Not many sequels work out too well. We all can point the the Godfather II as the gold standard of sequels as many consider it to be the better I and II. (DO NOT MENTION III AS IT IS A MISERABLE WASTE OF EVERYTHING).

Getting that off my chest let’s continue. What’s your favorite #2? Rocky 2. Father of the Bride 2. Jaws 2. Back to the Future 2. Aliens. We all went and saw and maybe were just a little disappointed. You watched. You enjoyed, mostly but in the end it didn’t meet expectations. So how are you going to feel about “I’m Your Huckleberry 2”? For starters, what is Huckleberry 1 all about? Did it win any awards? Take a moment to reacquaint yourself with Huckleberry 1 which came out on July 19, 2016. Click here now and take a minute to see what is going on.

I’m Your Huckleberry

Hope you took the minute or two to (twain) see where it all started and now we can continue with more like a continuation than a sequel but here we go.

From that beginning in July 2016 I progressed down a road less traveled. Less traveled is an understatement considering what came my way. Synopsis is that in September of 2016 a biopsy was performed on my lungs and I was found to have IPF. Idiopathic Pulmonary Fibrosis. IPF affects .000002% worldwide with 100,000 cases in the United States. This disease is what the professionals call a “progressive” disease. That means there isn’t a cure. When I received that diagnosis I GTS (Googled That Stuff) and then told my wife Cindy not to look it up. Just don’t look it up. We got this is what I told her. I meant it when I said that to her. I believed it. I tried to live it everyday. It was difficult at times. I wondered who would care to work on a cure or solution to IPF with so few affected percentage wise. Thankfully there are people out there who don’t think like me. There isn’t a cure but there are treatments and ongoing research everyday. My drug was Ofev (O-fev). It’s job was to slow down the progression. Maybe buy you some time. It did and for that I am grateful.

Early on I thought this is going to be ok. I had things to do and see! In October of 2016 I had to get two portable oxygen machines to fly to Pebble Beach and officiate the wedding of my daughter Christy and son in law Jeff.

Then there were trips to Colorado to visit daughter Julie and husband. Grandchildren arrived and there we were. In 2017-2019 I could drive without oxygen halfway cross the country. Then as elevation rose I’d attach and get there. Each year got a little tougher. The air got thinner. My activity waned. Summer of ’21 was a real eye opener. I traveled with my house oxygen concentrator. This machine could produce 5 liters of oxygen a minute to supplement me. It wasn’t enough. I kid you not when I tell you I thought I would die playing ring-around-the-rosie with Amelia. (I’ll post that video on Facebook directly) It was right then and there that I truly thought for a moment that this might not end as I thought.

From the beginning of IPF I believed I would be healed. A miracle could and would happen. You see my faith in this journey has been my rock. When I would leave my lung appointments that first year after discovery I would tell the nurses, doctors and whoever was standing there to start thinking about who they wanted to play them in the movie about how we whipped IPF. I claimed Tom Selleck but probably am a better fit with Jim Belushi. I know that prayers can be answered in two distinct ways and I was preparing for both.

All this time I am going to work. By now my co-workers knew when air was low and why aren’t you on oxygen now comments were there to help me. My closest crew at Mann Middle are two of the finest people I know. Nicci and Nina. They are the age of my oldest daughter and became daughters to me. They watched me and helped me and saw me at my worst health wise. I could not have hand picked anyone better to ride shotgun with. The past year had me running 6 to 8 liters of oxygen from tanks. Even had double tank cart because I never stopped trying to do my job. Stories they could tell you and they would tell you today (if they were honest) that things had taken a turn in the past year. Just watching me arrive or leave school was a show. Ten minutes to load or unload my van and get into the building. Two tanks, a portable oxygen concentrator, a cart with laptops and other tech hoarding stuff and maybe a lunch. Maybe. Time for a miracle. Time for Huckleberry 3! Hah! Stay with me. Has to be better than Godfather 3. Right?