Everything's Gonna Turn Out Great

Welcome back!
All is well here- things are getting normaller and normaller all the time! I went back to work last week (limited hours for now), went grocery shopping, to The Venue in Hammond, to a movie (Watchmen), and all sorts of places I haven't been in a long while. I'm still getting used to it, but it's all great. I don't even mind all of the idiots on the road!

Oh, here's those latest charts I promised:

As you can see, the white blood is within the normal range, the platelets are rocketing up there, and the hemoglobin is getting there. .3 to go to get to the low end of normal! The next doctor visit isn't for a little more than a week from now when I go in for the first of the Rituxan treatments, so all the levels should be way up there by then. Of course, the treatment will knock them down a bit, but supposedly not nearly as much as the normal chemos did.

Here's another bit of back to normal- The Lennys have their first show since last fall this Saturday! Here's the ad:

I actually scheduled this show way back in December after the second bone marrow test results indicated that everything was on track. There have been a few snags since then, the worst of which was the temporary nerve damage that was caused by one of the chemo chemicals, but we're ready to go! We've had plenty of time to practice over the last couple of months, so we've got over a dozen songs we haven't played in public yet. We probably won't play all of them at this show; that way we'll have new stuff for the next couple of shows.

Obviously, our photos have been altered for the above picture. While my hair has been growing back, and I'm told that sometimes it will grow back with a different color or texture, I don't have an afro a la Freddie 'Boom Boom' Washington.

Here's a photo from a recent practice:

As you can see, it was a bad hair day. I'll probably get it cut before the show. If you've got any questions about where it is and you're not on our email list, let me know. The more the merrier!

See you out and about!

Dave

Well, well, well

Hi all!

Great news!

But first, let me apologize; I have been remiss(ion) in my aim to keep updating this blog updated lately. It's been my sincere (re)mission to report everything that's been going on, but there's been a lot of things going on lately and I kept putting it off since there was always something else happening in a day or two that I didn't want to (re)miss(ion) out on...

Have you guessed the great news yet? That's right, I have a new hat!

Oh yeah, I also have official word that the cancer is in remission!

OK, there's a few catches. I will still have to go for 'maintenance Rituxan' every two months for the next two years; the upside of that is that Rituxan, unlike the other chemo chemicals I was getting, should have very few, if any, side effects. Also, we heard it's developed with mouse antibodies, which explains all of those cats hanging around my house. At least that'll solve the chipmunk problem.

I'll also be known to some as a "cancer survivor". I'm not sure I care for that title. It's not like I go around saying that I'm a chicken pox survivor, or bragging that I've survived all the major earthquakes. I'm just Dave.

And Dave is getting back to normal.

Here's a bunch of stuff that's happened in the last couple of weeks:

-6th chemo - last one and done!

-last batch of shots from Kathy, who has done a great jab/job for the last number of months...

-another bone marrow test - ouch!

-more doctor visits, and another trip in to Rush. It's sort of ironic that patience is one of things I've learned most about, and the final confirmation that the cancer is in remission came from a place called 'Rush'...

-the picc line has been taken out - finally!

-there's another doctor visit on Monday, so I'll post the best charts ever that afternoon, promise!

There's been a few more challenges lately as well:

-on one of my rare car trip outtings, I accidentally rolled down the passenger window in Kathy's van. Bad move. It's been broken for awhile; it rolls down, but usually not up. We tried to pull it up, but no dice. After leaving it open all night, Kathy started the van the next morning and tried the button out of habit, and it went right up, saving a probably expensive trip later on to the repair shop... We'll have to get it fixed eventually, but right now would not be the best time.

-Kathy had some tests done which initially showed a possibility that she had some sort of autoimmune disease. This caused a few anxious days while we waited for further test results, since she might have given me something while my immune system was down. To our relief, she's just fine, and the data showed that there was no serious problems...

-Kathy's dad came down with double pneumonia and suffered a mild myocardial infarction (that's a fancy way to say heart attack) on Super Bowl sunday. She had tried to call him during the day a number of times since we had some groceries to take over, but when he hadn't called back by that evening, she decided to stop by anyway and found him laying on the floor, but still conscious. He went to the hospital for about a week, and is now at a rehabilitation center to regain his strength.

So to all of you that have been praying for me, I'd like to say 'thanks' to you, and would request that you give a big 'Thanks!" as well, and add Kathy's dad (Bill Dohm) to your list of people who could use a little help.

Speaking of which, my brother Tim could use a little help finding a job. He was laid off a couple of weeks ago and is actively searching, and said I could mention it here. So if anyone needs a someone for managing accounts receivable and/or managing a department of that type of work that looks somewhat like me but with more hair, let me know. Or you can contact him directly at firecatjoker@yahoo.com.

In spite of all these latest small and large tribulations, I realize that I'm blessed to be here to deal with them. And although they've been frustrating at times, it's nice to talk to Kathy about something other than me, me, me all the time.

A big thanks to everyone who voted for The Lennys in the Best of the Burbs contest nominations in January! We made it into the finals in every category that we were nominated for! Of course, if you kept voting you know that, and hopefully you did. If not, get out there and vote- the finals voting is open until March 15th, so there's still another couple of weeks. You can- and should- vote once a day. If you haven't voted yet, go to nitelife.com and get started!

Here's those categories again:

Vote for The Lennys under:
-Best Classic Rock Band
-Best Cover Band
-Best Musician - Bass (Dave Perrin)
-Best Musician - Drums (John Perrin)
-Best Musician - Guitar (Cory Devlin)

Vote for John's band The Takeouts under:
-Best New Band
-Best Under-21 Band
-Best Local Band Original Album
-Best Local Band Original Song

And vote for Cory's other band After the Fight:

-Best Alternative Band

We thank you for your support! And if anyone is interested, the awards ceremony/banquet is Sunday, March 22nd, and open to everyone! A few of us went to it once and it was pretty fun, so let me know if you're interested and we could all meet up there and see if we won anything!

That's plenty for now, I think! If I think of anything reeeeealllly important, I'll update this weekend, otherwise I'll check in with the latest and greatest on Monday afternoon--

Dave

Reasons To Be Cheerful, Part 3

Hello again! It's been a busy couple of weeks- the best of times and the worst of times if you need a quote. Actually, it hasn't exactly been the worst of times, but they've been worrisome all the same.

Since the graphs are first today, let me talk about me. I am still doing well, as the graphs show if you look at them right. I had the last chemotherapy treatment- yaaaaaayyyyyyy- two weeks ago. Something that I've learned that I was wrong about through all of this: I had the impression that the chemos and their aftereffects would get easier as I went through more of them. Nope! They were all bleah. Not horrible- I still think that other people have had it worse from the stories I've heard, but definitely not my idea of fun. But I'm 6-and-0 now, and better for it!

This post was started and put off too long... I've got better news, so I'm starting over with a new one. But since the new charts are still pretty good, we'll post this one too...