Adventure Day One

May, 1, 2008 - For me, today starts like every other day for the last five years.  I pull open my dresser drawer where I keep my jewelry and pick up a small reminder that life is different; our remission ring.  A simple five stone band, one for each word; I kiss the ring and say in my heart, “Thank you for Rickey’s remission”.  I slide the band on my left index finger and I go about my day.

 

For Rickey today and every day since October 11, 2002, the fact that he is a leukemic and surviving the journey, never leaves his mind.  He doesn’t need to wear a ring to be reminded –today is our 5^th anniversary of Rickey’s remission with AML leukemia – and the start of a new adventure for us, sharing our story.

 

Over the next seven days we will introduce you to our web blog, the features of the blog and how you can be part of the adventure.  In subsequent blogs we will share the details of our stay in the hospital, the journey through two failed treatments and the power of the Adventure Day One survival guide.

 

On October 14^th, 2002 as Rickey and I moved into the Bethesda Naval Medical Center.  We took account of our situation and decided to make it an adventure.  So at his first opportunity, Rickey sat at the hospital’s computer and wrote “Adventure -  day one “ – it was our messages to our family and friends.  Now that we have come to this mile marker in our adventure it is time to share our journey; the ups and downs of this path we have been on together.

 

When we started this journey the doctors felt the leukemia was so aggressive Rickey would not live, and we could not find any stories about the journey we would be facing.  When Rickey was diagnosed the internet was not as developed as it is today – it was difficult to find out about what we should expect, what others had gone through or even if there were any success stories – we found one page about “Tom” a middle aged man who got sick, got better and went back to work.  What happened in the middle?  Why did Tom survive?  What could we be learning from Tom?  We had so many questions and so many fears – we just wanted to connect to others like us.

 

What would you do if you were facing death?  How would you survive the journey?

 

We didn’t go into this with a plan, we didn’t have a choice.  We walked head on into the diagnosis as if we were going to win – feeling sure there was a reason, even as we walked out our front door on the way to the hospital for the first time and Rickey made the comment, “well this is the end of Camelot” I knew the reason would be revealed to us and that we would be given the strength to get through it.

 

I can’t say for sure if it was our natural optimism or the military can-do attitude, but each day we faced together the adventure in front of us and stayed determined to embrace the journey.  We faced death as we faced life, together, as one.  We drew our strength from each other to help the other one cope - it is just our natural reaction to adversity.

 

We believe this is an experience we were given as an opportunity to inspire others.  This may not come naturally to you or your family – but sharing our journey may inspire you to embrace your journey of survival as an adventure.

 

Until our next blog – remember life is an adventure, embrace the journey.  You can make a difference one day at a time. 

 

Share your adventure with us!

 

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