Eric’s Journal

The reason that these years have been the best, is that I think that I might have had a somewhat positive impact on your lives.  And an impact on your understanding of what cancer is and what it can do, to both those of us that it has personally attacked, and those of us who know someone who is going through it. -Eric McLean
Happy Mother’s Day!
Eric's Journal
Hey everyone, The past few weeks have been quite strenuous as you probably have read from Cari’s blogs. We’ve been in and out of the hospital for a number of…
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Fight!
Eric's Journal
It has been a very long time since I have last written a journal. What is to ensue will be my best attempt at an informational journal summarizing the course…
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Biopsy Results
Eric's Journal
Yesterday’s Bone marrow biopsy results are in – 0% of his cells are leukemic. This is down from 94% from last month. After just 1 chemotherapy treatment, this is incredible.…
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Round 5 – Update #2
Eric's Journal
Eric was released from the hospital today for a few weeks to recover! Bone marrow biopsy results last week showed 94% leukemic cells in his marrow which explains the pain…
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Gracious & Optimistic
Eric's Journal
I want to start off tonight by thanking all of the people who made the benefit this weekend possible.  There were a lot of people who volunteered their time to…
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Pneumoniaaaa
Eric's Journal
This week has been a pretty eventful week.  On Sunday, we were all blessed with the incredible performance of the Green Bay Packers.  It’s been one of my dreams to…
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Medical update
Eric's Journal
Hi Everyone,   I wanted to start off tonight by thanking all of you out there who have been sending your all of your thoughts and prayers my way.  I…
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Hayden’s Hope
Eric's Journal
Hey all, This is a personal request to all of my supporters out there. There is a young girl named Hayden residing in Manitowoc County, WI that is going through…
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Hazmat Nurse
Eric's Journal
Eric’s Nurse Amber garbs up to change out Eric’s chemotherapy! Though the situation is quite serious, Eric still manages to find some humor.  🙂
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Eric’s Confessions #3
Eric's Journal
For everyone that has been keeping up with Eric’s status, we strongly urge you to watch his latest video update that he posted tonight on YouTube titled “Eric’s Confessions #3”…
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Viva Las Vegas
Eric's Journal
Hey Everyone, I know it’s been awhile since I’ve last updated each of you, so I apologize for that.  The truth is, as you have probably noticed from the news…
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What’s next?
Eric's Journal
Hey everyone, It’s easily been the most insane past 4 days that I have ever experienced. List of emotions or adjectives from the past few days: Sadness Anger Terrified Hopeless…
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Tick tock tick tock
Eric's Journal
There have been many low points in the life of Eric McLean, but yesterday overshadows every single one of them. I woke up like I do every other Friday morning…
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Ups and downs
Eric's Journal
I know…it’s been awhile since I’ve last written.  Part of that is just because there hasn’t been a whole ton to write about.  I suppose the other part is that…
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Quick update
Eric's Journal
Because I said I would get a quick update out to let you all know what the next steps are, I figured I would post something on here seeing as…
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78 degrees in March?!
