Author: Jgknjlapk

A few more months had passed since I began taking Gleevec again after the abysmal failure of our cold Turkey abrupt ending of the no drug experiment. After three months my blood was back to normal and within six months my DNA came back in line with the reversion to a B Positive blood marker. As long as I retain a sustained full remission on Gleevec, I remain a clone of my brother.

But what happens next? There are many CML patients that are denied a pure and sustainable remission from the get go. The drug only breaks the surface of the disease in some instances and does not give the full 5 log remission that is known as a complete metabolic remission or considered curative. Patients in this position have alternatives at this point in 2010. If Gleevec is not working for a patient suffering from Cml, there are new drugs that have been created, 2nd generation TKI’s by Novartis that are more potent than Gleevec. Drugs like Tasigna/Nilotanib…Dasatanib…Bosutinib…Ponatinib. Four more powerful TKI drugs that can put your Leukemia in arrest. The only problem is that as you move up the TKI ladder, the side effects become harsher and more dangerous in some instances. A trade off of either doing nothing and dying of Leukemia, or moving on to the harder drugs and possibly passing from the harsh side effects they create.

Nilotanib was created to overcome intolerance to Gleevec and is 20 to 30 times more potent. You can’t eat any food 2 hours before you take your pills and then need to wait an additional hour afterwards to eat again. Going against these guidelines could cause instant death through prolonged QT, a heart attack of sorts.This type of side effect would scare anybody. Dasatanib is even more potent, 325 times more potent than Gleevec. Used only as a last resort for very specific mutations this drug can also do great damage to your heart.

A very good friend of mine, Mark Oswalt lost his dad to cancer a few years ago around the same time his mom was diagnosed with CML. The timing was awful as was the diagnosis. Mrs. Oswalt was a trooper and followed the treatment protocols as per her doctor’s orders and trudged along with the usual Gleevec side effects while gobbling down 800 mg a day of the little brown pills. Her side effects were tough but the alternative was worse. Over time her PCR testing continued to show improvement, but never that 5 log reduction in her pcr markers. This was not good. The drug was too weak to control her Leukemia. Her doctors moved her up to the next level drug Tasigna when it was approved and this 2nd generation miracle drug quickly and efficiently put Mrs O into a lasting remission. So far so good! No Bone Marrow Transplant, no Interferon, no long term hospital stays. That’s the way to do it.

My current situation leaves me again cruising along on 400 mg of Gleevec a day and full 5 log PCR, complete remission. Dr. Dave wants me to maintain an every three month blood draw so we are sure to stay on the same path of remission. Sounds good to me.

On the home front…Nick got his drivers license and a great Black Toyota Rav 4, driving himself to the Prep for school and his first job working as a dish washer at Wally Mitchell’s restaurant in Surf City, NJ. Joey was growing at a frenetic rate and moved hockey clubs to higher age levels and away from more drama. He was also courted and accepted a spot at the somewhat interesting and prestigious high school The Academy of the New Church to play hockey there. A prep school based on an interesting religious take on a breakaway Lutheran Swedish Church Leader. Ok then. It would indeed be interesting. My time has been spent looking for a vacation home in Florida and the spot is narrowing down to the mid West coast. We shall see.

Next Up: New Schools, New Teams, New Adventures

Hi All… going to take a break writing until after the New year. Crazy busy at the store and getting worn out…10 days to go! See you soon! Happy Holidays to you all! Jeff

So here we were. After ten years of daily dosing on 400 mg of Gleevec, I would be walking away on a wing and a prayer. I was not the first. Of that, I made sure. I may have been a Guinea Pig when my life was on the line back in 2000 but not now, no way. The first patients that had enrolled in Dr. Drukers experiment to forego Gleevec after at least five years in molecular remission, had started about a year ago. The results were varied. Many patients remained in full remission for a sustained period of six months plus. Others had lost their remission in as little as two months, the average loss being five. Now it was my turn. Bye,bye brown pill. I won’t miss your side effects. Not one bit. But, I thank you for your remarkable service.

