Still NED as we welcome in 2024

Still “no evidence of disease” — a good good thing.

Lamenting the lack of snow in Minnesota (and not just in Minnesota). Longing to ski….

Here’s a recent pic of holidandy!

Fall 2022 — still NED — that’s good

Still “no evidence of disease” — a good good thing. Lots has happened since my last post. Here’s something wonderful. Introducing Dandelion — the bestestest puppy ever.

FUCK CANCER

I had these made.  All weather stickers…  Want one?  Direct message me….

Eight years ago today

EIGHT years ago today — I was sitting in my office when my phone rang….

BLAH — fuck cancer.

It’s been a challenging summer with respect to work and family. We lost my father in law this summer, for example…

BUT — my health is GOOD!
I continue to be NED! No evidence of disease.

I’ve had fun riding bikes — haven’t managed a single race this summer…. but
C.R.O.S.S. I.S. C.O.M.I.N.G.

Rode to Iowa for a conference — lots of gravel and heat…. Here’s a photo of my tan line for your viewing pleasure…..

Seven years ago yesterday….

Seven years ago, I received the news that I had breast cancer.  This spring, I had a biopsy result that was SCARY…  I had surgery in early July, and I received the news that all the bumpy things were BENIGN!!!!

After a few weeks of recovery and active recovery, I’ve received the all clear to increase my training volume and intensity.

Now – it’s on to prepping for the cyclocross season!

#crossiscoming

Time to get dirty….  #peacockgroove #northernrosebicycles #foxymoxyracing

Time to climb stairs….  lots and lots of stairs.

CANCER SCARE — NO CANCER CONFIRMED!

For athletes facing robotic hysterectomy – I feel like the recommendations they give don’t actually apply to us so well.  So – I thought I’d document some of my post-op experiences…. Someone else who’s done an amazing job of sharing her experiences as an elite athlete AND cancer patient is JEN HANKS (athletefightscancer) – check out her blog at http://athletefightscancer.blogspot.com.  In fact, her blog was super helpful for me in terms of figuring out what I might expect after this surgery…. And she’s a fantastic writer, to boot!

Name of the game – active recovery and eating right…  Anyone who knows me knows that I suck at recovery… so I’ve had to work pretty hard to keep my efforts light and my rest high quality.

Active recovery – minimize losses while maximizing healing.
Eating right – avoid weight gain while maximizing healing.

Post-op weekend number two. I wanted to try out riding one of my own bikes, so my buddy Josh and I got together… and you know what? I felt pretty good on my cross bike.  We had a jolly ride… enjoyed great conversation…. And fantastic weather.    I had zero desire to ride hard – just wanted to enjoy the weather, company, and movement.  SUCCESS!

On Sunday – I thought that since my cross bike felt just fine, my road bike should be just fine. Uhm – no.  Just not right. Didn’t feel good at all – the bike didn’t even feel like my bike.  It was a short ride with my buddy Zak…. Which was awesome, but the feeling on the bike was pretty much awful. I think Jen Hanks had a similar experience with how her road bike felt soon after her surgery….

Week two at work – all good. I rode my cross bike to and from work… and that was a relief! Commuting by bike is absolutely the most efficient way for me to get around…  After taking the bus during the previous week (commute time was tripled), I was DELIGHTED to make my way to/from work by bike again.  I had a full work week, and that was good.  Two of my five little incisions were annoying –itchy and sore…. Those two incisions had a wee bit of suture poking out – nothing alarming – definitely annoying. But really – I have nothing to complain about.

Post-op weekend number three.  My buddy John, who I met at our cancer clinic back in 2011, and I went for an moderate ride with a couple of other guys… I rode my road bike, and it felt like my bike again… It was super fun….  And I wanted to GO!!!! I did not… it was a good social ride, and a great time was had by all.  On Sunday, I joined a social ride up to the Coon Rapids Dam, and that was also fantastic…. Again – I wanted to GO!!!!! But I held back.

On the following Monday, I got to read the detailed pathology report – lots of words with lots of letters and syllables.  Take home messages – lots of bumps – no cancer detected. Woot woot!

On Wednesday, I had my post op appointment. Doc came into the room; Doc uses hand sanitizer and then shakes my hand. Doc asks how much riding have you been doing? Ha! Guess who had my number? Summary? I’m healing well, I have two little sutures that are essentially growing out, and all my bumpy things were benign… He said – I don’t need to see you again.  That is music when it comes from an oncologist!

