I started writing this over the weekend to keep my mind off having to go to the Mayo for another procedure, with the idea of doing an initial update prior to and then another one after the ablation was done. I didn’t finish it, however, so just the one update after coming home last night.

 

We have been down and back to Rochester twice this week. On Monday I had a bloodwork done, an ultrasound and an initial consultation with the doctor performing the liver ablation to remove the 6mm lesion they discovered in the last MRI. The ultrasound showed no additional lesions or areas of concern, and the doctor was readily able to see its location and plan his route for the next day. They figured there would not be a need to keep me overnight after the ablation and it should go smoothly. There was some rain and snow during the drives but nothing too bad and we were back home in the late afternoon.

 

Yesterday, Melissa and I left before the kids went to school in order to be there at 9:30 for the prep for the ablation procedure. The procedure itself was pretty short, maybe an hour and a half or so, and I was in recovery for about 2 hours before heading home around 4:30. They went in on my right side in between a couple of my lower ribs, but I don’t have any pain or discomfort so far. They were able to burn off the entire lesion and the area around it and were happy that it wasn’t located near any bile ducts or blood vessels. So, now we wait. I have another round of appointments in a month that will include blood work, but maybe (hopefully) they will do an additional blood draw to do DNA testing before then, I don’t know. If the blood comes back clear of any cancer cells, then I will just do monitoring with blood draws/DNA tests every 3 months or so to see if any cancer does come back. However, if the next blood draw shows that there is still in cancer in the blood, then I will begin chemotherapy again. I wish we were able to know now what the course of action will be, but we will just have to wait.  

 

There is obviously a lot of uncertainty with waiting like this, and with that comes a lot of nervousness, so to keep my mind off that I’m going to take some time and tell you all a story. This will likely get a little long, but in the end you will all know about the time that Prince let me down.

 

Before we get to that part of the story, though, I have to tell you about my friend, Bernie. I met Bernie in college. He was from New Jersey and, apart from just generally being a great guy, he was also a ferocious drummer. He had played in a successful band in high school, touring and opening for some pretty big groups along the way. We initially connected over the fact that I was from Minnesota, and he was a huge fan of Husker Du and The Replacements, but Bernie is a fan of any music that is good, and he has introduced me to some great bands and artists over the years. Eventually we wound up playing in a band together at the end of our Senior Year, just to play the big Spring festival and parties over the last half of the year. It was a great time. After college, Bernie had a band in New York with one of the other guys we played with in college, and currently has a great career and family. He is the man.

 

It was the summer of 1997 or 1998 that that Bernie decided to make the pilgrimage to the Twin Cities for a visit. Now, one of the best parts of being in the Twin Cities at that time was that Prince was spending a lot of time back home here, and he would play random shows at his Paisley Park studios in Chanhassen, which is a suburb outside Minneapolis. Basically, you would drive by on Highway 7 and, if the light out front was on, that meant Prince was there, and there could be a jam session that night. Working at Sidney’s restaurant at the time, there were several Friday or Saturday nights in the summer where, after closing up at 10 or 10:30 a group of us would decide to make the drive out to Chanhassen to see if the light was on. If it wasn’t on, then it was on to Plan B. When the light was on, you would pull into the parking lot, head up to the front doors, and there would be security there to pat you down. Every time I went there and the light was on, there was never a cover charge, you would just walk in and head towards what seemed like a gymnasium. It was a large soundstage, and from the looks of some of Prince’s videos I would assume they had filmed some there, but it was a large room that had a small 1-2 foot high stage on it. Although there was never a cover charge, the true cost of waiting for a performance was (a) the fact that it might not be until 2 or 3 in the morning that Prince would come out and play, and (b) the fact that they had a DJ that played the same awful music every time. This was the heyday of Bad Boy Records, Death Row Records, etc. and I have these memories of just trying to get through having to listen to the same Puff Daddy and Biggie Smalls songs every time to get to see Prince play. It was worth it, though, as there were never more than 100-200 people there at a time, so you would experience this very intimate show, and could be standing 3 feet away from Prince as he played.

 

It was magic. The idea that we got to see one of the greatest musicians stand on a small stage and play whatever he wanted to, without paying a cover charge, was mind-boggling. And he was in his element, directing his band, sometimes playing guitar, sometimes piano, sometimes the drums, he was just amazing. His bass player was Larry Graham, who played in Sly and the Family Stone, and one of the times we went there the horn section of the Family Stone was there and they ran through a number of old Sly songs. Looking back now, it just seems so unreal that it was a normal occurrence to be able to basically sit in on a jam session of one of the great musical geniuses and his friends, just playing what they wanted to. It was such a privilege; the man was an incredible talent.

 

Every time I went out there with the crew from Sidney’s and the light was on, we had seen Prince play live. Naturally, when Bernie decided to come for a visit, I thought it would be perfect to head out to Paisley Park while he was here. That night, we headed out to Chanhassen, and as we drove by we saw that the light was on. This was great - it all worked out and Bernie was going to get to see Prince play live and have a great story to bring back to New York. We pulled into the parking lot and headed up to the front doors.

 

At the door, there was a sign that said there was a $10 cover charge to get in. This was strange, as there had never been any admittance charge before, but still, being able to see Prince on a small stage - $10 was a bargain. We paid and made our way into the soundstage area, and it was all Biggie and Mase and Puff driving Mercedes/taking hits from the 80s and all that. Ugh. The DJ set went on for about an hour or more, but we didn’t mind waiting, that was just part of the price you pay to Prince and his band.

 

Eventually, the DJ stopped playing, and the crowd started to cheer. A large screen started to come down from the ceiling – this was something different. The anticipation grew. And then, the screen burst into light and it was Prince and his band playing at what looked like The Quest in downtown Minneapolis. Okay, this was weird. They showed three songs on the screen, and then the screen went back up to the ceiling, the house lights came up, and security came through and kicked everyone out.

 

I was devastated. It seemed that the Paisley Park security had decided to make some quick money for themselves while the boss was away and charged a $10 cover for the chance to come in and listen to some terrible late 90s hip hop while Prince was playing somewhere else. It was such a letdown, all the more so because the one time I had someone from out of town, no less someone who would have absolutely loved and appreciated seeing Prince, Larry Graham, Michael Bland and the rest of the band tearing it up, we instead got ripped off. I never went back to Paisley Park again after that.