Multi ride weekend

Since today was a nice fall day, albeit a bit windy again, I opted to skip a couple of hours of couch time watching football to head out for my second bike ride of the weekend. I had some rare instances where I managed to squeeze in multiple rides on a weekend during treatment but it's funny how perspective changes during an official chemo vacation. The ride was awesome and in my mind seriously therapeutic.

I've had this thought many times before but while riding today it was right there at top of mind. I love my bike! I truly do. I feel like it literally keeps me alive physically and mentally. Thanks Jason, Chris, and everyone else at Halters Cycles.

Chemo vacation

It’s been a full month between blog posts and this time it’s not because of any lack of things to write about. I’ll try to squeeze it all in here somewhere and I think you’ll get the idea for why I haven’t been able to find time to write.

Treatment has continued with its non-eventful monotony through October and early November while my focus remained on the PET/CT scan that actually happened just this past week. Prior to the scan I did have chemo treatment #18 (FOLFIRI protocol) for 2011 and that was #41 since this started in January 2008. These numbers are starting to get quite impressive, huh? As many people are already aware the PET/CT results were about as good as it gets. The lesions that the scan showed back in August were undetectable this time around and that means that for the 4^th time I have achieved remission. I spoke with Dr. Richards twice on Thursday and while he said that he’d be OK with continuing through another treatment or two he also said that he’d be OK with a 3-month chemo vacation. It’s one of those decision points that he says has no wrong answer. As you may have expected I chose the chemo vacation and the next PET/CT that will come in early February 2012 will let us know if the vacation continues or if we return to treatment mode.

So I’m jumping right into some short-term goals that start with ratcheting up my exercise routine and hopefully dropping a few pounds in the process. As I’ve mentioned in prior posts the next formal cycling event is the Cycle for Survival spinning fundraiser for Memorial Sloan-Kettering Cancer Center. That will be in early February 2012 and you can donate by clicking here. But between now and then I hope to be as aggressive with my outdoor cycling as possible. I did get out for a 27-mile ride today with Dan Nies in glorious sunny but chilly and breezy weather. If all goes well we hope to be able to pull off our “Tour de Hot Chocolate” ride that will be a metric century (62 miles). So I have some training to do!

I have continued riding all along as has been my mode of operation. Back in October, on Columbus Day, I had the day off and was enjoying a ride on a beautiful weather day when I was christened with my first ever serious bike crash. I was riding solo and luckily the crash didn’t involve a car although I have no idea what caused me to go down. But before I knew it I was sliding down the road on my left side. I didn’t break anything but had some fairly significant road rash and put my helmet to the test when my head did make contact with the road. A couple of nice people stopped and helped me to my feet, straightened my handle bars, and offered to drive me home. I was 12 miles from home and since I didn’t break anything I opted for a slow ride home. I now have a new perspective for anyone that has had a crash on a motorcycle. I can’t imagine….