Lions, mountains, moose, oh my!

I bet you all thought I went and fell off a mountain didn't you? Or was eaten by a mountain lion? Perhaps fell in the river?

Nah, we're all good.

Sadly, my cancer survivor trip has been postponed until later this year. That was super disappointing BUT I still went up to the mountains for a nice family weekend instead. We did some hiking and we went up to the top of Rocky Mountain National Park.

So since the kids were in tow it wasn't exactly the meditative experience the retreat was supposed to be but it was still a blast.

I successfully completed my first Colorado mountain hike. Uphill baby! Physically I felt pretty winded at first. One thing my oncologist warned me about in the mountains was my low red blood cell count which as you may know helps the oxygen flow in your blood stream. Less red blood cells means less oxygen. Normally not a big deal until you're up in the mountains in high altitude with thinner oxygen. Luckily, didn't have any issues with that on the hike. Going uphill I was a bit wheezy but once it leveled out my lungs adjusted and I powered through.

Honestly, I probably handled it better than I would have when I was a smoker before any of this cancer crap happened. So there's that to consider. We didn't go super far in since we had the kids and there were recent mountain lion sightings in the area.

Yeah baby, mountain lions.

Fighting a mountain lion is one experience I hope to never have. Yes, fighting one. Because the advice is to fight back if you're attacked. Well cool. I'll get right on that. I did see a moose though! Like literally, right next to us in the dark. Moose are freaky creatures. You'd think they'd be all cute but I didn't like the way it was looking at us.

I love hiking now. That was seriously such an awesome experience. It was just wonderful to feel physically strong again. The doctors have told me exercise is key to bouncing back and I'm jumping on that bandwagon as soon as I can. I want to get my body back into shape and make it powerful. I want to be able to handle a five mile hike without being winded. I want to be strong enough to handle rafting d\own the Poudre river. I have a list of physical goals to complete now. The further you hike, the prettier the views are. What could be better motivation than that?

We also took a stroll up Trail Ridge road (give it a Google, WI folks) which has an elevation of up in the 12,000 range. We wandered around the top of Forest Canyon and that was awesome. We were so high up that trees don't even grow because there's so little oxygen. And that's when I started to feel the altitude a little bit. Felt pretty dizzy when we got back in the car. But who knows if that's just a normal response to altitude for someone who's not used to it or if it's because of the chemo.

Top of the World: Forest Canyon Overlook

That's the tricky thing these days. Not knowing what to blame on the chemo or what is a natural ache or issue.

So I didn't fight a mountain lion. But I did survive the mountain! My aching after-chemo legs carried my happy butt up that mountain and the more I hiked the better I felt. It was liberating to feel strength in my body again after months of feeling as weak as a kitten.

So if you all remember back in February I made the declaration that I would conquer the snowbank of cancer and win....

Which I illustrated very nicely by climbing a snowbank.

We never have a shortage of snowbanks during WI wintertime.

And I certainly conquered the cancer. But at the time I think I was drastically underestimating the battle I was about to face.

Looking back on things I think my positive attitude was astounding but I think so much of that was partly because I had no real clue the hell I was going to face. I don't say that now to dismiss my positive outlook but to further illustrate the way a cancer fight knocks you off your feet

Even if you manage to hang on by your toes.

So really the more I think about it, I didn't really conquer the snowbank of cancer. It was much more than a snowbank. The hospital stays, the pain, the fear, and the toll it took on my family was much more immense than one snowbank.

In reality I conquered a mountain.