Back Up to Speed

December 5, 2005 by Brian

Let’s see, what all has happened in the past… holy crap! Twenty five days? Wow, I suck.

The hockey season finished with my team missing the playoffs. We actually had a mathematical chance of making it going into the last game. If the team above us was beaten and we won, we were in. Sadly, they won and we were beaten, something like 12-4. To make it even worse, we got the first four goals of the game. Oy. Well, the new season starts this Wednesday, so we’ll see how the team looks this year.

Cancer-wise, my PET scan is this Friday, and we’ll find out the results next week, along with where we go from here. My bonus end=of-chemo present finally arrived on Thursday. Barb had a t-short made for me with my “Cancer is my bitch” slogan. Sadly, we can’t wear t-shorts with writing at work, or I would’ve worn it Friday. We had a Queen’s Night Christmas party on Saturday, so I wore it then to rave reviews. I’m almost done with my bumpersticker design, so hopefully I’ll be able to order those shortly.

I’ve been feeling pretty good, being chemo-less and all, but I think my body was expecting a treatment last week. I had many of the lesser symptoms through Friday, even feeling a touch of the chemo tiredness at one point. Stupid conditioned body. Hopefully this week my body will finally realize the chemo is over.

Oh, and I’m putting together a little list of Hodgkin’s tips to help out the people coming into this after me. I’ll have a link on the left side of the page to it, just in case you need to reference it further down the road. At the moment, it’s kind of ugly and unreadable, but I’ll eventually get around to making it pretty. Right around the time that I redesign the site, post the house photos, post the wedding photos, the past few years of birthdays… Oh man, I’m feeling dizzy.

Return of the badass

November 10, 2005 by Brian

It finally happened again – we won a game! And we beat the third-ranked team, no less. Beat ’em like a rented mule, 8-3. I wound up +2 for the night and actually skated a little more like my old self through the first few shifts. Of course, that quickly caught up with me and I was dogging most of the rest of the game.

I also felt a little more of my old self by harassing their defensemen and goalie. The defenseman I always wound up against was at least a half foot taller than me and quite a few pounds. Big ol’ Grizzly Adams lumberjack lookin’ dude. He actually complained to the ref about me pushing him around in front of his own net. Turns out lumberjacks are pansies.
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The end is near

November 3, 2005 by Brian

Well, one more hockey game is in the books. We played the number one team in our division, which meant an 8-2 loss for our team. Personally though, I wound up being +1 for the night. I would like my Selke trophy now, please.

I wound up missing the first ten or so minutes of the game due to traffic being a complete parking lot on 2 East. It took around an hour to make the 9.8 mile journey. I was a little stressed when I got there. I wound up arriving just as the warm-up ended and wound up wearing myself out trying to get all of my gear on quickly. Idiot. Then, of course, I go out on my first shift and give 180%, which means I give 80% on my next shift, 50% on the next and so on through the rest of the game. Oy. But I did what I could to keep the puck out of our net, including flattening one of their players before he could get a breakaway or pass the puck.

And I still haven’t gotten a penalty. I blame the cancer. We now have three more games left, one of which was rescheduled to the day after my chemo, so I have two left. And no, we’re not going to make the playoffs – one of the few certainties in life…

Speaking of which, next week is my LAST TREATMENT! A few more days of feeling like crap and I’m done! My little gift for myself? I’m designing myself a “Cancer is my bitch” bumpersticker to apply to my truck. I’ve found some places that will do short sticker runs for pretty good prices. Oh yeah!

If I didn’t respect Bill Watterson so much, I’d have them make a Calvin peeing on cancer, but I do and I live in the upper class north, you know. Meh.

Let’s hear it for #22!

October 19, 2005 by Brian

Here’s one more way Brian Leetch and I are alike (not the record part – the last bit) :

“Boston’s Brian Leetch scored in the first period and assisted on Nick Boynton’s goal in the second to become the seventh defenseman — and 69th player — in NHL history to reach 1,000 career points.

‘I hope they don’t mention I was on the ice for all four goals in the loss,’ said Leetch, taking care of that himself. ‘Hopefully they won’t remember that, because that was disappointing.’ ”
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Now we’re 1-4

October 13, 2005 by Brian

Well, we lost last night’s game, but I think we all felt better about this one. The score definitely didn’t reflect the effort we put out this time. They just had three or four really good players who would skate through us and fake out the goalie. Final score: 10-5. Ouch. We did manage to get a short handed goal on them, though.

I feel a lot better about this game and my playing than I did last week. I think as long as the team plays well and tries hard, that makes me feel and skate better. I wound up being -2 for the night, even after being on the rink for two goals. I had a part in both of those goals, as I was doing my usual excellent job of screening the goalie. I might have gotten credit for one of them, but I don’t know, simply because I’m not sure of how it went into the net.

All in all, a much better game, and probably the best I’ve skated/played so far. The season’s finally starting to look up! For me, anyways.

Now we’re 1-3. Ugh.

October 6, 2005 by Brian

Well, another crappy night of hockey. Not quite as bad as my initial game, but pretty close, especially since I couldn’t blame the skates this time. I think I’m still not quite recovered from the cold I picked up awhile back. I just hope it hasn’t killed off enough white blood cells to keep me from getting my chemo today.
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We’re now 1-1

September 22, 2005 by Brian

What a difference a pair of skates make. I went and bought some larger skates on Tuesday and that took care of 90% of my suck. These are nice and roomy and fit my feet well. Interestingly enough, the guy who sold them to me has a wife who’s 80% done with her own chemotherapy.

Does everyone have cancer? It’s getting so played out.

So I was skating much better last night (Barb said I actually looked like a hockey player of some sort) AND I even got a goal!
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I Am A Fucking Idiot

September 14, 2005 by Brian

Word of warning in case you didn’t read the title – this is a post to hide from the kids. If everyone gathers around the computer to see what Unkie Brian has been up to, send the little ones to bed and tell them I’m having a happy wonderful time.
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