Last Saturday was my 40th birthday. Haley and I typically don’t do much for each other’s birthdays (or Christmas, or holidays), preferring to save up our money for our annual anniversary trip, but this year she surprised me with my very own comic spinner rack.

Now I can pretend I live in a 7-11 circa 1988!

It’s silly, but it’s something I’ve wanted since I was a kid. It says a lot about how awesome my wife is that she not only found such a great gift, but is perfectly fine with keeping a spinner rack full of old comic books in our nice, classy living room. I’m a lucky dude.

Believe it or not, that wasn’t the coolest thing she did for my birthday this year. The other thing she arranged was so bonkers that it deserves a whole post of it’s own, so look for that later this week.

I spent most of Monday at the University of Kansas Hospital, undergoing tests. First was a PET scan, then a CT scan, and finally a bone marrow biopsy. The scans were fine, and actually seemed to go quicker and easier than the scans I’ve had previously. I’ve had CT scans that took over an hour and a half, but this one only took about twenty or thirty minutes.

I may have dozed off while waiting for my biopsy

The biopsy went about as well as can be expected for something that involves my bones and a power drill. At least this time I was sedated. It’s been a few days, and my pelvis is still sore from the drilling, which is a sentence I never thought I’d have to write.

On Friday, we’re going back to University of Kansas for the results from all those tests. It’s hard to overstate how important those results are; If they show that I’m in remission, I’m moving forward with the bone marrow transplant. If they show that I still have active “hotspots,” we’re going to have to restart the chemotherapy, only stronger and with the addition of radiation. Either way Friday is going to be a pretty big day.

We had a bit of a scare last night, as I’ve been feeling a little sick. With my immune system so weak, I have to be very careful about any symptoms of an illness, and last night my temperature got up to 99.8° which is luckily where it peaked. I literally had my shoes on and was about to leave for the ER when my temperature started coming back down.

I have a bunch of things I want to blog about… Logan’s 14th birthday, Haley’s brother Matt coming out here for a week, the process of finding an estate lawyer and filling out a will… but my energy levels have taken a real dip this week. Hopefully after a couple more days of rest I’ll be back to posting regularly.