A Hawkeye in NYC

Ladies and Gentlemen, we are one day away from 3F8 Cycle 3 being in the record books! Today brought a little bit more pain than yesterday and it required one Dilaudid pain med rescue. One of the nurses actually got a hug from Eli because she said, “I only give Dilaudid to kids that give really big hugs.” She thought Eli was going to squeeze her head off her shoulders. I told her that was sick and I now officially consider her a drug pusher. 🙂 So, after tomorrow, we will officially be done with this round of 3F8! We leave for home this weekend and will have to come back for the start of Cycle 4 on June 9.

Today I was getting Eli a PB&J sandwich from the cafeteria and the guy at the checkout counter said, “Sorry, no Cyclone fans allowed here.” I said, “What? I’m impressed you recognized the logo!” He said, “Well I should, I went to Iowa City.” A HAWKEYE IN NYC! I laughed and said that we were in Iowa City at the beginning of treatment and got to watch the Cyclones beat the Hawks on TV from the hospital (I had to point that win out) and he said he comes back every year for that game since they have season tickets. Small world, huh? Not the first time I’ve met people who know ISU out here. Once I came across an ISU grad on 1st Ave at 10:30pm. I didn’t believe him until he told me that Parks was the president at the time and he majored in Engineering. Also, there is another little girl fighting Neuroblastoma from Indiana and her mom graduated from ISU’s Engineering program. The Cyclones are taking over NY! 🙂

Fulfilling our commitment to being up for anything last minute, I scored 4 amazing seats to the Mets/Nationals game last night. Eli and I ended up taking a new buddy Justin and his mom Robyn because we knew they’d get a real kick out of it. Sure enough, they had an amazing night. Justin is battling Neuroblastoma and his story so closely resembles Eli’s that it’s scary. Justin is 10 days older than Eli and their diagnosis and treatment dates are almost the same as well. They diverged recently as Justin exited the beta glucan trial that Eli is on and started doing Hot 3F8s. Please keep that family in your prayers and specifically that the Hot 3F8 protocol will bring about big improvements for Justin.

Anyway, we ended up sitting ON THE WALL where we could reach over and try to grab up ground foul balls as they came screaming by at 80mph. They were amazing seats and they happened to be situated right next to a doctor, a lawyer, a judge, and a retired police inspector. As they got to know the boys, they became more interested in entertaining them (or maybe being entertained BY them) than the game. At one point, Felice (the lawyer who claims to have made appearances on The Sopranos) left and came back with two bags, each containing a kid’s sized Mets hat for the boys. A few innings later, his brother Glenn (the doctor) left and came back with two shirts tucked under his coat. He tried to convince the boys that he didn’t buy them anything, but they weren’t fooled for a second.

They of course had to immediately put them on. In fact, Eli slept in his shirt last night and then wore the shirt and hat again today. I might have to draw the line at wearing it again tomorrow. 🙂 Those guys were really amazing guys and I know that they made a lasting impression on the boys that they won’t soon forget. I know you don’t even have to ask if I made a video, of course I did.

The pictures can also be found here:They lost 5-3, oh well.

So that is it for today. Thanks to everyone for the continued prayer support!