My first cancer was a pediatric cancer called Ewing's Sarcoma. I was 29 at the time and in the "best shape of my life". I had just embarked on a new career and found the woman I knew I was going to marry. Then everything came to a crashing halt, and I had to begin to realize the fragility of my life. For the first time ever, I had to understand the finite nature of human life and that mine may be coming to an end much earlier than I'd hoped.
My prognosis was decent, the Dr. gave me a 60/40 chance of survival. He told me something that I hold close even to this day, "70 to 80 percent of your ability to fight through this will depend on your spirit". I think he was underappreciating the impact of spirit, but I took his message to heart. I went through 10 months of chemotherapy and a 7-hour surgery that removed the upper half of my humorous bone and replaced it with donor bone and titanium. I was scheduled for 3 more rounds of chemotherapy, but I felt I was done and against my doctor's wishes, I withdrew from treatment. I wish I stopped earlier.
I was given a clean bill of health and went on to ask my partner to marry me. She said yes and we began planning for the wedding. With the last check written and all the RSVPs in, 1 month away from our wedding I went in for a routine follow up blood test. That test led the Dr. to tell me I needed to stay at the hospital because I had an aggressive form of treatment-related leukemia. All the chemo I had gone through gave me a secondary cancer and this time; my Dr. wasn't so optimistic about my survival prospects.
After a day of soul searching and researching alternative treatment options, I moved into the hospital for 5 months where I would undergo more chemotherapy, full body radiation and ultimately, a bone marrow transplant.
It is now 10 years later, and I have an 8-year-old son, a 4-year-old daughter and my wife and I understand every day just how precious this gift of life really is. And I believe whole heartedly that without my positive outlook and the strength of spirit that came from it, I wouldn't be here today.