It was March of 2010. I went downtown to see Dr. Dave and do the bloodwork necessary to begin the study. I got great news when he told me that monthly Bone Marrow Aspirations would not be necessary like we thought that they would be. Hallelujah! The test of time every month though would be a negative PCR test. Since my current bloodwork was 100 percent negative, we assumed that today’s would remain so. In one week, after the results come back, I will begin the process and stop the drug. Anxious? You bet!

I got the call from Dr. Dave and it was all systems go! All Stop! “Put the Chemo pills away and live your best life bud”. Here we go. It was weird. I was on such a schedule for ten years. Every night, without fail, well mostly every night, I made sure I took my meds. In the frig, chilling, waiting for me to grab the bottle and dispense the life saving formula. As time moved on, I would get used to not reaching for that bottle. You know what else I got used to? No side effects. No more swelling of my eyelids or water retention. No more bowel discomfort issues. No more dragging fatigue and tough mornings. Life was really getting better. Ten years of daily Chemotherapy meds can be a real drag. The cost of staying alive. I didnt mind. Take the pills, live another day. Done deal for me. But this was freedom. Could I actually go on like this forever? Cured of CML by virtue of such a long remission on Gleevec? We shall see.

End of month one. Blood results…negative. Sweet! Let’s keep it up! End of month two. Blood results…negative. Sweet! C’mon Blood! End of month three. Blood results…negative. Sweet! Feeling Great! End of month four. Blood results…negative. Sweet! Cruising Now! End of month five. Blood results…positive. Boom!!

“I’m so sorry to tell you this Jeff”, said Dr. Dave. ” Your PCR results came back and the results were positive and trending up quickly”. This was bad news. Like a relapse all over again. So, Bone Marrow Transplant, didn’t work. DLI infusions, didn’t work. Interferon treatment, didn’t work. Gleevec worked, but a lot of CML patients removed from Gleevec therapy were experiencing a Leukemia free life. Not me. The relapse would entail a quick Bone Marrow Aspiration to rule out any sign of accelerated disease or Blast Crisis and the immediate return to my 400 mg daily Gleevec routine. Immediate return. I will see you tonight my little friend. 10 pm. Back to the grind. Back to the fatigue and baggy eyes. I got a call from Dr. Druker too that week. He appreciated my participation in his trial and felt badly that it didn’t work out. The good news was that most trial participants that relapsed became PCR negative again within a few months after resuming their therapy. So did I. After three months of blood testing, my PCR negativity resumed and luckily there was no issue of advanced disease. Back to zero. Back to normal. Well…as normal as you can be after fourteen years of this shit. C’est La Vie.

Next up: The Next Generation

As we sailed in to 2010 getting used to our new neighborhood and surroundings, things were getting interesting. Joe was finishing up another season with the PLFlyers and it went pretty well. Jimmy Watson was able to move Joe onto a new level and a new perspective. We would move on to a different path. Nick was cruising around with his drivers permit and getting ready to fly. Business was kind of boring actually while sales were few but buying scrap held center stage. It was business either way and earnings were steady. I was actually beginning a search online for the area that I thought would be the best for a future retirement/ investment property to buy within the year. It was a Zillow quest, hovering over neighborhoods on Google Earth and trying to nail down the perfect spot in Florida. East or West coast? The best view. On a golf course, With a pond view, near the beaches, quiet development, perfect location. No problem…would take me at least a year. I felt good though. The bills were getting paid, my staff were happy, we weren’t killing ourselves and my health was great. Hallelujah!

“You’ve got Mail”… was the response by my computer when I turned it on. My AOL was jumping. Like 50 emails waiting to sift through. One by one, I scanned down the list and there it was. The header was short but hit me like a ton of bricks. Dr. Druker/Jeff Keenan /CML Request. I took a few seconds to open it but I can’t lie, I was pretty anxious to find out what the esteemed creator of Gleevec and lifesaver of so many wanted with me. The email began with the usual pleasantries, ” Dear Jeff, hope you are well”. ” It has been 10 years since you started taking Gleevec with minimal issues. We know about your gastric issues and your fatigue, etc. Your PCR results are right on course and blood work almost perfect although your Hemoglobin remains low. Besides all of these findings my outcome was moving on positively and hopefully towards a curable situation once and for all”.The email continued….

