One of my old friends, John Spinosi was recently diagnosed with stage 4 brain cancer, it is the same cancer that my mom contracted in 2007. If you know John from the Troy High School days, take a peak at this informational flyer for a charity event to help him and his family during these rough financial times.
Getting ready for Notre Dame vs. Michigan
I took the kids and Nicole to see Rascal Flatts last night at The Verizon Wireless Music enter in Indianapolis. We had an opportunity to go back stage and meet the band. Noah spiked his hair so he would look like Gary LeVox from the band and Gary and Joe Don noticed it and told him how much they liked his hair. We had a great time and the band sounded great.
Wow! Today was interesting. I got a call from Nicole this morning after the show informing me that our 5 year old Cooper has an "outer ear infection" AGAIN and that I need to take him to the minute clinic for antibiotics. This has happened before for I decided to take him to an ENT here in Frisco.
When I got to the ENT he told me we would be checking Cooper into the hospital to remove whatever was causing the infection behind his left ear. I was stunned, I knew it was more than an normal ear infection, but I didn't think it would require surgery.
I met the Doctor at the ER to prepare Coop for surgery. They had to put in an IV and it was just heartbreaking. After they took blood from the IV port they told him they would have to leave the IV in his arm and he turned to me and said "are they going to leave it in forever?" I tried not to laugh but it was really sweet. He cried for a little bit but it stopped burning and he was fine although he kept referring to his IV as a "pimple." Who knows how he came up with calling it a pimple.
After the IV stopped hurting, he managed a really fake smile so I could send a picture to mom so she could see that he was alright. Cooper told me "you should have never brought me here." He's right, the last three times this happened the doctors sent him home with penicillin. The infection always came back so this time I wasn't going to mess around and the ENT Doctor was awesome. He took it dead serious and we finally have the ear fixed.
When it was time for a CAT scan, I had to appeal to Coop's competitive side. I told him the CAT scan ride" was cool and that I wanted to go first. He wasn't having any part and insisted that he go first. When we got to the CAT scan room I jumped up on the table and begged the tech to let me go first, but right on cue Coop said "no," I wanna go first! I made a sad face and got off the table to let him go. Call me stupid but I owned that five year old on this issue! LOL.
He had a little bit of a hard time coming out of the surgery but soon settled down and was back to near normal. He was thrilled to have powdered donuts and apple juice after he woke up.
Noah was VERY concerned and made it his mission to make sure Cooper had his nintendo DS and all his stuffed animals at the hospital with him. It is so cool to see his concern considering they usually spend a lot of time brawling.
While all this was going on Nicole was substitute teaching at a local elementary school. We tried to keep her in the loop with these pictures, so I am sharing them with you. I didn't want you to think I was busy photographing Cooper for the blog while he was dealing with all this, we spent some of the afternoon taking "funny face pictures" to keep him mind off of things. These were pictures for Grandma and Mom. I didn't send the one of him crying because Mom would have left work and Grandma would have been on a plane. LOL
Coop is great tonight, mom is sleeping with him in his "hotel room." Thanks to Jasmine for handling my appearance this afternoon.
Image by mwlguide via Flickr
This week we got the word that broadcasting legend Ernie Harwell has incurable bile duct cancer. I've been wandering around since I read the news trying to figure out exactly what it was that I was feeling, sadness yes, but mostly love for a guy who I grew up adoring.
When I decided radio was my thing there were two people who made it a foregone conclusion that I would pursue a career in sports broadcasting, Bob Ufer and Ernie Harwell. I loved them both for the absolute passion they both displayed for their professions. They were on opposite sides of the spectrum, but they both played a HUGE role in my childhood and in my professional development.
While I will never be compared to either as a broadcaster, they were both instrumental in my development as a radio personality. I got into radio because I always wanted to be the guy to replace Ernie Harwell, come on, every Detroit kid wanted that gig and when Ernie retired, I knew the timing would never allow me to be the Tiger play-by-play guy. I was simply too young and didn't yet have enough radio experience. Since the play-by-play gig is almost always for life, I reassessed my goals and decided that talk radio would be my calling.
When I started at WDFN I knew that I was in the right place and that play-by-play wasn't my thing, there are far too many talented play-by-play guys...I wasn't one fo them.
Sports radio allowed me to get to know Ernie in ways that I would have NEVER have expected. When I was hosting shows with Jamie at WDFN we use to joke that Ernie would "hate" me because I was a loud mouth, etc. That wasn't the case and Ernie let us know how much he appreciated us.
One year in the late 90's Jamie and I were broadcasting from Tiger training camp in Lakeland. As we went to a break in the show we heard his distinct booming voice behind us, "Hey fella's, can I take ya to dinna tonight?"
We turned around and there was Ernie, all alone inviting a couple of young unknowns to dinner. Jamie and I tripped over ourselves accepting the invitation. Jamie is such a huge baseball lover that he was every bit as excited to have dinner with Ernie as I was. Since that invitation, I've always wondered what kind of amazing human being takes the time to invite those he may even disagree with to dinner. Ernie could have big timed us and nobody would have thought twice about it, but instead he chose to make our day and invite two young, eager fellow broadcasters to dinner.
When we got to the Italian restaurant in Lakeland Ernie proceeded to hold court and dazzle us with stories of times gone by; explaining in great detail his dinners at the very same restaurant he'd had numerous times with Sparky Anderson and other great Tigers over the years. He really made Jamie and I feel like we had made it. We were so high from the evening, we didn't need a plane to fly home from Florida.
