Day +1851 The Last Post

So Hello Again

I guess if we go by the chart, I’m on day +1851 post bone marrow transplant. That means 1851 days of joy, pain, tears, laughter, boredom, and practically every other emotion you can name. To be honest, I have no clue as to how to even begin describing what’s happened to me in the last 1594 days since I last wrote in this journal. I guess in the absence of any formal plan we should stick to chronological order. And I have to apologize in advance. I have a lot of people to thank so bear with me if this starts to sound like an Oscar acceptance speech.

When I last wrote here our family consisted of myself, my wife, my two kids, two cats and two dogs. There have been some additions and subtractions to the roster since then.
Sad news first. We lost one of our cats. Bruno was an adventurous soul who enjoyed long excursions away from home. Well, he took off for nine months a couple of years ago, and then in August of 2007 he decided to make the trip permanent. Caity and I recently decided to get two new cats and our furniture has begun to depreciate at an exponential rate. They have added that little bit of needed chaos Caity and I seem to crave since the whole transplant recovery thing.

The other news is nothing short of a miracle. In 2007 we increased our daughter count by 1. Apparently, after being declared 100% sterile, my body decided that it wanted to heal that part of my anatomy as well. Addison Megan Lyon Price was born in October and is one of the most beautiful creatures I think I have ever seen in my entire life. It’s amazing to go back and read how happy I was with just two kids. Now I can’t imagine my life without her.

I still work downtown in the Oil and Gas Industry, but I’m at a new company. After 4 great years of working at Storm it was time to make a change. It was one of the most difficult decisions I’ve made to date because the people at Storm are an amazing group of people, but after doing the same job for four years, a person requires a change of scenery in order to continue growing as a person. I want to publicly thank Brian Lavergne, Don McLean, and the whole group at Storm for supporting me and standing by my side during my darkest hours. I don’t think you’ll ever understand how hard it was for me to leave, but I hope you understand why I had to do it.

My current employer is Iteration Energy and once again I find myself working with some of the greatest people I’ve ever met. Brian and Carmen Illing have been absolutely amazing in supporting my powerlifting endeavours, and I am continuously blown away by how wonderful they are as people and as employers. The work has been hard, but I’ve learned so much more than I ever thought possible, in the last year and a half. I also get the pleasure of working with people I consider friends, more than I consider them co-workers. 6th floor? You guys ROCK!!!!! I don’t know what I’d do without you.

Getting back to family, my wife is the amazing woman she always was and has stepped up the fight against Cancer. She’s done the Light the Night Walk for the Leukemia and Lymphoma Society, twice, and is currently signed up for the Ride to Conquer Cancer (have you seen the link? It’s at the top of the Blog, Hint hint, wink wink nudge nudge). She continues to be my rock, my pillar of strength, my provider of sage advice and ass kickings. After everything we’ve been through I think I can honestly say that we are a 7.5 year old married couple with 40 years of experience and I wouldn’t trade a day of my time with her for anything. I love you Caitlin Marie Price, you are amazing.

About two years ago, Caity gave me another one of her famous kicks in the ass. I had started weight lifting again and she encouraged me to return to powerlifting. I had been making moderate progress in my basement but because I wasn’t getting out of the house, I was getting a little disgruntled with my lack of success. After several days of searching the Internet I found the single hardest working group of people I’ve ever met in my entire life. The guys and gals of the Independent Powerlifting Association are simply the best of the best in Canadian Powerlifting. If you want to truly learn how to train properly, there is no other place in Canada to do it.

Training with the right people makes all the difference because they push you in ways you couldn’t or wouldn’t push yourself. Since joining with them, I’ve competed in 4 National competitions and 2 World Championships. This November, I found myself at the top of the podium in France at the 2009 World Championships, getting a first place medal placed around my neck. Not bad for someone who 5 years ago was living at the Tom Baker Cancer Centre with tubes going into his chest!!!!

I continue to beat my previous totals with each competition and my goal is to attempt the 90kg bodyweight Bench Press World Record at the next Nationals if my training goes well. I can do it in the gym, it’s just a matter of finding the energy to do it in competition. Currently, my best numbers are as follows.

Competition Squat: 315kgs/693lbs
Competition Bench: 215kgs/473lbs
Competition Deadlift: 235kgs/517lbs

My lifts in the gym are much better than that, but that’s the trick to competing, trying to get all the best parts of your training to appear on one single day. I’m still waiting for that magical day to happen, but until then, I’m happy with the fact that I’m continuing to progress in my lifting.

So why do I choose to powerlift? I’m not sure what the answer is anymore. It hurts, it leaves me aching for days, my cardio is crap, and I don’t fit into any clothes or airplane seats comfortably. All I do know is that I love doing it. I love the feeling of the bar on my back, I love seeing stars in my eyes and hearing popping in my ears when I’m at the bottom of a lift. I love the way my face and neck get covered in tiny bruises from exertion after a really big squat. I think deep down, I love the fact that for a brief moment in time, it makes me feel like a superhero. In the heat of the moment, under a very heavy weight, there’s no time to worry about life or work or whether or not I’ll have enough cash set aside for retirement. It’s just you and the moment, nothing else exists. It’s peaceful, in a weird sort of way I think that’s the best way to describe it.

