NYC, a Birthday, and an Anniversary.

Megan and I had a good trip to New York, but it was exhausting. The travel was very easy. We flew with Corporate Angels, an organization that matches cancer patients with empty seats on corporate flights. We flew out of Columbus, so we spent Sunday night at my sister's house. It was good to visit with them.

We arrived at the hangar in Columbus at 6 am Monday morning. We were on the plane at 6:30 and in the air by 6:40. There was no security or waiting in lines. We just walked out on the tarmac, up the steps, and picked a seat. They even served us breakfast, something that is now lacking on commercial flights. We landed in NJ at 8:00, fifteen minutes early, and about ten minutes later they had already dropped us off at the bus stop. We hopped on the bus to Manhattan, transferred to the subway, and were in a coffee house a block from Sloan Kettering by 9:30. It is hard to believe that we covered 600 miles of travel involving a plane, a van, a bus, and a subway, in just 3.5 hours!

The rest of the day was not as efficient. We arrived at SK at 10:30 for my 11:00 appointment. We were informed that the doctor was running behind because another patient of his that morning had to be admitted to the hospital for an emergency, and he had gone with her to the main hospital (which is a block and a half away). When he returned we gave him my pathology slides from St. Joe, which he then had to take back to the main hospital to review them. So after sitting there for 2.5 hours, we were finally taken back for our appointment. The doctor was very apologetic, and tired from running back and forth the the hospital. He spent some time with us going over the treatment and the treatment schedule. He answered all of our questions and examined me again. I had my blood drawn once again and everything looked good for the study. I just had to wait then to be registered for the study. They could not complete registration for the study until they had all my data, including the pathology slides and blood drawn that day. Normally registration takes 20-30 minutes, but of course that was not the case for me. It took them a couple hours, during which time we ate lunch. It sounded like since I was the first person participating in the study it took them longer to register everything in the computer. After registration is complete, then the pharmacy mixes the drugs, so we finally started chemo around 4:30/4:45. Chemo took 2 hours, as planned! It was pretty uneventful.

We left the clinic about 6 pm, and headed out to meet friends Jamie & Emily for dinner. We ate at a NY pub called PJ Clarke's that opened in 1844! It was a very cool place on 3rd Ave. at 55th Street. The food and atmosphere was great. We lost track of time a little bit, and had to beat feet to the subway to catch our 8:50 bus back to NJ (the next bus would have been at 9:50). We made it aboard with about a minute to spare. We actually met a friendly New Jersian on the bus whom helped us find our stop, and our shuttle to our hotel. Then we crashed!

We were up early Tuesday morning. Seiji joined us for breakfast at our hotel and then drove us to the airport. Again, we just walked right out and onto the plane. On the flight to NJ there were about 15 people on the plane, which seated 44. On the way back to Columbus, there were 5 of us, so it looks like our chances are pretty good that there will be empty seats for us in the future. It was amazing how hassle free the trip was, just very tiring.

We will be headed back in 2 weeks. We have our next 3 appointments schedule, all of them on Mondays. That will take care of the first round and the first appointment of round two. We will go to AA at the end of the weeks prior to appointments in NY to have my blood counts checked to make sure they are not too low. This will save us a trip to NY only to find out I can't have the chemo. After round 1 I will have a CT scan in AA and then may schedule a biopsy in NY prior to the start of round 2. If all goes well, we will continue with the biweekly trips to NY until the cancer is gone.

I am feeling good today. The last two days I have had a little uneasy stomach. I have not really felt sick, just not 100%. I did feel well enough to spend the day at the zoo yesterday for Ethan's birthday. He loved it! Ethan loves birds, and was fascinated by some of the exotic ones at the zoo. He also enjoyed petting the goats in the petting zoo and the fish in the aquarium.

Today we celebrate our fourth Anniversary. We have been resting this morning, but plan to go to a movie and dinner this afternoon. It has been a long week already, but we have much to be thankful for this week and this year. I am underway with a new treatment, that will hopefully be the final treatment. Ethan is a very healthy and happy one year old that engages the world more and more each day. He is starting to say a few garbled words, and is beginning to communicate. This last year has been a whirlwind created by the adversity of cancer and the joy of new parenthood. Megan nor I could have ever imagined what these first four years of marriage have brought us, but through it all she is my rock and my love. Our greatest blessing is one another, and no matter what the future years bring, we are stronger now than we ever have been and ready to take on whatever else lies ahead. We have also learned what a wonderful support system we have in all of you out there, and we thank you all for backing us, cheering us on, and carrying us at times as well. We have certainly learned a lot about one another, and a lot about life this past year. In this world, no matter what you face, you cannot make it alone. We are very lucky to have one another, and to have all of you to call family and friends.

Thanks a million!