My wife and I met with Dr. Leslie and she was
so pleased to share this great information with us. Although I haven’t dealt with
Dr. Leslie much in the past, she was there in 2015 during my relapse and through a few
of the big bumps in the road I ran into. At that time, she was updated on my
history, how I had been a bit of a challenge with all the aliments I
encountered over the years. Her words to us were… “WOW, is this Glitchy
Richie? You look so great and you are doing so great. Everything looks great!!!. I am so happy for you.”
This, of course was wonderful news for us… but “Glitchy Richie”???...
I wasn’t aware I was given this nickname but I certainly
understand why they would call me this being all the side effects, infections,
and other critical health events I went through over the years. I truly tested their medical
knowledge and skills over the years. Thank God I have such great doctors. Say all this, I must say
As I sit here today, I have been in remission since October of 2015. This is
approaching the longest time I have been in remission since my initial
diagnosis in 2008. I don’t want to jinx myself but I am feeling very confident
that my days of fighting Mantle Cell Lymphoma have ended… and let me take this a step further and go out
on a limb and call myself “CURED”. Is this accurate? I'm not sure, but as far as I am concerned, I am cured.
True, I still have that positive result of MDS
looming out there, but after all the time that has passed, I have never shown any
symptoms. As far as I am concerned a positive MDS test might be another one of the “Glitchy”
things that seems to happen to me. Maybe I really don't have it. Based on this I
have decided to treat it with the highly technical approach I call the “Ostrich
Approach”. In other words, I will keep my head in the sand… and if symptoms
show up some time in the future, I will deal with them…. But for now, as far as I
am concerned the positive MDS result simply does not exist. I will only worry about
it when I have something to worry about. In the meantime, I will focus on
enjoying life and look forward to my soon to be born granddaughter who is due
the first week of November…. And boy, I can’t wait to meet her.
Here is a link to a song puts perspective to where I am with my
life. “Alive and Breathing” by Matt Maher: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gYUJjsgd96k
Enjoy!!!
Anxiety in a man’s heart weighs him down, but a good word makes
him glad.
Proverbs 12:25
More to
come…
