Friday, April 29, 2016

7+ months post transplant


7 months ago my journey began.  I was pretty dead set about not calling this thing a journey, having people call me brave or a warrior.  And I still believe that.  Cancer is a curse.   It physically and mentally changes you, as well as it changes how people look and act around you.
Nurses and Dr.s told my wife and I that this would be the toughest thing we ever did in our lives and it was.  The duration of the on going suck challenged both of us on a daily level and still challenges us even though I'm fully back to my old ways of living in denial that anything was wrong with me.  These days I'm living my life like I'm not still getting weekly blood work, bi monthly Dr.s appointments, taking 25 pills a day, ingesting a steroid oil four times a day, staying off booze, being careful who I'm around and what I eat, washing my hands 10x a day and actually tapping out when my body says enough's enough bud.  Was this the most painful thing I ever went thru?  Hell no.  But there was plenty of long lasting uncomfortable moments thru it.  I'm almost thankful for all the times I wrecked myself on a bike and snowboard and had to get surgery, as it was great training to get used to being in pain and taking copious amounts of drugs.

These are my work peoples, in Austria with out me but having a beer for me.

I learned that what they tell you about YOUR cancer is in the general sense.  When this began I was told that I would need to be out of work for a year.  I was back at work full time, with my Dr.s blessing in 4 months.  They said I'd be good to get back on the mountain in late March or April.  I started snowboarding 14 weeks after being admitted into UW and getting chemo and 6 weeks later raced in the longest running snowboard events that my older son won for the second time.  Two weeks after that I was lucky enough to drive to the interior of Canada with a fantastic group of friends and get in a helicopter to be delivered to a mountain top lodge so I could enjoy 4 days of riding the deepest snow.  A week later I got on my first airplane and surprised visited my folks for their 50th wedding anniversary.  The next two weekends my best buds from all chapters of my life came out to visit, grade school, college and Steamboat.  From there I got to tag along with my two boys to Big Bear California and watch them step up to the plate and knock the ball out of the park when the terrain and weather were throwing sliders and fastballs at them.  From there I got back on an airplane and flew to Lake Como Italy to work on future product for our binding brand as well as get a day on the hill at Madesimo.  We rode from Italy to Switzerland and back.  As I type this, I'm in the middle of finishing my presentation for our annual partner meeting that's happening next week.  Back in the air I go to Venice Italy, where I'll meet up with my long time friend and partner George, and we'll drive north to Austria to the Mothership.  The name of our brand new, state of the art, completely hydro powered snowboard production facility.  If that wasn't enough, after 12 years of being on the waterfront with a view of every boat that comes and goes from Lake Washington and Lake Union, we are moving.  We bought a building just 8 minutes from my house and 2.7 miles away.

One of the best parts of the recovery goal, getting here again and getting some!

I guess the moral of the story is, the picture of my future was painted pretty black and white just a short year ago.   If you would of told me then where and what I would be doing now, this whole shit show would of been way easier to do.  Its like watching a scary movie, if you know the ending and what happens along the way then your not jumping out of your seat crying like a little pussy every time the bad guy jumps out of a closet.  But cancers not like that and everyone's journey doesn't always have the outcome that I've been blessed with so far.   I'm still on immune suppressants and working thru some GVHD in the liver.  A mere sun burn can turn my life into a tailspin but for now, I'm enjoying the ride in hi-def!
Couldn't of done it with out her

Thanks for all that helped me thru this.  Meals, visits, car rides, shred dates, hospital visits, cards, emails, Skype, Facetime, texts and good thoughts all made this possible as well as having a partner that did whatever it took to make it happen.  So if you know someone with something and man oh man is it ever more apparent to me know that I'm going thru it, reach out and do something.  Anything too.  Whatever you do, don't say "whatever you need, just let me know."  Just do something.

Below is a mere sampling of photos taken of the people that made all of this possible.