month of trying to beat this cancer. Most people wind up being diagnosed with leukemia only after they’re extremely sick and weak and frail.
They’ve told us she’ll be here in the hospital for at least 30 days and she won’t be able to work or function in crowds or near germs and bacteria for 90 more days (in a best case scenario). The docs told Indianapolis Colts head coach Chuck Pagano the same thing 18 months ago and he spent 26 days in the hospital and got back to work in about 100 days. Pagano has been an incredible “angel” for us. He was literally the first call we made and he spent 30 minutes running us through what to expect and preparing us for many scenarios. He has reached to us every day since her diagnosis with incredible words of encouragement, love and support.
We’ve learned that there a lot of good people in the world and certainly in the sports world. Steve Bisciotti, Ted Leonsis, John Harbaugh, Marvin Lewis, Jim Schwartz, my WNST.net partner Brian Billick plus a myriad of athletes, sponsors, listeners, friends – all of the people who’ve truly gotten to know my wife over the years because of what I do for a living – everyone has just been so supportive.
With Jenn’s mother, father and sister all coming to Baltimore from New Hampshire and Florida over the coming weeks to assist with her care, I’ll be returning to the airwaves next Tuesday, April 1st and we plan to try to live life as normally as we can during this trying time. (If you want to help Jenn’s visiting family, please follow this link to Uber.com & enter the promo code: 1ale6. You get $20 in free taxi rides and our family gets $20 and it’s FREE to do it. And Uber is pretty awesome! BTW: We don’t get the family credit until you actually USE Uber and USE your $20.)
During her treatments, it’s my goal to laugh with her, honor her and share this experience together while making it as good and as comfortable as it can possibly be for her over the coming weeks and months as she tries to achieve remission and a cure from this insidious disease.
Sadly, even in the best-case scenario, her life will be very restricted over the next four months and perhaps beyond. No Preakness. No Bruce Springsteen in Hershey. No beach time. No Orioles games. And this is after chemo kicks her ass for the next month and we hope that the doctors at Johns Hopkins – who are universally believed to be the best in the world at beating leukemia – get the right cocktail the first time and that Jenn’s body will be able to handle it.
The good news? They tell us she’s got a great chance to beat leukemia and live a long, healthy life once we get through this long phase. We’re heard from many, many survivors – like Chuck Pagano – who have given us incredible belief that she’ll beat this thing.
8
Obviously, to say this has been an emotional firestorm wouldn’t do justice to the range and depth of emotions we’ve both experienced over the last week.
I love my wife with all my heart and I don’t care who knows it.
It’s kinda been that way since the night we met in Manchester, N.H. on February 8, 2003. It was truly love at first sight. Ask anyone who knows us – we really dig each other and always have. We’ve traveled the world together, shared our love of music, sports and each other relatively openly in social media in recent years because we think it’s normal and natural to be madly in love. And to be “best friends.”
In the new era of social media, you share your joy with your friends. And, clearly, so many people consider us “friends” and that’s a gift and a blessing to us.
One of my favorite broadcasters, Dick Schapp, once said he “collected people.” On my best days, I’ve hoped to emulate that state of mind and suddenly all of the people that I’ve “collected” have simultaneously rallied
