Good evening from the Couch house!  

What a challenging day today.  Had an emotional breakdown on a conference call with my team when I was talking to them about my meeting with the Oncologist Monday and the next steps in what I’m now referring to as my “chemo journey”.  Later in the day, I was notified by email that I had a prescription ready for pickup at the hospital.  I logged into my medical account and realized it was the chemo pills that I would be starting on for the first cycle.  This news was difficult to accept as it seemed now real that I was actually beginning this next step, not just talking about it with doctors, nurses, insurance, friends, family, etc.  I literally was on the phone with my boss telling him I was leaving early to go pick up the prescription when the hospital pharmacy called me to let me know that the email I received was incorrect and to just “ignore it”…  Lots of confidence now in the medical process – haha!    

After work, I ran a few errands before finally getting home around 7:00.  I put together a few leftovers and sat down to eat and watch some television.  As you could probably guess, I tuned into ESPN and college basketball was on - one of my favorites!!  Side note is that since 2006, my sons (Jake – 20 & Nate – 17) have been actively involved in many sports (soccer, football, baseball, track) and I have done my best to help coach, watch practice and attend their games.  Needless to say, sports has a special spot in my heart.  

I watched the last few minutes of Gonzaga beating West Virginia.  The next game wasn’t going to start for 40 minutes so that the cleaning crew could disinfect the area for the new teams.  This gave me time to think (not always the best), empty the dishwasher, fold the whites, switch the colds to the dryer, change into shorts, etc.  That’s when the day’s events and everything came down on me hard!!  I had self doubt about the chemo decision.  I had doubt that I could do what was being asked of me for the next few days, weeks, months.  Was it worth it?  Should I give up?  Should I move to Curacao and begin a house painting career (😉)?  

I sat down in my amazing recliner that I know I’ve held on to for entirely too long but it’s so comfy and we go way back (haha)!  And that’s when ESPN started the playback of the speech that Jimmy Valvano gave at the 1983 ESPY awards.  I know it’s long but when you have 10 minutes, please watch this https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=SHKzH6zR8xE

I am in no way comparing myself to the great Coach V, but he makes several great points during this speech that ESPN decided to air right as I (Jason T. Couch) needed it the most.  

As I sat in my brown recliner watching this speech that I’ve seen dozens of times before, tears started streaming down my face.  I thought about how 37 years ago all this great man asked for was to have 3 things everyday:

To Laugh

To Think

To Cry 

Coach V goes on to say if you do these things every day – That’s a full day.  That’s a heck of a day!

At that time, one of my closest friends called me randomly to check in on me.  Now, this friend and I go way back as we were college roommates and he played College BBall at Idaho so he knew the Valvano speech well.  Shit, now I’m in tears again!  Thank you Bjorn for being a good friend and loving me.  

It’s now past my bedtime so I’m going to wrap it up because I have a lot of ass to kick tomorrow, the next day the day after that and for quite sometime.  I have been reminded that today was a “heck of a day”.  Thank you all for the love, support & encouragement!      

🤘🏽❤️JTC 

Don’t give up, don’t ever give up! – Coach V

Good morning!

Yesterday was a good day!  I slept for over 9 hours, got up, showered, had breakfast and watched the 7,500th show of The Price is Right.  I also got to watch a view movies, went on 3 walks around my neighborhood and spent the day relaxing and healing.  Needless to say, I was pretty bored - haha!  

I've made an appointment with an Oncologist for Monday November 30th to follow up and see what steps are next in this journey.  I have also decided that I'm no longer going to be taking my pain pills during the day and soon will be off them completely.  

Hope you all are doing well and thank you for all the love, support and encouragement on this journey.

Love,

JTC

Hello Team.

Many of you have asked how you can help and support Jason as he continues his healing. Caringbridge actually has a section that enables us to sign up for things he needs. 

Check out the “Ways to Help” section. The Planner lets Jason post activities and requests into a little calendar that allows folks to sign up to help. Similarly, the Meal Train lets you sign up for days that you could arrange to get him some food. FYI, we found a good resource to guide us in choosing appropriate foods for a low-fiber diet:  http://www.colonrectal.org/low_fiber.cfm

Keep in mind that until Jason has more info from his doctors, the guidance they have given him for now is to protect his immune system, so he is currently very limited on being able to see visitors in person. Hopefully his immunity will continue to strengthen very soon to the point that he can resume normal activities (whatever normal means in a pandemic).

Thanks for whatever you can do. And if what you can do is to offer up prayers or give him a call or mail a card, those are perfect too!