“The Portland Oregon Center for Health Sciences and treatment of Cancer” is embarking on a study on Leukemia and the after effects of longterm Gleevec usage. The study would follow long time gleevec molecularly negative survivors who had been PCR negative for at least 5 years. Those patients who were selected would be able to stop taking their medication for as long as forever if weekly blood testing would prove that a lasting remission proved to be Leukemia free! Wouldn’t that be amazing! It was our choice to opt in or out as the patient eligible for the study. I jumped right in!

Blood testing would be done weekly as well as a bone marrow aspiration every month for six months. Our beginning marker was full 5 log remission. No sign of the protein that causes CML. Cold Turkey. No more Gleevec for at least 6 months. Dr. Druker encouraged me to speak with Dr. Dave and discuss the plusses and minuses of the study. The caveat was that any upward change towards positivity in the Leukemia markers, I would immediately be put back on Gleevec. Immediately!

OK DR. DRUKER WHEN DO WE START! Dr. Dave was all in, as well as my family. If I could become independent of this Chemo drug forever it would be amazing! We would begin the study in April and every week thereafter, a trip to Dr. Dave’s office for bloodwork for at least six months. Well, here goes nothing! Bye, bye, Brown Pill. I won’t miss you, but I could have never lived without you.

Next Up: Five Months…

Overboard. I think that’s what you call it when your home remodeling project extends into the fifth month and way over budget. Yes, we settled on Country Club Drive in April and it was now August. We still weren’t finished with construction and the school year was now approaching. This would be a logistical nightmare at this point. With Nick having to travel to Bensalem and Joe to Doylestown, our mornings would be awful. We were fortunate to have the temporary home in Fort Washington but we were also pushing that invitation. It was time to get it in high gear and get the house done!

Our contractors worked overtime, really my friends, and got us to the point of moving in by early September. Our good friend Vladik, who also lived on the Emlen House estate, agreed to drive Nick to school so I could take Joey to his school for the first few weeks. This was a real help. The move in to our new home would take place in mid September. So much work again but it went well and the finished and furnished house was beautiful. It took a lot of great friends and associates to make this happen and a great job was done by all. We were finally in! A new era for our family and a great accomplishment for Lori and I. It was now thirteen years from my original CML diagnosis and nine years since I started taking Gleevec. A huge life setback overcome. Other than my annual trip to Hanahmen Hospital for bloodwork and visiting Dr. Dave, the usual chemo pill side effects were all that were left of my journey. Let’s hope it stays that way, I can handle that.

Like I mentioned in my last post, Joe would move on and up a level with the Little Flyers. He was more than capable of playing at the next age level and welcomed by his new coach, Jimmy Watson. Jim was a former Philadelphia Flyer and Stanley Cup winner. He and his brother Joe were All Star Defenseman for the Flyers and helped win Philly the Cup two years in a row in the 1970’s. He was a gruff, no nonsense kind of guy and coach. No frills, no BS and no coddling. That was good for Joe. He would have older teammates and less drama. Joe and Jim had an interesting relationship but got along well. Hopefully, the season would work out well and Coach Watson would elevate Joe’s game. We shall see.

Meanwhile, the store was still busy buying gold. An essential piece of our business now since the US economy was tanking more every day. Inflation was rampant and the Stock market was still way down in the dumps. So many investors lost a ton of money. My sales were way down too and the holiday season was looking pretty grim. We would have to weather the storm and hope for better days. As long as the gold rush continued though, we would continue to survive and pay the bills. As far as the home front through the end of the year, all was quiet and we were enjoying the new digs. There was not much to report but an interesting email would come across my desk after the holidays. A proposition of sorts that would require a great amount of thought, discussion, investigation and guts on my part to accept. “Dear Jeff”… it began.

