When you understand your purpose, your purpose will over take your pain (Ben Newman).

There are a few days in everyone’s life that you can look back and say, ‘that was the day my life changed forever.    I knew immediately as I walked out of my doctor’s appointment on June 27th, 2014 everything in our life was just flipped upside down.  I called Kristi, told her that the doctor was confident I had YOPD and what the next steps were.   However, it wasn’t a slam dunk diagnosis.  I had many tests over the next couple months to confirm the initial diagnosis.  That October we took a trip to the Mayo clinic for a DAT Scan, that was the last piece in the 3-month long diagnosis process, our life did change forever on June 27th, 2014.

I met Kristi on 6/24/05, we were engaged on 9/23/06, married on 5/5/07, moved to Bologna, Italy on 9/23/08, 5/13/09 Luca was born, 3/16/11 Henry was born 1/23/13 Charlie and Sofia were born, July 14th is my birthday but it is also a reminder of a huge loss to our family.  All these days contribute to who we are but those days didn’t significantly alter the course of our life like 6/27/14.  The following Tuesday, 7/1/14, we had a second opinion at the University of MN with Dr. Tuite.  After a few hours of discussion, we had a plan.  I had to stay active!  I had to build strength and endurance.  On the way home we both bought Fitbits.  That night our elliptical was used for exercise rather than a clothes hanger (see picture of me and my dad at the MLB All Star game in 2014, I was 292 lbs and 2 weeks after initial diagnosis) Over the next 4+ years we have maintained the active lifestyle Dr. Tuite told us I needed to have. 

In the next couple weeks, we will be updating our website with details for the 2nd annual golf tournament and a couple new adventures we are working on. 

Thanks for supporting our journey.  To be clear we are fighting a tough opponent but we remain optimistic that if we win today there may be a cure tomorrow!  

The first person to guess my current weight correctly, to the nearest whole pound, will win a Team Kopacz shirt.  Email your answer to [email protected]  

Take Care,
Jason and Kristi

Title of blog from Ben Newman,  link below:

https://www.facebook.com/Kstatesports/videos/642198186178471/