Rats win district title!

Naomi and Tyler. Tyler is wearing the district champs t-shirt that they all were given at the end of the game

AA News photo in the paper today of the girls rejoicing with their trophy.

AA News photo of Naomi hacking away at her girl

The big game was very high energy. A bus was arranged to bring the fans in-mostly consisting of the men's bball team who made lots of noise. The opponents, the South Lyon Lions, were a much bigger team. We do have 2 girls 6 feet and over but one is in the hospital recuperating from surgery. Jasmine is the other but she too is recovering from an injury. She did sub in for Naomi a couple times and did very well. Tyler was left to defend against a girl 5 inches taller and who was very skilled at blocking shots. Naomi took the other big girl. But Tyler was her amazing self sneaking in shots-24 points. In one of her baskets, she threaded under the big girl's armpit to get a basket. We went out to a quick lead but SL soon almost caught up. Our many energetic guards pressured them the whole night to take weak shots. Naomi actually did some good things on offense even though her strength is defense. The last 4 minutes of the game consisted of the guards playing keep away to preserve a 10 point lead that was whittled down to 8 at the last second. There is no shot clock in high school bball. Lots of happy tears and positive vibes at the end of the game. Everyone was hugging each other. The athletic director had made up Championship shirts in advance. I guess she had alot of confidence in the girls. Steve, Josh and I had found Coach Steve earlier in the day when we had gone out to lunch. He was busily preparing a game plan and was very nervous but it all worked out. Next stop: Lansing on my last infusion day, Tuesday, to play Niles, a town in the southwest corner of MI. From what I read, they have a good chance against them. The regional final is Thursday. The winner will most likely play East Lansing, the top rated Class A school. Anything can happen.

The temp was in the high 60s yesterday and sunny. After our lunch with Josh, we took a nice walk along the river. Lots of people out. Today it is supposed to rain most of the day but I will try to run maybe.

An old friend from work, Rick, died yesterday of a brain tumor. He was diagnosed almost 3 years ago with a glioma-a type of brain tumor. During surgery to remove it, he had went into a coma and it was suggested to his wife that since he wasn't going to survive anyway that they not feed him. She insisted on the feeding tube and he did awake from the coma. Brain tumors are very hard to treat with chemo as few drugs can go across the blood-brain barrier. I did visit him several months after the surgery and his mind was as sharp as ever. He still could not eat and it was very difficult for him to move as the tumor and/or surgery did alot of damage to his motor skills. For the past year, the tumor was destroying his cognitive abilities too. I feel very guilty that I didn't visit him more during the year he still had most of his mind.

I hate cancer!!!!!!