Well, sadly, I was right. The Devils lost Game 5, playing much the same way they did in games 1-3. You know, I was just saying they wouldn’t win so that they would - they didn’t have to prove me right. So now I’ll cheer for Edmonton. Sure, the Ducks brought some more purple into the league, but they took my Neidermeyer, so they get no support. Besides, that Edmonton arena ROCKS!

ATTENTION DAD! Be sure and watch the San Jose/Edmonton game this Wednesday at 8 EST on OLN. They’ll be playing in Edmonton and you’ll get to hear what I was telling you about on Sunday. Plus, if they win and close out the series, the place is going to go bonkers.

In other news, I masked up and we went over to the new house for the inspection. There were a couple of minor issues, mostly with the fireplace. That actually makes it sound worse than it is. Basically, the fireplace needed some cleaning and a good inspecting from a chimney guy. The top of the chimney needs a little mortar and we couldn’t find the cleanout for the furnace side of the chimney. Other than that, a semi-screwy attic fan and little touch ups here and there, the place passed with flying colors. I took a few photos of everything and I’m in the process of throwing them all together for you to see. Expect another post by the end of the day.

Another realtor brought someone by our house while we were at the new house. They didn’t say anything bad about the place, which is a step in the right direction, but we don’t have an offer yet, and that’s what counts.

One last thing - I’m going to be reworking my email delivery system in a little bit. Shouldn’t mean too much to you folks out there, but if you send me an email today and I don’t reply for awhile (like, even longer than it usually takes me), send me a note via the contact form and I’ll let you know if I’m just being lazy. It goes to a different address, so shouldn’t be affected. Assuming, of course, that I don’t do something really stupid.

I can’t believe I almost forgot to bring this up, but…

(AP Photo/Mel Evans)

Now, I understand wanting to make a change to help out the team’s game and all, but is ’70s porn star really the direction you want to go, Colin? This photo is actually a lot less goofy looking than he was yesterday, but it’s all I can find at the moment.

One other thing on the list of what won’t happen tonight (in the same mindset as the earlier post) - there’s no way Brian Gionta will get a hat trick. Nope. And Parise too. And Gomer and Elias. Not a chance. Did I mention Langenbrunner? None of them will get hat tricks tonight, and certainly not all in the same game.

Here’s hoping that does the (hat) trick. I don’t wanna have to grow a porn star mustache.

I’m not sure if it’s the hockey gods trying to make me look like an idiot or if they just needed me to post about them to win, but the Devs put on a really impressive show yesterday. They finally looked like themselves, even though Gionta still hasn’t gotten a point in this series. I’ll declare this right now - Cam Janssen is my cancer watchdog. Now whenever I’m feeling low from the chemo, I’m just picturing a million Cams skating through my system knocking the Hodge on its ass. Let’s hear it for positive visualization.

So whichever thing I did yesterday to make them win, I’ll do it again today. Let’s see…

The way the Devils are looking right now, I would not be surprised in the least if they lose on Saturday Sunday and are swept beaten 4-1. Being the team they are and on the cusp of elimination, I would also not be surprised if they win on Saturday Sunday. But the way they’ve been playing in this series and, more importantly, the way the Hurricanes have been playing, I don’t see the Devils making it through to the next round. Still, the playoffs are where the miracles happen, right?

Man, it’s hard being a fan…

Cancer-wise, I’m feeling slightly better. My sleeping habits are still hosed from the prednisone and I have bacne like you wouldn’t believe, but I’m slowly getting to where I don’t dread climbing the stairs. I’m still not that fond of them and they still wear me out, but I’m getting there. I’m spending Mother’s Day here alone at the house to be away from the crowd at Bev’s house today. The weather’s being crappy and rainy and everyone’s going to have to stay huddled inside and I really don’t like that stupid little mask. So, I’ll do some more lying around the house today and wait for the hockey game at 7, when I get to climb all the way up to the third floor. I think I’ll pack some provisions and start the journey around 6.

