A Hike to Success!

Hello from what feels like a Wheaties champion!

So this week is a big week coming up for me. I’m going to do my best to keep it together and not bawl like a baby. :) In just four more days I will have my last chemo treatment. And hopefully my very last for the rest of my life! I simply can not believe how fast the past four and half months have gone by…but I will talk about that later.
Right now, I want to talk about how I went on a hike at Hocking Hills! (ok-I need to make a side note...when I say 'hike' that's my inner heart speaking, it's more like 'walk'-reality speaking) Yes, I said I was going to do it and I did (with a trial 'hike' first to see if I could really do it :). For some reason I really wanted to see if I could complete a hike while having cancer/treatment and I can cross that off my list of yes I can. Andrew, me, and his brother and sister in law all went to Hocking Hills and I completed a trail! Now, I may have been slow and at times annoying/complaining, but I did it! LOTS of kudos to Beth for having us start at the end of the trail first…we did a lot more downhill walking it seamed than uphill. When I was little, my favorite Bible verse was Philippians 4:13 "I can do all things through Christ who strengthens me." I think I liked it best because it was short :) However, those words came into play as I seemed to have said them over and over throughout that walk! See, I’m almost in tears again. You just have no idea how proud of myself I am. I had the courage to do this when cancer said no, don’t. I fought through pain to feel mentally successful and it’s just what I needed going into this last treatment…into life and work again. To feel like I am a successful person and that I can start something difficult and finish it. I can start chemotherapy and finish it successfully. I wanted to do this hike to prove to myself I CAN. Don’t get me wrong, I questioned it all the way until I saw the exit. Like Thomas Edison said "Many of life's failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up." But I didn’t give up. I didn’t give up. My momma taught me better than that!

Now because of this hike, I was like a zombie afterwards…in and out of sleep for a few hours and then I slept for thirteen hours straight! I think my body was just a tad bit tired and in recovery mode. But I didn’t care at the time. It felt so good to work my muscles and lungs again and work on the physical part of this Pursuit. I felt so blessed and so happy to be OVER my cold and that my lungs hung in there. I’m curious to see what the doctors say about them after treatment is all said and done. I had shortness of breath on my walk, but I was able to go at my pace so I kept it in check. But by the end, I was ready to just sit and watch the OSU game :) I really wonder if I will have full lung capacity like I had before all of this. Chemotherapy (mainly the Bleomycin drug) and radiation can cause fibrosis (scarring of the lungs) and a CT scan will check for scarring tissue. There really isn’t anything you can do for it besides a lung transplant if it is REALLY bad (I’m nowhere near that bad), I’m just curious to see if the CT scan shows anything. We’ll see! So in ending this, I just have three words… NEVER GIVE IN!

Hocking Hills Hike 2010

A glimpse of Heaven

Success!

The men in my life

Andrew and Tim Sometimes you just have to draw the line and say No. :) Cooper wouldn't budge.

One very tired couple.