When Nik Wellenda of "The Great Wellenda's" crossed Niagara Falls on a high wire I was in pure amazement and glued to the the screen every step of the way and I didnt know why until today. I have always been amazed by daredevils, not because they seem to cheat death, not because they practice so hard to perfect a stunt, not because there crazy, but because somehow they are just so focused on the end result.
When Wellenda initially setup this stunt he was not going to be tethered to anything. No safety device, no safety net, just his feet and the wire as well as all the practice to get things accomplished. He was bummed when his father in law who is his manager and stunt designer and someone who loves him, told him he would have a foot tether to the highwire. Wellenda made that crossing in about 25 minutes and is the only human to do it, but he did struggle along the way....
Two weeks ago my son Matt came off of chemotherapy and had his last lumbar puncture to inject chemo into his spine. He only takes septra now on the weekends to ward off any pneumonia. This was a huge change and really scared us as well as Matt. This medicine was saving his life and now it is not necessary. We would be walking the tight wire without a safety net. We do have a small ankle tether to the system, but for the most part we are now alot like Wellenda, staying focused, trusting in ourselves, and moving forward...
Two weeks later after being off of Chemotherapy brings us to today, the day after Christmas 2013. Matt had his pelvic bone marrow test to look for leukemia cells in his marrow. When we went in my daughter Kyra asked how long would it take and I said 5 hours. Turns out it was 7 hours. They finally called us while we were at lunch telling us to come back to the hospital for the results. We got into a room and waited about an hour for our main doctor to come in. First thing he said was his platellets were a little low but nothing serious. Next thing he said was Matthew has ZERO leukemic cells in his marrow. My wife Kat then spoke up and the conversation went as so," So zero, what does that mean. Doc says zero, Kat says zero, doc says zero. Kat says you mean none. doc says yes none. NO LEUKEMIC CELLS IN HIS MARROW. Zero."
So now we have monthly visits and just watch and wait. In 5 years if leukemic cells are still zero, I will have the same feeling Wellenda had when he step foot in Canada after crossing the Niagara falls on a tight wire...
