Page 20 - New Mexico Summer 2022

“I think he’s one of a kind. Leonard always sees the bright and good side of something.” – Joanne Blach
cancer. It was Stage 4, the most advanced stage. fence line and had enough punch left As usual, Doc’s optimism and can-do to knock Leonard down.
attitude came pouring out. “It burned my shoestrings a little “I came home saying, I can cope with this. I bit,” says Doc. “My brothers and
felt confident,” says Doc. “And the doctors told me, ‘The way you’re going to get through this is always (being) positive.’”
“I had a team of seven doctors. They talked about radiation and chemo and gave me all my options. They said if they did surgery and didn’t get it all, eventually they’d have to go back in and the bad side of that was that I could end up on a feeding tube for the rest of my life.”
Doc asked what would happen if he chose
to do nothing. The doctors told him he’d have three to five years. “And it would be a horrible life because the cancer would eat me up,” said Doc.
The doctors told him 3-to-5 years was also the time he’d have left if they did surgery and didn’t get all the cancer. Radiation was ruled out because it would burn other essential tissue. They decided on chemo.
Doc underwent 12 weeks of chemo treatments. The doctors in Houston coordinated the treatments with the cancer center in Roswell. The treatments ended in January of 2021, and he’s been in remission ever since.
“There’s no sign of it,” says Doc.
He’s been down this road of close calls before. During his freshman or sophomore year
in high school, Doc was working on a barbed wire fence on the family farm in Yuma when a bolt of lightning hit the fence about a mile and a half away. The strike traveled down the
sisters were coming home from Bible school and saw me laying there. They thought I was joking, so they went on by. When I didn’t show
up (at home) they came back. By that time, I was up and okay, but I was pretty dizzy.”
His parents took him to the nearest hospital and doctors found he had an accelerated heart rate of over 200. He was sent to the children’s hospital in Denver and spent a month there until his heart rate returned to normal.
A year or so later, Doc was on a school
bus with his football teammates headed back to Yuma. Doc was sitting near the front of
the bus and asleep. Something mechanical, possibly a tie rod, broke and the bus went off the road, hit a utility pole and ended up in a ditch. Doc went crashing through the bus’s windshield. He suffered a large laceration on his face and lost several teeth. This time he was in the hospital for a week.
Mrs. Blach and their children point to Doc’s eternal optimism and positive outlook on life as virtues that helped him through his battle with cancer and other challenges in his life.
“He’s always been that way,” said Mrs. Blach. “I think he’s one of a kind. Leonard always sees the bright and good side of something. He’s had
some
difficult
things happen in his life,
but he’s always picked himself up and
gone on. He’s a remarkable person that way.”
“One of his faults is being too optimistic,” said Pamela.
The cancer diagnosis was obviously tough on Doc’s children.
“It was hard to wrap my head around it,” said Pamela. “It was Stage 4. That’s what blew me away, how aggressive, and how far along it was. It was just a lot of prayers and a lot of support.”
And then there’s that other side of Doc, the one most people don’t get to see.
“Leonard is very religious, but you wouldn’t know that. He doesn’t push that down on you,” said Mrs. Blach. “But he has a really deep faith and I think that’s what carries him.”
“He has so much positive output that between faith and his optimism, I knew in my heart that he would get through this,” says Pamela. “He’s
a huge role model to have as much strength and the way he pushes forward through a crisis.”
18 New Mexico Horse Breeder
“I learned more about horse reproduction from
him ... than I ever did in veterinary school.” – Kevin
Doc and Joanne at the Preakness-Belmont 100.
Dr. Blach with son Kevin, who is also a veterinarian.
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