Hmmm… today feels like a Big Lebowski day. I wonder which moving box we’ve stashed that in… Oooo! Maybe a Coen Brothers marathon! Though, I’m pretty sure I sent the Hudsucker Proxy to storage. My life is so full…

Speaking of storage and such, another realtor came by to show off the house yesterday. They were here for about a half hour or so, but no word yet on what the potential buyers thought. Our house inspection for the new place is on Monday, so it’ll be great to get to see our new place again. We’ve got another open house for this place coming up next Sunday, so I’ve got a whole week to maniacally shuffle around the house hiding anything of value. There’s just something about random strangers walking around my house alone that gives me the heebie jeebies, especially in this neighborhood.

I mean… this is a GREAT neighborhood! Buy our house!

It’s been quite a week since last we spoke. Let’s see how much I can recall.

The biggest news is, Barb and I have found a new house and our offer’s been accepted. We’ve got an inspection on Monday, so sometime after that I’ll put up some photos. We’re both tremendously excited, as there’s so much that’s absolutely perfect about this house. When we bought our current abode, it never quite felt like home. First, we had a good solid year’s worth of work we had to put into ti just to make it liveable. Then with its location and such, we always knew that we’d be moving at some point once it came time to be havin’ little chilluns. This new house is it. The Last House. At least until the kids all grow up and we get moved to an assisted living community.

One of the many truly excellent things about the new house is, it’s ready to move in. It could use a little paint on the walls, but that’s IT. We can immediately start settling in to this place. We don’t have to rip the kitchen down to the bare studs before we can cook anything. We can move our boxes and furniture into the house, unpack the boxes, stash our stuff and STOP! I cannot put in to words how amazing that is. Let me see if I can do it with a picture.

Me in our old kitchen.

This, to me, is the one photo that typifies everything we’ve gone through with this house. There are SO many more that do an equally horrifying job, but… well, let’s just zoom in a bit here.

The eyes have it.

Yes, I think the look in my eyes says more than the rotted floorboards could ever say.

Cancer-wise, life has really sucked as of late. I’m done with the chemo, but this one has finally done me in. If I go up or down the stairs here, I have to rest wherever I wind up for awhile before I can even think about making the return trip. My pulse races like I’ve been running a marathon and I’m just as out of breath. All from one flight of stairs, taken very slowly. This really sucks, to say the least.

I went to the doc’s yesterday to get checked out because of it. Actually, I was taken to doc’s ’cause Barb had to leave work and come take me. I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to actually drive myself there and back. I’m just that tired.

They drew some blood and my red cells are okay. Low, but workable. My neutraphils, however, were in the basement. These are the things that your white blood cells are based off of, so it’s a key as to your immunity from illness and infection. They start to worry a little if your count gets down to 1500. Mine was at 400. So now I have to stay away from groups of people and children, wash my hands like I have OCD and wear a mask if I’m feeling energetic enough to wander out into the world. Fortunately I’m too tired to make it to the front door let alone go out it, so I don’t have to worry about the mask too much for now.

The medical folks are thinking this might all be a reaction to stopping the prednisone, the steroid that makes up the last “P” in MOPP. Dr. D gave me another prescription for the pred that we can taper off this time, as well as an antibiotic to help head off anything bad I might catch until my counts come back up.

So now I just take pills and lie around the house. It’s not as glamourous as they make it seem in the movies. the next thing on my medical agenda is a PET scan on Friday the 19th. This will be the one that determines what we’ll be doing next.

One more good thing about the new house - it’s 19 minutes away from Yale Medical. That means if our timing works out right with the closing and the stem cell transplant, I won’t have to stay in a hotel after the SCT! That would so rock.

I think more than anything, I need a cancer break right now. I would love to just have one day where I didn’t have to think about it. No pills to take. No aches and pains and tiredness. I’d stay away from the hodgkin’s forum and eat whatever I want. I’d go down to my new workshop and build something. Spend the day making something instead of thinking about dying. Yesterday was my one year anniversary. I’ve been fighting this thing for a whole year and I’m tired of punching.

