Pre Valentine

I received The Call today, appropriately from a nurse at BC/BS.

My appeal was successful, I will be getting my new legs: a new running prosthesis and a new socket for my everyday leg.

I could hardly finish speaking to the nurse and my mind left the planet as she was telling me my prosthetist would be contacted. I had prepared myself for the worse, knowing I had to be ready for a denial...I could not let it crush me. Suddenly that massive boulder moved. And it moved off my shoulders and floated away, lifting the stress and uncertainly from my mind and heart.

Jato will be prepared for our greatest challenge yet, the battle that will be Boston. I won't have to entertain the thought of walking to the starting line on crutches to avoid irritating my leg before the race. I will be ready.

Thank you Blue Cross Blue Shield of South Carolina. I believe I will be the first amputee from our great state to run the Boston Marathon. Thank you for understanding how the past year's issues caused my need for new prostheses; know that you will see what this means to me, to all of us, on April 15. It will be a day like no other.

And once again thank you my many friends, most whom I would have never come to know without the path adversity set before me. Your support and personal efforts by many helped bring this day into the light.

From all that I am, thank you.

*******

"Now I will turn the miracle into routine. The amazing will be seen every day."

- Pi, from "The Life of Pi" (Yann Martel)