Thanksgiving 5K

At the beginning of November I signed up to run a 5k to raise money for the Huntsman Cancer Foundation. (Incidentally, you can still give money here if you feel so inclined.) I got a really positive response from friends and family members, with eleven people donating a combined 395 dollars in my honor. The Friday after I signed up for this, however, I got back some troubling scans that indicated there were some unexplained nodules in my lungs that would have to be surgically removed and biopsied. I had the surgery last Friday and it went extremely well. The day after the surgery I was able to get up and walk more than a mile around the 5th floor of the Huntsman Cancer Hospital, which may be the best place in the world to recover from a surgery. By Monday I was able to leave the hospital. (They actually asked me if I wanted to try to leave Sunday, but I politely declined. The 5th floor is just too similar to a luxury hotel to want to check out early.) By that point it was clear that I would physically capable of walking a 5k by Thanksgiving, but the forecast called for a temperature of about 12 degrees, which is dangerous for someone recovering from lung surgery. I sought advice from the coordinators for the Huntsman Foundation and they told me that the Cottonwood Recreation Center (where the 5k was being held) has an indoor track. So this morning, Heather and I drove over there, picked up our shirts, and then did 50 laps on the very small indoor track while the rest of the runners actually ran the race outdoors. I would have preferred to complete the actual 5k, but since getting pneumonia really isn't an option right now, it was a nice way to still go through with my commitment to complete a 5k today. Thanks to Heather for coming along with me.

As it turns out, I got the pathology report for the nodules in my lung shortly before I left the hospital Monday. We're not sure exactly what they removed, but it was benign. In other words, my cancer hadn't spread. What an amazing blessing! I'm so grateful to essentially have another chance at life after an extremely difficult couple weeks. Thank you so much to the doctors and nurses at Huntsman for taking such good care of me. Thank you to my family and friends for being so supportive during such a difficult time. Finally, a particular thanks to my dad for being there when we were first told about the scans, when we finally got the pathology report, and at every moment in between, and a particular thanks to Heather for spending the first weekend of her Thanksgiving break nursing me back to health in the hospital.