Hockey-wise, things have been even worse. The Devils are down 3-0 in their series against Carolina. I blame myself, as you can see from my playoff picks. Everyone I picked is getting their ass handed to them. The Avs were swept, the Devs are down 3-0, the Sens are down 3-1. Edmonton’s putting up a bit of a fight and hanging in there, down 2-1, but still. The way the Devils are looking right now, I would not be surprised in the least if they lose on Saturday and are swept. Being the team they are and on the cusp of elimination, I would also not be surprised if the win on Saturday. But the way they’ve been playing in this series and, more importantly, the way the Hurricanes have been playing, I don’t see the Devils making it through to the next round. Still, the playoffs are where the miracles happen, right?

Wow… 13 goals in one game? 4 goals per period? 7-6 overtime win for the Sabres? Wow… never saw that one coming. I’m surprised that the announcers didn’t constantly drill into us the fact that these were rookie goaltenders. Good that they didn’t, as the majority of the goals were the defense’s fault. The goalies were left out to dry in this one. Wow.

Devils play tomorrow at 2 (EST) and here’s the upcoming TV scehdule:

Hey everybody - I’m still here. The MOPP! has been wearing me out for the past week. Yesterday I didn’t even wander in front of the computer until 11:00 or so at night. This has been more of an all over exhaustion, akin to the post-hospital recovery times more than the chemo-tiredness. My body’s weak, my brain’s cloudy and I just can’t seem to get out of my own way. So let’s get you updated before I pass out at the keyboard here…

Barb’s game went well - the students beat the faculty, 12-7. Last year was the first year the faculty won and they only did it by one run, so being five behind isn’t all that bad. Especially compared to some of the past shellackings. Barb even got a hit - atta girl, slugger!

The open house went well as well. We got a few interested nibbles, including the former owners of the house. Barb and I came home from Wallingford to find them all sitting in our living room - quite an offputting sight. They loved what we’ve done with the house (how could they not, considering the condition we got the house in) and are hoping to be able to buy it back. Probably not a likely situation since the house price has doubled since they sold it. Of course, the value has quintupled at least.

In hockey news, after the first round of the playoffs, my predictions are at 50 percent (warning - large, wallpaper-size graphic ahead). I told you I didn’t know jack about the Western Conference. But then, who would expect none of the top four seeds to make it in? As for the East, Philly over Buffalo was more wishful thinking on my part, since I didn’t want the Devils to have to face Buffalo. Of course now that things are underway, I remember that the Stanley Cup isn’t a straightforward tree structure to allow for home ice and such, so it doesn’t matter that Buffalo won anyway.

In keeping with sticking my neck out on the line, I’ve made a revised playoff tree (warning - large, wallpaper-size graphic ahead again). We’ll see how I do in this round…

Now I’m gonna go lie down…

And it’s a Devils’ sweep! And Gionta got a short handed goal! Elias now has five goals and six assists! Gomer got a goal!

I have to say, I really do respect the Rangers’ coach for pulling their goalie with three minutes to go after the Devils took a penalty. It showed that he wasn’t ready to let his team give up and they actually made up a little bit of ground. Kind of the opposite tack that I usually think of anything associated with Jaromir Jagr, but it probably helped that he re-injured his shoulder on his first shift. That let the rest of the Rangers play tough and not give up. Still… sweep time, baby!

On the chemo front, I had another good night. Looks like taking Zofran an hour before the chemo drugs is the key. I’m still going to wait until after Wednesday before I have any tomato sauce again. Wednesday I get another blast of vinblastine, so by Thursday I might be secure enough with my belly to eat red things.

