RIP Gary Thomas Zullo
Post written by Samantha Zullo (Gary’s wife):
At 7:10am on Friday January 1st, Gary Zullo left us. He ended up in the hospital on Christmas day because he was very dellusional and wasn’t peeing much. Turns out he somehow had pneumonia, sepsis, kidney failure, a bacterial infection in his blood and to top it off a fungal infection in his lungs which according to the doctors is almost always fatal for someone with a compromised immune system. He fought long and he fought HARD to stay alive but ultimately he couldn’t fight any longer and his heart gave up.
Gary has touched sooooooooo many lives in his short 33 years on this earth. He will be missed dearly by so many, but most of all by those that he left behind, his mom, his 2 year old son (Michael), and his wife (Samantha).
Thank you all for following Gary’s blog. He loved writing blog posts because it was his outlet against the thing he hated most, Cancer. Gary always kept things real even with his salty language (as he’d call it). Thanks again for following him throughout his journey.
Love,
Samantha and Michael
Setbacks
Firstly, I hope everyone is gearing up for a fantastic holiday! Nah, scratch that. I hope everyone is gearing up for a Merry Christmas! I am not sure when all the PC retards decided that only the word “holiday’ was acceptable but I am going back to saying Christmas. Don’t like it? TOUGH!
Anywho I hope everyone is in good spirits 
I have been on a steady incline to feeling better, until…
About a week or two ago I was beginning to get ridiculous side effects from the remainder of the maintenance doses of Depocyt that I was receiving in my Ommaya port. I had a particularly bad day and did not think I was going to make it through two more doses of the stuff. That’s where my wife stepped in as she always does and called both my doc locally and the NIH. I was having dizzy spells and tunnel vision and lots and lots of neuropathy-related shaking. All of which were leading to falls, low blood pressure and lightheadedness. Fucked up. I got good at anticipating the episodes (as we’re calling them) to the point where I’d get a few days up to maybe a week (if I were lucky) where he actually feels pretty good and then he gets hit by another dose. His local doc prescribed more pills of a steroid (dexamethasone) that he has to take for the first 5 days once he gets a new dose. They usually do not like you taking this med for more than 5 days because it can have nasty side effects, one of which is a stroke (there are many more purely unpleasant side effects). So I’ll be taking that like this:
2 days @ 3 / day
3 days @ 2 / day
3 days @ 1 / day
I had a Depocyt dose on 12/01/09 (my last) and have been having a very VERY difficult time with it. It almost seems like each time I goes through this the symptoms get worse, kinda like they are compounding. We were pretty sure the symptoms were caused by Depocyt treatments and now we are positive (either that and/or neuropathy)
Well, I got a call around 11:45am today from the team up at the NIH. All of the bigwigs were conferenced in just as if I were at my very own doctor’s appointment. We all decided as a group to stop the maintenance chemo which makes last month’s dose my last dose. I will FINALLY get to recover for good!!! Obviously there is risk involved with me stopping it 7 weeks early, but since they are dealing with his brain they just can’t chance things anymore with the severity of his symptoms. Plus my CNS is negative, it won’t be getting any MORE negative; just maintaining 0.
So, long story short … I am still dealing with the symptoms of neuropathy (it’s like I have Parkinson’s now) and the dizziness. Some days it’s worse than others. Today is rough I have NO ENERGY.
To quote my wife’s blog on the same subject, “So I’m so happy to finally announce after a LONG 7 months of this nightmare that my wonderful husband, that has been SUCH a fabulous fighter, is finally done with chemo. May he never need any of that nasty stuff ever again!”
Mikey’s 1st Award
Time to put on my ‘proud parent’ hat. That’s right; you heard me! Today when Mommy went to get Mikey from school she just couldn’t wait to call me. Not unusual. She had some good news:
Mikey was named ‘Student of the week’ and I quote, “…paying attention during circle time – he knows everything. We reviewed this week”
Ok ok I get it. He is only two but I am so proud of that little boy (and yes I get that he doesn’t actually know everything..tee hee). He went from being so shy and deemed slow by a douchebag therapist to knowing all his colors, numbers, alphabet and is a social mofo to boot. So, on the one hand I think that therapist got their credentials in a CrackerJack box and on the other I am glad I’ve been well enough to help him learn this stuff. THIS is why I went through treatment and THIS is why I push myself so hard; for HIM.
