The last few weeks of March have been very busy for all of the San Jose McKennas. John's first cycle of the standard of care treatments are at an end plus he had many activities, visits and plans to enjoy. He truly enjoyed the time spent with each of you. You will find most everything (that I could keep track of) summarized below by following the links in this post.
Thanks
John
Treatment status
Basketball - Gonzaga, Warriors and Friday Nights
Bellarmine visitors
GU Spring Break and a return to GU in April
A quick trip to SoCal to visit family and Mr. Mouse
Hawaii planning underway
Graduation plans
Treatment status
We have been looking forward to Tuesday, April 2nd. Well we are here. John completed his round of radiation therapy and first cycle of Temodar on Tuesday. He will continue his every two week regimen of Avastin as part of the clinical trial with Duke University.
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| Radiation Graduation |
He has done very well in handling all of these treatments. He's had the standard patchy hair loss from radiation. He went to the Bellarmine Barbershop last Thursday to have have the remnants removed and go with the Yul Brynner or Michael Jordan look. He has some sensitivity in his gums, which leads to some bleeding, and a couple of weeks ago he had a bout of the hives which were successfully treated with a short cycle of steroids. We did notice a bit of the predicted fatigue hit last week, though he did a really good job of powering through.
In an earlier note I mentioned John would be getting an MRI on the 4th and heading to Duke on the 8th. There was a bit of a mix up there. The MRI should not be taken till two or three weeks after the end of radiation. As a consequence, we pushed the trip to Durham out to April 22nd through the 24th. We will be onsite with the Duke team on the 23rd. Unfortunately that means we will miss seeing John's friend Taylor Martin (T-Mart) play for Coker College in Raleigh on the 9th. We are pulling for Coker to make the playoffs which will take place in North Carolina. So Go Cobras.
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Basketball - Gonzaga, Warriors and Friday Nights
The past few weeks have seen plenty of excitement on the basketball front and John has been in the middle of it all.
The buzz surrounding Gonzaga basketball being ranked #1 and its seeding in the NCAA tournament was great, well, till its downfall in the tourney. Wichita St is clearly the real deal, making the Final Four. He also has gotten out to see the Warriors with family, a trip to the NCAA 2nd round here in San Jose, as well as Friday night hoops with Darrell, DK, Troy, and his Harker friends, John has not been far from some level of the action with the round ball.
We were able to go to 2nd round action of the NCAA tournament due to the kindness of our friends the Grassers. We saw a very good game between Cal and UNLV and a somewhat lesser :) game featuring Syracuse and Montana. I wouldn't blame Vegas if they thought they were playing in Berkley. There was way more blue and gold than red and white at the tourney.
We've gotten to a couple of good Warriors games these past few weeks and have another on tap for later this week. John and his cousins Courtney, Maddie, Colin, Jessica, and his Uncle Mike are getting to be regulars at Oracle Arena. They are pretty confident they are following a playoff bound team. Let's hope so.
I think what John truly enjoys most though is the Friday night hoops sessions with Darrell, DK, Troy and other of his Harker School friends. They put in several grueling hours on the hardwood before hitting one of their homes for a little bit of BBQ. It is heartening that through all of the treatments John is able to maintain a good physical regimen.
Through all of this fun the best thing has been the great time he has had with his friends and family. These relationships are so valuable to John and are time he treasures.
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Bellarmine visitors
John has been fortunate in having the support of many from Bellarmine College Prep. John attended high school at Bellarmine, graduating in the Class of '09. It is a historic community in the Santa Clara Valley, opening in 1851. As such it is hive of activity. However that has not prevented some of the leadership of the school from regularly visiting with John. Fr Wade has made several visits to our home to see John as well as joining him for lunch at an Eastside treasure, Antipasto's. John has also visited the newly renovated campus with Fr Roide who slipped him into the faculty dining area for lunch! Although John has graduated from Bellarmine he is never truly alone on life's journey as that community will walk beside him where ever the path leads.
AMDG
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GU Spring Break and a return to GU in April
Gonzaga had Spring Break in mid-March. Several of John's friends returned home or passed through the Bay Area and stopped by to see him.
He took an excellent day trip to SF with Lindsay that included a stop for dinner at The Slanted Door, John's all-time favorite restaurant. If you've never been just ask John, he'll be happy to escort you there :)
Roommates Brian Biggs and Andy Z came through with Andy spending the weekend. There was plenty of golf played that week! Andy and John also took in a semi-final game of the World Baseball Classic at AT&T Park. Andy had a chance to see a couple of World Series trophies. It may be a while before his Rockies have one of their own...
During the course of the week, a plan for a trip to Gonzaga was formulated. John will spend a week visiting his friends and coordinating with his professors as he plans out his summer school classes. I suspect there will be more visiting than coordinating but that's as it should be.
It is truly heartening for Melanie and I to see how much John misses the Gonzaga community, especially his roommates. We continue to be amazed and grateful for the support shown by those friends, their families and the Gonzaga administration and faculty. We can see from his feelings towards the school community how deeply he has been struck by his Zag experience. There really aren't words to properly convey our feelings other than this Bronco is so happy that he chose Gonzaga.
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A quick trip to SoCal to visit family and Mr. Mouse
We spent the weekend of March 22nd in Southern California visiting with my brother Bill's family. Though Bill, my sister-in-law Edna, and their youngest, Juliana, have been back and forth frequently, their eldest daughter, John's cousin Bianca, had not been able to make the trips due to studies and homefront responsibilities. This weekend was a perfect time to get together with her and the rest of the SoCal family. As a bonus my niece Maddie, a freshman at SDSU, was able to make her way north to join us. We were especially fortunate that one of John's oldest friends, Austin Krygier, was able to make the trip with us. Additionally family friends Philly G and Chrissy C made there way south to be with us.
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| Monkeying around |
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| Austin's new friend |
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| Taking flight |
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| Phlly G, self, John, Austin, Chrissy |
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Hawaii planning underway
As many of you know John is looking forward to a trip to Hawaii. We've never gone so our first thought was we'd be going as a family. HA! John and his freshman year roommate Jordan have something different in mind.
A couple of days after graduation they will take off for a bit over a week's worth of time on Maui. They are still firming up the details but it looks like they will be enjoying the islands from May 14th-23rd. They better bring the sunscreen!
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Graduation plans
John has been on medical leave of absence from Gonzaga during what was to have been his senior spring semester. Now that the daily treatment regimen is over, he has been planning how he will graduate. Ms. Weber, Ms. Rasmussen and the faculty of the School of Business have been a tremendous help in identifying the summer school courses he needs. He will take a couple of courses during the summer session which will complete his degree requirements..
Gonzaga, in the person of Susie Prusch, has been very gracious in ensuring John will participate in graduation weekend, May 10th-12th, including the graduation ceremonies on Mother's Day.
We can't say enough about the support given by all of these people, as well as President McCulloh, who has reached out to John several times since his seizure. It has been just about four years since John went to Spokane for Accepted Student Weekend. When Melanie and I picked him up at the airport he didn't say "Hi" or "Glad to be home", instead he announced to us that we should "Book May of 2013 for Gonzaga graduation". These past few months threw great doubt that he would reach that long coveted goal. Thanks to these exceptional people he soon will refer to himself as "Gonzaga, Class of '13".
In July we will reach the fortieth anniversary of Fr. Arrupe's call to arms for Jesuit education to develop "Men and Women for others". The support from the Gonzaga community is a living example of that mission.
AMDG
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