Barb’s faculty vs. student softball game is tomorrow, but I’m not going to be able to be there. It’s down in New Haven at 10 and we have the realtors coming over at 12:30 to get the open house set up. Since I won’t be able to race back and forth (it’s about a 45 minute drive, even at Brianspeed), I’m going to be sticking around here to make sure they get in the house and get set up okay. I did get to go with her today to watch their practice. I don’t know what the students look like, but the faculty was looking pretty good. Nothing like seeing all of that gray hair flying through the breeze…

Well, I made it through night one of this MOPP! crap. Thanks to Steve over on the Hodgkin’s forum, I remembered that I still have some Zofran I was given at the start of all this chemo stuff. I’ll give that a try tonight, but I figured I’d call the doc to see what they suggested. Their answer? The zofran. Good to know I’m smarter at medicine than I am at locating it. Or something.

So now that the puking’s over (oh, the count wound up in the teens and took around four hours before I could stop throwing up and go to sleep), it’s time to talk hockey!

The Devils have been awesome as usual. It almost feels like their ‘95 Cup run again, ’cause none of the announcers seem to understand how the Devils work. They continue to be amazed that they function as a team and when one person goes down, another’s there to take their place. Duh - that’s Devil’s hockey. Everyone knows the role they’re supposed to play and they play it to the best of their ability. Is Cam Janssen out there trying to score beautiful goals? No - he’s out there hitting people. Is Brian Gionta picking fights with the other team’s enforcers? No, he’s going to the net and scoring goals. This is what a team is, and the Devils have always personified that. That’s why Ken Daneyko’s number was retired this season. He’s not going to wind up in the hall of fame like everyone else whose number has been retired by their team, but he was the ultimate team player. There’s a reason they call him Mr. Devil, and it’s not the horns.

Jaromir Jagr. I should start off by saying I’ve never really cared for Jaromir. In my mind, while a hockey forward should obviously be good at offense, they have to pay attention to defense as well. Probably one more reason I’m a Devils fan. All of the times I’ve watched Jagr play, he’s never coming back to help out. He’ll often stay back either by the blue line or occasionally as far back as the opponent’s blue line, waiting for the puck to bounce to him. He also doesn’t go out on the penalty kills. For someone who skates and puckhandles as well as he does, he should be out there in any situation they can get him in. But no, he doesn’t like defense. Either that or his coaches have realized he’ll probably do something stupid like his attempted sucker punch on Gomez that dislocated his shoulder.

Take Peter Forsberg. Take Joe Thornton. These are big guys like Jagr. They can skate, they can shoot, they can puckhandle and they can make awesome plays. They can also play defense! And as for Forsberg, he can just get mean when he’s out there. I like that. Too bad he’s a Flyer.

So Jagr comes back for Game three, and makes an immediate impact on the team by scoring no goals and getting no assists. Way to go, Jags. Even better that the Devils’ first goal is scored 68 seconds into the game, as Jagr’s jersey number is 68. Welcome back to the series. Maybe you should focus on growing out that frilly mullet of yours again.

Sadly, I missed the first two Devils goals and the entire first period. Why? We interviewed some realtors who are going to be taking over the house selling duties for us. Between my new chemo and the pain that can go into selling a house properly, we’ve decided to hand over the house-selling to someone else.

These guys were great, despite making me miss part of the Devils. There are some great fringe benefits to working with them and their company, and it should help us get this house sold quickly and get us another one rather quickly as well. They’re coming back over to have us sign the contract tonight, and they’ve already submitted our house to the newspapers for an open house this Sunday. Sweet! I’ll just need to make them aware that there may be a Devils game at 6, of course.

The even cooler thing is, they know the area around here very well and actually thought we had underpriced the house. They said it was one of the best and nicest old houses in the area they had seen. Hot damn! If we can get it to sell for their price, then we can pay the commission and still be pretty close to our asking price. How cool is that?

Okay, if you happened to have taped the game for later and stumbled into here, stop reading now.

While I fully expected a Devils win today, I’m still rather stunned. Six to one? They really must want to help me beat this cancer. The guys were playing awesome as usual and Cam Janssen continues to make me giggle with glee every time he hits the ice, no pun intended. I just feel sorry for the officials - I don’t think they were expecting their arms to get such a workout calling penalties. Of the seven goals scored, only one wasn’t on the power play, and that one was scored one second after a power play was over, so it might as well have been one. Wow. Just counting the penalties over on the Yahoo box score, the Rangers took 16 and the Devils took 9. And that was even without giving Jagr five minutes for being a whiny little baby, a penalty I hope they incorporate next season.

