Tuesday, August 4, 2009

2 months later

I'm feeling so much better now, 2 months after my last chemo. The watering eyes, the numb fingers and toes and a few other bothersome side-effects are either gone or almost gone. If I over do it-not enough rest or too much activity the side-effects start 'knocking at my door'. I guess it is just another way for my body to tell me to ease off and take it easy.
A couple of weeks ago, John and I climbed from Whitney Portal to Lone Pine Lake. This is a 5 mile round trip, an elevation gain of around 1500 ft and we end up at 10,000 ft before descending to the Lake. For both me and John to make this trip
gave us a great feeling of accomplishment. John had a recent Angioplasty and I hadn't done any trail hiking in a year.
This last weekend we were invited along with our hiking group up to one of the member's cabins in the mountains. We were at 8500 ft among Aspen with mountain streams and waterfalls and towering mountains around us. It was a sublime weekend of fun hiking and eating. After being surrounded by up to 15 wonderful friends, it felt strangely empty to return home. I did indeed miss my hiking family.
I will post 3 photos: An Aspen glade, a summer sunset in Ridgecrest and the hiking group photo. Our group's designated main video and photo guy had to time the photo and then hop into the picture. Quite a few in the picture did over 10+ mile hikes up to over 11,000 ft several days in a row... others of us did more moderate hikes or some did lovely walks along the mountain stream nearby and the oldest in the group had just turned 86.