Its amazing as I sit here today and watch my wife fighting the battle of her life and realize 100s of thousands of women have dealt and are dealing with the exact same issues. I watch Reenie each day fight through the pain, the sickness, and the unknowing and I wonder how she manages to persevere. I was able to see the inspiration last week when Reenie's family (Shannon,Kristen,Ryan,Reen's mom Maureen and myself) spend a day with the Pink Heals Tour. Reenie set out last Monday to see the Pink Fire Trucks that travel the US each year in support of women battling breast cancer. The Fire department has always been special to our family, Reenie's dad Bud was a Chicago Firemen for 30 plus years, Josh, Kristen's husband is a fire fighter in Cicero and our son Ryan has completed a fire training course and is continuing his education that he hopes will land him a career in the department. So the combination of fire trucks and a breast cancer awareness program brought our family together for one of those special days that we don't mange to share often enough. Reenie was the star in Homewood, she donned the Pink fire apparel and took pictures with the crew from both departments (local and traveling) . She posed for numerous pictures for the host support group and many family pics as well. The members of the Pink Heals tour helped Reenie share her inspirational message to others by writing a message on the trucks cab and we spent some time reading the messages of others as well. The truck is filled with messages from 1000's of women who are fighting the same battle our warrior is involved in. We payed a visit to Matteson where 2 more trucks from the tour stopped, Reenie met other women going through treatment and they share stories and hugs, and more inspiration. I know that Reenie gains strength from her family and friends, from knowing she handled this before and from her doctors and nurses and from prayer. I now know her experience will give others strength, her messages on the Pink trucks will inspire others to keep going to "Keep fighting like a girl" as I know the messages have inspired her and our family, like the mothers day walk this day was for Reenie to wear her badge of courage for all to see and she was most definitely "Pretty in Pink"
The last few appointments for our girl have been very encouraging, I said a couple of weeks ago the "eye" test showed improvement well so did tumor markers that we received last week, the cancer cells and tumors are responding to this new chemo...so please keep the prayers and good thoughts coming Reenie's way. The problems are and probably will be during treatment the side effects of infection, low white counts and fatigue, but this post is staying upbeat because it was a good week for our warrior...got good news, spent some time with family and friends and this is how "PINK HEALS"
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