Bruce NW Ia - 6/17/2018 13:32

I Googled "Jimmy V Foundation" this am, to refresh my memory about origin of that quote. It was from an acceptance speech by Coach Jimmy Valvano at the first ESPY Awards in March, 1993, who was suffering from metastatic adenocarcinoma at the time, and he announced the formation of the "Jimmy V Foundation" to fight cancer. Another quote from that same speech told about the three things which we all should do every day: laugh, think, and have your emotions moved to tears, including tears of happiness or joy. If you have never heard of all this, pretty legendary speech-look it up sometime.

About 11 months ago my sister, a single gal living in the Denver area, called and told me that she had been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, but she said "This is going to have a happy ending". I think almost everyone has had either a friend or relative diagnosed with this dreaded disease, not a very common disease, but one of the deadliest. It took my cousin and hunting buddy 14 years ago.

Luckily one of my sister's best friends and co-workers is married to a medical doctor, who is friends with one of the top surgeons in the Denver metro area, she had to wait longer than we all cared for to get a surgery scheduled, but had it done around Labor Day last year. Called a "Whipple surgical procedure"-google it if you want the wits scared out of you-took 8 hours to accomplish. The diagnosis was technically Stage 3, because over half of the biopsied lymph nodes showed positive for the cancer. As Jean told me "If it is Stage 4, you just bought the farm". She survived the surgery, has been taking chemo and radiation every since, spent 2 weeks in the hospital at Christmas time because she was so sick and run down. A trio of close friends and a whole cluster of co-workers have really gone above and beyond the call of duty to help her thru this whole ordeal.

So yesterday I get an e mail from one of the trio, telling everyone that scans and tests the last two weeks have not detected any cancer in her body at this time. She is scheduled to have her last chemo treatment this coming Tuesday. Will take about 4-6 weeks for the chemo to leave her body and the word is that she should start feeling alot better fairly quickly at that time.

She called a couple hours later, she had seen the e mail go out, but didn't see my name on the list, so she called me with the good news. She apologized for not calling or e mailing or texting me the last several months-she said that she had decided that she was not going to contact me unless she was feeling good, and she hasn't been feeling good. I asked her how she felt today, and she replied " I feel like sh*t", which is the first time in 62 years i have ever heard her swear!

Bottom Line: Miracles do happen. Don't give up, Don't ever give up.