For now, it’s back to housework. We have a couple of people coming to look at the place early next week, so feel free to uncross some of your “hope Brian beats cancer” fingers and cross them for “hope Barb and Brian sell that house.”

Holy crap! Keith Primeau might be coming back? If Forsberg stays healthy, Buffalo doesn’t stand a chance. I think the important question the reporter should’ve asked him was not “would you be coming back if this weren’t the playoffs,” but “would you still be coming back if Scott Stevens was still on the Devils?” I’m sure the answer would be a resounding “No!”

A gay player in the NHL? Come on, Tie Domi. We’re your friends. It’s okay to admit that you think Don Cherry’s hot. Come on out of that closet. After all, it’s not like you’re going to be a Leaf much longer.

As if you needed more reason to love the Devils, here’s one more.

Well, we got home yesterday to a voicemail from Dr. D’s office. Looks like we’re going with MOPP! as they want me to come in on Thursday to get one of the IV pushes. I’m going to call them on Monday to get the exact details and such. Barb was looking up symptoms and things to avoid with some of the components of MOPP! and came across this page on one of the drugs I’ll be getting, which includes the following handy little guide to eating:

• Do not eat foods that have a high tyramine content (most common in foods that are aged or fermented to increase their flavor), such as cheeses, yeast or meat extracts, fava or broad bean pods, smoked or pickled meat, poultry, or fish, fermented sausage (bologna, pepperoni, salami, and summer sausage) or other unfresh meat, or any overripe fruit.
• Do not drink alcoholic beverages or alcohol-free or reduced-alcohol beer or wine. No problem.
• Do not eat or drink large amounts of caffeine-containing food or beverages, such as chocolate, coffee, tea, or cola. Oh crap.
• Do not take any other medicine unless approved or prescribed by your doctor. This especially includes over-the-counter (OTC) or nonprescription medicine such as that for colds (including nose drops or sprays), cough, asthma, hay fever, appetite control; “keep awake” products; or products that make you sleepy.

So it looks like I’ll be limited to Skittles and warm tap water, Great. The real fun part is reading the drugs I’m not allowed to take at the same time as the procarbazine. I’ll let you read through those on the other site, as I don’t think my site’s big enough to list ‘em all.

In happier news, the Devils play in just over five hours! I watched the end of the Ottawa game and the third period and both overtimes of the Red Wings game. Playoff hockey is here, baby! I found a site yesterday that had a great playoff tree wallpaper, o98 Designs, so I had to go ahead and fill in the blank spots (warning - large, wallpaper-size graphic ahead). Once I started filling it out, I realized I know next to nothing about the Western Conference this year other than the Red Wings have been kicking butt and the Predators destroy teams at home. Hence, Red Wings v. Predators in the semis. Of course, I know everything about the Eastern conference, so that one will happen just like I predict.

Also, I have a nice arena in New Jersey I’d like to sell you…

…and anyone else who may be interested in watching the Devils stomp the Rangers. Here’s the schedule for the first round of the playoffs. Dad, you’ll be able to see a couple of them for sure (Saturdays on NBC). I think you get OLN, which means you’ll get to see them all. Be sure and print this out and tape it to the TV! (Sorry Mom, but it’s the Devils!)

…and a little bit more of the cancer dies away.

So I had a stressful night with my Devils. They were really stinking it up through the first 30 minutes or so, but Gionta woke them up by scoring his 47th goal, breaking Pat Verbeek’s record set back in ‘87-’88. Then they started figuring out how to skate and pass again. Gio got another power play goal, Elias got an astounding goal and Langenbrunner got the gamewinner. The Devils win 4-3. The Rangers lost their game against Ottawa, so Ottawa moves ahead of Carolina (who lost tonight) for the #1 spot in the conference, but more importantly the Devils win their division, earning the #3 spot in the conference. They have now overcome the biggest points deficit since divisional play began in ‘74, being 19 points behind the then-leading Flyers on January 7th. In Marhc, they were still 11 points back. Way to go, Devils!

