They say if you think you have it bad, just look over your shoulder, someone has it worse.
As I get older, that adage is so true.
Even when I went through my cancer surgery years ago, at first I felt sorry for myself. I threw a lovely pity party for myself accept the only one in attendance was myself.
After a few days of my diagnosis, I came to the realization that I was far from someone special to be exempt from cancer or arthritis or diabetes or whatever would be thrown at me. It was at that moment of revelation that I decided to no long feel badly for myself but to attack cancer straight on.
The main thing I kept in mind was, there was indeed someone over my shoulder that had it way worse them me. With my diagnosis and a successful surgery, depending on the post-surgery pathology, there was a strong possibility I’d be around for a long time.
Granted, prostate cancer is nothing to mess around with and if caught early without it spreading into the bones, you can get through it, but there are plenty of men that didn’t. Prostate cancer can and does kill. I was lucky.
I understand what it’s like to have the community rally behind you and I had no idea how many did care about my wellbeing. After my surgery, I received dozens and dozens of get well cards, Mass cards, religious medals and just people saying hello.
During my post op recovery I was not supposed to do stairs, but one day while feeling a bit banged up from the surgery, I decided to take those stairs and get the mail for the day.
Never in my wild imagination could I believe the stack of cards I received that day.
After making my way to my dining room table, I began to open one card after another and by the time I got to the last card, I could barely read it because of my eyes filled with tears.
It had to be one of the most emotional days I’ve ever had. It seemed like thank you was just not enough to say. I felt thank you was so small of a gesture.
My friend Kim Pace is in need of a double-lung transplant and he needs them soon. His lung capacity is down to 19% and the waiting game for the lungs can’t be easy.
After talking to Kim for an article I wrote for today’s edition of the Sunday Dispatch, I really believe he knows where he stands and he knows no matter how bad his case is, there are others over his shoulder that have it worse.
It seems like he’s over the pity party and he’s ready to get this done so he can resume his life and to get back on the football field this September to coach special teams at Wyoming Area.
He, as I was and still am, is humbled by this experience and he’s thankful he can have a life once he gets new lungs.
His battle isn’t self-imposed. He’s not a smoker and as he tells me, anyone can get this autoimmune disease called Interstitial Pulmonary Fibrosis. My mother had a form of it, but an extremely mild case compared to Kim.
There are a few forms of Pulmonary Fibrosis where this is no hope at all with no chance of lung transplants to help. Kim is fortunate in knowing he can be saved.
As days go by, he tells me it gets a bit worse and as he described it, he feels like he’s drowning.
Kim, at 69 years old, is retired and after fighting back financially from another debilitating brain surgery a decade ago, he will need money for years after the surgery.
He’s having the transplant scheduled at Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, and he will have to return to the hospital once a month for very, very long time and it’s going to take money.
Kim will have to need money for travel to and from Baltimore, food and lodging, and other incidentals and he’s asking public for help.
Recently, some of his football pals like Wyoming Area head football coach Randy Spencer, Lou “Bikes” Ciampi, and Tom Campenni decided to help Kim the best way they could, they created a Lungs for Life GoFundMe page hoping to raise $30,000.
If anyone reading this can contribute to Kim’s GoFundMe, he would feel grateful for all the help possible. As he told me, “Anything will help.”
With that said, he’s a proud man and he never thought he’d be in this position to have to ask for financial help, but his back is to the wall.
Knowing some of the financial burden is being helped, all he will need to do post surgery is to just get better one day at a time and with any luck, he will be standing on the sideline of another season of Warrior football.
Kim, before you know it, you too will be showered with cards of well wishes, love and support and you will have tears of joy like I did.
To contribute to Pace’s Lungs for Life GoFundMe account, set your browser to: https://gofund.me/b7bce09a.
Quote of the week
“Start by doing what’s necessary, then do what’s possible; and suddenly you are doing the impossible.” – St. Francis of Assisi
Thought of the week
“If you can’t fly then run, if you can’t run then walk, if you can’t walk then crawl, but whatever you do you have to keep moving forward.” – Martin Luther King, Jr.
Bumper stick
“No act of kindness, no matter how small, is ever wasted.” – Aesop
