The doctor told Ernie Puckett he was in great shape.</p>
<p>Fantastic news for anyone after a physical, of course, but it sounded especially sweet that July 2005 day, what with the lingering pain in the shoulder that suddenly had 68 years worth of wear on it.</p>
<p>Then there was the indigestion, enough to raise Pucketts eyebrows despite his age.</p>
<p>So, he says of the day that changed his life, I said Id like to have a chest X-ray, anyway.</p>
<p>Pucketts father had died of cancer, so even the so-called minor ailments you know, like pain in the joints and digestive tract of a man nearing 70 got proper attention, even if it meant shaking heads from the technicians that pacified him.</p>
<p>They kept saying, Youre in great health, he remembers. Why do you want to have an X-ray? </p>
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<p>The specialists all said the same thing.</p>
<p>The tumor looked like someone had flicked a wet paint brush at his right lung, and that those resulting specks malignant nodules that had already progressed to stage IV would kill him within 18 months.</p>
<p>They said the best you can hope for is it slowing up or shrinking, said Puckett, who was told the cancer was inoperable and that radiation wasnt an option. You say that you dont want to die, and I was going to do whatever I could. They told me that chemo was going to make me very sick, but there was no hesitation on my part.</p>
<p>Puckett had already shattered one perception hed quit smoking in 1975, some three decades before his diagnosis and decided hed do the same with his treatment.</p>
<p>We were sent to an oncologist who wasnt a doom-and-gloom man, Pucketts wife, Carol, said. And we thought it was very important we keep our spirits up as much as possible.</p>
<p>So instead of viewing the diagnosis as a reason to give up, Puckett used it as a reason to try harder.</p>
<p>He changed his diet, much the way he did when he lost 35 pounds almost 25 years earlier, and worked out six days a week during chemotherapy.</p>
<p>It didnt make him sick and he lost very little hair, Carol said. Hed take his lunch with him to the chemo. Hed watch uplifting videos. If the news was lousy, wed turn off the news.</p>
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<p>It was November 2005, four months and two cycles of chemo later, that Puckett took the PET scan.</p>
<p>The tumor had shrunk 30 percent and the fluid between his lung and chest wall had decreased by 70 percent. Those nodules the paint specks were barely visible now, and a positive scan could lead to radiation treatment.</p>
<p>Ill always remember the doctors words, Puckett said. He said, Ive never seen anything quite like this … </p>
<p>As improbable heck, impossible as it seemed, where there was once cancer, there was only scar tissue.</p>
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<p>Puckett decided well before that day the one he learned he was cancer-free that he would run.</p>
<p>The oncologist, the one who wasnt all doom-and-gloom, you remember, had run the Naples Daily News Half Marathon and encouraged Puckett, if he felt up to it, to give it a try.</p>
<p>Carol wasnt thrilled at first.</p>
<p>After all, wasnt her husbands story uplifting enough?</p>
<p>The pilot of over 30 years had already been re-issued his certificate to guide medical flights by the Federal Aviation Administration. Did he really need to run 13 miles, too?</p>
<p>But hes a very determined person, she said, and when he decides hes going to do something, he goes for it.</p>
<p>Puckett usually parks the car a few miles from their home in The Moorings, figuring that if the thought of a water break when he reaches Carol at home cant make him move faster, nothing will.</p>
<p>Finishing Sundays race isnt about proving something to himself, or to the doctors that, 18 months earlier, gave him that same window to live with stage IV lung cancer.</p>
<p>It changes your outlook, he said. Its given me a ministry to help other people. I thought from the very beginning that one of the hardest things for people with cancer to have is a positive attitude. Doctors say its incurable, and people just believe them.</p>
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<p>He tells them how cancer helped him learn to appreciate life and its frailty, and how he found a way to enjoy every chemo treatment, packing a picnic basket and watching DVDs in the park afterward.</p>
<p>Most of all, he tells them how life is a gift, and God willing, hes going to have another story to tell his fellow survivors on Sunday.</p>
<p>It might be a struggle, but if I have to crawl, Ill make it, Puckett said of the Half Marathon, his first such running since he finished a 26-miler in Miami almost 20 years ago. Im determined.</p>
<p>And Ernie Puckett has proven, time and again over the past 18 months, what he can do when hes determined.</p>
<p>Hell wake up on a lousy, rainy day and say, Im just glad to be here, his wife said. After going through this, you appreciate each day youve got, and now hes looking for ways to help others. He knows God left him here for a purpose.
We will be thinking of you throughout your hospital visits and procedures. {{hug}}</p>
LTS, you just made my day. Keep kickin’ @$%# and takin’ names!</p>