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Thursday, July 17, 2014

Powerful Reading and Watching

I think we all know Brad by now. He's a fellow myeloma patient. We met through this blog. He lives in NY but we met face to face here in Cali when he was out for business. Last summer we went to a Yankee game in NY, joined by Amy, another myeloma survivor (or thrivivor as Brad call us).  Brad has a blog. His attitude is awesome and he's a real motivating force for me.  He probably gets sick of me mentioning him all the time.  Below is Brad's lastest post. Read it. And watch the Stuart Scott video that he has in his post. It is powerful stuff.  It'll make you think about how we're all approaching this thing.

7/17/14 – Hugs and Hand Pounds Part 2
If you know someone who is fighting Cancer and you probably do given the fact that you are reading this blog then you might want to take eight tiny minutes from your busy day to watch this
http://m.espn.go.com/general/video?vid=11225895&src=desktop&rand=ref~%7B%22ref%22%3A%22http%3A%2F%2Ft.co%2FBm13NUNQuZ%22%7D
I wrote about ESPN SportsCenter anchor Stuart Scott here:
https://bradstrong.me/2013/01/16/115-hugs-and-hand-pounds/
Stuart just received the Jim Valvano perseverance award at the ESPYs last night and his speech brought me to my knees in tears.
I have written much over the last 18 months about my journey and much of what Stu said and did goes through my heart and mind every day.
1. He said “When you die you don’t lose. You BEAT Cancer by how you LIVE, why you LIVE and in the manner in which you LIVE”
I get a ton of comments on how I live my life … The MANNER in which I live. It’s the only life I have so I am going to LIVE it while I HAVE it.
2. Another thing he said is that you have to fight like hell and when you are too tired to fight you have to lay down and rest and let someone else fight for you.
Often times I have written that as long as I am strong – as long as I feel good – it is my RESPONSIBILITY to fight for those who can’t fight for themselves. It is my DUTY to take away the burden of fighting Cancer from those too weak to fight.
3. Then he went on to speak about the 1000s of people who encourage him every single day.
That support for a Cancer survivor – scratch that THRIVIVOR (that’s my term for the combination of surviving and thriving since my Cancer is technically incurable) needs. I get that from all of you. Whether it’s a comment, a text, an email or a hug. That support is meaningful beyond ways that I could express.
4. Lastly, I lost my shit when he called his daughter to the stage. Anyone who reads this blog knows that the toughest part of all of this is my children. Having Cancer is easy. Trying to figure out how my children process it day in and day out wrecks me up. Everything I do – EVERYTHING – is filtered through how it impacts my family – Helene and the kids. They need to know that I ALWAYS had their back and I always will.
Stu – brutha – YOU are not alone. Congratulations on your award, your perseverance and for bringing down the house last night. When you are too tired to fight I will fight for you. Promise me the same.
Powerful, inspiring stuff.

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Berenson Oncology Success Rate

 Some reading about my myeloma specialist's success rate. A press release and an article from Targeted Oncology.