you gotta read this!!

Since I laced up my running shoes and took the first steps on my marathon journey I have carried with me the battle my dad is waging against cancer. I think about what he’s going through mentally and physically and how on some small remote level I am paralleling his endeavors. I can’t even begin to imagine where he is at in his head though. I do however understand how he pulls from within himself to say “NO! I will not accept defeat!”… “I WILL PERSEVERE!!” It is what I carry with me when I run and hit those rough patches. But just like my completion of those hard training days, my dad pushes through and gets his victories.

It is not often in ones life that we get phone calls that totally rock our worlds. My initial discovery of my dad’s cancer was on a cell phone call stuck in L.A. traffic on Highway 5 coming back from San Diego… not the best timing eh? Well yesterday I got the call that has put a shiny gloss on that experience. On the other end of the phone line was my dad, and he had just gotten back from his doctor appointment... “the results from my bone marrow taken a month ago show that I have 0.92% myeloma cells, and the doctor said that with the additional month of treatment I have gone through since the test was done, he believes that I am in 100% remission” …yeah you read that right ONE HUNDRED F’N PERCENT REMISSION!!! WOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!! Not only that but my dad continued to say that the doctor believes he is in the 60-70% of people who, after a stem cell transplant, will be cured for life. HELL YEAH!! CURED FOR LIFE!! You hear that everyone?!? I’ll say it again CURED FOR LIFE!!

The battle is not over. The roughest part of my dad’s battle is still ahead of him. Fortunately his test results have shown that he is a prime candidate for a stem cell transplant. My dad has a great circle of support, and by you just reading this you are unknowingly sending him positive energy. So keep it coming. Thanks for lending me your eyes.

I love you dad!!