The Day Lloyd Carr called me a Michigan Man

One thing I've learned over the past 2 years is that no matter how busy you are, it's important to always take at least a little time out of your life to do something for someone else. Even the tiniest gesture can mean a great deal to someone going through a difficult situation. I hope to show you what I mean with this story.

About 18 months ago, just prior to going through my first stem-cell transplant, I woke up one morning around 9 A.M. and went downstairs to have breakfast. I had already been through a lot of therapy and was a little weak, so I was nervous about my upcoming round of treatment. When I got downstairs I saw that a message had been left on my phone around 6 A.M. that morning. I recognized the area code as an Ann Arbor, Michigan, number, but I didn't know anybody living there who would be calling me.

As many of you know, I attended school at Michigan from 2000-2004, and I was (and still am) a a HUGE Michigan football fan. Nothing could have prepared me for the voice I heard when I started the message. It was Michigan football head coach Lloyd Carr, a legend in Ann Arbor and a national figure, calling to wish me luck and to tell me to be strong.

Lloyd Carr was the head coach of the football program while I was attending school there from 2000-2004, and continued to coach until retiring in 2008. I had a lot of respect for coach Carr. We didn't win any national championships while I was there, but I really valued his integrity and commitment to the program.

The most amazing thing about the call was that I had never met the man personally. He had received an email from a very good college friend of mine who informed him of my situation. My friend told him what a big fan I was, and he decided to pick up the phone and call me. Understand , this was during the football season - his final season as head coach. He already had about 1 million football related tasks on his plate at the time, but instead of going out and having his players run wind sprints and stairs, he chose to take 5 minutes out of his day to call me (that might be why we lost the first 2 games...just kidding Coach).

The time he spent calling me may not have made a big difference in his life, but it meant the world to me. Not only did it give me an emotional and mental boost, but it also taught me that what may seem like a small gesture to some, can actually mean the world to others. Since then, I've tried to always take a little time out to do the little things for others as much as I possibly can.

I hope to one day call Lloyd Carr, tell him I'm cured, and thank him for taking five minutes of his day to think about me. It made a world of difference. Here is the message if you'd like to listen for yourself.



Special thanks to my friend J Brady for telling Lloyd Carr about me, and my friend Angilee for saving this message so I could have it forever.

A Very Busy (and fun) Week

I apologize for the week-long break I took from last Tuesday's post. My brother came home for his spring break last Wednesday night so we have been having fun. There have been many exciting things going on in my life since completing my lung surgery, so I've just been enjoying each day.

Work has increased at my company as we are embarking on new and exciting ventures during these challenging times. I am spending more time at the office as I work my way back to becoming full-time again.

The NBA playoffs have begun and the Lakers are looking good. 1 win down and 15 to go for the championship.

Baseball season is also underway and the Dodgers are on an 8-game winning streak, which makes me really happy. I am a really big Dodger fan.

And, in case you didn't see the latest pictures I posted on my facebook profile, I saw the Delorean from Back to the Future in a random condominium parking lot in Corona, CA, over the weekend. That's pretty much my favorite movie of all time, so, as you can imagine, I was a little excited.


Marty McFly: "Doc, you better back up, we don't have enough road to get up to 88."


Doc Brown: "Roads...where we're going we don't need..(flips sunglasses down)..roads.

Not only is that one of my favorite lines from the first movie (as my friend Rahul can attest to), but it's also the line that played from the car just before it sped away. Either the owner installed sound effects quoting the movie, or Christopher Lloyd and Michael J. Fox were filming Back to the Future IV.

So seeing as how the Dodgers, Lakers, hanging out with my brother and Back to the Future are four of my favorite things in the world, it's been a good week.

On the health front, the lung surgery went well and I will be meeting my oncologist later this week to get testing done and figure out what I need to do from here. There is still some pain at the incision site, but not enough to really bother me. Treatment may be in my future, but I am praying that it's not.

For those of you in Cali, stay cool. I'll be back later this week.

Living Life to the Fullest

"Forget about the future Naweed...just focus on this day...nobody knows what is going to happen tomorrow Naweed, so you should enjoy every moment now...we have no control over the future...none of us."

I've probably heard these lines over a thousand times since getting diagnosed a little over 2 years ago, and at first, it would eat me up inside. Don't get me wrong, I am very appreciative of my supporters. But frankly speaking, it's easy to live in the moment when everything is going great, but as soon as your future is in doubt, that mentality is nearly impossible to achieve.

Let's be honest. How many people actually live in the moment? In reality, everything we do and think about today is for the future. This is especially true if you're in your 20's like me; we do everything with the purpose of building a foundation for the future. So you can imagine how difficult it becomes when all of a sudden, your future is in doubt. What's the point of doing anything, right?

WRONG.

I have learned that when times are tough, the worst thing you can do is retreat inside of yourself and stop living your life. I know it's difficult. Trust me, for the first year of my cancer fight, I didn't want to do anything or see anyone. I avoided dinners, parties, religious functions; I avoided just about any situation that I thought would make me uncomfortable or jealous. As you can imagine, I was turning into a hermit, unwilling to leave my comfort zone at home. This mentality was getting me nowhere, but I was afraid of change.

One event changed my mentality for good. In the summer of 2008 one of my best friends from college asked me to speak at his wedding. The wedding was going to happen on the East Coast, and many of my college friends who I hadn't seen in years would be in attendance, not to mention hundreds of strangers.

