This is NOT a New Year’s Resolution post

This is NOT a New Year’s Resolution post.

In the spring of 2023 the Distribution Team at ODL had these shirts printed and gave me one. I have worn it a lot since. Almost every time I exercise inside. Right away I noticed that the white lettering was starting to flake off.

Back in the summer of 2023 I had my first bone marrow biopsy and my cancer level was at 29. Multiple Myeloma is measured by MRD (Minimum Residual Disease.). They pull out a couple million bone marrow cells and count how many cancer cells per million. I had 29 cells per million. Not bad but also not 0.

So, this shirt became a symbol of getting rid of those 29 cells. And as the lettering flaked off I thought about getting rid of cancer cells. (The team did send me a new shirt, but I gave it to my dad. I’m keeping this original one until it falls off my body!)

This past spring I did reach 0 but when I tested again in September I am a 3. So, the shirt does not lie. All the printing left is the one white dot. The front is all gone and “almost” all of the back is gone. The key word is almost. And like with anything in life “almost” is never good enough. We may settle for it, but it is never completely satisfying.

While this morning is not the start of getting rid of the white dot, January 1, 2026 is a nice day to make my quest public. So when I do weird stuff like toe raises in the elevator, or work at weird times like 3am, or eat weird stuff like my Tumeric, ginger, black pepper, lemon, orange, black cumin, flax seed, protein powder, kombucha smoothie you all know it is to get rid of those last 3 cells.

SHINE!
The Road Rider

(Guess this kind of was a New Years Resolution post. Ha!)