Happy Mother's Day

Me and Mom

I am fortunate to have the most amazing mother.  In my family we call her "the glue."  She brings us all together.  Every year I am more and more aware of the many reasons I have to appreciate her.  I could list them all here, but it would take forever...literally.

One of my first posts was about why I signed up for the Pineapple Man.  I was looking for a challenge, felt stuck in a rut, wanted to get in shape, etc.  These reasons are all true, but there are stories behind each.  My mom has always preached the importance of good diet and exercise to me, my brothers, and my dad.  In college she would always ask me if I was utilizing the nice gym on campus (I wasn't).  When I started working full time she'd always try to encourage me to start going to the gym or taking yoga classes again (again, I wasn't).  Sometimes it takes something to knock you in the side of the head with a brick before you'll change your habits.

Most people know that my mom was diagnosed with cancer a few years back.  This was a real eye opener for my family.  After all, mom is the healthiest person any of us know.  She has been an aerobics/yoga instructor since I was a little kid.  She is always eating right and exercising.  The cancer was serious and had spread from her lung to her brain but seemed to be localized to those areas.  The doctors were optimistic and wanted to treat the cancer aggressively.  To make a long story short, after a few surgeries, radiation, and chemo, they could no longer find any cancer cells in her body.  I was convinced that we'd witnessed a miracle.  My mom had been healed.  She was still on watch by the doctors going in for regular scans, but the cancer was no longer present.

Late last year mom was having neck and back pain.  She didn't tell us kids, but her and my dad suspected the cancer had returned.  After visiting with the doctor, we found out that the cancer was back.  This time in her bones.  As a family, we were much more prepared for what was to come, but that doesn't mean it was easy.  The cancer had cause severe bone degeneration in her neck and upper legs.  This required more surgeries.  I don't like the word hate.  It carries a lot of negativity with it so I try not to use it.  I could probably count on one hand how many times I've said "hate" in the last 3 years.  I have no trouble using the word "hate" when it comes to cancer.  I hate everything about it.

The surgery to my mom's upper legs left her in bed for a short time and with a walker for a while after that.  I know it is hard for her to not be able to be active.  I felt helpless.  I couldn't really do anything to help her from Melbourne.  I would visit on the weekends and try to help around the house, but it obviously wasn't doing anything to directly help her condition.  People deal with hardships in life in different ways.  I like to try and stay busy, but there really wasn't anything I could do to help.  That is when I started running.  I didn't run because I really wanted to.  I didn't run because it was fun.  I ran because I had two perfectly good legs and my mom couldn't even walk on her own.  I felt so guilty that I was wasting perfectly healthy legs.  In hindsight I admit this is maybe not the best way to deal with things, and my emotional state while running was not the best, but there wasn't really anything else I could do.  My brain had finally registered the message.  Exercise is important.  Sometimes there is nothing you can do to prevent disease, but you can greatly decrease your risk just by taking care of your body.  Improving my physical fitness has become a much higher priority.  If that switched hadn't flipped, I would have never registered for the Pineapple Man.

My mom is a champ and continues to improve every day.  She is back to teaching yoga and lifting weights at the gym.  She is still under treatment for the bone cancer, but is still more active than most women her age.  I could not be more proud of her.  Her lifetime of fitness, strong faith and family has carried her this far and will continue to see her through.

I love you, Momma!  Happy Mother's Day!