I Cold Not Ask For More!

This week my wife and I celebrated our second wedding anniversary! Holly and I got married on the anniversary of our first date. Holly is everything that is good in life and just thinking about her always makes me smile.  Her eyes sparkle and when she smiles, it brightens up a room. Holly is the kindest and most caring person that I have ever met. She thinks of others before she thinks of herself and I truly believe that she is an Angel that God put on this Earth to save me.

I know many people say these same things about their "significant other" but in my case its true.When I met my wife I was in a terrible place. I was physically sick with Kidney Cancer and severe abdomen issues, as well as mentally drained and down trotted from dealing with a nasty ex-wife and other issues that had led me to hit rock bottom. I could barely afford to buy food and didn't know where my next dime was going to come from. It was a shitty situation.

 By showering me with compassion, affection, and unconditional love, Holly transformed me into a totally new person. She gave me the gifts of love and confidence. For the first time in a long time, I actually believed in myself and I became the type of person that not only she could be proud of but I could be proud of. She makes me want to be the best husband and father that anyone is capable of being.

The strength of our relationship is what helped me beat cancer for the second time in 2013 and my operation last month, as well as my on going recovery. As I have stated in my previous posts, there are many people going through the same battles I am and I urge you to find that person or people who give you the psychological toughness to keep fighting. It can be your significant other, your child(ren), a parent, or best friend. But by God, please find that person. It makes all the difference in the World.

The love my wife and I have for each other is the type of love we all have dreamed about finding. It just took 42 years for our paths to cross. I am the luckiest man in the world because I get to go to sleep and wake up with Holly every day for the rest of my life... and I could not ask for more! 

Keep Moving Forward

It's been about a month since my last blog post. In that post, I detailed my experience from Operation #5, my massive open wound, my psychological and physical struggles in the hospital. Today, I am still in the middle of my recovery. There are good days and bad days but I always keep in mind what John McEnroe said in his book, "You need to keep moving forward" whether its on the tennis court or in life.  I always keep repeating in my mind, "Keep Moving Forward".

At the end of November, the Wound Doctor from Florida Hospital approved me getting a "wound vac". This device would be connected to my abdomen (carried in a male pocket book) and it's purpose is to speed up the drainage from your wound so healthy tissue can form at a faster pace. This device was mostly a miracle machine, but also a curse. With this device, my wound shrunk by 75% over a three week period! The staff that works at the wound care section of the hospital had never seen anything like it. The bad, my skin took a beating. The itching and rashes, which lead to skin fungus was not pleasant. What was worse was the sloppy nurse in the wound care section of the hospital who caused my skin to blister because she didn't know how to properly put the film on! Of course, I had the comical situations of forgetting that I was attached to the device, for example, when I went to the bathroom in the middle of night and the device would go flying off of my night stand.

As my wound is in the process of healing, so is my skin, nerves, muscle, and tissues up and down my abdomen Over the last week, this has caused extreme pain up and down my abdomen, which radiates to my back. When I visited my surgeon, Dr. Mahan, he reminds me that as bad as this recovery has been for me, the alternative would have been at least 15 times worse. He went on to explain that if I did not have the operation when I did, my intestines would have failed  or burst and the infection would have spread in my body, and I would most likely be fighting for my life.

The bottom line is that I do have a longer road to recovery than I would like, and there will most likely be set backs, but I must always remember, "keep moving forward"!