Hug Your Kids

Y’all hug your kids. Smell their hair, drink them in. We so often overlook the little blessings that are all around us.

Those of you that know me might know that that I like to run and I like to race. Every race that I have run since January 2008 has been in a shirt that says “For Dad and Cody”

Dad is recovering from Colon cancer and doing very well. Almost a year and a half after starting treatment he is within 5 pounds of his pre-cancer weight and continuing to gain strength.

Cody is the son of my friend Mickey. I have not met Mickey in person, but I’m as close to him as a college room mate, at times it seems we could be brothers. I met Mickey on the Masters forum at Runners World. We both have two sons and a daughter. His older son is the same age as my older son. My youngest son is a couple years younger than Cody. I was introduced to Cody through a video that Mickey posted. It is set to a song called Better Days. http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=3452756628301865816

The Masters forum is still a close knit group, but it was a lot closer a couple years ago. At some point, for some reason, Mickey and I exchanged phone numbers. He was the first person I called when I learned that my Mom was in ICU and that she was not going to come out of the hospital. Around Thanksgiving 2007 Mickey called and told me that they had found a spot on Cody’s liver. This was a few months after Dad’s colon cancer was diagnosed. This was my family’s first experience with radiation and chemotherapy. It was a road that was all too familiar to Mickey’s.

Dad’s colon surgery in late 2007 was about a week after Cody’s liver surgery. Dad took a while to recover, but Cody bounced back pretty quickly. And they both went into follow up treatment. As I said earlier, Dad has continued to heal and get stronger. In early January of this year, Cody’s cancer returned in his leg, Mickey’s family started into a third treatment cycle. On February 18, scans showed that the cancer had progressed to both legs, his pelvis, his liver and his lungs. They discontinued the chemotherapy, gave him some more radiation to reduce the pain in his legs, and set him up for morphine. Based on the progression, doctors gave them between two weeks and two months. Mickey and his family have spent the last week at the beach making memories. Unfortunately, it seems that Mickey’s memories will be of a son that is slipping away.

So, hug your kids, and if you get a chance, stop by Mickey’s Blog at http://deckapes.blogspot.com./ and encourage him.