thrice maybe??????

I am hoping to go see Thrice next month. I have wanted to see them for quite a while and they are playing with Rise Against who is awesome and Alkaline Trio who is ok.Thrice



Rise Against

I am feeling quite a bit better

Not much more to say than that. Not really. So this weekend was a ton of fun I went and hung out with a few friends who haven't seen me after the surgery yet in Eau Claire. That is always a good time. The evenings usually turn into us complaining about the Brewers situations though. Friday, I went to Madison and got into some shenanigans with friends as we awaited the Badger game day. So Saturday morning we got into our normal game day outfits and started having a good time. Then I was offered a free ticket to the game. Now keep in mind I used to live across the street from Camp Randall for two seasons and never went to a game. All in all it had been three seasons since I went to a game and so I took the ticket and went in at halftime with my old roomie Bill. The red machine finally played a good game it was pretty amazing. The student section wasn't filled up at all which was an odd scene to see. After the game I hung out a little while longer and then headed off to Milwaukee for the benefit that was being held for my medical bills. Now for some of you out there you probably don't know but nearly my entire family lives in Milwaukee which is where I was born. The benefit was at Jimmy B's trails end in West Allis. There was a ton of family, work friends, and randoms and it seemed like good times were had by all. There was so much stuff there for the raffle and it was amazing where some of it came from. I have a ton of thank yous and shout outs to people and so I will list them now. Jay, Erock, Diane and Tommy, Cindy and family, everyone in my family for coming out and keeping me entertained, obviously the kareoke guy, Kevin and Jimmy B's tavern, all of my brothers buddies at International Auto that came out or donated, and that is all I can remember at the moment. After everything was done we went back to my grandmothers house and conversed for a while about the evening. It was pretty nice. Sunday, I went back to Madison and hung out with the guys and watched football all day. Today I slept through my eye appointment because I set my phone to PM not AM. Pretty genious on my part. I went into the old Larson branch and caught up with the crew and updated my situation then I drove to Eau Claire and had diner with my buddy Maker. At the moment I am back in Minnesota.
At the benefit there was a couple that walked up with to me with a bag of stuff from the Milwaukee Brewers. I never met them before from my recollection, but the guys wife was a cousin of a cousin of a cousin or something like that. I am so bad with names it is rediculous I feel so bad at the moment. So to finish up this story. His son is friends with Larry Hisle Jr. who Larry Hisle Sr. is a former player and current employee of the Brewers and he went and got a bunch of stuff from him to give to me. It was pretty sweet. Obviously, I was happier than hell reguardless, but they gave me a few tshirts, baseballs, team card sets, a ryan braun and rickie weeks bobble head (which I actually didn't have already), and the prize posession a Jason Kendall game used bat. I was so shocked. The overall generousity of people is amazing, but the franchise that I have been obsessed about since birth was amazing.






So my excitement for this week is pretty much getting into the gym and work out a little bit harder just to see if I can do it. I know I know I know don't push myself blah blah blah. I don't lift anything so settle down people. I have a date with Humana since they magically missed a couple of billings to be covered. That should be a pretty awesome phone call. They have been really good otherwise. The woman that took on my case has been really awesome helping me out. My insurance has covered everything from my surgery which has been a huge relief since they thought some of it would be considered experimental. That means it wouldn't be covered in any which way. Some of you ask what my out of pocket is at the moment and that would be around $6,000. I am content with that since the benefits were awesome and I don't really spend my money on anything, but music and movies to occupy my time. I will be stopping into the Larson branch here in Bloomington to check in with those guys and see how things are going. Past that I really want to lay low until Friday when Noah and I head off to Madison for OAR playing at Freakfest. Possibly seeing Atmosphere at the Orpheum as well. That might be pushing it though. I still get tired easily.

To everyone out there I am doing well and overly appreciative of everything I have been told, given, or even briefly thought of. Thanks and keep reading up because I am still writing.

