One of my fellow riders on the cross country ride in June was an eminent surgeon from Connecticut and he took one look at the little "fatty tumor" I've had on my right leg for years and gave me a very convincing argument for having it checked out when I got back home. So, to make a long story a little shorter, I have now gone from a simple ultrasound to two MRIs and a full body PET scan. The bottom line is that they have found highly suspicious spots on my thyroid, my lung, and my lower colon...I have gone from feeling like I could do the Tour de France to feeling a little like a walking time bomb. The good news in all of this is that everything seems to be in very early stages and very curable. I have a surgery scheduled for tomorrow and the doctors are conferring today (they just confirmed the colon spot this morning) to see who gets first dibs on a body part. So while I am concerned I am not really frightened - and not incidentally Susan has been a huge support through all these disclosures over the last couple of weeks. I don't know how I would get through this without her.
I totalled up my mileage last night - I'm about 50 miles shy of 4,000 for the year. My original goal was 6,000. I do expect I will get to 5,000 - the bike is on the hooks waiting for me.
