3 out of 5

I said the other day my goal was to work 40 hours this week and it was lookin pretty good until I didn't sleep much Wednesday night. When 8am came around the first thing I said to boss was 'I will be working but not the whole day so let's figure out what's best". We decided on a 2-6 shift for optimum productivity. Now that I struggled through those 4 hours it will be interesting to see what I can do Friday. The other side of Friday...a weekend in Syracuse with most of my favorite 315ers. I'll get back to you next week with a full report on how it went.

Back in the old iron lung...

I went to work at 9am today and worked a full 8 hours. That's the most I've worked in one shot being only 6 days out from chemo and the goal is to work a whole 40 hour week. I looked back at my time sheets and I haven't done that since the week of March 23rd so here's things hopefully getting back to normal. While I do feel a little tired and enjoyed a solid nap as soon as I got home, I think I can actually pull this off. I'm also looking forward to a my first trip to a racetrack this season, even if I do have to wear a mask all night.

Ups and Downs

Felt like I was on a roller coaster again for the past week. I was finally able to get over a cold that sent me to the emergency room the week before, some of my best friends came to visit for the day, I had chemo again, I ALMOST threw up at work, met with the radiologist and I saw a comedian I've been wanted to see for a few years now.

Paige and Danielle's visit last weekend was the best thing that could have happened to me. They got in middle afternoon, we went to the Lilac Festival and bombed around there for a couple hours then went out to dinner. During dinner we decided we wanted to go to the Rochester Knighthawks lacrosse game. If you've never been to an indoor lax game I would HIGHLY recommend it. It's a very fast paced action packed violent game and I loved every second of it. Throughout the day Danielle kept saying how much she liked Rochester which made me feel awesome cause I'm kinda fond of this city myself.

A couple days ago I got to see Josh Blue at The Comedy Club, he's a stand-up comic with Cerebral Palsy who I caught on Comedy Central a few years ago. Josh uses his disability a lot in his act and I think it's hilarious. His set was top notch and well worth $12, plus I got to take a picture with him afterwards.

My appointment with the radiologist went well, though he is a strange little man. I'll be starting radiation a few weeks after my last chemo which is June 4. Side effects should be minimal because Hodgkins Lymphoma patients normally get a lower dose than other cancers AND mine is not very aggressive so I get the low end for HL. Can't wait for this to just be done and behind me because the headaches and nausea from chemo are starting to get old really fast. I don't know how other people can put up with it 8 or 10 times, I've only had 3 and I'm totes over it. Nobody said cancer would be fun but come on this is getting ridiculous.

I still have a TON of team coozy merch if you're in the market for that kinda thing. I also set up accounts on ebay, etsy and fiverr to try and offload some of the koozies. Next week my goal is to work 25+ hours, something I haven't done in well over a month. If I lay low this weekend and save my energy I think I might be able to pull it off, Like I've said before it's always good to have goals and things to look forward to.

Random update

I know it's been a while but I've felt just plain crappy for the last week and nobody wants to sit around and read about me complaining all day. I came down with a cold last week and the damn thing won't seem to go away. On top of that I can't find the right mix of drugs to make my stomach feel better. Hopefully I can straighten it all out before chemo next week...hopefully. I did get to enjoy some quality time with Cassie this week since she had about 5 days off in a row so that was nice. I have a bunch of #teamcoozy merch left over so if you're in the market for can koozies, stickers, buttons or ribbons let me know. Cheers to a weekend that's going to be a lot cooler (literally the temp will be a lot lower) than this past week has been.

Benefit and Chemo

3 days ago was the benefit my dad organized. It was so great to see all those people, about 250 total. Gotta give a a huge shout out to everyone who helped out. It was nice to see so many people care and wanted to be a part of it. Everyone's generosity was overwhelming and after this I don't think I'll have to worry about too many medical bills.

Yesterday was my second round of chemo. It went smoothly and today I'm feeling minimal side effects, hopefully that continues. Later this afternoon I'm going to Best Buy so I can FINALLY get a new audio deck installed and my sub woofers hooked up again. You're going to hear me coming from a mile away. Hope you're having as good of a day as me!

Go time

I had a hard time falling asleep last night. Ya know how you can't sleep when you know you're leaving for vacation the next day? That was me staring at the ceiling. I don't know if I've ever been so excited to go back to Syracuse. In the afternoon there's a group of us going out to watch the Bruins game. Tonight there's another group getting together for poker that reminds me of 10+ years ago, let the cards and bullshit fly. And of course tomorrow is the benefit. All I've heard from other people the last few days is "I'm going and I'm excited". Then I hear about friends of friends of friends that wanna go, Sunday is going to be amazing! I'm still in bed thinking of what I have to do before I go and I think I have a game plan locked down. Next update is coming Sunday or Monday and I'll tell you all about how much fun I had this weekend.

♫ It's just another day ♫

I'll give you 3 points and a free hug if you can name the song and artist above.

I had a laid back day working from home for a few hours filling greeting card orders for CatPrint. It's awesome that Becca let's me bring supplies home so I can work comfortably from my couch and I don't feel rushed to get it all done in one sitting. I took a break in the afternoon to have lunch with my old man and his fiance at my favorite diner, Mark's Texas Hots after they flew in from Florida. They were happy cause it's good an cheap, $25 for 3 people to eat lunch. We caught up on life, our illnesses and the benefit on Sunday. Oh yeah, have you heard there's something going on Sunday?

The more we talked about it the more excited I was getting. When he first told me about it months ago I was all like "yeah ok". Now that it's days away and I realized how much fun it's going to be I'm starting to get pumped. It's going to be a GREAT opportunity for me to see so many people I like and forget for a day that I'm sick. That's all assuming I don't over do it AND people don't treat me like I'm sick. As long as we stick to that plan everything should be OK.

When I checked my mail this afternoon there was a card from an old friend's girlfriend and someone I've recently started to consider one of my best friends lately. Danielle is a 6th grade teacher and her whole class signed a card for me. Earlier this week I missed a call from another friend's girlfriend, see a trend here? She said their 3 1/2 year old son wanted to say hi cause he missed me. When I asked if they've explained to him that Uncle Pat is sick this is the exact response: "Yes and no. He knows that you have to go to the hospital and the Dr but he doesn't understand much more than that. When I showed him a pic of you getting chemo he said he needed to kiss your boo boo and give you a band-aid and you would be all better". Why do people insist on making me cry?

Now it's time for a quick nap and then cheer on the Bruins as they start their second round series tonight. I've said it before, when you have cancer there are good days and there are bad. Today was a good cancer day :)