Next up: The Proposition

As the gold rush continued, the store was kept busy everyday. It wasn’t a crazy, tough, had to sell type busy, but a steady stream of eager customers ready to cash in on their treasures. Sales were declining, as predicted, but the profits from the refining made up for it. Even the repair business was taking a hit. Customers would rather sell their broken jewelry at this point rather than pay to fix it. Unless it was sentimental, of course.

Joey was finally castless now and raring to go. It had been five months since he was able to play in a game for the Little Flyers. It was killing him. The time had finally come for him to hit the ice and get back in the game. It was February now and the season was winding down. For the first time in three years the team was making a run for the playoffs. This presented a huge issue for Joe’s coach. Inserting Joey into the lineup at this point became a real problem. Not for the coach. Not for most of his teammates. But definitely for a group of parents who couldn’t imagine him coming back at a time like this and actually being a part of the team. It would be so awful if he let up a goal or made a mistake that ends up single handedly causing the team to end their playoff run. Really? Tough shit kid. Not our fault you broke your arm. Doesn’t matter that you have been a productive teammate for three years now. Disgusting and disheartening. Coach Gregg handled it just right. He suited him up and played Joe the rest of the season. Sure, he wasn’t one hundred percent but he eased back in slowly and gutted it out the best he could. As far as the playoffs… the season ended early and it was a team loss. The whole team. It would be Joe’s last with that team. I wasn’t going to deal with that BS anymore.

While the drama was playing out in the stands and we were going through the motions at the store, we finally sold our house in UM. Lori and I had put an agreement of sale into effect on our new home in Doylestown but needed to sell our current house quickly. It was coming into crunch time and getting really close to where it would be a real problem if it didn’t move soon. Well, BAM! A great offer came in and we were on our way! Settlement would be in April and the preparations were ramped up for the move. The new home in Doylestown was in need of some real alterations and repair though. We could move in and try to go room to room while we lived there or find a place to stay and remodel first. We chose the latter. Luckily, we had a place to stay for as long as we needed on the beautiful Emlen House estate in Fort Washington, Pa. where my father worked for many years. It was a huge home, one of three, on a 150 acre private enclave where President George Washington once camped with his troops during the Revolutionary war. It was beautiful.

Our family held the traditional “Moving” yard sale and packed the remainder of our furniture and belongings into storage. Moving is a real job! Settlement went well, although the owners of our new home were divorcing and the tension in the room was quite noticeable, if not comical. Especially when the wife forgot to bring any ID for the notary. After a long delay, the proceedings finally ended with a handshake on our part and a parting of ways on the other. Lori and I made our way to our new home and talked about what a great new beginning was about to unfold but the conversation would take a different turn and tone. Reminiscing and feeling sad about leaving and locking the door that morning on the home that we made for the last fourteen years. A mountain of memories that could never be washed away with the turn of a key and the signing of some papers. It was a great home. A loving home. We watched the boys grow up from babies and become young men. We beat cancer…twice! We celebrated birthdays, milestones, holidays and more! This house will surely be missed. As Lor and I pulled up to Country Club drive, great name eh, we would be embarking on a new adventure. A four month renovation that would make this place our own. Time to get to work. There were new memories to be made. We were ready.

Next up: Finally!!

The end of 2008 saw some great strides. Joey was managing the best he could with his compound fractured arm. His long cast was able to be removed after 12 weeks only to be replaced with a shorter one that went from his hand to his elbow. His arm was so thin and scrawny when the longer cast was removed. He still had another month to go with the short cast and then rehab into the new year. What a process. He was able to start skating again and looked forward to rejoining his teammates, hopefully before the end of the season. We would sell our house in UM shortly and begin the moving process to Doylestown. A lot going on.