Eric's Journal
What’s up everyone?  It’s about that time again…blogging time.  I guess I’ll start off again this time by talking about some of the other health issues that I’ve had lately. …
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The smoke clears
Eric's Journal
So…what happened with the Harley-Davidson layoffs?  Well, in case you did not hear, Harley-Davidson made a company decision to lay off 1,100 workers last week.  They announced the layoff decision…
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Blog from the hog
Eric's Journal
Well, this is it. Today is December 24th, 2008.  I woke up this morning and got in the shower.  I was in the exact same place I was 365 days…
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Question number one
Eric's Journal
Question: Why are you going to stop writing in your journal?   Answer:  Alright, I’ll address this question now because if I don’t, I am sure that my inbox will…
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Happy Thanksgiving
Eric's Journal
Happy Thanksgiving!  I suppose that’s a good way to open things. Let’s see here…what could I possibly be thankful for?  Well, I’ll start out with the obvious and say that…
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‘Tis the season
Eric's Journal
I know, it’s been awhile since I last wrote.   Quite frankly, it’s just because I haven’t had a whole lot to say.  Every time that I write on here, I…
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5 years later
Eric's Journal
Yes, that’s right!  As all of you know, in June of 2003 I was diagnosed with Acute Myelogenous Leukemia.  On October 21st of 2003 I received a stem cell transplant…
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My outlook on life
Eric's Journal
I’m going to take a different approach to my entry today, so please bear with me… The past couple of months, I have been spending my nights outside in my…
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Another tragedy
Eric's Journal
On September 17th, a Wednesday, sometime at night, a 2nd cousin of mine got into a motorcycle accident and very sadly, did not make it.  Her name is Lisa Martin. …
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Beating the Demon
Eric's Journal
Growing up, I always did the best I could to look out for my siblings.  It was my job to make sure they were never bullied (except for sometimes by…
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IronMike 2008
Eric's Journal, Team L.I.F.E.
It’s finished!  Well, at least my brother is with the Ironman this year.  Mike finished the race in under 12 hours…successfully accomplishing his goal with a total time of 11:46:04. …
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Jason
Why
Eric's Journal
Yesterday and today have been two of the worst days of my life. For those of you that read my last journal entry, I told all of you how a…
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Movin’ right along
Eric's Journal
Well, a couple weeks have gone by now since I’ve last written.  A few things have happened…but not too much.    For one, as I said in my last post,…
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Life is good
Eric's Journal
Hey everyone! Well I finished Day 1 at Harley today.  It was truly a surreal moment as I walked through the front doors of the Harley-Davidson headquarters on Juneau Ave.…
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One week to go
Eric's Journal
I just woke up and I feel terrible.  My joints are aching like no tomorrow, and my head is absolutely pounding.  So I figured…it’s time to write something in my…
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News from Harley
Eric's Journal
Hi Everyone, I’ll just come right out and say it.  This past Friday, Harley-Davidson called me and informed me that my start date is July 14th.  The conversation only lasted…
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Busy busy busy
Eric's Journal
Hi Everyone,   It’s been a very busy time of the year for me and my family.  A couple of weekends ago I went up to Two Rivers to attend…
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McLeans
Ups and downs
Eric's Journal
Well, it’s been one very crazy week.  Where do I even begin.  I guess I can kind of start where I left off last week talking about how my younger…
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Hickman central line
Hangin in there
Eric's Journal
Hi Everyone   It’s been awhile since I last wrote, so I thought I would get a few words out there to let everyone know how I have been doing.…
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Bring on summer!
Eric's Journal
Hi everyone!   First off, I would first love to talk about the wonderful weather we have been having here in Wisconsin.  When I saw the temperature gauge sitting at…
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I’m out!
Eric's Journal
Well, it’s been about a month and I am out of the hospital!  I was almost in tears as I walked down the halls to the car with my pillow…
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Feeling better
Eric's Journal
I’m starting to feel much better. My mouth and digestive system have been my main issues. I haven’t been able to keep one bite of food down and it’s been…
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Blood Counts
Eric's Journal
Key: CTX = Citoxin chemotherapy TBI = Total Body Irradiation MTX = Drug used to suppress Lindsey’s cells so they don’t attack my body WBC = White Blood Cells ANC…
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Non-stop nausea
Eric's Journal
I haven’t written in a few days and there are a couple of reasons for that.  The main one is this damn nausea.   Every single day since the transplant…
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Insomnia is lurking
Eric's Journal
Hey everyone,   My white blood cell count is bottoming out. This now means that I am neutropenic and my diet is now somewhat restricted. I can’t eat fresh fruits…
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Thank you!
Eric's Journal
I would first like to thank the Two Rivers High School for promoting the basketball event under my name to help raise money and awareness for cancer research. From what…
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Eric's front
1000 rads down….200 to go.
