Thursday, January 24, 2008

AK-47 and The Incredibles

Nick here....

Its my 4th day here at the Huntsman for my 10th round of chemo and it has dragged on forever it seems. Its probably because I was feeling the healthiest I have in a long time and my stay here is a day longer since I maxed out on the Doxarubicin (Red Devil) chemo and have gone back to Etoposide which I took while on radiation. Can you believe I have maxed out on a chemo for life. Thats nuts! It cant be healthy.
So yesterday I was relaxing in my room when my nurse came in and simply asked me if I wanted to meet Andre Kirilenko, who plays for the Utah Jazz. My response to her was very simple, "Uh..... Duh!". I guess he only comes about once a year to visit patients and give some support. I knew he has a room here in which he donated to the hospital, as so does Karl Malone. So it was cool to see him in person and meet him. He is definitely not as big as I imagined but who cares, he leads the Jazz in blocks (I think) and he is Russian. You dont wanna mess with that. He was a really nice guy and so was his wife, who is a rockstar in Russia. Andre signed a shirt, hat, and a wooden Russian doll, (which I think is a collectors item) and talked with my mom, friend Shawn and I. It was reall neat. Then channel 4 news took some pictures, video, and a short interview which they said would be on tv and never was. I guess I looked too healthy for them cause I had a smile, hair, and some good looks (ha ha) because the patient who made the 10 second clip on the news was in bed, and didn't look nearly as good as I do. No offense. HA But oh well, it wasnt too big of a deal. At least I got to meet him and take some pictures.
My day was then topped off later when Jenny and Denise showed up with some food, and dressed up as The Incredibles. They looked great in costume as usuall and it never gets old seeing them dress up every round. They also had a gift for me which was way unexpected, and also very generous. They presented me with a Visa gift card that was attached to a piece of paper saying Ogden Airport is waiting for me this spring to go SKY DIVING! Thats right, the real deal is going to happen this spring. No more wind tunnel, its time I fall out of a real plane and fall at 120 mph for 7 minutes. I cant wait, its going to be the biggest rush ever! Thank You Denise and Jennie!

I think this is all that has happened so far, if not I will post agian but I think thats it. HA so thank you everyone for the thoughts and prayers. Also thanks Savanna and Shawn for coming up to visit. It was fun.

Here are some cool pictures....







4 comments:

Obsessedwithlife said...

I also have maxed out on a fair amount of chemo drugs and I HATE the red chemo with a passion!

Very cool about all the events-you are quite the celeb ;)!

Unknown said...

Hi Nick!!

I'm glad to hear you had such a great birthday. I can't believe you are 19! The guys I work with tell me about the wind tunnel all the time and have told me that I need to go do it myself sometime. I have good friends who work at the Ogden Skydiving center and teach skydiving. Let me know when you go for the "real deal" and I can hook you up with them. They are really awesome guys, you would have a lot of fun with them.

I was sorry to hear that you needed to go through another round of chemo but glad that you didn't have the surgery. I think you are the strongest and most courageous young men I have ever met! Mine and Dani's prayers are with you all everyday...Love, Beci :)

Anonymous said...

Happy Sunday Nick,
Denise and Jenny have it correct -"You're Incredible". My prayers today will be that all your cancer cells are being *POW*SMASH*BANG*PUNCH*KNOCKOUT* from your body. Love, aunt Chris

Chris Ulvin said...

May God bless you abundantly this morning Nick as you and your parents meet with cancer doctors. My bible verse for you today is Ephesians 1:15-23. I love you.
Godspeed.
Aunt Chris