Meanwhile, I was concentrating on the holiday season as it had been really busy at the store leading up to December. The 2008 holiday season would turn out to be the most lucrative month in Belaggio Jewelers history. We were slammed! Everyday, from Black Friday through Christmas Eve, we were busy. Inventory was flying out of the cases and I needed to bring in additional units of the usual big sellers to keep up with the demand! Diamond stud earrings, diamond tennis bracelets, custom colored stone jewelry, etc. It was crazy. My employees and I were spent after those four weeks. The coffers were full though and that always made going into the new year of business much less stressful. Of course, I would need to fill up the cases after the New year. Spend, spend, spend again. That’s the jewelry business.

Something else was happening in our industry beginning in 2009. A phenomenon that had only occurred once in my lifetime and a few years before I entered the business. The price of gold per ounce was rapidly spiking upward. Back in the early 1980’s, the price per ounce of gold jumped up about three hundred percent. It was a short lived spike but many Jewelers capitalized on the moment and were able to make some big money. Now, the same phenomenon was occurring as the US stock market began crashing along with other economies around the world. The go to investment in times like these is to buy gold as a safe haven for one’s portfolio. The trend upward in the price of gold had already started to rise in 2007 and rapidly began to accelerate in 2009. From $600 per ounce, to $700 and $800 and $900 per ounce. It topped over $1900 per ounce a year later. The jewelry industry would begin to see a huge increase in the cost of gold jewelry, especially chains, bracelets and any style of jewelry that contained mostly gold. The retail cost of newly manufactured jewelry, per gram, was skyrocketing every day. On the other side of the coin, as the price of gold continued to climb, so did the scrap price. Scrap jewelry is essentially jewelry that is unwearable, broken, not worn anymore, unwanted, etc. The condition of the piece didn’t matter or the age. We purchased it by the weight solely for the gold content. The purity of the jewelry set the price based on whether it was 10 karat, 14 karat, 18 karat, 22 karat or 24 karat. The higher the karat, the more we paid out. 24 karat is pure gold and offered the best return for your weight. Most manufactured 24 karat jewelry came from India, the Middle East or other far Eastern countries. 18 karat came mostly from Italy and European countries and 14 karat and 10 karat were the standards of jewelry manufactured in the US.

For precious metal dealers, this was a real boon. A gold rush of sorts and it wasn’t ending anytime soon. The price just kept going up and up. People were selling their personal gold like crazy. Personal jewelry, coins, inherited jewelry, you name it. For my business, it was wonderful, just like all of the other Jewelers in our country. Our days were consumed with sorting, cleaning, weighing, calculating and paying for scrap gold. Platinum and Silver too. All commodity prices were moving upward. I was able, as far as my business was concerned, to finally catch up with many old bills that had been weighing me down. Obligations that I had accumulated during the long road that was fighting Leukemia. Missing so much time from the business hurt me terribly. It was a situation that weighed on me every day. Making positive strides was the outcome of a good year of business and the start of the modern gold rush. We paid very fair scrap prices to our customers and refined the proceeds every week to make some profit. The major downside of the rush though, was going to be an inevitable drop in regular fine jewelry sales. Customers were selling many of their precious heirlooms with no intention of replacing them for a long time. Especially at the inflated cost for new jewelry. For now, let’s hope the gold prices keep rising and the scrap keeps coming. Let’s also hope that the Stock market gets healthy and our economy too. That needs to happen real soon. Overall, our country was hurting. The gold rush helped many people during this time. Especially me.

Next Up: A Sad Return and Goodbye

The summer of 2008 was nice and calm. A mixture of hockey tournaments and visits to LBI for some beach and crabbing fun. Not much to talk about. Joe was getting ready for another season with the Philadelphia Little Flyers and working hard at it. Nick was getting ready for his first year at Holy Ghost Prep and too, working hard at it. Lori and I decided to have a barbecue birthday party for Joey. Invite family and friends and some of Joe’s teammates over to our home in UM.

It was a beautiful day in September and we had a pretty large turnout to celebrate Joe’s twelfth on the 21st. The boys decided to follow Joe around the corner to a neighbors house to have some fun. The house had a huge hill right in front, some forty or fifty feet tall. They were running up and down and rolling down, whatever twelve year old boys do. As the hot dogs and hamburgers were grilling, Joe’s friend Kevin came running to the deck of our house yelling for help. I calmed him down for a second and he said that Joe was hurt bad. Really bad. I took off running towards a sound that began to become louder and louder. Horrible screaming was coming from around the corner and I couldn’t get there quick enough. It was bad… really bad.

