Day 5 and 6 (approx) White 922 - Red 691

The sleep deprivation is totally setting in. I'm exhausted and a bit of a Hockey Playing Zombie. But what else is new. We are now in full on Timbit hockey stage and I am actually able to keep up with my fluids and don't need my groddy sweat towel on the bench anymore. This has happened so that we can survive. We have settled into a pace that is sustainable for 10 days and still resembles hockey. The goalies are all switching out so that their knees can rest, the players are happy to rest their backs. The jokes, banter and laughter on the ice is non stop. We are all having a lot of fun playing, despite the chronic pain that almost everyone is in. I think the complaining is minimal because we are all suffering. For me the back pain is less as the intensity has dropped, especially in my faceoffs, but the skate bite or lace bite whatever you want to call it is worse and hurts all the time when laced up.

The food has been great and plentiful, last night was pork tenderloin mmmm. The midnight snacks are a must for all. I have been sleeping from about 10 pm -330 am the last few nights, rolling out of bed, brushing my teeth on the way to the change room, dressing in a fog, hitting the ice for four and then snacking all morning long. Once you are on the ice it is usually better than how you feel after a few hours off the ice in terms of tiredness. We reached the halfway mark yesterday and I think it will be all downhill from here ya know? No one believes it isn't possible, it's just a matter of enduring now.

We have had a few visitors today. First during our noon to 4 pm shift today a new Dad came by with his 2 month old daughter who has CF. He was really emotional, then Val got really emotional, then before you know it there are all kinds of teary eyed girls trying to get their helmets on before the buzzer goes because the 10 min break is up. We all noticed a little more energy on the ice after that visit.

To contrast that we were also visited my a 52 year old lady today who was diagnosed at 14, had a double lung transplant at 40 and is now winning gold medals in the transplant games for race walking. Hope for the future and recognition of how we can make a difference from the wise.