Blog revival...

So, it's been a while? Well, I originally started this blog two years ago to keep up with my century training and cancer recovery. I knocked the century out without a problem and my scans continue to be clean. That's the nutshell update.

Why am I back? This year, Sara (my daughter) and Chris (her boyfriend) have signed up to do AMBBR with Team in Training. AMBBR is America's Most Beautiful Bike Ride. It's a 100-mile trek around Lake Tahoe on a bike. Yes, in one day. It's the most amazing bike ride I've ever done and I can't wait to do it again. So, I'm going to! I'm actually the TnT cycling coach for our area this season. I'll be blogging training updates and such.

It's been fun to go back to the beginning of this blog and read the progress I made last time. It's also been a good reminder of why I did the ride in the first place. Sarah was one of the people who commented on my first post. She was a dear frient and lost her battle with Hodgkin's a year ago today. Another friend, Jesse, who commented on my last post, lost his wife Shannon to this disease last year. This season, they'll be with me in my heart on my training rides. I'll be riding in memory of them and the other friends we've lost to Hodgkin's Lymphoma. I'll be riding in honor of my friends who are still dealing with this disease.

Speaking of still dealing with it... I remember someone saying to me a year or so ago, "I bet you're glad to be done with cancer." I smiled and agreed, but in my mind I thought, "I'm still not done with it." It seems to always be peering around the corner at me, especially around scan time. I don't linger on it like I used to, but it's still there. The scar from my port is still noticeable - it itches all the time, and it's right where Dawn lays her head when we're laying in bed at night talking. Every time I get a tickle in my throat, a little voice in the back of my head says, "could it be... "

Last night, though, I was shown the effect that it's had on my family. Katherine has had a cold for a couple of weeks. She even lost her voice. Last night, with a look of fear that I've never seen in her, she came into the living room holding the side of her neck and said, "I can feel a swollen lymph node!" Sure enough, there it was on the side of her neck. To anyone else in the world, that's a sign of infection and your body trying to fight it. It's what lymph nodes do and it's normal. But to the daughter of a Lymphoma survivor - it's a sign of cancer. I explained to her that Hodgkin's is not hereditary, that her swollen node is normal for what she's fighting off, etc. But there it was again, right in our faces. It's not over.

And so, again this year, I'll push my body and train hard, I'll face my hills and headwinds out there on the road alongside my daughter and her boyfriend, and we'll be raising money to try to put a stop to this nonsense.

I'm back - stay tuned for updates. :)