Cycling Saved my Life
I would like to tell you a story about me. Hope that I can inspire anyone out there that has what they think as a problem that keeps them off the bike I call it "Cycling Saved my Life"
In 2007 I competed in a 'Come and try' track event at the 2007 Australasian Masters Games in Adelaide. We were able to use our road bikes but only go up to the blue line. What a buzz, I loved it. It was very cold in the velodrome (nearly as cold as Ballarat in September) so when I came off I was breathing hard and coughing - put my hand to my neck and found a lump. Thought that it was an engorged muscle as I had worked so hard and I was excited that I had just won 3 gold.
Told my doctor a few weeks later and after 2 biopsies was put into hospital to have half my thyroid out as the lump was attached to it. Post op visit to the specialist was told they found cancer cells in the thyroid and that the other half had to be removed. Got out of hospital 4 days before Christmas 2007. Had trouble talking and they said that that would improve. Wrong.
The nerve to the right vocal cord had been damaged which left me with a permanently paralyzed vocal cord. This in turn causes breathing difficulties when I am under stress like climbing hills and sprinting for the line. I sound like an asthmatic with emphysema. This causes my heart rate to rise dramatically so I have to back off.
I am no longer as competitive as I once was but I still compete in State and National road races. My aim now is to finish and enjoy the racing. I have to have 2 months off every year for treatment, but then it's back on the bike. I am an WMAS7 and the other ladies in my category are very supportive, especially when I have to have oxygen after a race. That's why I say cycling saved my life as I may never have found the lump until much later, maybe 'too late' later.
Hope my little story helps someone out there to keep at it. We all have injuries and bad days and 2 choices - feel sorry for ourselves or get out and DO IT. Guess what my choice is?
Thanks for giving me the space to tell my story. Lynne McGregor.
