NCCA tournament

My order of preference among the four teams remaining in the men's NCAA basketball tournament:

1. Butler University

Eric says that Butler coach Brad Stevens reminds him of me. He also says that about Obama. I would like to be a combination of Brad Stevens and Obama. I would give the best pre-game speeches ever.

2. Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU)

Brad Stevens was the hot young coach last year after Butler's Cinderella run to the championship game, where they lost to Duke when a half-court shot at the buzzer clanged off the rim. This year's hot young coach is VCU's Shaka Smart. Last year Brad Stevens chose to stay at Butler. Eric thinks Shaka Smart is more likely to bolt to a major-conference school.

3. University of Connecticut

UConn coach Jim Calhoun is the cranky old man among these four coaches. But I still wouldn't want to play cards against him.

4. University of Kentucky

Coach John Calipari is a sleazeball, albeit a rich and successful one. He took his two previous college teams, UMass and Memphis, to the Final Four, but both schools had to forfeit their wins for NCAA violations involving payments and perks to players and their families. In both cases, however, Calipari had already moved on to a more lucrative position (he has an 8 year, $31.65 million contract with Kentucky). Calipari is happy to recruit players who have no intention of graduating and just want a platform to showcase their talents for the NBA. And he's been successful at having players drafted by the NBA - in the last NBA draft five players from Kentucky were selected in the first round (a record for one school), including #1 overall pick John Wall. Note, however, that despite five NBA first-round picks, that team did not win the national championship, losing in the regional finals to West Virginia.

Unfortunately, my order of preference is probably the reverse of their likelihood of prevailing. But in a single-elimination format, you never know. That's one reason I love the NCAA tournament!

On the women's side, Stanford has reached the Final Four for the fourth straight year (but no championships during that stretch). If they beat Texas A&M on Sunday, they will likely face UConn in the championship game for the second straight year. UConn has won the last two championships, going undefeated both seasons. During this regular season, however, Stanford snapped UConn's NCAA-record winning streak at 90 games (UConn's only loss of the season).

Go Cardinal!

Ethan

Change of plans

Got a call from UW Nuclear Medicine this morning. The hospital here in Bellingham needs to analyze the results of my bone scan from yesterday - a radiologist reads the scan and writes a report - and then they will Fedex the images on CD and the report down to UW. The UW Nuclear Medicine doctors need to look at those before they can order the samarium, which apparently takes 48 hours to get. The upshot of all this is that I can't do the samarium treatment this Thursday afternoon as scheduled, or even Friday. So we rescheduled for Tuesday 4/5, before my appointment with Dr. Whiting in Seattle.

Grace's parents stopped by yesterday evening on their way back from visiting Vancouver. We went out to dinner at A.W. Asian Bistro in Fairhaven, which is where Grace and I had our first date. :-)

My mom left very early this morning. Eric arrives this evening.

Ethan

Yay!

I had the first meeting of my spring quarter course this morning and I feel good about how it went. I was a little nervous, having been out of the classroom since last spring, but once we got started I forgot about everything else. And that's been the real blessing of teaching so far, including the prep work - it takes my mind off my own problems and worries and exercises my mind on something else.

I feel better physically too, although I still have bone pain. I walk slowly and with a slight limp. Certain motions, such as getting out of a car or putting on socks, can bring gasps of pain. But I also have periods of time when I don't think about it at all, which is good.

This afternoon I had a bone scan and blood test at the hospital. Grace accompanied me - thanks Grace! This was in preparation for my samarium radiopharmaceutical treatment in Seattle, which Grace got moved up to this Thursday afternoon. My best friend Eric arrives here tomorrow evening and will accompany me to that appointment.

My mom leaves early tomorrow morning for Maine and Rochester. I hope that will be a chance for her to relax and recover from the stress she feels here. In a way what she is going through - watching her child die - is worse than what I am going through. I know that I would rather die than watch Seth or Miles die.

I recently saw some friends that I had not seen in a while and in talking to the husband of the couple I realized that he did not know my cancer news. I broke the news to him and he was surprised and sorry to hear it. But my own reaction was interesting to me. It seemed like old news to me and I was unable to associate much emotion with it. Earlier on, I considered my situation to be tragic but now it just seems like my new reality. The same thing with a nurse at the hospital today - she was expressing sympathy for me having terminal cancer at a relatively early age, with young kids, etc. and I appreciated what she was saying but I didn't feel the grief or outrage that I might have felt before. I guess it's true what they say: you can get used to almost anything.

Good night,

Ethan

Comings and Goings

Grace's brothers Gene and Gary drove up today to visit, watch NCAA basketball, and have dinner (made by Grace). It was nice to see them.

Eventful couple weeks coming up. Tuesday is the first class of my spring quarter course. Wednesday my mom departs for about 12 days in Maine and Rochester and my friend Eric arrives from North Carolina. Friday my friend Jonathan and his son Toby arrive from San Francisco. Eric departs Sunday evening and Jonathan and Toby depart Monday morning. That week is Seth's school spring break, so Lynn and Seth are visiting her sister's family in Denver, departing Tuesday 4/5. They return on Monday 4/11, as does my mom.

Surprisingly, my bone pain is a little better today. I changed my Fentanyl patch this morning, so that might be why. But my hips and shoulders are still pretty sore, which makes certain movements difficult, such as sitting down, standing up, raising my arms, and twisting off child-proof caps on pill bottles (which I have to do all the time).

Ethan

Photos, pain

Wednesday evening we played on the deck and in the yard. Grandma and Seth organized their antiquities, which they have identified as being from a Roman site in Turkey, for Seth's "museum." Miles played among the daffodils.
Pics: http://remmel.shutterfly.com/2422

By the way, Seth got a haircut. Lynn graciously agreed to let me get it cut shorter than usual.

Unfortunately my bone pain has increased in the past couple of days, so I am using more painkillers, but I am still sore. :-(

Ethan

Psychology Today blog

I posted something to my Psychology Today blog a couple of days ago. Psychology Today featured my post again and it has received some really nice comments:
http://www.psychologytoday.com/blog/living-while-dying/201103/goodbye-chemo-hello-hospice

Ethan

Willows Inn

My mom treated Grace and me to a mini-vacation at the Willows Inn on Lummi Island and babysat Miles overnight - thanks Mom! Thursday afternoon Grace and I drove through the Lummi Indian Reservation to Gooseberry Point and took the Whatcom Chief car ferry across to Lummi Island (a 5-minute ride). Then we drove to the Willows Inn on the northwest side of the island, with a great view of some of the San Juan Islands and Channel Islands in Canada. Grace got a massage while I soaked in the hot tub, read, and relaxed. At 6 pm we entered the dining room for the one-seating-only prix-fixe dinner based on fresh local ingredients (http://www.willows-inn.com/menu.php). About 3 hours and 10 courses later we stumbled happily back to our room.

My mom and her friend Kaye had dinner at the Willows several weeks ago, after the restaurant and its 24-year-old wunder-chef Blaine Wetzel were written up in the New York Times: http://travel.nytimes.com/2011/01/09/travel/09restaurants.html
It was funny to see little Lummi Island featured among big culinary cities like San Francisco, London, Sydney, Singapore, and Barcelona.

The most surprising and satisfying course was dessert. It didn't sound good at all: "green apples with buttermilk and licorice." But it was light, refreshing, and delicious - perfect after all the other courses.

Friday morning Grace and I enjoyed breakfast in the dining room and then made our way back to Bellingham. Friday evening we (Grace, Miles, my mom, and I) went to a waffle party at Jim and Crispin's house - lots of friends and kids there.

Ethan