The boys were running up and down the hill, chasing each other. Joe was chasing Kevin’s brother Colin down the hill when Colin tripped in front of him. Joe tried to jump over Colin and launched himself in the air. He landed on the sidewalk, trying to brace himself on his right hand to cushion his fall. When I reached him, Joe was lying on the grass between the sidewalk and the street. His arm was somewhat covered by his head and he was shaking. In shock. The next thing I saw almost made me throw up. His hand was facing 90 degrees from his forearm. A double compound fracture with the bones sticking out of his skin. When he landed, both bones in his arm snapped in half. It was horrible. I dialed 911 on my cell immediately and asked for an ambulance to get there as quick as possible. I knew that there was nothing that I could do other than to try and comfort him. He couldn’t be moved. I rubbed his back and spoke to him to keep him alert. I didn’t know what else to do. I told him to try to breath deep and relax the best he could until the ambulance got there. In true Joe fashion, he snapped back at me…” Relax!!! Do you not see my Fuc@!%*ing arm!!!” OMG.

In a few minutes, a car pulled up with a paramedic inside and well, she almost threw up too! Joey was irate by this point and said ” Where is the freaking ambulance!”. I can’t imagine how much pain he was in. The paramedic apologized. There were so many calls that afternoon that none were available just yet. She took his vitals and examined him the best she could just as the ambulance arrived. They loaded him up quickly on a backboard, stabilizing his arm to prevent more injury. Luckily, there wasn’t a lot of blood and the break hadn’t caused injury to the main vessels in his arm. As soon as he was in the ambulance, the paramedics broke protocol and administered Morphine right away to ease his pain. This was one tough motherf#$@*ing kid. I rode to Abington hospital with the first paramedic to arrive while Lori followed in our car. Everyone was really shooken up, especially Joe’s friends. The party, unfortunately, ended soon thereafter.

We arrived at the hospital quickly and the ER received Joe right away. The docs decided to call in an orthopedic specialist immediately and while we were waiting, they were thinking about flying him to CHOP in downtown Philadelphia. Since his fracture was compound, there was a great risk for infection. He had dirt and other debris in the wound that needed to be taken care of right away. The Surgeon got there and decided that there was no time to waste. He would operate immediately. This was so scary. Yet another time Lori and I would have to see one of our boys taken away into a serious surgery. Joe’s friends all had arrived at the hospital soon after us. They were so worried about him. The nurses let them back to see him before the surgery. He was actually hysterical. Funny that is. He was very high on Morphine and man was he in rare form. They all laughed as he rambled on and on. Finally, the surgery team was ready to go and took him down to the operating room area. It was a Sunday and not much staff were around. The Surgeon introduced himself to Joe and wrote in Blue magic marker “This one”, on his right hand. When the Surgeon stepped away, Joe whispered to us to get him another Surgeon right now! “Is this guy serious?”, he said. “He has to mark which arm to operate on!” “He can’t tell which one’s broken!” It was a great laugh at such a tense and terrible moment. The operation took a few hours but was very successful. He came out into recovery with a huge cast and an even better sense of humor. Post-op anesthesia recovery comedy. The nurses loved him.

A few days in the hospital to recover and make sure that there was no infection was the beginning of a long and arduous journey to normalcy for this poor kid. He would miss the majority of his hockey season and come back to of course, more controversy. I’ll leave that for another blog. There was no question though…we were so proud of him. This was a “Bad Break” and he handled it like a man. A real Man.

