Hi everyone,

 

I am back at the hospital for my next round of chemotherapy. The same room I had then was available, so I took it. As I wait here for the doctors to come in and tell me what’s going to happen in the upcoming months and for the nurses to come in with the multiple bags of chemo, I think about the great time I have had this past week and a half or so. After I got out of the hospital, I wanted to do everything and anything I possibly could before I had to go back and I think I did a pretty good job. Granted, I didn’t go skydiving or anything, but still – I was constantly busy.

 

This past weekend I visited my college town (Whitewater) and hung out with some really good friends of mine: Derrik and Tom. We hung out and had a great time. We went to Janesville to grab some food and then they began the party. I started to get tired early in the night so I decided to trek back to New Berlin to sleep in my own bed. On my way back, one of my old friends from high school called me to let me know that him and his wedding party were at a bowling alley in New Berlin all getting to know each other and having a good time. Being that it was only half of a mile or so from my place, I decided to stop in and visit all of my old friends from high school. Josh is the one getting married. He is standing in the center in the picture below.

 

 

Jason, who is pictured fourth in the picture above, gave me a call on Monday and asked me if I wanted to go to the Marquette men’s basketball game with him, Elijah, and Josh. All four of us are pictured one through four above. He had front row tickets to the game and there was no way I was going to pass it up. I quickly said yes and on Tuesday night we went to the game and had a blast. Even though Marquette’s performance was sub par, they still won the game versus USF. I had an awesome time. Thanks Jason for the sweet tix!

 

I also got the chance to go see a movie this weekend called “The Bucket List.” I highly recommend it for anyone out there who is interested in checking out a good flick at the movies. It stars Jack Nicholson and Morgan Freeman. They are both cancer patients who write up this list, aka the bucket list, of things they want to do before they “kick the bucket.” There were quite a few parts of that movie that really hit home to me.

 

Yesterday, my last day of freedom, my mother and I spent the day together. We got some breakfast and went over to the Milwaukee Public Museum to check out their exhibit called Body Worlds. The exhibit will be in town until June something. So if you are in town and not busy, that is also something I recommend you get out and take a look at. It was very interesting and educational. We then went over to Target to buy a few things and wrapped up the night.

 

This morning I packed all of my stuff and now here I am. I once again want to thank everyone out there who has been so supportive and positive throughout this entire ordeal. My treatment is coming along as best as it can be and hopefully I will be able to attend my friend’s wedding in April. If everything goes perfectly, that just might happen.

 

And lastly and most importantly, the doctor called me yesterday with the preliminary results of my bone marrow biopsy that I had on Tuesday.  I am officially in remission…incredible.  To go from 94% to 0% is unheard of around here.  Everyone that I talk to has been in here for months just trying to get into remission.  So the chemotherapy I am on right now isn’t to pound me into remission…but to keep me in remission until the transplant is all set up and ready to go.  So it sounds like it is going to be somewhat less intense and hopefully my body will handle it much better.  It also seems as if I might be able to get out of the hospital shortly after they are finished with giving me my chemo.  It’s very strange for me, because I have never gotten chemo and been able to go home…it’s always been 3-4 weeks in a hospital bed.   I won’t argue with them…if they want to send me home…GREAT!  I’ll just do all of my recovery and rest at my place in New Berlin (10 minutes from Froedtert) instead of in their bed.  I’ll keep you all updated as far as what exactly is going to happen in the next week or so within the next couple of days.

 

Thank you all for everything and have a great day!

Eric