Eric's Journal
Hi Everyone, Anyway…thought I would use today’s journal to show you what exactly Total Body Irradiation is and looks like. Step 1:(enter Mary McLean/Mom) Eric is not up to continuing…
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One more time
Eric's Journal
Hi everyone,   I’ve had a pretty good past few days. On Saturday I spent the day in Milwaukee with three of my very good friends from high school. We…
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A week to go
Eric's Journal
Well…it is less than one week until I go back to Froedtert. This time I will be there for six weeks or so. I have had an amazing time the…
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Me feeling better!
Some mental relief
Eric's Journal
Hi Everyone!   Sorry it’s been so long since I last wrote…honestly there just hasn’t been much going on for me to relay to all of you. My mom and…
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Radiation…fun.
Eric's Journal
Hi everyone!   It’s been a week or so since I last wrote and I have quite a few updates as far as everything goes.   I would first and…
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Glad to be out again
Eric's Journal
Today, I was once again released from the hospital. When I was readmitted this past Thursday for my round of consolidation chemo, the last thing I expected was that they…
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Round 2
Eric's Journal
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…
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More news!
Eric's Journal
Hi everyone! It’s been a few days since I have written anything, and I can’t seem to get any sleep tonight for whatever reason; so I thought I would blog…
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Donor match?
Eric's Journal
Well…I’ll come right out with it.  My younger sister, Lindsey, is a perfect match to be a donor.  They said over the phone that she was an equivalent match like…
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Home sweet home
Eric's Journal
Yesterday I was officially released from the hospital. They gave me my discharge papers and a handful of prescriptions of meds that I would need to take while I stayed…
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HUZZAH!!!!
Eric's Journal
My mom came in this morning and kept me company for most of the day. We sat around and watched TV and talked for awhile about all sorts of things.…
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Good and bad news
Eric's Journal
Well, I’ll start with the good news. Today I was supposed to get back my biopsy results from yesterday. Dr. George came in to tell me that the leukemia cells…
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Harley!!!!
Eric's Journal
Today I had another bone marrow biopsy.  They gave me some fentanyl and vercid to somewhat sedate me.  It’s a conscious sedation that makes me feel a little loopy, but…
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Had a scare today
Eric's Journal
Well the day started off with a high temperature again and when my blood results came back, they noticed that my hematocrit and platelets were low but my white count…
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And so we wait…
Eric's Journal
About the time I heard the news from my doctor yesterday about my bone marrow biopsy results, I started getting some slightly elevated temperatures. Sometimes these higher temperatures are classified…
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Can’t move!
Eric's Journal
Well I told myself I wasn’t going to post anything again today and that is mainly because I cannot seem to shake this headache. I have had it since the…
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Headache blah…
Eric's Journal
Hi everyone. I still have a pretty intense headache from that spinal tap so I am going to keep tonight’s blog fairly short.   Started off my day with an…
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Long day
Eric's Journal
This is Mary, Eric’s mom. I am writing this, as Eric is not up to it and has asked me to send out a little update for today. What a…
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Full house!
Eric's Journal
Hi everyone! Spirits are still pretty high. The side effects from the chemotherapy still haven’t been showing their true colors. I expect them to come full circle by Monday or…
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CHEESECAKE!!!!
Eric's Journal
Well last night definitely did not end well. Almost right after I finished posting yesterday’s blog, I became very nauseous, and then ended up vomiting and dryheaving for the next…
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Merry Christmas
Eric's Journal
Merry Christmas! I got to start my Christmas day off with two pieces of what the hospital calls “sausage,” some corn flakes w/ milk, and a bowl of mixed fruit.…
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It begins…again
Eric's Journal
There are things in life that I will never understand. Today, after over four years of remission, my cancer has relapsed and I was diagnosed with leukemia. My worst nightmare,…
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