Are Wii Having Fun Yet?

Everyone says, "Get some exercise." The kids say, "I want to spend my Christmas money." So after Philip finished his SATs on Saturday I took the kids to Target. 'Cuz that's exercise, right? Walking and scolding at the same time takes a lot out of you. (Greg was with us.)

So while we're in electronics, Philip takes me aside from Greg and says, "They have 3 Wiis on the shelf. What should we do?" What would you say?

The boys decide to pool their Christmas money and I decide to kick in some too and the next thing I know, the Antram boys (Mike included) are in the game room BOXING! I don't think Mike has ever boxed in his life, but they are having a blast. Then they start bowling, and you know how good Mike is at that. The boys are amazed. "Dad's really good at bowling, Mom!"

"Yup, I know."

Word to the wise though... Mike says NOT to start with boxing if you are a couch potato. He has a Wii sports injury. Truth be told, I think he likes telling people that he pulled a muscle boxing with his 16 year old.

Get Out of Cancer Free Cards

I think that if you already have cancer you should get a free pass from the universe for any other type of cancer. Apparently this is not the case.

Mike's doctor (the internist) wants to look for colon cancer now. This requires more appointments for consultation on making appointments for procedures that will require more appointments to discuss what may or may not be actual results.

First appointment (consult) will be at the end of February. I will keep everyone posted.

Oh, and the graphic is my way of NOT putting a picture of a colon up.

My mom sent us some water from Lourdes. She got it from a good friend of hers (thanks Kathleen) and FedEx-ed it to us. It took me a while but I got Mike to use it. Good news, I think. Even the idea that someone thinks enough of our family to send something like this to Mom so she can send it to us tells us so much about the people we have surrounded ourselves with. We appreciate you all.

More good news: Mike won at Saturday's poker game. And no, it was before the water. Mike's just a really good poker player.

Is That Good?

After yesterday's post I received a few questions regarding Mike's PSA score. So, just a quick explanation:

The PSA score is the level of prostate antigens in the blood. The higher your score, the more likely something is wrong. A normal PSA score is usually less than 1. If your PSA hits 3 or 4, your doctor will most likely start ordering tests. Mike's PSA started in the 60s range. Not good. The high score indicated that the cancer was advanced and aggressive.

For those of you familiar with Gleason scores, which indicates the aggressiveness of the cancer, on a scale of 2 to 10, Mike's cancer was rated a 9. A very nasty piece of work.

So we are actually very happy that only one month after starting treatments, his PSA score is down to 25. We are hoping for less than 4 at his next visit in a few months.

Incidentally, Mike came in third in the poker tournament last night so he won his buy-in back. Nice work babe!

Let's hear it for Antram's Bits!

So I thought it would be a good idea to keep everyone updated using a blog so that the good news could travel faster than the phone lines to one person at a time. The latest good news:

Mike's PSA score is down to 25! Let's hear it for the boy!

I know what you're thinking. "Why Antram's Bits?" A couple of reasons:
1. I wanted to post more than just news about Mike's health from time to time.
2. There was no one here to stop me. Mike's out playing poker.