Born in the Pacific Northwest, I spent my early life traveling from the West to East coast. Growing up as an only child, my dog Lady was a constant companion. At the age of five my father died and my mother and I left the East coast and ultimately settled in San Diego. It was there that she was joined by the man that I would grow up regarding as ‘Dad.’
From San Diego we moved to Lubbock, Texas so that ‘Dad’ could complete his college education. Then we moved to El Paso, Texas where I spent all of my school years up to high school. On graduating from high school with a 4-year Army ROTC scholarship I left for college in California, remaining there for just over a decade.
It was in California that I found the love of my life, convincing her to marry me. A couple of years after our marriage we moved to Colorado. Four years after that we were blessed with the birth of our beautiful little girl. A little over a year after that I realized my dream of becoming a State Trooper.
In March 2008, I was diagnosed with Mantle Cell Lymphoma, for which I am currently receiving chemotherapy.
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Thank you for sharing your feelings…I, too, have MCL and you are right, you can’t know wwhat it is like unless you have been there. The Lymphoma Research Foundation has a conference in the fall. It will be in San Francisco at the end of September. I have gone to the last two and it has been very supportive meeting with other MCLers. Good luck!
Trooper,
You are an excellent writer. My wife is currently going through treatment for MCL. I am a police officer in the Philadelphia area.
I read the post about your daughter and her karate. My daugher also did karate (she is almost 16 now.) She(Megan) attained her 2nd degree adult black belt. She gave it up to just play soccer. She is an outstanding player. However, this past memorial day weekend, the same time my wife was diagnosed with MCL , Megan tore her ACL. So this really has her bummed out. She will be having surgery 9-30-08. So, no soccer this year. My wife, Cindy just completed her second round in the hospital (the B cycle.) She in fact will be getting out later today. She is seeking treatment at the Univ. of Pennsylvania. So far so good.
Well, I will look forward to your blog entries. I will keep you and your family in my prayers.
Fraternally,
Rick Tidwell
Zach,
I don’t know that I even realized that you had written me and apologize for this late reply. Thank you for your prayers. I am in the process of moving my blogging and information to my website (www.friendsofhutch.org) and for that reason haven’t kept up on this blog site as much.
Gary