Vote John Troxell for Cancer Research

After a long 3 days in the hospital, Andrew returned home yesterday to the comforts of his own bed where he and Winnie snuggled in for a long winters night. He is doing well and spending today with his mom at the hospital receiving hydration. Pistol Pete moseyed out of town last night and back to Uniontown. Thanks for the gun-slinging, pistol-packing, root'n toot'n, hillbilly help ..... yeehaw!!!!

But today Andrew and I want to devote this blog to asking our friends and family to help support Lauren's First and Goal Foundation by voting for Coach John Troxell of Franklin and Marshall University for the Liberty Mutual Coach of the Year. Coach Troxell was a former coach at Lafayette College where Adam, my brother, went to college.

Lauren´s First and Goal is a 501(c)3 charitable organization, a labor of love started in 2004 by John and Marianne Loose in honor of their daughter, Lauren, a 12-year-old pediatric brain tumor survivor. The Loose family started the foundation as a way to help other families who are battling childhood cancer. John Loose is also a coach at Lafayette College and LFG is helped run by the members of the Lafayette College Football Team.

If Coach Troxell wins, he will be donating the money to Lauren's First and Goal to help fight pediatric cancer and for cancer research. Please use the links attached to the coach of the year or Lauren's First and Goal website to cast your vote for Coach John Troxell of Franklin and Marshall University. Every vote helps!! Also please feel free to pass the links on to your friends and family members. We appreciate the help!!!

For with Money we buy science ... and with science, we buy live.

Everyone needs a sidekick!!

Today was back to the old grindstone of chemo for Andrew. He and his trusty sidekick, Pistol Pete, checked into the hospital this morning for Andrew's 3-day long inpatient treatment. Ang and Pistol have their days jammed packed with napping, talking to nurses, napping, eating lunch, napping, watching crappy TV, and did I mention napping.......It's what they both do best.

Andrew's treatment is going well. He's tired and a little restless but feeling pretty good all-around. We'll just have to see what tomorrow brings.

He still has a healthy appetite though. He ate all of his lunch and a huge dinner filled with about 6 homemade meatballs, pasta and sauce, salad and a roll and he just inhaled two homemade 3 berry muffins. Boy I'm a good wife .... or maybe I myself need a life. Either way, he's eating and that makes us all happy.

And as for Pistol, since he has already killed his 8-point buck for this season, I am truly perplexed as to what he is doing all day but I'm confident that he is taking good care of Andrew. Maybe he's practicing for fishing season .. who knows.

Andrew and I also want to say a HUGE CONGRATULATIONS to Gwen and Kevin who got engaged at 3:30 pm on Monday. I guess it's a good time to get engaged!!!! We are so excited for you two and can't wait for the wedding. We hear it's less than a year away. We are looking forward to Andrew attending cancer-free.

It's about time Kevy Kev!!!! Mazel-Tov!!!!

Can't wait for next season

Thanks again to Jamey Perry, Joe Paterno and Daryll Clark. We can't wait to be at all of the games next year. WE ARE ...... PENN STATE!!!

Success with honor ........

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas......

Happy late Thanksgiving to all of our friends and family. The past few weeks have been more than hectic for both Andrew and I. The day before Thanksgiving Andrew finished his marathon 33 sessions of radiation ... WOO HOO!! It was a long 7 weeks but we both made it through. The only downside of him completing the treatment is that I had to return to work ... BOO!!! Anyone who really knows me, knows I love staying home and not going to work every day. It is so easy to get things accomplished in a day when no one is on the road, in the markets and in my way. But I digress (as I sit at my desk adding and subtracting to see exactly how long it is till Christmas break .. 13 days not counting today .. if anyone wants to know).

For the most part Andrew's radiation treatment went smoothly, minus the dreaded sunburn, bowel issues and low White Blood Cell counts he had to endure every day. But since the completion of his treatments, he has been able to receive the Neulasta shot that stimulates his WBC's and they have more than recovered to their normal range. Which is a huge sigh of relief for the both of us. Though he was suppose to continue with another round of 3-day inpatient chemo treatment next Monday, Dec 7th, the doctors feel it is in his best interest to wait one more week to begin, so Monday, Dec. 14th it is. One more week off from Chemo will be good for him to regain more strength before getting another huge kick-in-the-ass 3-day inpatient treatment.
Andrew also received an amazing and thoughtful gift at the end of his radiation treatment from my advisor at Penn State, Jamey Perry. Jamey's the biggest PSU football fan I know and he was able to get a personalized autographed football signed by JoePa ad Daryll Clark. It's awesome and it made Andrew smile ear-to-ear. Jamey also sent a football tee used in a game to hold the ball. Thanks Jaim -- you're the best!!! Can't wait to see you next season.......
Since Andrew's treatment ended the day before Thanksgiving we were able to spend the day with my parents in Uniontown. Normally we spend it with Andrew's parents in Princeton, NJ but his dad came down with walking pneumonia and we had to cancel. Steve is doing better and we hope to visit NJ to celebrate Hanukkah next weekend.
But as a whole, Andrew and I are doing great. He continues to go to work as much as he can and stay as active and normal as possible. We are both looking forward to Christmas and spending it in Uniontown with my parents, Adam and of course, Winston, the best bulldog in the world. If you can believe it, even with all of this going on, Andrew and I (when I say this I really me 'I') are done with our Christmas shopping. All I have to do is wrap them, which I plan to do this weekend. I even have all of my Christmas cards addressed and ready to send. This is what happens when your husband goes to bed at 8 pm. You have all kind of time to get projects done. Not sure what I'll take up after the holidays ... maybe knitting or scrap booking. Oh who knows... just one day at a time!!
Since his diagnosis, Andrew and I have felt very strongly that we need to help raise awareness and money for Ewing's. As you can see from the new logo on my page, we are hoping to help Widener University, Andrew's alma mater, to partner with us and with Uplifting Athletes to raise money for Ewing's. We will keep everyone posted on our progress and how to get involved. www.upliftingathletes.org
But for now ... we are just taking each day as it comes and not worrying what tomorrow brings. (Lexapro helps him with this):) Andrew and I will be seeing his doctor at Johns Hopkins the week after Christmas for a follow-up appointment and we continue to see Dr. Felice every week in Reston. He will also be having scans on his hip some time around the New Year to give us a marker as to the size of the tumor and to see what is left to get rid of. Keep your fingers crossed and remember to keep Andrew in your thoughts.

Let it snow, let it snow, let it snow!!!!