Ernie is nothing short of an amazing man, someone put here to make the rest of us better people. Tomorrow I will pick up the phone to call Ernie to request dinner with him so I can let him know what he has meant to me since that day in the late 90's when he gave me all his attention and his friendship.
I hope Jamie will join us for Italian!
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I know I've bored you with the details of my dog Mouse's long decline and I really appreciate you listening and sending your thoughts. Most all of us have been touched by the death of a dear pet and my writing about Mouse are only my attempt to relate to what all animal lovers must eventually go through. You can't have unconditional love from your pet and not have pain in the end.
Here are some of the postings over the last year as I chronicled Mouse's journey into old age.
I purposely haven't written about her over the last few months because your comments have been so nice and sincere that I didn't want to risk another false alarm. I simply took the time to ensure her some quality of life until I was ready to make a decision for her.
After the deaths of my younger sister in 1999 at 25 and mom's tragic passing in 2006 followed by dad's demise in February of 2007 I am keenly aware Mouse is "just a dog." But she was "just MY dog" for better or for worse. When I adopted her with my buddies Tim and Shane in 1993 we made a commitment to care for her to the end and we each knew there would be a day too soon when we would part. It was always assumed Mouse would go with me wherever I went, there was never a custody battle because I think my best buds knew I would put in the time, effort and love to make sure Mouse had a great life. They would have done a great job too, but it was understood that I was "the crazy dog guy." Since that time Tim has become "crazy dog guy."
I talked to my two former roommates tonight to inform them that Mouse had passed and they each were comforted that she was with me when she left us. They both had so many great memories of our youth with that dog. Tim, Shane and I used her endlessly as a puppy to meet girls but hey, it was the least she could do as we were paying the rent and feeding her Burger King hamburgers.
The decision making process started yesterday when I come downstairs ( she hadn't climbed the stairs in a year) to find mouse sleeping. She never moved the whole day. I shook it off thinking "I've seen this before, she'll rebound." She never rebounded and later yesterday she peed on herself trying to get up to go outside. When I took her outside to give her a bath I noticed that she was nothing but skin and bones. It wouldn't be long. Later in the evening I took her outside to pee and she did, I went back inside to let her chill out with the other dogs, when I heard the sprinkler come on I ran outside to get her and she was in the same place I had left her, having been soaked by the sprinkler.
I brought her in the house, dried her off and put her on her bed for the night. This morning not much had changed, she was sleeping and I notice her eyes were rolling rolling back in her head and I made the decision to end her suffering.
I called my brother Chris and asked him to come over and look at her, I called my sister and my brother in law (they are dog lovers too) and ask their opinion and the decision was made. I couldn't keep her alive for me anymore, I needed to do the right thing to end her suffering. My sister Kim and Jon are amazing people who recently went through the same thing with their beloved pooch Porter and they counseled me to make the right choice for Mouse, not for me. Thanks Jon and Kim for your clarity.
My big brother Chris was great, I called him and asked him to help me through this and he was there in minutes. Nikki was no help because she was working at JJ and really didn't want to see Mouse go, so I didn't want to burden her with the details. Nikki is a HUGE dog lover but she's way more pragmatic that I am and wanted me to end Mouse's suffering long ago.
Chris and I loaded Mouse into his car (I had my Jeep top off and didn't want Mouse to be in the 105 degree heat) at about 3:00 p.m. and went to Jungle Java so Nikki and the kids to say goodbye. Nikki got in the back seat with her and lovingly said her goodbyes, Noah and Cooper kissed her on the head and said goodbye and Chris and I took her to the vet office.
When we arrived we were led to a room where I laid Mouse on the table and proceeded to stroke her head and tell her how much she'd meant to me all her life. My whole body was screaming "get out of here, you don't HAVE to do this," but I knew there was no turning back, I needed to do this for my friend.
As I was kneeling down, stroking her head telling her how much I loved her, the vet took my hand place it on her emaciated stomach and said "feel her, you are doing the right thing." I asked the vet to sedate her so she wouldn't feel the needle. As she slipped off to sleep with me face to face, she picked up her head turned to me and touched my nose with hers. I'd like to think she was saying goodbye.
A few minutes later the doctor came back and administered the shot that would end my friends life, as she slipped away, I held her tight and cried. I can't describe the feeling of letting my friend go, at this point there doesn't seem like any peace for me but I know in the days ahead there will be. She won't suffer any longer, she won't feel pain and she won't feel the indignation of old age, but tonight I'm still broken hearted wondering if I should have squeezed more days from her fragile body.
She is gone and tomorrow the sun comes up on the great life I lead, great family, great friends and two remaining dogs that I love but something will be missing, my youth.
Mouse has seen me come full circle, from a broke kid trying to break into radio, succeeding, failing and trying to get back into the career I so love. Sometimes I wonder what she saw in those loving brown eyes. She will never know how much she marked time in my life, she saw it all....from Michigan to Texas, to Philly and back to Texas.
I'll never forget this wonderful soul who love me unconditionally, welcomed my wife and children into our lives and never asked for anything but love, food and a stroke on the head.
Rest in peace old girl, I'll never forget your contributions to my life and hope I did the same for you. You were the best companion a guy could ever have.
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