Hey Everyone,

So…I started doing these confession things in my YouTube channel…it’s sort of another way for me to write these journals – instead I get to use video, which makes it a bit more personal, and is easier for me to do.  The video Eric’s Confessions #1 – 6/24/2009 will explain how things are going to probably end up going down with any possible treatment that I go through.  Whatever ends up happening, it needs to happen VERY soon.  The doctors in Madison also had nothing positive to say.

I’d really prefer to move most of my blogging over to video, but I know that there will be a lot of feedback with some user resistance of people not wanting to watch videos or not knowing how to use YouTube or whatever.   So, I will probably continue to still write something during this transitional period.  I’ll get a link up on here in the near future with direct links to all of my videos, whether they be for the Bucket List or for my Confessions videos.

As for Europe, there are a lot of logistical issues which are all preventing me from going.  My mom’s knee has her severely handicapped so there is no way she would be able to go.  Because of that, I am more than certain my dad would not be going as well.   Not only that, but trying to orchestrate a larger group of people hopping from city to city in Europe would be very difficult.  Transportation, hotels, food, etc… Aside from all of that, my doctors feel that it would now be a bad time for me to go tooling around Italy and Greece.

Instead, my ENTIRE family is going to go to St. Thomas down in the Virgin Islands for some 5-star fun in the sun on a storybook type setting of a beach.  We’ll spend a week down there, where I will also have direct contact with a doctor down there who is friends with one of my doctors.  I’ll be able to easily get my blood tested in case anything goes wrong and in the case that things do go bad while I am there, it will be much easier for me to get on a plane to come home than it would be if I were in some random city in Europe.  Not only that, but easy access to things like blood labs and such are really just unknown to me in Europe.  Either way, I know I will have an amazing time down in the Virgin Islands.

I am going to leave Europe on The Bucket List for the day WHEN I get better…not IF i get better.  An uncompleted list leaves the implication that there will be time at a later date to complete those things.

Today, I am going to head over to a golf course here in Two Rivers that is putting on a fundraiser for me.  I will probably golf nine holes.  Tomorrow, I am going to head down to Milwaukee to take care of all kinds of paperwork that no 24 year old should have to take care of.  There is a good chance I’ll make an appearance at Summerfest tomorrow night.  On Saturday or Sunday, I think I am going to go out on Lake Michigan for some good fishing with a family friend from high school, Craig Rysticken.

On Monday, I will have another bone marrow biopsy done at Froedtert.  I will get the results back from that approximately 7-10 days later.  The results of that biopsy in comparison with the results from my first biopsy should give the doctors a good idea at how fast the leukemia is growing and spreading.  So after the biopsy on Monday, I will begin packing for The Virgin Islands as we are flying out on Tuesday.  I’ll do my best to keep everyone updated with everything that is going on.

Take care,

Eric