Drop kick

So, something is wrong. My neck feels swollen. Not from the outside, but from the inside. There’s also some pain in my chest in the “right” area … if you know what I mean (pectoralis major muscles). Now, what the hell does it mean? First, I worried .. that’s so last week. Then, I got real. What could it be? It could be an ear infection considering I think I have an ear infection. The chest pain could be muscular since I think I kinked my neck a few weeks ago and I still have some tight muscles.

What’s the next right thing to do? I don’t know, but here’s what I did.
1. I waited two weeks. Perhaps the symptoms would magically go away.
2. I scheduled an appointment with the Ear Nose and Throat doctor to check out the possible ear infection
3. I called my Oncologist’s office (the Onc). The crazy nurse who I know well, told me to go to the Ear Doc, possibly get a massage, and if the symptoms persist in 7 to 10 days, we’re moving up my mid-April CT Scan.

So, we have progress. It all sounds like a plan. But, of course I am thinking about the “what if.” Now, I think “what if’s” (for some people including myself) have a bad rap. Hasn’t anyone ever heard of the country song – Live Like You Were Dying. It’s a great song about how lucky this guy is to know he’s going to die relatively soon, yet he still has some time left to live. It’s important for me to know what the “what if’s” are… so here it is.

If cancer comes back, I’ll do radiation and a stem cell transplant. There’s a very high probability of not being able to have anymore children afterwards. There’s a 50 plus percent chance of living for more than 5 years after the transplant, and depending on how the transplant goes, the odds of living more than five years can be rather high. I will most likely have to spend a month away from my son which may kill me before the cancer.  There's a lot of blood transfusion involved in stem cell transplants, so please if you can, give blood.

Thoughts? Dying young OK but that would suck for my son. So, maybe I’ll put together a little book on my experiences or something. It would still suck for my son, but it would suck and he’d have a book. He likes books.  I think it should contain his experience's as well.

Yesterday, Bren's experience #1 was learning to drop kick.  Yes.... Brennan can drop kick anything.  Specifically, he likes to drop kick a stuffed Mater; he's a tow truck.  When's the last time you drop kicked something?