February 4 - Day Plus ?

BACK ON MY FEET

With great relief, I stopped counting days at day 30, which was over a month ago (January 4). After checkups with both of my doctors in early January, I was released from house arrest and cleared to go back into public. You can be sure that Costco and Home Depot revenues have been up sharply since.

I did a set of scans just after day 30 to set a baseline for comparison for later scans. They came back clear, as expected, but it was nerve-wracking process just the same. At this point, my counts are normal and I am pretty much clear to go anywhere I want, eat whatever I want, and drink whatever I want. Remember that Coors ticker (TAP)? In fact, I have been feeling reasonably normal for a couple of weeks. My energy level is back and the afternoon naps have ceased. With all of this solid progress, I am heading back to work after being out for about two and a half months.

It's hard to believe that I am ready to walk back into my life and take control of it again. 2007 was a tough year, as was 2006. God willing, the physical part of this nightmare is over. Now the mental part begins as I go through checkup scans every three months. The next checkpoint is in April. I am slowly finding myself starting to look forward again. When life deals you a blow and you lose control of things, it's hard to look out beyond a few days, let alone a few weeks or months.

THE PRICE IS RIGHT

Since I have been home from the hospital, I have continued to watch the Price is Right, but I have been Tivo-ing it and watching it in delay. By doing so, I can zip through the Sam Bernstein and HoverRound commercials, as well as the down time on the show. I can watch and hour-long episode in about 35 minutes, which is about the length of my attention span for the show when I am not sitting in a hospital bed.

I am planning a baseball trip to Southern California in June. I hope to get tickets to the show and, with a stroke of luck, actually be a contestant. I'll need to do a little research into the prices of campers and boats so I can do well in the Showcase Showdown. On that note, one of the contestants bid $8,500 for her showcase last week. They have not had a showcase under $10,000 since the 80s. I was disappointed to find out that the people that get called up to Contestants Row from the audience are NOT randomly selected. Rather, people are pre-screened while they are standing in line based on some criteria (apparently some mix of age, stupidity, and insanity).

BECOME A POTENTIAL DONOR

As promised when I first began writing in this blog, I researched what you can do to get yourself registered in the National Bone Marrow Registry. It's a very simple process and requires a small, tax deductible donation to the Registry to cover the cost of the testing. By getting tested and registered, you could end up saving somebody's life.

The are two ways to get a testing kit. Call 1-800-MARROW2 (800-627-7692) and request a kit. Alternatively, visit www.marrow.org and click on the "Join" link. There are a series of questions you'll need to answer before you can request a kit. A $52 donation (tax deductible) is required to complete the process.

Once you've received the kit, a simple swab of your cheek is all it takes to capture the necessary sample to complete an HLA test on you. When you send the testing materials back to the Registry, they will type you and enter you into the national database. If you think you may already be in the Registry from a previous drive, call 800-MARROW2 and ask them if you are already registered. I called and found that I was already in the database from a previous drive at Church.

If you decide to get yourself registered, please let me know how the process went and if there was anything I missed in the instructions above. You can send me an email at alex_sarafian@hotmail.com or alex.sarafian@gmacfs.com.

Once again, thanks for your thoughts and prayers and for checking in.

January 1 - Day Plus 27 - New Years

Well, the new year is off to a good start. Michigan pulled out an exciting win in a relatively meaningless bowl game this afternoon. It was nice to beat Florida, though, after their coach whined his way into the national championship game last year. Importantly, they won despite Lloyd Carr's best efforts to give the game away at the end.

Only a Michigan fan would truly understand, but here's how the end of the game went down. Michigan only needed one first down to seal the victory. Instead of relying on their offense to deliver the first down, they ran the ball three times and kicked a field goal. This gave Florida, and their Heisman Trophy-winning quarterback, the ball back with about two minutes to go and only down six points. Carr relied on a defense that lost to Appalachian State rather than an offense that has three potential first round draft choices. It worked this time, but I can think of countless other times it has not. I digress... thanks for the national championship in '97 Lloyd - and 10 subsequent years of conservative football that consistently undercapitalized on the tremendous talent on the team. It's a good day for Michigan football.

Speaking of the new year, welcome 2008 and good riddance 2007. God willing, 2008 will be a better year.

On that note, I continue to feel better with each day. I am getting plenty of rest - so much so that I am actually sleeping through the Price is Right. I am going to have to TIVO it tomorrow in case I sleep in late again.

I am starting to get my energy back and am itching to get out of the house. I hope that my house arrest sentence will be reduced at the end of the week and I'll be cleared to go back in public again. We'll see.

That's all for now. Happy new year to all and thanks for checking in.