Yep he’s a Type-A personality just like the old man. This is just the beginning *giggle*
Bowden Retires
To all my Seminole fans out there today is a sad sad day…. after 34 years of service to FSU Bobby Bowden has made it official; he is retiring effective at the end of this season. He will coach the bowl game though. I am so happy that the man is still alive at the ripe age of 80 and that he’ll get to spend time with his family et all. but I would be somewhat remiss if I didn’t state the obvious …. I am damned sad to see him go.
Bobby was always a huge supporter of the Marching Chiefs and would routinely have sections of the chiefs over to his own house during summer practice for ice cream or a good ‘ole BBQ. I was fortunate to be invited several times and got to meet him more times than I can count. I consider myself blessed for those opportunities. Let’s be honest NO other college coach was a much a people person as Bobby and no one could sell the program like Bobby. I surely hope that Jimbo Fisher can take a lesson from Bobby as he figures how in the hell he is going to get a decent recruiting class.
I am also a little sad under the circumstances to which Bobby is leaving: 6-6 season, last home game was a loss, ass handed to him by the gator-mafia, and bowl game uncertainty. Now, it would be kick-ass if the Gator Bowl came a-knocking for two reasons: 1) it’s a better bowl game than FSU would otherwise end up in and 2) WVA was the school Bobby was an offensive coordinator 1963-1966 (?) and head coach from 1970-1975 (?) before coming to FSU. So the game would have historical and sentimental implications.
Lastly, I hope that 1) Bobby truly enjoys his retirement because if anyone has earned it; it’s him and don’t give me shit about the “declining decade” either. It seems that people have short memories when things go bad. For instance this man almost single-handedly built FSU into a dynasty. That’s right I said Dynasty. Hard to remember those 14 years of top 5 finishes and 2 national championships, right?
I hope he doesn’t end up like Bear Bryant though. Before the likes of Bowden, Paterno, etc Bryant was the coach. Well, he finally retired and then died 6 months later. Not exactly a high note to end on but lemme lighten the mood by saying:
“Thank you for all you did not just for the university [FSU] but for me personally. No one was more willing to help an essential stranger than you. I came to visit you when I was going through some school issues (changing majors and life direction) and you allowed me to come and vent. Not as a Marching Chief, but as a fellow human being in the FSU system. For that I am eternally grateful (I ended up in computer science and math)! Despite the circumstances of your retirement please DO enjoy it and allow yourself to do the things you love to do. God bless and MCATDT“
This, my friends, is the end of an era. You’ll never see anything like this again. 
Cancer Reward
Wow! Now that I am done with treatment it seems like I don’t have time for this blogging shit anymore. I am just kidding, but it has been a busy time. I’ve been getting used to not being in treatment, growing hair and dealing with arachnoiditis (because of the depocyt). I decided that as a gift to myself for having survived treatment and cancer that I would buy myself a Gibson Les Paul guitar. I just so happen to play guitar so this would not be a wasted purchase. Were I to buy a purse … that would be a waste
I thought I would post some pics of it (rather tan of me for a change). Please enjoy. FYI, I also bought a Boss GT-10 effects board and a Peavey Vyper-30 amplifier. Now, how’s that for a reward!? Fingerprints courtesy of my son Michael. He likey guitars (or ‘atar as he calls it) Comment dammit!
Fuck you blood!
Well, I just received a call from the lead doctor investigator dude from my treatment protocol. He called with the results of my blood flow cytometry. Everything else is clean and/or negative but my blood still shows signs of malignant cells. This sucks.
His consolation? Before we started the treatment we were at 66%. After 4 rounds of chemotherapy I got down to 30%. Now, I am at 8%. He seems to think that when my immune system is back at full strength (in about 3-6 MONTHS) it may very well irradiate the rest of that 8%. If not, then I wait for the numbers to go back up and start another treatment.
This is never going to end for me I fear
