Ask a Busy Woman: Back in the Saddle again...*

Friday 24 April 2015

Back in the Saddle again...*

On Saturday 9th May I am going to start the Acorn 100k Bike Ride. Not in the sense of firing a gun or similar combustion device nor indeed standing at the start wishing good luck to the assembled lycra-clad lads and lassies as they head off. No indeed, I'm going to pedal.

When I started this (I won't call it 'journey' - so X Factor, I always think) life-changing experience it was almost exactly a year ago. We were in Barcelona celebrating 30 years of marriage and we were having a fab time - walking, wine, tapas, sightseeing, wine, tapas, watching Rafa... more wine, tapas etc. In the shower on our last morning I found a lump and since then things have been ... well, different.

Anyway not to dwell on that stuff, as I write this morning I am waiting for the nice nursey to arrive to give me my ninth herceptin injection of eighteen (yes, half way there, folks) and she will stay with me for a couple of hours until she is confident I am not going to have a fit. I think I would have had one by now if I was going to but Health and Safety demands etc... The injection is the size of a comedy injection - yes really! Think very big syringe here! But apart from a bit of dead leg and usually an attractive purple bruise on my thigh (disappointment for those of you who imagined the injection elsewhere to add to the comedy) it's all ok.

The nice nursey always asks when she comes every three weeks carrying all her needle paraphernalia, oxygen etc whether I am taking any exercise as most patients at this point apparently think that walking the dog is demanding and start proper exercise at the end of the 18 needle-jabbing events. Hmm. In January I confirmed that I was walking the dog/dogs (depending on whether Milton, daughter's dog was in residence) twice daily. In February, I confirmed that I was now doing a little light gym work - why can I only lift 3k with my left arm? March, yes I am back on the tennis court but huffing and puffing like an old horse. Anyway it's now April and I am back on the bike! (Not sure what she'll have to say about this).

When I knew what treatment lay ahead last summer, I set out in my mind what things I wanted to be able to do during the process. First one was James and Georgina's wedding which coincided with the first day of proper hair fall-out. But I was there. Then I managed just one hour at the Acorn Million Pound Ball - or rather me and Freda, the wig. And the next thing is that I wanted to be able to start the Acorn 100k Bike Ride. And here we are, just two weeks away and I have done precisely 3 bike rides - might have done more up to this point but a) I fell off and b) tennis is soooo much more fun!

So given the events of the past twelve months, I do not expect to get much further than Easingwold (17 miles) but I'm going to try. If there is any form of wind or precipitation - rain, hail, snow, plague of locusts, frogs etc - I will not even start. However in the event that I do, if you would like to support me, anything I raise will be split equally between Acorn and the Sir Robert Ogden Macmillan Centre at Harrogate Hospital. This list of conditions is way too complicated for JustGiving so if you are happy to support me just message me/comment/email me words to the effect of 'I'm In'. Then I will get in touch with you afterwards if I have managed to cycle.

Thank you!