Next Up: The Gold Rush

As we cruised into the end of the year a lot was going on besides the usual Christmas prep and holiday mayhem at the store. Nick got his acceptance letter to Holy Ghost Prep, a very prestigious Catholic private High School. He was so happy and Lori and I very proud. He was also named Captain of the Upper Moreland Middle school ice hockey team as the team voted him in. Maybe he wasn’t the best player on the team, but it spoke to his character and all around liking by all of the players. He was also voted as one of two players to represent the team at the SHSHL All Star game. This didn’t sit well with Joe since he was the third leading scorer in the whole league as a sixth grader and a Defenseman… Lol. This season was my first as the middle school head coach and as usual it would be a real trip. Luckily, the season would go on break for the holidays so I was able to concentrate on the store. This task was also like coaching a team of sorts. Eight salespeople, three gift wrappers, and hoards of customers, I would have to be more like a quarterback calling out options while listening to every sales pitch going on throughout the store. I would jump from customer to customer, closing one sale and heading over to another if I thought that my employee was losing the deal or I thought that the gift wasn’t the perfect choice for the customer. Twenty five straight days of that is grueling but financially satisfying and necessary for the survival of your business, especially as a Jeweler. We ended up again with a great season and extremely satisfied customers. A team well coached and quarterbacked always wins championships!

That brings us back to our hockey team. A group of young sixth to eighth graders with varying degrees of talent and multiple personalities. My sixth graders were the talented group of club players and Joey one of the only AAA players in the league. His mouth and his skill made him very controversial with all of the competition. In fact, Elementary school kids at Lori’s school in the North Penn district would tell her before our games against North Penn how their older brothers were going to get Joe. Never happened, he always got them…Lol. We finished the season in the middle of the pack but somehow made it to the championship game for the Suburban league title. We would face Archbishop Wood, a team of all eighth graders, in front of about 400 fans. We had lost all three games that we played before against them. Their coach came by our locker room and wished us well before the contest. Nice gesture. I closed the door behind him and said “Alright boys, this is how we beat them tonight!” How…Miracle-esque!

The team followed my instructions to the letter and we were beating them through two periods of play to their chagrin. The bigger and stronger team, Wood came back to lead the game towards the end of the third period. Joey used his chirping skills to gain us a power play with minutes to go and we tied the game up with seconds to spare and end the third period. Our boys were spent by now and I knew that to win the game, I would have to shorten the bench. I asked the eighth graders, our less experienced crew, if they were ok with that. If not, we would continue to roll our lines as usual. They wanted to win though and though they played a great game, agreed to my request. A five minute overtime would be played to determine the league champions. I set up plays for the opening face off and asked our goalie Brett to hang in there a little longer. He stood on his head all game! Joey would control the puck in the defensive zone and get the puck deep into the offensive zone. Play went on for two minutes and we got a face off in their zone. I called a time out to rest my five players that were out on the ice the whole time. I set up a play for the face off when my center Matt said, ” Coach, I’m done”. He was exhausted! I told him to take a drink, follow the plan and give me the best thirty seconds of play he ever had. Guess what? GOOAALL! And guess who scored it? Yep, Matt! As he collapsed, literally crying on the ice, the whole team piled on him in a huge celebration. The other team broke sticks over the boards in disbelief and the fans were cheering wildly. What a great moment for these boys.

Controversy, well of course there was. After the season, I put my request in to coach the JV team next season. No Brainer, right? Wrong. Request denied. Apparantly, I found out that some of the eighth graders thought that I pushed them a little too hard. Well, that was my job. And the Little League incident in the spring, well that was “controversial” too. Oh well, we were putting a bid on a beautiful new house in Doylestown, Nick was moving on to Holy Ghost and Joe kicking ass in AAA for the Little Flyers. Time to move on from UM anyway…for now. Also, another great report on my annual blood test. Nothing tops that.

A quick sidenote… Besides the usual politics and BS that comes with coaching youth sports, the ability to interact, shape and improve the lives of young men and women is priceless. I relished every moment. Take our goalie Brett for instance. His mom took me aside a few years prior to give me a laundry list of health issues Brett had, before I coached him in his first”Learn to play” session. Serious stuff. She was very afraid of him participating in such a rough game but Brett wanted to be a hockey player. She wouldn’t deny him. All that I knew was that if he started flailing his arms, I needed to hang him upside down from the net posts and then get him to the hospital. Whew! Luckily, that only happened once in four years. The summer before the Middle School season, I ran into the family in a Lee’s Hoagie House restaurant. His dad told me that Brett wasn’t sure that he wanted to play hockey anymore. I straightened out that situation with Brett real quick. I was so happy for Brett when we won the championship. He was such a great kid. His mom forwarded me a school project that he did soon thereafter about a person he admired very much. It was beautifully written about “Coach Keenan”. That says it all for me. Thanks, Brett.

