November 28, 2000|

Thanksgiving 2000

It was great to be home. I don’t want to bore you too much with the details but I will pass along a few tidbits. I was housebound most of the weekend, because of my low immune system. Actually the exact words as I left the hospital two weeks ago from my doctor (a bit of a pessimist, you could say) was that 100%, no 75% of the patients who left after this massive chemo were readmitted because of fever. I guess I made the 25% cut. Any surprises there?

Thursday, I was up early watching my old show choir, the Youngstown Connection, open the Macy’s Parade. They were the ones with the skittle-colored sweatshirts swirling around Katie Couric and Matt Lauer at the beginning of the show. Katie, what a babe. The rest of the day was spent with family, eating lots of food, showing off my baldhead and playing Beyond Balderdash (the official Schlatter-Canning board game of the millenium).

Friday I was allowed out of the house to shop at the local Christian bookstore to load up on CD and book specials. I think Kara (who drove up from Canton for the sale and to see me) and I spent like 2 hours there. A constant stream of visitors came by the rest of the night. It’s just great to see people, ya know.

Saturday, I went to the mall (behind mom’s back, eek! Germs! Colds! Flu’s!) to find a new hat and to help find a dress for my second mom, Beth, for her class reunion that night. No luck with the hat or dress. Robin, Beth and I ended up at my house, after my mom gave an extremely demanding call to be home by 2pm. I was very upset about having to come home at 2pm. We got home by 2:30pm, started to eat lunch when a funeral procession of 10 cars went up our usually empty street. At least I thought it was. Then I recognized one of the cars and sprinted out our backdoor only to be greeted by 25 or so members of the Connection from past and present. They all piled in my living room and we sang old Connection songs like “When You’re Smiling,” “Blue Skies,” “Candle on the Water,” and “Bridge Over Troubled Water.” By the time we were finished, I hadn’t cried, but a good number of folks were. It was very touching. I then went to their practice later that afternoon and gave a talk to the new members of the Connection about what it means to be in the group and the responsibilities they now hold. I’ll put a page up soon about Connection when I get a chance.

Planes, Trains and Low Immune Systems

Cool thing coming back, everyone was so worried that I would catch a cold and end up in the hospital. That was never so more evident then on Monday morning when I was taking an Amtrak train from Philly to New York. It was put into my head to take the 11am train. So I went online and got my ticket for the 11:15am train. Crazily, the train before mine was sold out, and the train after mine was sold out.

Here’s where it gets freaky. Those trains were PACKED. I was pretty scared at the station. I start thinking, “The train is going to be full, I am going to get a cold, mom is going to kill me, Dr. Moskowitz is going to beat me down, help God!”

The call goes up for our train, and the line is really short. Really short. By the time we were off, there were two other people in my car! And by the time we arrived at Penn Station, there were only like ten people on our car! I wonder how that happened, somebody’s watchin’ over me.

Up Next, Darth Vader

I am now accessorized out. I have a great hat (spandex ski hat, can you beat spandex?!) and a great new pair of glasses, courtesy of Jordan Opticians in Brooklyn. Thursday I go in for a CT Scan to see how well the past two chemos have worked. My dad and prayer lady Kim both independently think that there is going to be a miracle and everything will be gone. I would love that, personally, but I am not betting the ranch on anything. Rather I know I need to prepare now for the last battle- the actual transplant. Five straight days of chemo and then not having an immune system for a few days is not going to be easy, but I feel that I can lessen the effects by bulking up, getting in better shape, and preparing mentally for the challenge. It’s kinda like Luke Skywalker going to Endor in “Return of the Jedi”. Preparing to face the dark side, which is totally a part of him (“Luke, I’m your father”), but he has to defeat it anyway he can. Just call me Art Skywalker.

Results from the CT Scan next week, stay tuned.