There are way too many people at the library right now

I think Michigan should adopt a library system similar to that of intramural sports: If you don't play a certain amount during the regular season, you can't play in the playoffs. There are way too many people here now that it's close to finals, that I've never seen before, and they're taking up my tables/power outlets.

Thanks to Jared for this. Pretty funny.

http://sports.aol.com/fanhouse/2007/11/26/espns-celebrity-starter-introductions-are-worth-it-after-all/

High doses of prednisone for the 5 days following chemotherapy might make me hungry, irritable, fat, and hairy, but wow, does it also make make me really productive.

$12.75 Convenience Charge for 3 concert tickets plus a $4.30 order processing charge? Fuck you Ticketmaster.

I just ordered tickets to see Spitalfield on their farewell tour with Jon Lullo (former lead singer of Down to Earth Approach, one of my favorite bands) on guitar. The Graduate (another amazing band) and The Forecast are playing as well. Sooooo stoked.

It's the Sunday before finals. B.F.D.

New feature: pill count. Haha, let's see how high this goes...

Drew: 2 Chemo: 0

So I had my 2nd round of chemo and 4th round of Rituxan today, and even thought it was a long day at the hospital (8am-4pm), I'm feeling great. I still have my hair and my appetite, so I can't really complain. Now I just have to start my 3 huge papers that are due next week...

Check em out

http://www.myspace.com/thetitancourageous

"A Shipwreck Song" is shaping up to be one of my favorite songs of all time.

Hope everyone is having a nice Thanksgiving. It's nice being home for a few days to hang out and see old friends. I'll be spending most of my time this weekend eating, watching tv, and playing video games (I've turned into a pretty big game nerd lately).

I signed up for Netflix a couple weeks ago, and it's pretty much my new obsession. I've been catching up on movies I missed in the theaters and ordering the DVDs for TV shows I haven't seen before (Season 1 of Dexter should be coming soon), so keep the recommendations coming! Right now I have 26 movies in my queue, so it might take me awhile, but I'll eventually get to everything.

Go Lions.

I'm sorry I haven't updated in awhile; it's a combination of being busy and lazy. I'll get better, I promise.

Kid Rock- All Summer Long

A song about Northern Michigan sampling "Werewolves of London" AND "Sweet Home Alabama"? Sign me up.

Dear body,
Please stop being hungry all the time. I'm sick of wanting you to be fed pizza, beef jerky, or bagels every 2 hours.

Thank you,
Drew

Rituxin Round 2

So I had my second round of Rituxan today. It's an antibody infusion, so the side effects are really minimal, which is good. They give me some Benadryl through my IV to minimize the risk of fever-like symptoms during the drip, so I totally zonked out during the whole thing. Drug-induced sleep always does wonders when you've been out of town for a few days and haven't slept that much or that well. I was finished by 2-ish and was able to spend the rest of the day doing homework and hanging out around the house.

Off to the library to get some more work done.

So I just got back from an amazing weekend at Miami of Ohio with some of my favorite people in the world. We had a great time celebrating Ryan's 21st, and it was nice to be away for a few days to forget about everything, as if that's even possible. Now it's back to reality, and I'm feeling really blah and unmotivated to do anything. Oh well.

Paper Rival

I've been listening to Paper Rival's 2 EP's, "Thieves" and "Paper Rival" pretty much nonstop for the past few days. Do yourself a favor and at least check out the song samples on iTunes to see if it's your thing. Great stuff.

Yesterday was probably the best day I've had in a long time. With all the discomfort from my bone marrow biopsy and spinal tap behind me and an impossibly smooth chemo session on Monday, I'm feeling better than I have in weeks. I'm also starting to get back into the thick of things in terms of schoolwork, which I'm sure my parents and professors are happy about. My appetite is coming back as well. There was a period there of about a week where I barely ate a bowl of Ramen and a cup of yoghurt every day.

Oh, and because I have (and will) be spending a lot of time in hospitals doing nothing while getting infusions and whatnot, please recommend me any books, movies, music, or YouTube clips that you think I might like. Anything is really appreciated. Just leave a comment or something :-)

Things are definitely looking up. Big road trip to Miami of Ohio this weekend for Ryan's belated 21st and Cole's 22nd. Get ready Oxford.

Here are a couple random pictures from round 1 of chemo today. I apologize for them being pretty lame; I know I want to take pictures throughout this whole thing, but I'm not really sure what's interesting or worth noting. As you can probably tell, I got all my infusion in the pediatrics cancer infusion center. As morbid as that may seem, I kinda liked being around the little guys. Seeing kids running around and being loud and obnoxious makes everything a little better. Plus, there are rad board games!

Sorry about the positions of the pictures. I can't figure out how to rotate them.

1 Down, 5 To Go...

Drew: 1 Chemo: 0

Well, today was my first treatment of chemotherapy, and it went a lot better than I expected ::knocks on wood::

I got to the U of M cancer center around 10:30 this morning, and after getting my labs drawn, they hooked me up to an IV through my port and got me started. Everything went really smoothly, except for a little bit of an allergic reaction to the Rhituxin (my throat started getting a little scratchy), but after a 20 minute break or so, things continued as planned. I think the highlight of my day was getting Benadryl in anticipation of possible reactions to the Rhituxin. Holy shit, that stuff knocked me on my ass. I don't know if I've ever taken Benadryl before since I've pretty much only been allowed to take Tylenol with my kidney meds, but that stuff is strong. I can see why people totally zonk out on it. Almost immediately, I started feeling reallllly fuzzy and drunk. I pretty much had no idea what was going on and needed to take a nap.

Overall, things went great and I'm feeling really good right now, although the nausea that commonly comes with chemo usually sets in 8-10 hours after you get it, so I'm hoping for the best tonight, and I've got some anti-nausea medicine to help out. The nurses were all super cool ladies, and I'm really happy to get this stuff started; the sooner I start, the sooner I finish. I also got a shitload of meds to take over the next few weeks and a nifty little calendar to keep me on track, so that's good.

Pictures from today coming tomorrow :-)

Oh yeah, and I picked up Rain Man for 5 bucks at Target tonight. Be jealous.