I want to personally thank Brian Johnston, Mario Piattelli, Corey Evans, Gary Bobrovitz, Lora Greco, Matt Arter, Michelle Senger, Andrea McDougall, Norm Lewis, Peter Jakobowski and everyone else for putting your time and energy into helping me get to where I am today. I’m really hoping I didn’t forget anyone because to train with this group of amazing athletes is an honour I do not take lightly.

Another facet of my powerlifting life is volunteering with the Special Olympics. If you get the chance, you need to do this yourself. It is one of the greatest experiences I’ve ever had. Thanks to Paul Manual, a member of the Calgary Police Service and Head Coach of the Calgary Special Olympics Powerlifting Team for encouraging me to take this experience as far as I can. In 2010, I am acting as Head Coach for Team Alberta for the Special Olympics National Games in London, Ontario.

If you were a reader of my blog back in the past, you’d know that I talked about volunteering with organizations focused on beating cancer. I did the Light the Night walk last year, and to be perfectly honest, I don’t think I could do that again. The entire time we were walking, my brain was bringing up emotions that I wasn’t ready to deal with. It left me very uncomfortable and that makes me very sad, because events like Light the Night are deserving of as much support as we can give. I hope that one day, I’ll be able to join my wife in the fight to end cancer, but I hope you understand that I’m still a little emotionally worn out from the last one. For now, my wife Caitlin fights for the both of us. She’s currently doing the Ride to Conquer Cancer (have I mentioned that yet?). If you felt so inclined, you could click here to send some money her way.

So, have I recovered fully from the last 5 years? I honestly don’t know. Physically, I still get sick a lot more than most people, and according to all the research Caity and I have read, the 5 year mark is where the chronic graft vs host starts creeping back into your life. Google “chronic graft vs host” and it’ll put a sour mood on your day, I guarantee it. I would say however that I came out of the entire thing mostly unscathed. My GI tract is still a little messed up and requires a daily shot of Metamucil to keep things normal, but other than that, my body is treating me fairly well. I’d have to say that the bone marrow I got was some top notch stuff from a decent human being. I had the great luck to finally meet him a couple of years ago, and yes he really is an amazing person. I’d thank him here, but he’s done so much for me that I wouldn’t know where to even start. I’ve met his whole family in fact, and they honestly treat me like one of their own. I can still remember the first time I met the whole clan. My bone marrow Donor’s father was cooking an amazing barbeque in my honor, and I thanked him for making me feel like part of the family. He looked at me for a minute with a puzzled look and simply stated

“You ARE part of the family”

In their minds, I have their blood inside me, so I’m part of the family, no questions asked. To this day, I can’t think back on that day without getting emotional. They’re an amazing close knit group of people with so much love in their hearts. Not only did I get a second shot at life, but my family tree grew a new branch or two overnight. And in case you were wondering about Addison’s two middle names, Lyon is a family name on Caity’s side of the family, and Megan is my donor’s mother’s name. When Addison was born, we asked my donor to provide us with one of Addison’s middle names. Without him, she would not exist so it seemed fitting and appropriate that he get to be a part of the naming process.

So that’s about it. I know a few of my friends were excited to hear that I was writing again, but this is a one shot deal. I came out of retirement to make sure that people coming to this blog knew I was still alive and kicking. For those of you who have been recently diagnosed with cancer, or are currently deep in the fight, I hope this helps to show you that the fight can be won. The important thing is to never give up permanently. You are allowed to give up for brief periods of time when you get knocked on your butt, but that’s when your friends and family kick you in the ass, and tell you to stand up again. And you WILL fall, make no mistake about that. You WILL have setbacks, you WILL have days where you really wonder if you want to go on. I can’t tell you why you need to keep getting up again (that’s for you to figure out), but you have to find something to fight for. For me, it was my wife and my kids. For you, it will be something else, but in your darkest hours, you need a singular thought to focus on when life gets too much.

And for those people on the sidelines watching friends and loved ones go through the process of fighting cancer, please know that frequent ass kickings are required when dealing with one of us. The human spirit can only be strong for so long, and when we aren’t strong we rely on you to get us through the really dark times. Never underestimate how important you are to your friend or loved one and never give up on us. I believe with all my heart that my wife pulled me through this, and I really have to wonder where I’d be today if she hadn’t been there for me. She was there for me when I was doubled over puking my guts out, she sat quietly beside me in the hospital when I was mostly unconscious and hallucinating from the medications and the pain. But most importantly, she was there when I couldn’t (or wouldn’t in some cases) go on any longer, she never gave up on me, and she never allowed me to quit.

And I can’t end this note without thanking, Elli Armstrong(my mom), and Jim & Sandi Price for putting their lives on hold to come live at our house for three months. When I went into the hospital, these three people came to live with Caity to help out with the twins, and to give Caity the time she needed to come see me every night. If we hadn’t had the three of them, I’m not sure how we would have made it through the first couple of months, and to this day I still feel like I owe each of them more than I’ll ever be able to repay.

After all is said and done, I know I’m supposed to end this blog with something witty and poetic. The problem is that cancer is neither witty or poetic. It’s one of the most terrible aspects of the human condition I’ve personally experienced and I don’t believe that I am equipped with the correct words to truly explain how I feel about it. I could end with the same words I ended my last blog entry on “Goodbye everybody, I'm Adam Price...Cancer survivor”, but that’s not right. Quite honestly, upon reading it again, I find it a little ego-centric. I guess the only real way to end this blog is with the only words that are left in my heart on the subject of Cancer.

Thank you Caitlin Marie Price, for saving my life. I will always love you.