The bullet points....
Exactly one year ago today. July 11, 2018. I was lying on the surgery table in a hospital in San Francisco. The surgeon was removing a 2 inch tumor that was found in my colon, he also had to remove 1/3 of my large intestine and half of my rectum. I was inches from needing to walk around with a poop bag for the rest of my life. I am now one year post tumor. I am one year cancer free. I was lucky, mine was caught in time. Pre-cancer screening saves lives. It saved my life.
I've had a major shift in my life since then. I had to defer my Ironman WI for Sept fo 18. I was supposed to do it this year in Sept. 2019. But chronic nerve pain from the surgery had prevented me from doing that pretty clearly when I began my training in Janurary and could barely tolerate 30 min of running or swimming with out severe nerve pain that knocked me out for two days. Biking was done after five minutes, with an immediate walk to the med cabinet to take a Oxy, because the pain went from 3 to 10 in under five minutes on the bike.
I bailed on my 5k I signed up for in March, because the thought of three miles, even walking sounded horrible. I cried some as I watched the Ave of the Giants 1/2 marathon come and go. My last race before my I got life changing news.
I've accepted that my Ironman is out this year, again. I have high hopes that it will happen, but I can only do what my body will let me. I accept that, sort of. I have high goals of doing IMMT again in 2020 with IM NZ on my birthday in March of 2021. I've always wanted do a IM on my birthday.
I've been in physical therapy since April. I found a wonderful pelvic floor PT named Anina, down in Santa Rosa, who has been working with me to calm down the nerve pain and doing a lot of manual work for some scar adhesions. It's been a long slow process. But it's coming along. I've been diligent with my PT exercises for 3 1/2 months now...
I'm back up to interval run/walk of 5 miles.
I've been able to ride my mtn bike up right for 11.5 miles.
I have been able to ride my triathlon bike for 15 min in aero.
I've haven't tried swimming, yet.
My newest addiction (and calming of nerve pain) is the Yoga Trapeze. Inversions on the trapeze have helped me so much for pain relief, that I'm currently taking a two week online instructor course, that will allow me to teach it to others after I pass my exams.
Today is my one year anniversary. I'm not where I want to be, but I'm a long way from where I was.
ALSO...if you got this far, and you live back in MI near my parents. Please....don't mention this to them. While they know about it, it's still upsetting and I'd like to not do that to them. Please don't hesitant to ask me any questions.
