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this tues the 28th marks the one year anniversary of my first Chemo treatment. i cannot believe a year has gone by. i re-read the blog and comments of that day and was, as always deeply touched.....i am feeling better but different....people always ask me "how are you feeling" and i seem to always say...i will be better soon.......it seems that i still am in someone else's body and i am on the outside looking in......i am sure that will pass as my strength returns and my spirit lifts me past all this......my weight is up and my energy comes and goes.......and i do get by......but like i said....it is something that i still cannot completely understand all the love and support that i received during this difficult yet amazing year........i will celebrate many anniversary's in the years to come......landmark days and events that marked this "walk in the park" i celebrate them with you.........always ........tom
hi my fellow americans.............next week is going to be a special holiday...........i mean it is a holiday without all the b.s that comes with most of them.............i mean no hidden agenda......just to be thankful for what we have...just be thankful for our families and friends....pets and music.....food and air....water and love..........health and happiness.....mets and jets.............toilet paper and chocolate (not in any order) memories and forgetfulness..............nieces and nephews..........ice cream and beer........bikinis and beer........doctors and medicine.....gleevec and neo-bladders.....rolling stone and relix ........hippies and well just about everything that makes up this world on the peaceful side...........oh yeah that would be the best thing to be thankful for if it were possible......peace this holiday season....my friends......let me offer you at least that..........peace and love to all i know...i know it is something that is always said............but i really really mean it .....i love you all so much.............. may your homes this holiday season be filled with all that is good in this life.............oooooxxxxoooooo TOM
thinking about the past year......still feel like i am one of the lucky ones..with all the support and love i had...i mean this has been such an incredible journey full of the highest of highs and the lowest of lows......but isn't that what most people have to deal with everything they do .....look i am not saying i recommend that everyone gets their bladder removed and replaced with their intestine
..that my friends might be a little extreme.....what i am saying is i think coming through all this and seeing what an inpact it has had on so many people has lead me to believe that it was all part of the "plan"...i mean really how many of us took this "walk" together.....how many of us rode the "wave" of emotion together....how many people have taken "stock" of what they have and love........I was thinking about closing out "WALK IN THE PARK" AND CONTINUING THE JOURNEY maybe call it " a run through the jungle" or something like that....maybe share some insight on what it is to live with my new body...my new mind....my bladder.... i mean my story is really not over and can never have an end ...... i hoped that i have made an impact on other peoples lives that i will be apart of this world for a long time.......my mom has been gone since 1970 and she lives in so many of us still....i decided a long time ago that i wanted to have that same impact on this world as she has had ..... i just wanted to say that all that are in the sound of my blog....i will carry you in my heart and soul.....and feel you touching my shoulder ...as my Journey Continues....... i will take it easy ....but take it (words of woody guthrie)..........TOm
From Sports Illustrated, By Rick Reilly] hey i think i am a good pops...but you have to read this story and watch the video with sound....i was deeply touched..take the time...amazing
But compared with Dick Hoyt, I suck.
Eighty-five times he's pushed his disabled son, Rick, 26.2 miles in Marathons. Eight times he's not only pushed him 26.2 miles in a Wheelchair but also towed him 2.4 miles in a dinghy while swimming and Pedaled him 112 miles in a seat on the handlebars--all in the same day.
And what has Rick done for his father? Not much--except save his life.This love story began in Winchester , Mass. , 43 years ago, when Rick Was strangled by the umbilical cord during birth, leaving him Brain-damaged and unable to control his limbs.
"He'll be a vegetable the rest of his life;'' Dick says doctors told him And his wife, Judy, when Rick was nine months old. ``Put him in an Institution.'' But the Hoyts weren't buying it. They noticed the way Rick's eyes Followed them around the room. "Tell him a joke,'' Dick countered. They did. Rick laughed. Turns out a Lot was going on in his brain. Rigged up with a computer that allowed Him to control the cursor by touching a switch with the side of his Head, Rick was finally able to communicate. First words? ``Go Bruins!'' And after a high school classmate was paralyzed in an accident and the School organized a charity run for him, Rick pecked out, ``Dad, I want To do that.'' Yeah, right. How was Dick, a self-described ``porker'' who never ran More than a mile at a time, going to push his son five miles? Still, he Tried. `` That day changed Rick's life. ``Dad,'' he typed, ``when we were running, It felt like I wasn't disabled anymore!'' And that sentence changed Dick's life. He became obsessed with giving Rick that feeling as often as he could. He got into such hard-belly Shape that he and Rick were ready to try the 1979 Boston Marathon. ``No way,'' Dick was told by a race official. The Hoyts weren't quite a Single runner, and they weren't quite a wheelchair competitor. For a few Years Dick and Rick just joined the massive field and ran anyway, then They found a way to get into the race Officially: In 1983 they ran another marathon so fast they made the Qualifying time for Boston the following year.
Then somebody said, ``Hey, Dick, why not a triathlon?'' How's a guy who never learned to swim and hadn't ridden a bike since he Was six going to haul his 110-pound kid through a triathlon? Still, Dick Tried. They did 212 of them.
Hey, Dick, why not see how you'd do on your own? ``No way,'' he says. Dick does it purely for ``the awesome feeling'' he gets seeing Rick with A cantaloupe smile as they run, swim and ride together. ``No question about it,'' Rick types. ``My dad is the Father of the Century.''
And Dick got something else out of all this too. Two years ago he had a Mild heart attack during a race. Doctors found that one of his arteries Was 95% clogged. ``If you hadn't been in such great shape,'' One doctor told him, ``you probably would've died 15 years ago.'' So, in a way, Dick and Rick saved each other's life. ``The thing I'd most like,'' Rick types, ``is that my dad sit in the chair and I push him once
watch th is video...with the sound up http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4B-r8KJhlE
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