I left the doc appointment FLYING! I had read the report, so I knew that everything was benign… but for some reason, when the doc said those words outloud and pronounced that I was healing well and that I could, within reason, start ramping back towards my normal training schedule….  It was just this huge release of tension.

For the next two or three hours, I was just amped…. Excited and happy feelings bubbling within me…. And then I had lunch… and then – BAM – I was SPENT. I had nothing in my tank.  I wanted nothing more than to lay down and nap for a few days.  I tried to get some work done, but as soon as my early afternoon meeting was over, I actually laid down on my hard office floor and had me a 17 minute power nap.  That was a game changer on the day… but honestly – I never did regain focus…. I was numb…. All the tension from the past few months had melted away, and nothing was really holding me together any more.

My sweetie texted me that she was hanging out having a beer over by Minnehaha falls (Beautiful falls, beautiful sweetie), and so I hoped on my bike and joined her.  It’s odd how shell shocked I felt as the FACT that I did NOT have a new cancer diagnosis really sank in.  We had a peaceful few hours just digesting that outcome.

And… I was a bit hung over the next day….

Photograph of a rainbow on Friday, the 20th of July. I was riding home (using a NiceRide bike) via the Greenway from bike races in downtown Minneapolis. It was a bitter sweet experience. It was super fun to see friends spectating and racing, it was marvelous seeing a few racing their first ever bike races, it was exciting to watch the fixed crits, but it was a bummer to not toe the start line myself…. It’ll be a few more weeks before I would feel safe in a bike race. The doc said that I must avoid situations in which I might crash — my guts are apparently a little fragile yet…. He did acknowledge that a car crash would be similarly problematic — probably more so!

CANCER SCARE!!!! Spoiler — no evidence of cancer

ONE – TWO-SIX-TEN-ELEVEN-Twelve holes – no new cancer!

A fallout of chemo was total shutdown of my ovaries. Because I had triple negative breast cancer, I was a candidate for hormone replacement therapy, which I did.

I had a uterus.

When one has irregular bleeding while on HRT, one must get checked out.

I got checked out.

I ended up with a biopsy result of atypical endometrial hyperplasia.

Pre-cancer.

43% of patients receive a cancer diagnosis upon pathology of the surgically removed uterus.

SCARED.

My odds of getting cancer the first time around were darn low…. So I really didn’t like these odds.

On Monday, I had my appointment with the surgical oncologist – Dr Winterhoff.

He was great.

I told him I was terrified.

He told me I shouldn’t be.

The risk of a serious cancer diagnosis was low, he said, although you do have that history of triple negative breast cancer, he said…. I didn’t like the although…

One of the problems with being a scientist is that I can read the scientific literature and digest it, and I already had (of course).  I had a bit over two weeks between receiving the news about the biopsy and the appointment – plenty of time to read up on all kinds of stuff.

So – going in, I new that I had a scary sounding risk of diagnosis of a rather not-so-scary stage 1 cancer and a rather small (ca 3%) risk of diagnosis with a scary cancer. Leaving me with a little better than 50/50 odds of a NO CANCER diagnosis.

Given my history, I was not optimistic.

Monday – I spent a long time at the clinic –  WHY you ask? I said – if you could get me in tomorrow for this surgery – I would be there….  Dr. W pulls up his schedule and says – Thursday – as long as I can get the robot.

He got the robot.

Hole # 1 – failed bloodwork.

Hole # 2 – successful bloodwork, but the phlebotomist was not gentle and drove the needle through the back side of my vein — ten days later, my arm was still sore….

PS – I have big firm veins.

I managed to get all pre-op work done, including consent forms, Monday.

This means – nothing medical until 11a on Thursday.

Those of us with a history of facing cancer know how nice that is!

Tuesday – rode bikes in rain several times.

Wednesday – rode bikes in rain… and then later in swim shorts with hundreds of other people (freedom from pants ride 2018).

Thursday – rode bikes with friends in great weather and then reported to the hospital at 11a.

Hole #3 – shot to numb hand vein

Hole #4 – hand IV

Hole #5 – heparin injection into my belly – that felt kind of like a bee sting, in the end…

I asked about the happy relaxing drugs – I had to wait until I saw all the members of the care team…. They were running a little behind… I was nervous as fuck.  Cheryl was hilarious – making all kinds of faces and noises and cracking some strange jokes…. And by strange – that’s really code for not funny… but they did make me laugh….

I was scared. Terrified.

FINALLY – the last person I needed to see appeared – the nurse anesthetist. She gave me a dose of the happy relaxing drug, which took that scary edge off.  Cheryl gives me some kisses… and they wheel me out.

