3 Strikes To My Pelvis

I saw Dr. Speedy Mohler the other day and in his 5 minutes of passing through my room he notified me of these bullet points which were said faster than I could hear at the time but I replayed it in my head and figured the list out later:
1. I will have to get a new hip in 30-50 years
2. I have "3 strikes to my pelvis" (see below)
3. I have some early osteoarthritis
4. I may need to consider some orthoscopic surgery to prevent the need for a new hip and to let me play volleyball
5. I am cancer-free and therefore discharged from his care

Yeah, 3 strikes to my pelvis. STRIKE 1: I played a lot of kicking sports when I was younger so I have some kind of impingement from extra bone growing or something (totally unrelated to the lymphoma), STRIKE 2: I had a big nasty tumor in my pelvis, STRIKE 3: I had radiation to my pelvis. Fortunately pelvisai do not work like baseball at-bats; apparently you get more than 3 strikes to your body parts before they strike-out and turn into garbage.

They gave me a permanent handicapped parking placard, which is cool because it still hurts to walk and it tires me out. I have to park a ridiculous distance from the hospital for work if I don't have the handicap placard. So, I act like an old man now. I have a handicapped parking placard, I grunt and groan when I sit or stand up, I can't run, and I have trouble bending over.

Next Tuesday I meet with Dr. King (sports medicine) to talk about rehabing/operating on my hip. Wednesday is my 6 month PET scan to be sure my body is clear of lymphoma.

Good Bye 2006, You Suck :)

That's right 2006, you suck. Take your wheelchairs and cancer and chemo and radiation and nausia and go jump off a building.

2007 will just have some follow-up doctor visits. I already went to see my medical oncologist and my radiation oncologist. They felt my nodes and they are still good, so I'm really just waiting for my next PET scan on February 7. That will be my 6 month check. I also have a visit with Dr. Mohler, the orthopedic surgeon/"weird bone issue guy". There is only a couple "weird bone doctors" in the bay area because no one gets weird bone stuff very often. Hopefully he will release me to really hack around on my hip. I've been trying to rehab it, but it will still have pain here and there. But I have been walking around all over the place and I have way more energy. I am not 100%, but I can at least muster the energy to coach 3 teams and work my 20 hours at the hospital, plus work out.

My new years resolution is to eat vegetables. I am really trying, but vegetables grow from dirt, and that makes them gross. I ate an entire organic carrot the other day. I tried to picture it as a cone-shaped piece of orange meat, but my imagination has its limits.

I have really been grasping for excuses these days since I can't blame everything on cancer anymore. The most noticeable improvement of late is that my brain is starting to work again. The cancer-brain phenomenon really exists. My memories from the last year or so all are a little fuzzy - some things are just completely not in my head. But if you have to forget something, might as well be 2006.

So even though I tried to make the best of 2006, I am still glad I am done with it, and now it is time for me to make the best of 2007. It should be a lot easier.