The thing that makes the Devils the best team out there is just that - their teamness. Jamie Langenbrunner gets the game winning goal in the biggest win of the season and is the main reason the Devils become division champs for the sixth time in nine years. They interview him after the game and all he can talk about are the other three goals - not once does he mention his own. They interview Scott Gomez, who assisted on two of the goals and he talks about the other two goals, the fighters on the team and the coaches.

These are my Devils. Like Gomer says in one of their commercials: they’re not playing for the back of their jerseys - they’re playing for the front.

Playoffs begin Friday and we face the Rangers in the first round on Saturday. I’d better not be in the hospital for chemo!

Well, I just got back from my latest PET scan, so now I have nothing going on again until Thursday, when I find out the results and go through the whole MUGA/PFT/EKG/CXR thing like I did at the start of all of this. Hopefully that last round of chemo took care of the mediastinal mass (the one in the middle of my chest). If it did, that means we get to move along to the high dose chemo (BEAM) and get this party started. Until then, more waiting. Meh.

In the good news column, the Devils beat the Flyers yesterday, 5-1. They extended their win streak to 10 games (longest in the NHL this season), Gionta got his 46th goal to tie for the most goals by a NJ Devil and Elias got his 500th point (as well as #’s 501 and 502). This win over the Flyers sets up an interesting points scenario. The Rangers lead the Atlantic Division with 100 points. The Flyers and the Devils are tied at 99 points. All three teams have one more game to play tomorrow. If the Devils beat the Canadiens (who are in their own interesting little points battle, just farther back) and the Rangers lose, the Devils are the division champs and wind up third in the conference going into the playoffs. If the Devils win and the Rangers lose in overtime or the shootout, the Devils still win based on number of victories. Tomorrow’s going to be a very interesting and tense night. Let’s go Devils!

Well, last night I didn’t get home quite as early as I wanted. It was getting dark pretty quickly, so I grabbed a bag full of pucks and went out back to shoot some around. My wrist shots were pretty snappy and surprisingly accurate. My slap shots, however were wild to the point of dangerous. Anything within about a 270 degree arc of me was fair game. I only tried about ten slappers all told. We have new garage doors and while I was shooting with my back to them, you read how wild my slap shots were.

I got in about 40 or so wristers before I had to call it a night on account of darkness. Black pucks on black asphalt are really hard to see in the dark.

I was feeling pretty good, but this morning my back was feeling the workout. Especially after I sat at my desk for a bit and then stood up to walk anywhere. Holy crapoley. Regardless, I made a point of getting out the door right on time tonight. I made it home with enough time to get on my gear and actually do some skating. That’s what I’ve been hoping for all week. I’ve had work stuff taking up my weekend hours and I was starting to think I wasn’t going to get to skate before I went in to the hospital.

Luckily, I got to have one more skate. Who knows how long it’ll be before I get another. I’m getting admitted into the hospital on Thursday and will be there through Monday. Then I’ll probably be too tired to get out of bed for a few days. Plus, I’ll have to be getting my blood checked every couple of days. The comes the stem cell harvest. Then comes the high dose chemo. Then comes the hotel room confinement. Then comes the re-strengthening.

Then comes the hockey season.

So I’m watching the Devils/Flyers game tonight, and during one of the intermissions they start talking about the rest of the Devils’ schedule (a word that I just had to retype three times). As they’re going through the dates it hit me - aside from being immunodepressed (a word I typed only once) and reeling from the heavy, big-time chemo, I’m going to miss a lot of the playoffs. Most of the initial rounds aren’t going to be on the regular stations and I’m going to be locked away in a hospital or hotel room for most, if not all, of the run to the Stanley Cup. This blows.

