Detours Happen

It’s been some time since the last post, and much has happened in the interim. In May, I finished the Ironman World Championships in St. George. If you read previous posts, you know that Shanon and I had planned to race together. But Shanon wisely decided not to participate. Her body was not ready to tackle such a demanding event. I still raced to honor her and my dad, who died from cancer last year. Shanon she was there to cheer me on. She kissed me before I joined the age group queue and plunged into the cold waters of Sand Hollow Reservoir, and she kissed me again when I was two miles from the finish—a highlight. Then I stumbled to the line, completing the course in just under the 17-hour time limit (I’ll provide a race report in a later post). Shanon continues to heal and we are planning on another Ironman in the next 12-18 months.

In June, I caught Covid. It hit me hard. Fortunately, I was vaccinated and boosted. Even so, I was quite ill for a week and some of the symptoms persisted far longer, especially a cough brought on by the slightest exertion. And I didn’t recover my fitness until the end of the summer, nearly three months after I first tested positive.

Recently, Shanon had her latest CT scan and blood test. The news was excellent. Dr. Lieu, her oncologist, says the odds of recurrence are extremely low. Such welcome news! The next test will be in six months and annually after that.

Now, we head into another winter. It’s already snowing in Leadville. I start work at Vail in the next two weeks.

Although this blog’s name is the Road Back to Health—because it honors Shanon’s daily struggles to recapture her strength and agency after four surgeries and months in the hospital— it could also simply be the Road to Health. Although Shanon’s struggles continue, they are less acute and now the journey is truly focused on health improvement—sometimes straight, often circuitous, but always onward. We all face our own health challenges. Every day we make a choice. We take actions that move us forward or back, toward health or not. We pursue healthy habits or avoid them. This is less a quotidian measure and more the trend we pursue over time. The path ahead is ours to choose. This blog will continue to be about that journey.