Saturday, May 2, 2015

Hang In There, I'll Be Back



There have been a lot of questions from my charter customers. Where are you? Where are your fishing reports and photos? I wanted to get to a point where the diagnosis’ have been made and progress is being seen before dumping this on FB, and now is the time.

I’m going to start where it all started a little over 2 months ago. On February 25th I ran a fishing trip and after returning to the dock, discovered I  couldn’t get out of the boat on my own power. I knew something was wrong but associated it with a bad case of the flu. You know, the kind that makes every muscle and bone in your body hurt. I flagged down “Marina Steve” Popovich and asked him for help to my truck. While walking to the truck it was realized by both of us that I wasn’t going to be driving anywhere. Once in the truck we both made the decision that a trip to the hospital emergency room was in order.

Long story short, February 25th was when a terrible monster called cancer grabbed me and shook me. I was diagnosed with Multiple Myeloma. It’s a blood / bone cancer that can be held in remission but cannot be “cured.” At least not at this point. But a lot of work is being done in that direction and I’m very hopeful and willing to do what it takes to reach that point in my life. There are many sufferers of multiple myeloma that are leading normal lives for many, many years.

I’m now working on weekly chemo at Florida Cancer Specialist and my numbers are getting better and better. I have an early May appointment with the Moffitt Cancer Center up in Tampa to talk about stem cell treatment. I’m working hard to get my life back in order and to continue doing what I love more than anything else; being on the water and running charters. However, I’m a realist and I know this is going to take a lot of work and time on my part. I’m determined to get back to running my company, SoulMate Charters as well as doing other things associated with working on the water. I have plans.

So please hang in there with me. I’m going to make this work and I’m a very determined hard working person. In the meantime I’m more than happy to find you a quality charter trip based on your needs and the number of anglers that want to fish. Feel free to continue to email me if you are looking for a summer charter. I’m happy to help.
There are a number of ways that you can follow me through my “adventure.” I’ve set up a private page on FaceBook and can add you if requested. Just send me a message note via FB notes or an email to captrobmodys@gmail.com. I have a weekly radio show that airs each Saturday on the local ESPN network. Tune in! Locally it’s on ESPN 99.3 FM from 7- 10 am. If you are out of the local listening area, download the ESPN Radio App on your smart phone. I’ll also be posting on my Captain’s Blog via my website. Look for the icon on my website home page and click on it. I have a newsletter that I send out every month via Constant Contact and I’ll be updating that this week. If you’d like to receive the monthly newsletter just send me an email address. You may select to drop off the newsletter at any time. Lastly, I have a GoFundMe page. Yep, no income coming in right now and every little bit helps. Go to http://www.gofundme.com/q2rgyk.

Thank you to all my previous customers. Hang in there. I’ll be back.