my day at the office

tuesday was by far the best day i've had in a while. why you ask? because yesterday i spent a good part of the day with my patient partner Hunter Donigan. before i get into Hunter, her journey and our day, a brief introduction of to the DFMC Patient Partner Program. the DFMC PPP matches runners with patients at the Institutes Jimmy Fund Clinic. this is my second year as a running partner to Hunter and her family. Hunter is 6 years old. she was diagnosed with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia (ALL) when she was 18 months old. her first treatment lasted 2 years and 1 month. she spent 2 months off treatment, then relapsed. my friends, one wish and prayer i have for you is that you never see an email in your mailbox that says "we got bad news today." on march 20, 2006, i got that email and it sucked, it sucked so bad. countless times i've asked how they do it? how this family has the strength to go through this not once but TWICE? i can't answer the question, but they have, through their strength, will, determination and love, here we are just over 2 years later and the kid (and family) are kicking ass and taking names! kcuf recnac (martin that's for you, thanks!).

i have known Hunter and her family for 5 years now but she's only been my partner for this year and last. you see my friend Katie, her mom, ran on the team in 2006 but with the new treatment schedule and a 4th "bun in the oven", she had to take the last 2 years off. next year when she is back on the team i am hoping we can share the duties ;-). i as a runner have grown to need this little persons strength. i can honestly credit much of my running success to Hunter. when you meet her and her family all you get from them is determination, love, unconditional support, and unmatched strength. selfishly i grab and hold onto as much as i can, when i know they are with me there is nothing i can't do. for us DFMCers, if i may speak for my peeps, our real success comes from truly embracing why we do this, that ultimate finish line. kcuf recnac.

on to my day, for the first time in about 5 years i called in sick. now was i really sick... no. i didn't feel great but on a normal day would i have called out? obviously not since it's been 5 years (and the last time i'm quite sure i was hungover). so i got up nice and late and went over to the Jimmy Fund Clinic where Hunter was getting treatment. if you haven't been over there GO, it's an amazing place. as soon as i get there we get right to work, creating her poster for the Pasta Party. seriously, the thing is LEGIT! we've got sparkles, stickers, mazes, pompom hair (i don't know what you call that pom pom stuff) and we've got "bling" like you read about! while i'm there, there was so much going on, nurses in and out, bells ringing, tears, laughter, wandering patients just stopping in to say "hi." no matter what it was, Hunter wasn't even phased, amazing, the kid is a rock star. finally the poster making comes to an end, (seriously we have so much "stuff" on this thing, all i can think is "abby is going to kill me, there is no way in hell they are going to be able to laminate this!" sorry abs!) and Hunter wanted a drink, so Katie leaves for a couple of minutes. Hunter and i are kicking back watching TV, "kimpossible" i think when all of a sudden something starts beeping (not alarming, just kind of annoying). obviously i have no idea what's going on but i do know it is coming from the apparatus by her bed. so i look at IT (give it the stare down as if that will make it stop), i look at Hunter (intently watching kim-what's-her-face save the world), look at the TV (to see if she is in fact saving the world because she certainly isn't turning the beeping off), then look back at the darn machine. without even looking away from kim-whose-a-ma-dinghy, Hunter presses the big red button on the gigantic remote thing... still dinging.... still dinging..... where the heck is this nurse..... still dinging... then like an angel a voice sounds "can i help you?" (p.s. not angelic) um... um... i look at Hunter, ah, kid are you gonna say something..... nope. so i say in the meekest voice (none of you have ever heard) "um, yeah hi, the, ah thing... um machine... it's 'dinging'." the voice "okay be right there." PHEW, saved! then from nowhere, a voice from the bed. without taking her eyes off of kim-dingle-nuts, "it's ringing, not dinging." i start cracking up laughing, and say to this 6 year old, "well, how am i suppose to know what's going one, you were suppose to do the talking, not me." Hunter just starts cracking up. it was hilarious, the kid totally called me out! the two of us got laughing pretty good thankfully, temporarily drowning out that dinging, i mean ringing!

so that was my tuesday at the office. after work i joined the group for beers and pizza in waltham, oh yeah and a hill workout. good times. as i said the first time i blogged, it's all about the celebration. for you, what you've done, for someone else, for their life. blow off work and celebrate my friends!
kcuf recnac!
RUN ON.
27 days
huntersrunningpartnerlaurie
http://www.caringbridge.org/ma/hunter/