At the time, I was going through chemo, had no hair or eyebrows, and I was pretty thin. I did not look good. The thought of getting up in front of a large crowd and making such an important speech frightened the hell out of me. I would have declined the invitation just like I had been doing for every party, but this was for a very close friend and it was too important to avoid. So I decided to attend and to speak.

The speech went well. I don't usually get nervous speaking in public, but maybe because of the size of the crowd or the bright lights shining on my head, I was feeling wobbly. After dinner I left the hall to use the restroom, where a guy I didn't recognize complimented me on my words. I thanked him and we began chatting as we returned to the hall.

He told me his name was Ravi. He was about my age, maybe a little older. As it turned out, he told me that his younger sister, one of the bride's closest friends, had passed away from cancer no less than 1 year ago. I literally stopped in my tracks.

I told him that I had heard about his sister and I was sorry for his loss. I also told him what I was going through. Now he didn't know who I was prior to this conversation, but it's safe to say that when he saw me he could tell was dealing with something. We ended up talking for almost an hour, most of it was him giving me words of encouragement and support. It meant so much coming from someone who had experienced such a tragic loss. Ravi and I have continued talking to this day, and despite what he has gone through, he has become one of my most inspirational sources of support.

But consider the chain of events here. If I hadn't decided to attend the wedding, I would never have been there to meet him. If I hadn't given the speech, he wouldn't have recognized me coming out of the restroom. And I hadn't had so much water, I would never have had to use the restroom (thanks Dad for always reminding me to drink lots of water).

Only because I decided to live my life and seize those opportunities, I made a great friend.

I used to get angry when people who hadn't gone through what I have told me to "enjoy life." But I don't anymore. What I learned from these events is that regardless of what is happening in life, good or bad, shying away from living life because of fear,
embarrassment, jealousy or pain can only hurt you more.

The best thing to do is to wake up each day, be gracious for what you have, focus on what you want and try your best to go get it.

DOCS Charity

I hope everyone had a nice week. I spent my week mostly recovering from my lung surgery last Friday by getting rest at home and taking some walks. I was feeling some pain and discomfort where the incision was made, but overall it's not too bad. The last few days I was feeling well enough to go into my office, so I did that, but it was very tiring. I will be having my follow-up appointment with my surgeon early next week to make sure everything on my body is still where it's supposed to be and in working order....that was my sad attempt to make a joke.

I have never posted about a specific charitable organization before, but I came across one in particular after reading an article in the LA Times that I thought looked really impressive. Please note that by bringing it up on my blog, I am merely trying to build awareness for it. I am not affiliated with it, and I don't know anything about it other than what I've read in the LA Times and on the charity's website.

DOCS Charity , or Doctors Offering Charitable Services, is based in the San Diego area. According to their website, "DOCS was founded by a team of talented surgeons to assist with the healthcare burden of the needy population within our own and neighboring communities. DOCS consists of a group of highly specialized physicians, each with their own sub-specialty."

Another excerpt, "DOCS has teamed up with various local organizations to raise awareness about their organization. Patients introduced to DOCS include victims of accidents, abuse, war, and devastating diseases. Often denied benefits by insurance companies, due to the "cosmetic" nature of their conditions, these patients were left without any hope."

I became interested in DOCS after reading a story in the LA Times about the work they have been able to do for a girl named Anne Rodante, who lives in the greater LA area. I have linked to this story here .

As I said, I don't know anything about this charity other than what I read about it in the LA Times and on its website, but it seems like a very talented group of people doing some amazing selfless work. It doesn't seem like this is an organization with a lot of volunteering opportunities (unless you're handy with a scapel), but if anyone is interested, let me know because I am looking into it.

I have included the link to the DOCS Charity website in my "cancer research websites" section of this blog (on the right column under "daily motivating quotes"). There are a few other organizations there I like which you might want to check out.

Have a nice weekend!

Laughter Clips of the Week (Ouch!!)

Because of my recent lung surgery, whenever I laugh it causes sharp pains in my chest. I tried to find good laughter clips without laughing, but failed miserably (with the not laughing part). Now that the pain has worn off I can get back to writing this post.

It has been a few weeks since I've been able to post up some laughter clips, and after watching these, I had to share them. The first clip can't possibly be real, but it's priceless. The 2nd clip I'm sure is real, and is also priceless.

I wanted to say thanks to everyone who reached out to me before and after the surgery to wish me luck. Now that the procedure is behind me I'm back to playing the waiting game, which can be very frustrating. We won't know anything further until we take our next set of follow-up tests next week. In the meantime, it doesn't hurt to laugh (Or maybe it does...) Enjoy!

Surgery over - let the healing begin

I apologize for not posting last week, but I thought I would wait until I got done with my lung surgery. I had it done Friday afternoon and I am happy to report that my doctor said it went very well. I was released from the hospital last night and I have been resting comfortably at home since. Even though it wasn't too invasive, it's definitely painful. Anytime you have surgery done to your chest cavity, you realize that you use your chest and back muscles for basically every movement you make.

Despite the pain, I am feeling great right now. I believe things are looking up and I am back on the healing track. My doctors are unsure about what is going to happen next. Based on the nature of my disease, some doctors believe that this is a chronic condition that I am going to continue to have problems with. I refuse to believe that. I want to believe that this surgery is the end of the road.

I'll be back later this week with my next post. I hope everyone is having a nice weekend...

Be well...