Next up: A Bad Break

As we continued to mourn the loss of Nonno, 2007 would be a very busy year. Nicky was becoming a teenager, playing tennis for UMMS and prepping for his entrance exam for Holy Ghost Prep. Go Nick! Joey was preparing for the Little Flyers tryouts again for next season and starting baseball. I would come out of retirement to coach baseball again for his team. This season would be a real trip. Our team would end up with a 17-0 record, a great accomplishment for a great group of kids. The journey to get there was wrought with controversy and emotional ups and downs. My assistant coach was a great dad and guy going through a terrible time with his own long battle with cancer. It was not going well and his two boys were really hurting. They were both on our team and compassion was the main word when handling their issues. It was a tough time. Our championship game ended with a great win and I put the coaches son in to pitch the last 3 innings where he won the game. Tears were flowing and the team rejoiced their phenomenal season until, of course, a deranged parent told the other teams coach to protest the game on a substitution technicality. The teams coach called in the Umpires, lodged the ridiculous protest which made the championship invalid until a board hearing in two weeks was held to discuss the outcome. The team could not celebrate their perfect season. These were ten to twelve year old kids…Nice job parents. Well, needless to say, this led to a big fistfight in the stands among parents and the police coming out in force to control the melee. My team and I remained in the dugout until the fracas subsided…totally disgusted. The outcome…an apology by the opposing coach and the championship restored. Nice job…Too little, too late. The boys never got a chance to celebrate their season.

The rest of the summer included a week in the Pocono mountains where we relaxed, fished, went to the Pocono 500…amazing, and a wild ride in the pouring rain to Pocono General Hospital where I was throwing up out of the car window as another freaking kidney stone attack beat me up. Oh well, just another day in my life! After the mountains, a hockey trip to Boston! What a great town! We toured Harvard, MIT, Boston University, Fenway Park, the TD Gardens, USS Constitution, Boston Aquarium and saw The Blue Man Group! The hockey was great and the trip spectacular. Last up, the final ” Team Belaggio” golf outing.

Like I mentioned earlier, running the “Team Belaggio” event was a labor of love and a lot of labor. This would be my last hurrah. My goal was to reach a grand total of 100k in donations to the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society. We followed the same game plan with golf, prizes, raffles, great food and Texas Hold-em Poker after the banquet dinner. We did it! All total, we surpassed the 100k goal for the four years of the event. It was a fabulous day. Everyone reached deep into their pockets and the donations exceeded the past three years by far. A job well done by all of my crew and a wonderful sense of accomplishment for such a great cause. This was now eleven years since my diagnoses and a few months after Dr. Dave gave me my all clear, thumbs up, keep the faith, annual report. Now it’s time to get ready for the holidays. This has been a great year for business so I know that the season was going to explode! Fingers crossed.

Another footnote : This blog marks my 100th post so far! I really appreciate everyone who has followed along on my journey. That being said, I need to give love to a great woman who always gave her time to so many charities including my own. A fixture at the front table at all “Team Belaggio” events as well as a major donor and great friend to our family, Helen Piszek Nelson lost her own battle with cancer this week. She fought valiantly over the past five years with class and dignity, always commenting kindly on my blog while she endured. She will be greatly missed. RIP Helen❤. I also would be remiss in not mentioning my partner in baseball, Coach Jack Bennis. He too lost his battle with cancer a short time after our season. A wonderful Dad, Husband and friend, his boys carry on his legacy turning out to be great young men ❤.

Yep, Cancer Sucks

Next up: Another Championship and More Controversy