Merry Christmas
For Christmas this year, USSM would like to present you with gifts of not doing things. We would like to offer you no Felix Hernandez trade rumors, a day free of speculation about Prince Fielder, and a lack of doom and gloom about the team’s future. We hope you enjoy freedom from these annoyances.
More seriously, though, enjoy your holiday with friends and family. I’m thrilled to be spending this Christmas at home with my wife, just having gotten out of the hospital on Thursday. Early in the week, it was possible that I’d have to spend this Christmas in the hospital, tied to an IV, but thankfully my immune system recovered on Thursday and I’m able to enjoy this Christmas with loved ones.
In fact, as long as the leukemia doesn’t return, I should be done with hospitalizations entirely. I have one more bone marrow biopsy on January 10th, but if that comes back clean, we’ll go into maintenance mode and reduce my check-up schedule from twice a week to once a month. While there’s still a chance that the leukemia could return (and force unwanted scenarios like a bone marrow transplant), we’re hoping and believing that the four rounds of chemotherapy were effective in beating this thing back, and I plan on living long enough to see this team win again.
Cancer has a nice way of making you appreciate the things you have, but hopefully that perspective can be gained even without a nasty medical diagnosis. For each of us, let’s enjoy what we have, and look forward to many more years of rooting on the Mariners together.