I have not started weening from my anti rejection drugs, but that is all in the plan. My doctor told me that she wants to take the weening slower this time, as I had GVHD when we weened the last time.

School report: Things have been going very well at school. I have had a couple of meetings and really enjoy the new schedule. My team teaching partner and I are having fun teaching math. Boys soccer has been fun, although we are not getting the good results that we need. Hockey does not start until November 5th. It has been great getting into that though. So much fun being busy and being surrounded by friends. Going back to work has been incredible.

Life report: Adeline has been doing well, no more episodes and she seems to be very energetic and happy. Molly has been busy with work also but really likes the kids she is working with this year. Was able to go to a Packer game, and although they lost, I had an amazing time! Got to see a bunch of friends from college. How about those Brewers! Pretty darn exciting.

Hope everything is going well with everyone else, I will try to keep up with my blog a little better. Enjoy the weekend, go Brewers, go Packers, go Highlanders.

Already the Summer

Things have been very busy. A few weeks ago I got some great news.

First, my doctor got the results back from the biopsy and there was no sign of Leukemia. The genetics test also came back negative (which is a good thing). I have been feeling better every day and have even played hockey a couple of times. I don't have the scoring touch yet, but played well enough and wasn't terrible on the ice. I have been going down weekly on medications...I am almost finished with my anti-fungal, I am very low on anti-rejection, I am down 1600mg of magnesium, and continue to drop the amount of steroids I am on. My weight is holding at 200 (yes 200, its all muscle). The humidity is horrible, but that gives me more of a reason to spend time at the hockey rink or in AC.

Second, speaking of hockey, I got the job as Homestead High Schools Head Hockey coach. I am very excited about that and looking forward to getting everything going.

Adeline has been doing well also, she has started two "toddler" classes. The first is creative dance...she definitely needs some work on following directions. They said pick up the bunny, she picked up the dots the bunnies were on, they said sit on the carpet square, she took the carpet square and put it on her head, other kids were sitting still, she was trying to find a way into the storage room. She is pretty energetic. She needs some practice sitting as well. The other class is Teddy Tumblers, which is essentially playing in a padded room. She is very outgoing, took the bubbles, and tried to turn on the radio...I think the other two year olds are a little scared of her. She may be a little aggressive with hugs and giving love.

Summer has been going great. I had the opportunity to hang out with two of my friends in Madison, Happy Birthday Thane, and my friend Clark. I have a wedding I get to go to in July, I have been playing hockey on Sunday nights, and just feel great about this summer.

Hope everyone is happy, healthy, and enjoying the weather!!
Tony Navarre

Been a While

Good morning everyone! Hope all is well. Figured it was overdue for an update, and since Adeline is matching shoes with Bert on Sesame Street, I'd get this out of the way.

Medical update: My big 180 day appointment is coming up on Tuesday after Memorial Day. This appointment is all the important information once again...PFT's (Pulmonary Function Test..Lungs), Bone Marrow Biopsy, Meeting with Doc, Blood...and possibly a few others...those are the biggies. For the most part, I have been feeling well. There was some mix ups with my medications, which was taking a bit of a toll on my liver...but it seems like things have gotten straightened out. I was still taking a treatment dose of an anti fungal, this just needed to be a prophylactic dose. I also got a prescription from the pharmacy and by computer error, the dose was 5mg instead of . 5 which is a rather large mistake. Finally, I was on a very, very high dose of prednisone(steroids) and that was not making things any easier. I think we have finally got all the meds back to normal, which is much easier on my stomach and liver. Also, I did have a little bit of GVHD in my gut. The great thing about this is that the doc says this will actually make my chances of relapse less likely! What a strange thing...but great!

Adeline update: Well, things have been a little weird with the little girl. She had a couple more seizures, which were scary because they still are not positive why they are happening. Not related to seizures.  So.. Rotavirus? Just who she is? She is back on the anti-seizure med (overall she is pretty good at taking the meds). We have also started her on a Gluten Free diet, see if that helps with things. Bummer for her, she loved the Hotcakes from Mc D's...oh well.

Sports update: Haven't been able to talk much sports. Pretty depressing in the pro ranks at the moment. Brewers are playing terrible, and the Penguins totally lost it in the Playoffs...against the Flyers no less. Terrible. On the bright side, I always have the Packers to look forward too...really liked their draft and feel they made a lot of moves to improve their abysmal defense. I understand they were 15-1, but anyone who says they didn't need defense was out of their minds.  However, the Packers already have their first trophy of the year with Double D winning the Mirrorball trophy! The HHS Girls soccer team has been up and down. Very very talented, but when they make a mistake, it usually results in a goal...they head into playoffs this coming week. It has been awesome getting back into the swing of coaching...and the gals are so much fun, not only to coach, but they are so much fun to be around. All the teams were such a huge part in getting me back to good health and they have made it so easy to come back.

Hope this finds everyone else doing well, have a great Memorial weekend and enjoy good weather!!

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