From the words of Andy himself... Its been a little over seven years now that I have been diagnosed with multiple myeloma(jan. 03,2007). I never really talked about it to much because when I did it was a reminder that a local doctor gave me only 3 years and plain and simple I couldnt except this. I still had to many things left unaccomplished. I still havent left my mark on this world yet, heck I didnt even have children yet something I had always wanted. I would go to nyc to go to the doctors every 3 months to get my blood counts checked and they would increase slowly but never enough to warrant treatment. Agaain, if I didnt talk much about it, I didnt have it at least in my mind. I am a 300 lb 63 man, cancer wasnt going to beat me for God sakes I was a wrestler. I never admitted it was getting the upperhand until Aug 2012 on our why home from vacation at the beach. I had pain in my lower glute which I assumed was from a pulled muscle from when I was training for an upcoming 5k mud run. I would never run that race because after several therapy sessions and an MRI it was determined that I had 2 tumors in my sacrum and upper leg. One was the size of a softball and the other the size of a golf ball. This is where the hardest but best story of my life begins. I started chemo in Nov.2012. I responded well for the first several months but then things started to decline. It was still hard to imagine what lied ahead but I was still hesitain talk about it openly. Then in the spring my wife and her friends organized a zumbathon which was totally unbelievable. The outpour of support was absolutely unbelievable. At this event, I witnessed the selfless act of kindness I have ever witnessed. My childhood friend and high school classmate Denise Nolt Williams, shaved her head in honor of my upcoming events and as a mark against her battle against cancer. In july of 2013 I went and had my first stem cell transplant at Mt. Sinai hospital in nyc. It was one of the scariest things I had to do. I had to say good bye to my beautiful wife, two girls, family, co-workers and friends. I knew this was going to be a several week procedure and plan and simple didnt know how I was going to come out of it. At this time I knew I didnt have the strenghth to fight this fight by myself. I put myself in Gods hands and prayed many prayers as so many also did. I made it through the transplant with the help of my wife and children, friends, family, and co- workers. Pastor Wayne would give me many calls and talk with me as well as many others. I was starting to feel alive again, until the news in late October when they told me I needed a second transplant. I went into my second transplant the week before thanksgiving. This meant that yet again I would leave my family again for several weeks and miss the Holiday with the family as well as the first week of deer season. Friends and family though kept my spirits up by phone calls, cards and letters and Skype. It was absolutely unbelievable the amount of support I received from everybody. Words couldnt express how lucky I felt. It was the weirdest feeling. Here I was confined to a 10x10 room for three weeks not seeing the outside word when I am use to working outside every day you would think I would be bitter. It was only then I realized how lucky I really was. I finally realized what was really important to me. Jill, Allison, Maci, and the rest of my family and friends and co-workers. Also dont let me forget to mention my relationship with God our heavenly father. He carried me through what I know I couldnt do on my own, and anyone going through what I have gone through knows what I am talking about. All things are possible through him. In final thought, I just want to thank everyone for everything they have done for me and my family, phone calls, letters, monetary donations, Christmas presents, meals, prayers etc.. Thank You so much words can not express how greatful we are for everything. I also want to Thank the crew at PPL Electric Utility for accepting back to my first week back at work in 8 months with open arms, and need I say it didnt go unnoticed that all of you had Millerstong and Takedown Cancer t-shirts on. I tried to make mention of it several times and everytime I did I got choked up and was fighting back the tears so I decided to put it in this letter.God Bless and I Love you all!!!! P.S. if any of you catch me complaining about trivial bull you know what, please give me a kick in the rump shaker!!!!!
Posted on: Fri, 14 Mar 2014 12:40:19 +0000
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