The bike and me!

So, here is a picture of Jack and me last year at the MS150.  I had just finished about 81 miles the first day.  Jack was not very cooperative with taking pictures...he and my family and extended family were all there waiting for me for a while.

I did this ride just 5 or 6 weeks after a surgery on my lungs.  I am not telling you this to brag.  In truth, I am really hard on myself.  I wanted to finish the whole thing.  I did the whole ride on the first day and did about 35 miles the next day.  My lungs were still healing and I was still trying to gain strength.

I am only showing you this so you can see what YOU can do with exercise and nutrition.  The surgery was elective on Michael and my part, but we decided early on to be aggressive.  There were two small spots  on my lungs that we had removed.  They were in a hard-to-reach place on the lungs...so the surgery was more extensive.

Regardless, my training for the MS150 before the surgery helped me recover in the hospital.  I had a great surgeon.  He was very encouraging and always reminded me that I needed to get up and out of bed...so that I could heal and get on  my bike.  So, I did just that.  I got up and out of the hospital bed and had my VERY SWEET nurses tape my chest tube and catheter tubes to the epidural cart.  I did laps around the hospital.  Fifteen laps equalled a mile so I would do two miles every day...or 30 laps.

I did it mostly to feel empowered by my experience.  I wanted to feel in control and occupy my mind.  The worst part about my cancer has been the stints of time away from my kids.  I can take anything, but I hate being away from my kids.  My husband is so supportive and we have always worked with family to make sure the process of taking care of the kids is streamlined from their perspective.  However, it was still hard...so I walked and walked and walked.

My training helped me heal and get out of that place after a week, instead of two!  Getting back on the bike was hard, but I did it.  The first ride was five miles.  That was all I could do...before the surgery, I was riding about 30 miles a ride.  I am attaching a short story I submitted for consideration at a magazine.  It is called Someone Else's Disease.  It is about the ride.  I am not going to send it anywhere else for publication...though excerpts may be included in my book.  I just want to share it with you.

I will be published this year, but not on this story.  I will write more about that later because it was a story revealing how my children have dealt with my cancer.  The emotional journey is just as critical as the physical healing that takes place.  Feeling the pain is an important part of letting go of the pain.

Blessings,

Lolo