Continuing on with recovery

So things have been pretty uneventful around here. I am trying to lay low and not do too much. One thing I have been pretty hard on myself about is lifting things. I really don't want to hurt or ruin anything so I am trying really hard not to do too much of that stuff. Other than that my cuts are healing up pretty well. Some spots you really can't tell how bad things were. Where they removed my spleen they put staples in and they are really starting to hurt and I think that is because I am moving around more than before. Wednesday I go in to see Dr. Maddaus who wants to take the stitches and staples out then do a basic check up. I am feeling good though so I am not too worried about anything.
Last week I was in Janesville and decided to leave and head back up to Minneapolis on Tuesday. I made the rounds to a few places and showed off some scars. I stopped into CB&K in Janesville which is where my dad works and the company I used to work for. Then I went up to Madison before heading back and stopped into Gustave Larson to see people and chit chat a bit. It is always good to see old faces. I stopped in Eau Claire for a rest and hung out with my friend Andy for an hour and so here I am in Minneapolis. I stopped in to Larson up here on Wednesday and caught up with the store and the home office. Then next few months are going to be interesting. I don't really know where I am going to be living, my health is still a question mark, and I have some things planned coming up that will be a ton of fun. This past weekend I hung out over at Jake Hookom's house for the most part. He has done some major work on his house since I was last over there. I am very impressed by how nice it was. I also got a couple of nice meals too. His wife Aubrey can cook. I told her I would be stopping by more often. hahaha. Then the eye rolls came on. I also spent a bit of time hanging out with my bloomington crew just sitting around and shooting the breeze. Otherwise, I haven't done much besides sit around and watch movies. Oh I almost forgot. I went to the gym and biked for an hour on an intense level and I felt fine. Now that I lost all of this weight I have to keep it off somehow. hahaha. Things seem to be on the up and up and I am loving it.
There is also a benefit to help out my medical bills in West Allis (Milwaukee) on this coming Saturday. There will be Kareoke and cheap drinks. It is being held at Jimmy B's Trails End on Lincoln and 72nd. I will be there this time and there are a ton of raffle prizes that we donated. I would totally snap up raffle tickets for it if I could. Trust me some sweet stuff.

new tunes

This isn't new but Unearth have a new album out.

Killswitch Engage just rule! Dio cover weeeee!

Penn State @ Wisconsin

Sam said I needed help smiling.

Jess and myself rocking the W house porch

Sam, myself, and Michelle

Camp Randall from my old porch.

Badger band fresh off of suspension I had never seen them on Breese Terrace playing in my 3 years of being there. It was cool.

All Good Baby!

Here is the new news. This going to be a virtual continuation of the previous post. I have been out of the hospital for a total of 5 days now and I am feeling pretty damn good considering I just had my entire body thrashed by a medical firing squad. I still have a fair amount of stiffness where the incision for my spleen is but other than that I really am not having a lot of the problems that they expected me to. I have nearly a full range of motion in my left arm. Moving my arm straight up is a problem. The doctors flat out told me I they don't think I should ever play sports again so I acted like I going to comply to that but I will stretch the boundaries a bit I know I will. Dr. Maddaus set me up with group that develops braces and stuff like that. I am going to have to get some type of plate made up to cover the huge "hole" I have on my chest. It isn't really a hole in my chest obviously but it is a huge indentation because the doctors took the ribs that hold my chest up as well. You can actually see my heart beat through it so that is why I must get something to cover it. Considering all things I am up and moving around like nothing really happened and I feel better and better everyday. I am planning on going back to the gym at the end of the week and do a very little cardio just to get the blood flowing a bit and help out my lungs. The one thing I keep hearing from everyone is that I have an unbelievable story. I don't look at it that way at all. I consider it a complete nightmare that I had no choice to deal with. Anyone else in my situation would have done the same things I did or atleast I hope they would have. Although I kind of think this way I am planning on putting together a book of some sorts with my experiences from the first and second time. Not only that I think it is really important to explain how things go before and after the situation occurs. If it can help someone else who the hell am I to hold back right? So my old roommate Bill Cooney who writes for the State Journal sports in Madison is going to help me out by spell checking and junk. I am obviously not an english major nor journalist.
Right now I am at my parents house in Janesville, Wi. For those of you who don't know where that is look at a map of Wisconsin and go just south of Madison. I went up to Madison on Saturday for the slaughtering of the Badgers by Penn State. Too bad I wasn't drinking because I would have gotten lit up like a Christmas tree after that sorry excuse for a football game. I had a blast and hung out with a ton of people who I friends with. It was crazy being the only sober person there but then again I was messing with people all night long. Monday I will be going to Milwaukee to have lunch with some family and let them check me out and make sure I am ok. It should be fun. Tuesday I am heading back to Eau Claire for a few hours then back to the cities. I am pretty much going to be trying to figure out a lot of choices I have infront of me. There are a few that will be pretty hard and I usually pan out with everything I do so I'm not too worried. I will just like to say that I am planning on staying in Minneapolis and growing into the whole adult world and just get childish on the weekends..(doubtful but who knows). I feel a lot happier up there and more content with everything in my life. I am not bashing anything in Madison at all. You just know when things are close to right and up there they seem to be. I have a huge cast of friends, a job, a ton of stuff to do. I feel like it is right.
On a side note I finally weighed myself since I had the surgery and I am at 190lbs. I went into the surgery at 200 and came out 10lbs lighter. If you ask me that is pretty scary. Looking back at when I started this whole thing I would weigh in between 225-230. That is a lot of weight but I think a lot of it is from my work outs and healthier eating habits. I didn't really shed pounds on the first couple rounds of chemo so I doubt it was that.

