SECOND CHANCES

When I was actively a golfer, back in the day, the older couple with whom I regularly played always wanted to offer a “mulligan” on the tee box a few times a round, just to keep it fun. I never took one bc I am that competitive with myself. It’s mostly been that way in my real life as well, because I didn’t have the luxury of slowing down long enough to get a second chance at something, even if I had wanted.

Upon returning from Europe in 2017, my health took a quite unexpected turn. Slowly and distinctly, I became unable to walk any great distance, no more than to the mailbox and back. Walking through a megapolis like a supersized big box or even a few city blocks was no longer possible. When the plague hit the globe creating the advent of Instacart and Uber (I didn’t own a car for several years after returning to the States), a lot of my lacking was compensated for by those services but, getting to my flat required a trek up a staircase. Doing that once in a day would completely exhaust me and cause real throbbing, profanity-inducing pain in my legs. I spent those eighteen months mostly chair sitting. I chalked it up to old age and a failing heart. Genetics and outrageous cholesterol numbers made me to assume that my fate was sealed and to simply accept the inevitable.

That was, until this week.

In the last three months, I have established with a new PCP, new cardiologist, new allergist, and for shits and grins, even had an oncologist for a minute. I have been given tests and labs and scans I’ve never heard of. I have been prescribed new meds that are, apparently, working unbelievably well. After receiving the results of significant food allergy testing, I chose to become vegan to avoid those issues all together. In those 3 months, I’ve dropped 15 lbs., my “bad” cholesterol numbers have plummeted by 50%, my skin is youthful and downright pliable again, my hair stopped shedding like an Irish wolfhound, but the best news of all didn’t arrive until day before yesterday.

On Tuesday, I drove north to the National Wildlife Reserve in Ridgefield, Washington. I arrived just after sunrise and drove along the track to the Kiwa trail. I was at this place last October when my good friend, Beth Davidow, was here visiting. She walked the trail but I could only make it about fifteen meters from the parking lot to a bench, where I sat and waited. That was my limit. But, on Tuesday, I had my Nikon 850, with batt pack, and my Sigma 150-600mm lens, the total gear weighing just around seven pounds, on a Rapid strap around my neck. I headed off down the trail, completely unaware of what I was doing because I was distracted by a temperature of a perfect 60 degrees with a light breeze and so much active wildlife around hunting for breakfast that it left me excited from the interaction. I met a couple of older folks like me along the way and had short, enjoyable chats with them. The last lady I’d met informed me that she’d just seen a family of deer on the edge of the meadow across the bridge and could likely get some shots of them if I hurried along. I did, but they were nowhere in sight once I got there. Boo. But the sun was rising and filtering through the very gently swaying treetops. Nature’s colors were bright and it all just made me smile. It was at that moment that I became aware that I had hiked more than half a mile already. I realized that my legs were not in pain nor throbbing nor on fire, my lungs weren’t on the verge of collapse, my heart was still beating just fine and my feet weren’t being stung by hornets. “What is this miracle??” I thought to myself. It was just that, seemingly a miracle, something I had not experienced in two decades. Walking without pain for a fair distance felt like a big gift. At my age, it truly is. But, I walked all the way back to my car and still experienced no negative consequences!

I grinned as I drove through the remainder of the refuge, offering silent gratitude for being given this second chance for my body to repair and regenerate some semblance of normalcy again. I offered gratitude for the alignment I have been given with some really incredibly gifted physicians. I grinned all the way home. I’m still grinning. And so freaking grateful.

I recently purchased some new Keen hikers, so I think I’ll try climbing Mt. Hood next week and break ‘em in. Stay tuned! Woot!