Over the years I have herd people, who have been diagnosed with cancer, make the statement “I’m going to fight this disease”. I always wondered how exactly they were going to this outside of the medical treatments. In 2003 my father was diagnosed with Myelodysplasia (a type of blood cancer.) He made the same statement.

My dad was a lifelong athlete and always health conscious about his diet. Up until a month before his death on April 28, 2008 at almost 88 years of age he exercised an hour and half every morning with weights and a stationary bike (that had to be re-built twice because he wore it out) and played competitive ping-pong every week. He was also ranked among the top ten swimmers in the world in his age group. He was an expert skier and windsurfer, activities he had to give up in 2006 because his immune system was too low not because he did not have the stamina.

Several years into the disease on a summer day my father stopped in for his weekly check up with his doctor. The doctor asked him how he was feeling. My dad replied “Great, now is this going to take long? There is a good wind and I have my windsurfer on the car and I am on my way to Long Beach (California).” The doctor told him that most people at his level of this disease are usually crawling around on their hands and knees in great pain doped up on drugs.

No doubt you have known someone or heard of someone going through chemotherapy and the agonizing discomfort they had to endure during treatment. My father’s biggest complaint while under going chemo was constipation, for which his doctor prescribed a laxative.

Last summer, when I was visiting him in Los Angeles, he asked me to coach him on his swim strokes (with my son we are three generation of swimmers and water polo players). After our session, as he was climbing out of the pool, it occurred to me that many 86 year old men who do not have debilitating diseases are more concerned about keeping their diapers clean rather then trying to perfect their swim strokes.

I still don’t know how other people fight cancer but I do know how my dad did it. The average life expectancy after diagnosis of Myelodysplasia is eighteen months. My father beat the odds and survived for 5½ years enjoying a good quality, active life during the entire time.