Over the last two weeks I’ve received five transfusions total, three last week and two this week.

At my most recent visit the doctor explained to me we’re approaching “crunch time,” if my body is responding to the ATG my blood counts should move closer to normal over the next few weeks.

A basketball coach once told me ‘sports parallel life,’ and with the usage of a phrase like “crunch time” my doctor has done nothing to disprove it.

I’ll give the sports analogy a shot. Let’s say my bone marrow is Michael Jordan. And we, the Chicago Bulls, are in the final seconds of the fourth quarter of a tie game. To put it mildly, we would like to get the win here.

If it seems disgustingly self serving that I’ve chosen the greatest sportsman of a generation to represent my bone marrow, no worries it is exactly that…just trying to stay positive. However, before you write the selection off as entirely fair weathered’ and sickening, take note of the undeniable; Michael Jordan and my bone marrow have traveled remarkably similar paths. Both were born in New York. Both began to mature and come into their own in the late 8o’s, early 90′s; M.J. started winning MVP’s and championships and my bone marrow helped develop one of the finer child immune systems—between 1988 and 1992 there is record of only two illnesses, a short lived ear infection and a bout with the common cold. By all reports the cold was dispatched of in three days and two nights—-in most cases the common cold takes 7 to 10 days to run it’s course. Extraordinary.

But the most striking of all the many similarities comes next. After being wildly successful, Michael Jordan, just like my bone marrow, decided to hang it up in the prime of his career and walk away from the game he loved. They say Chicago shut down for weeks when M.J. announced his retirement—children wept, men skipped work in favor of long binges at South-side bars. To be truthful, I didn’t not take my marrow’s decision to call it quits all that well either.

Now that I’ve cemented Jordan as a more than decent representative of my bone marrow, back to the game.

It’s all tied up, final seconds of the fourth quarter. Think of me as one of the Bull’s role players—maybe Luc Longley—assigned to set the screen that’s going to free up M.J. for an open look. The balls been in-bounded and Luc’s sets a decent screen—a.k.a. I’ve taken all of my medication and  made the necessary lifestyle adjustments to optimize treatment—now we need to have faith that Jordan’s going to nail the shot.

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