Great quote from between periods. Matt is interviewing Peter Forsberg and asked him that since he’s such a highly skilled and awesome player, what skill does he have that no one ever points out. Forsberg just grins at him and says “I think I’m pretty overrated, to be honest with you.” Why’d he have to become a Flyer?

On the cancer front, today was an extraordinarily crappy day. I slept pretty much right up until 7:00 tonight, with brief moments of lucidity and getting up to go to the bathroom. Luckily I did wake up at 7, ’cause that gave me 30 minutes to make it from the second floor to the third to watch the Devils.

I made it with two minutes to spare.

So here’s the weird thing about having no hair. You think your head’s going to be all cold and you’re going to lose all of this body heat and such, but really, it’s all just weird patches of cold. For instance, put your hands behind your head. You know, like you’re going to kick back in your chair and put your feet on your desk, satisfied in a job well done. Watch out for the pencil holder. Feel where your hands are right now? That’s where my head is cold. Right about where my skull curves under in the back. Just above the collar, just below a hat. Son of a… So instead, I sat at my computer today wearing my stocking cap and feeling Canadian.

Speaking of Canadian, how about the big Olympic flop for North America? The one good thing about it is that now the Devils only have one player left in the tournament - Viktor Kozlov. All of the rest get to rest and relax until the NHL starts back up again. I’m cheering for the Swedes now. Here’s hoping Peter Forsberg plays a LOT in the next few days.

One thing I liked about watching Olympic hockey? No TV timeouts. Just a whole uninterrupted period of hockey. Nice. Plus, I didn’t have to worry that I’d have a lame announcer, since Doc Emerick would be doing all of the US games. It is astounding all of the bizarre and random hockey facts that man has in his head. One of the many reasons he’s the best.

Well, we lost another one, but this time we got to play to the end. The final score was 9-7. We got the first goal (my linemate) and at one point later in the game we had pulled within one goal, but they just kept getting that extra goal. I got a little more rough and tumble than I have been, a little closer to how I used to play, but still no penalties. My trainer had me do a boxing workout on Monday and I told him it would be his fault if I got a fighting major.

Looking back I see I didn’t post anything about the last game the week before last - another mercy rule game, this time 12-2 and I was a -4 I think. Tonight I was a -3, but only because I was out there for two of our goals.

At one point in the game tonight I went into the boards with a guy, pushing and shoving for the puck and we both went down. When I got up, the whole rink just kept doing slow 360s around me. I wound up winning my faceoff anyway and played out the rest of my shift. I just had to keep my eye on one person and focus. I wound up short shifting after that.
(more…)

Talk about adding insult to disease. First I find out the cancer’s still going, then I go to play hockey and get cheered up and we get beat 10-0. Ouch. And that’s only because the league has a mercy rule - the game was called with almost 6 minutes remaining. OUCH.

I don’t know how it is that I wind up on hockey teams that don’t understand positional hockey. Our opponents sure seem to. My current team’s defense is also having trouble moving people out from in front of the net. Basically, they just stand beside the person and watch the play. I’m thinking I might have to switch to defense, not for my lack of offensive ability, but for my team’s lack of defense. Even though I was ostensibly a forward last night, I was clearing people from the front of the net on our penalty kills and I made one skate save and one head save in the game. I skated my ass off and felt like I was the only one who did, especially today since I can barely walk from the muscle soreness. I might not be a great player right now, but at least I was trying.

On the plus side (so to speak), I was a -3 for the night. Bad numbers, but good in the context of the game. I gotta switch to D.

I told everyone in the locker room about my diagnosis after the game, so hopefully in the next game it might occur to them that if a cancer patient is out there skating his ass off, maybe they should be too.

Not that I’m bitter or anything. That’s probably just my thighs talking.

So we had our first game of the season last night, against the same team we played first last season. I don’t recall how we played against them last time as I was having troubles of my own, but this time we definitely played better. We won 6-3 and I was +2 for the night (3 goals for, one against).

I think I played my best game ever - even counting when I was deep into it and in shape in San Francisco. I was not only thinking and skating hard, I was actually setting up plays.
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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.

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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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.

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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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.

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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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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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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