I got to see the two million dollar robot the surgeon would operate to operate….  Thing is quite large but not as large as a 300 kV electron microscope….

Then – the anesthesiologist held up a mask and said something like oxygen blah blah blah…. And next thing I know, I’m in recovery….  It’s late – like 7p!  Cheryl comes back after I’m awake for a bit… and shares with me the news – no cancer detected during surgery.  BUT (there’s always one) they did find extensive endometriosis (BOO).

Hole inventory continued:

Hole #6 – forarm IV

Holes #7-12 – entry points for gas and robotic apendages

NO CANCER DETECTED

N O C A N C E R

N O F U C K I N G C A N C E R

I don’t really cry much…. But I cried. So did Cheryl… but I didn’t see it cuz I was still out cold at the time.

Don’t get me wrong – endo sucks, but cancer sucks more.

Next up – do I stay over night or try to go home.  It was totally up to me, according to the care team, the surgeon, and most importantly Cheryl. If she had felt like I should stay overnight, I would have.

I wanted to go home.

I had to pee to get to go home.

I had a lot of ice chips…. And some more ice chips….  And took an oxycodone by mouth…. And had some more ice chips …  and – success – I peed a little bit. Apparently, required volume of pee is astonishingly low.  The question was – did you pee.  I could honestly answer yes….  does it matter how much I asked? No, answered the nurse.

We got home at 1030p ish? Something like that.  And I remember getting kind of motion nausea from the way the attendant drove the big huge wheelchair…. Waiting for our car because none of the valets could manage a stick shift…  being in the car and Cheryl apologizing for a variety of car related things ( I thought she was driving just fine, but who was I to judge?)… walking into the house… seeing Tre… touching his shoulder…  and then laying on the bed and NOTHING until hours later – when I had to pee.

So – I got up to pee and OH HOLY BUCKETS THAT HURT SO MUCH!!!!!!  It was like a tiny amount of pee, and it hurt a shit ton!  SO PAINFUL.  Hmmm – back of my mind said to the front of my mind – did we make the right call going home?  YES – said the front of my mind….

Post-op day 1:  Goal – go for two walks.

The next few pees hurt a ton…. But by the afternoon of post-op day 1, it didn’t hurt anymore. It really kind of felt like the sensation when you have an unknown abrasion after say a long rainy gravel race and you step into a hot shower thinking it’s gonna feel so good – times fifteen or maybe 55…..

When you have the robotic laparoscopic style surgery – they fill your belly up with gas – carbon dioxide, in fact.  And they get most of that out after surgery…. But not all of it out. Turns out, you get funny shoulder pains as your body gets rid of the residual gas…and your guts gurgle and make other strange sounds when you roll over….  SO STRANGE.  Best thing – take a walk – makes it feel better….

I achieved my goal took two walks Friday.  One was with my buddies John and Jim (they are adorable).  We walked something like six blocks or so… it was good and slow. The second was meant to be with Cheryl, but we didn’t manage to communicate well and failed to accomplish the walk together. It was also about six blocks or so – slow…..

No oxycodone during the day – did take one at bedtime….

Still relishing in the news that no cancer was detected….

So – to recap.

1 – I had surgery because I might have cancer.

2 – during surgery, no evidence for cancer was detected!!!!!

3 – recovery got off to a good start!

4 – I do actually like walking around the neighborhood with friends… but I like bikes more.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Fuck cancer

Too many of my friends are facing cancer…. so I had these made. Get at me if you’d like one.

Made by NoCoast graphics — located right here in the twin cities.

Five years ago today….

Hello world – five years ago I received the news that there was no evidence of cancer remaining in my body.  WHOA!  Time crawls and flies by simultaneously….

So busy with LIFE!

Hello world — Nothing new to report, which, in the world of cancer, is usually good news.  I’ve starting racing at the National Sports Center Velodrome, which is amazing.

A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.

And I even won a state championship race (points race)!  Holy smokes!

Tre just started high school, and when I’ve asked him how his school days have been, he has a one word response…. Good. He’s playing soccer on the high school team, and that’s pretty exciting.

And here’s a photo of me riding on the track for your viewing enjoyment.

I hope everyone has a great day.

And – on behalf of my cancer friends and family everywhere…. FUCK CANCER. Because cancer sucks.  So…. FUCK CANCER.

Tempo race with 2 and 1 points awarded for first and second across the line for every lap….  and the first race I won track racing.  YAY!  The bike was fabricated by the fantastic Erik Noren of Peacock Groove (https://www.facebook.com/PeacockGroove/).