Anyways I will talk to you all later.
-Justin-

The past week

I went in monday and had the surgery done to possibly remove all of the cancer from my body and allowing me to live my life. I was in ICU for just that night and let me tell you I was in the worst pain in my entire life. Even with the narcotics and epidural it was insanely intense. Not a lot happened really between then and now. I apparently have progressed really fast for the amount of items and removed. The first few days they just want you to get up and stand. I got up and went for a very short walk. The other big things have been working on my breathing exercises since my lung was heavily worked with. My lung is a lot better now but I have to adjust to breathing with my chest wall gone. The area is tight and seemingly sturdy. There is going to be a lot of adjusting to movements and ways I sleep. To those that called and left voicemails I did listen to them and meant to call you all back and my excuse is I forgot everyone who called because I was so drugged up. I must say sorry for that. Otherwise this whole experience has taught me a lot of things and I pretty much have to figure out how to use those experiences. This hospital stay has been a rough one. I haven't slept much and have had so much trouble with sweating out the drugs. Pretty nasty stuff. So I have watched a lot of late night TV. I did get to watch the Brewers play and they were not impressive at all. Then again I am still delighted that they made the playoffs. I wish I could have been there. Yesterday I was not hooked up to anything and was able to go outside for a walk. So my mother and I went out to the courtyard here and read the plaques about the University of MN's history and it was pretty nice out. Just a nice relief to get out and get fresh air. Well that is all I am going to write right now I am tired so I am going to nap.

I'm working hard.

hey everyone i am writing this quickly from the 6th floor at u of mn-fairview. so far the surgery was successfull. my spleen was removed and did have angiosarcoma in it. A nice section of my ribs, cartilidge, and muscle was removed from my left chest wall then there was a small portion of my lung that was removed as well. the recovery is coming along becuase i am making myself do all of these tests and push my body into the form it needs to be so i dont get infections and asthma. otherwise results did come back from all of those areas and could tell were tumorous they were full of angiosarcoma as well. the areas around the noticible areas that were extra muscle and junk were ot cancerous at all. most of that is good new but because it is in my spleen and it pushes blood will have a chance of getting it back later in time. from here on out i will have a PET scan every 3 month until the end of my life. I still think i did the right thig. if any of my friends out there want to come down and visit me. text me so i know and can keep a look out for ya. i am having two chest tubes removed tomorrow which hurts terribly also i am having my epidural removed as where and i will be on physical pain meds.

i want to thank everyone for the support and kind words. it is unbelievableeverything i have heard from complete random strangers and best of friends. I am so overly appreciative of everyone it brings me to tears sometime. THANK YOU ALL!!!!!!!!!!