Chemo Round #5

Well I am back again writing this week.  I will not be able to remember everything that happened over the past 2 and a half weeks but I will highlight a couple of days that I do remember.  I was on my way to my house for lunch this past Wednesday when Coach Smith from Furman called me and asked if I would throw out the 1st pitch at the Furman vs. PC baseball game the next night.  He told me that I needed to be there by 6:30 and the game started at 7:00

Now before I get into this story I must say that if you cant make fun of yourself then who can you make fun of.  Jenny and I got to the field on Thursday at 6:15 and went up to our box that Brody let us have for the night and put our things down.  I then made my way down to the main concourse and caught a glimpse of Coach Smith and he asked me if I want to come down there and throw a little bit to get warmed up.  Now this was mistake #1.  I told him “nah I am good,  I will just sling it when I get out there”.  Now keep in mind that this will be the 2nd time that I have thrown a ball in the past year and the first time went perfect. 

I was down in the dugout with Coach and some of the players that I coached a couple of years ago just talking about the season and what they were going to do next year when they graduated, when they called my name out to the mound.  I went up the stairs and make my way to the bump and stopped just short but I was still on the dirt of the mound.  I looked in at one of my former players Chris Cowart who was catching me, and I went into my BP throwing motion.  This was mistake #2.  I should have just stepped and thrown the ball but I wanted to put a little extra juice on it tonite.  Well I threw it pretty hard considering everything I have gone through this past 4 months but the ball short-hopped the catcher and got past him.  Coach Smith threw his hands in the air in disbelief and I dropped my head in shame.  How can a former D-1 pitcher not get the ball all the way to the mit.  It was a very embarrassing situation that I’m sure I will hear about for a while.  As embarrassing the situation was for me I would still do it all over again b/c it was such an honor for me that Coach Smith wanted me to do this.

On Friday after work Jenny and I made the short trip up to Gaffney to do a little bit of shopping that lasted all of 20 min because there was nothing there we really wanted.  We then made the short treck over to Cracker Barrel and had dinner before we headed back this way.

Kip came into town on Fri. and hung out with some of his former football buddies in Pickens and I was planning on meeting them on Sat. at 1:30 for a round of golf.  Kip called early that morning and told me that we moved the time forward and were going to tee off at 11:30.  So I hopped in the shower really fast and made my way over to Pickens to meet up with these guys.  I felt pretty good out on the course and was back to swinging like I used to.  I hit the ball pretty good and we had a god time until the sky opened up on us while we were on hole 8.  We decided to stop after 9 and get rain checks and when Kip comes back up this way we will go and play again.

I got back late in the afternoon on Sat. and just relaxed on the couch while Jenny did her cousin Rebecca’s hair and make-up for her prom that night.  Once she was done we both got ready for Ryan Earl’s birthday dinner at Bin 112.  We picked up John and Christy and made our way over to Greer.  The food was really good and it was good to see all of those people again.

Sunday I went up to the Club to watch my dad and brother play in the shootout for the Member/Member Tournament at Thorneblade.  They ended up missing the shootout by one shot.  We decided that we would go out there and watch the shootout anyways.  I lasted about a hole b/c they started the shootout late and I left to come home and eat dinner with Jenny. 

Everything has been pretty boring since Jenny posted last time, we are just settling into married life which still sounds pretty strange to say. Today I started Round 5 of my Chemo treatments.  Things are going ok I am mainly just tired and kinda loopy from the medicine that I am taking.  I will try to give another update by the end of the weekend talking about how this round went.  Again I want to thank everyone for their thoughts and prayers and I actually have a favor to ask about that. Today they took some extra blood from me to look at my CEA levels which are also called tumor markers. This will let us know if the chemo is working or if the cancer has progressed while I’ve been doing the treatments. The doctor was really positive about everything today so I think the results should turn out to be alright but if ya’ll could just keep us in your thoughts as we wait for the results I’d really appreciate it.

Tim