I was coming up on the one year anniversary of my diagnoses. A conundrum of sorts, I guess. Do you celebrate one of the worst days of your life or do you celebrate because you are alive to see it? I didn’t know either. But I was grateful to be alive. What the future would hold was a big question mark. We were moving in the right direction. Gradually returning to work and getting on with life. My doctors appointments were now increasing to bi weekly and then to monthly visits. The usual bloodwork, weight check, and the occasional Chimerism. A Chimerism showed the percentage of my brothers DNA versus my own DNA. The test was done using a normal blood draw and was a welcome substitute for a bone marrow aspiration. The goal was to be one hundred percent my brother. Full change. From my type O blood to his B positive. We were close coming into the summer, almost there. It wouldn’t be long and the anti rejection drug was working well.
We are going to fast forward a bit. The status quo and my daily life becomes pretty mundane at this point. By June of 1997 I was working full time again and trying to put the past year in the rear view mirror. I had gained about thirty pounds back and my appetite was on a roll. It felt so great to be normal again. I was enjoying my boys so much now, life was good. Also, my Platelet count was gaining ground, over one hundred thousand and stabilizing. Still way below the norm of 250k to 450k, but guess what? Dr. Dave gave me the green light to start playing hockey! The season was coming up in the beginning of September and as long as my platelet count was above 100k, I was good to go! Now, where do I play? I was still underweight, hadn’t skated in over a year and a half and I knew that playing in the normal men’s league level that I was used to would be no good. I wasn’t ready for that.
Enter the NNHA. The National Novice Hockey Association. A fairly new National organization that was setting up beginner leagues across major U.S. cities. We called it “The Not Necessarily Hockey League”. The league was set up with four different levels of A, B, C and D. Now, I wasn’t sure how beginners were classified into four divisions, but whatever, I made the call. I explained my situation and was put on a D level team to start the season. Entering the rink for the first time again was like heaven. The smell, the cold air, the usual crappy locker room… Heaven. The players that I met were guys from all walks of life that loved and wanted to start playing hockey. I coached guys like this for many years as a Learn to Play instructor at the Wintersports Ice Arena near Philly. They were literally taking the ice to play in a real game for the first time. I had played for twenty five years. This would be interesting.
I still looked pretty sad. Hair was still growing in, pale, skinny and totally out of shape. I had to completely reign it in. OMG, you would of thought that I was an NHL hockey player. It was fun though and such a great feeling. It only lasted a couple weeks though. I was getting my wind back and my legs. The league moved me from D to C to B to A in about four months. We did have a few hiccups though. Twice my bloodwork came back and my Platelet count was under 100. I had to wait it out and bite the bullet. If I had gotten hit too hard or with the puck, it could cause me to bleed uncontrollablly. I was already full of bruises anyway but it could get worse if I didn’t follow Dr. Dave’s orders. When I moved up to the A division, I recruited some friends to play on my team and we won the Championship. I was back Mr. Rod Brindemour, just like you said I’d be.
Next up: Team USA and A Trip to The Netherlands