We have the TOOLS, we have the TALENT.

This is a line from my all time favorite comedy, Ghostbusters.   I thought it to be a fitting title to the post, as I want to talk about the tools that have gotten me through this far in my ordeal.   Faith, Family, and Friends.
Faith.   I am a Christian, although not a very good one at times, but I try to improve.  I know that God has a plan, and if that includes cancer taking me, then so be it.  I am totally at peace with that.   I know that Heaven is a better place than here, so the thought of being there someday makes me happy.   It is this peace that allowed me to comfort my family during the early days when my death seemed more imminent than it does now.  I have personally seen God’s hand in my life, and in life all around me.   Non-believers have somehow blinded themselves to these miracles, or rationalized them in some way.   I’ve been on that side too, and eyes open is a much happier way to live life.  
Family.   I have had phone calls, emails, texts, and visits.   Family traveling from across the country to see me and help.    So many offers to help that there is no way to use them all in two lifetimes, much less one.   But it builds me up.  And makes me stronger.   Then there is the family Malena and I created.   The kids writing ‘get well soon cards’ with the school and Sunday school classes.   All of their friends and teachers praying on my behalf.   All of it is emotionally overwhelming.  
One night, as I lay in bed at peace with whatever decision God has made, Malena came to bed and started to cry.   The thought of losing me was unbearable to her.    You see, in 1979 she lost her father to a heart attack.    In 2000, she lost her oldest brother.   One year prior to the day of my lymph node removal, she lost her mother to pancreatic cancer.    She has suffered enough.   During her crying, she planted a little seed in my mind which she would cause to bloom later.   I started saying prayers for her and the kids, so that they would be taken care of, and be strong and comforted.  All of this helped to build me up.   The seed germinates…
Friends.   I have the best friends in the world.   Bar none.   There are phone calls, emails, postings, instant messages, and personal encounters offering support.   Some of these are with people who I have never met, but are now my friends.   I have people in countries all over the world, and from many different religious beliefs, praying for me.   A group of co-workers got together and made me a chemo-blanket (chemo can make you cold), and support bracelets to show their solidarity with me.    Never throughout this experience have I ever thought that I was alone.   And on the way to the Bruno Cancer Center yesterday,   I received many messages and emails giving me support.   I told Malena that I was not sure that I deserved all of this.    Here comes the bloom:   She said, “Of course you do. You have touched many, many lives”.   I sat there and took it in.  It was very Capra-esque.  And I was built up even more.

Before the chemo started yesterday, Malena and I met with my oncologist.    She had the PET scan results.   Because of God’s grace, all of the support I have received, Marine Corps altered DNA, and I am a man that is usually only read about in Greek mythology,   my stage came back as Stage I.   This is very uncommon, actually ‘rare’ is the word she used.    Cells travel quickly through the lymphatic system, but were only found in the node that the surgeon removed.   She said that some of the other nodes in my neck were reactive, which means that they could be fighting a bacteria, virus, or even the lymphoma.   But there was no cancer.
The treatment is:   4 R-CHOP chemo treatments (1 down, 3 to go!)
                                6-8 weeks of daily radiation on my neck.

This is truly the best news we have received in months.   So good, it made my mother and wife cry.    I may have welled up a bit myself.