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Hi Everyone,
 It's been awhile since I've written but I did something today that I think is worth writing about.
Carolyn, da boys and I have been at Lake Tahoe for the past couple of weeks to kickoff the start of our summer vacation. Two weeks ago Sunday, Carolyn rode her bicycle along with 1500 of her closest Team in Training teammates to help raise $7,000,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society, WOW! Thank you all who donated to our favorite charity and for your continued support of all who benefit from this wonderful organization, including me. We will not stop this fightuntil we find a cure.
For many years, one of the things I've always enjoyed doing up here at the Lake is ride my bike. Every year I would look forward to test myself to see what kind of shape I'm in by riding from our house at lake level (el. 6200') to the summit of Mount Rose (el. 8900') on the way to Reno, a climb of 10 miles, nothing but up. If you've driven this road, you know what I mean.
At the start of summer 2006, I was barely able to make it up our driveway. I thought, "What the heck is going on? Must be getting old, must be the altitude." What I didn't realize at the time was that this was the start of a rapid downward spiral. As you know, a month later I was diagnosed with Leukemia which eventually led to a Bone Marrow Transplant in January of 2007.
The road to recovery after a Bone Marrow Transplant is not an easy one after having foreign cells implanted in your body. There is a lot of in-fighting going on inside in determining which soldier cells are going to win the battle. We can only hope that over time, the good soldiers will prevail. There has been a lot of fighting going on in there since my transplant. Recovery has been challenging with many bumps in the road to overcome. As each bump appears, my good doctor, Dr. Sayre and I deal with it the best we can and move on. Each time hopeful that the next bump is flatter than the last one and that one day there will be no more.
Today, perhaps a sign that my road to recovery has gotten flatter...
I was able to ride up to Mount Rose for the first time in 5 years. It wasn't a fast ride but a determined ride. There were many times where I felt like I'd had enough and was ready to turn around and head back down the mountain. But I kept telling myself that I had to do this. It was my way of paying back all of you who have supported me through these difficult times and who have inspired me to never give up. There was no way I was going to let you down. So I pushed on and on till I reached the top. I did it!
I thought back to my first ride after my first round of chemo. I had been in the hospital for a month and couldn't wait to ride my bike again. Carolyn, some good friends of ours and I went for what was an agonizing 2 mile ride on the flats of Crissy Field. I think I've come a long way since then. I can only hope that today was the first of many more future climbs up Mount Rose.
LIVESTRONG, BE STRONG! Aloha, Myland
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Road to Recoveryposted Jun 23, 2010 11:21 AM by Lisa Dunn for the Cure |
