An Odyssey ... of a sort - Part 6 of 6 by KimB

Over the year, I've learned a lot about myself and my health. I've lost a great deal of weight. My health has stabilized, my lab tests are good. My illnesses will never go away. I will have them until I die. I have pain too. My aches are a permanent feature of my life. I will never be 100% pain free but I can be free of some pain. I can now chose which sort of life I want to have over the next few years.

I cannot predict how the FAT war will end up. FAT is a very clever opponent and will work hard to upend all the things I have achieved. I've lost 40 pounds this year – little by little, month by month. My balance is improved and I can now keep up with much of the Zumba class. I can stretch quite a bit in Yoga too and every week I can to a little bit more. I am able to bike for the whole hour and each week I push up that gear a bit further.

There is reality to keep in mind. I'm not ever going to be 20 or 40 again. I won't be able to do so many things that were easy years ago and are now hard. They will remain hard and get harder. My health is stable but it won't stay that way. The nature of illnesses is that they progress over time. Mine are the same; delayed but not halted.

I am determined to make the effort to keep it this way as long as possible.

A few months ago my good friend told me she'd bought a new bike to ride at her ranch. Several times a day, she has to go down some dirt paths to open gates and turn on/off water values and such. She had bought herself a new bike and told me all about the way it worked. It had gears and brakes and adjustable everything.

I asked her to bring it on a visit because I wanted to find out if I could ride a real bike. I didn't know if I would be able to balance well enough to keep upright and there's a big difference in pushing pedals on a stationary bike and moving a real bike with tires and 200 pounds on it down the street.

She brought her new bike and her old bike. She helped me adjust the new bike so I could ride it. I got on and with a bit of wobble I rode down the street. It IS like the adage says: you never forget how to ride a bike. I wobbled about but we went on a short ride to a nearby park and back. I was SO excited. I never, ever thought I would be able to ride a real bike and here I was actually riding one!

I thought and figured and thought about this experience. I looked at it a hundred ways. I had fun. I wanted to do it again. I knew I could do it too.

So, I bought a bike. Not a great bike but an OK bike. I didn't really know much about bikes, my last bike was 45 years ago. I got something that worked for me. I went to the bike store and got the stuff I needed: helmet, head lights/tail lights and a bell.

The bell was a gift from MrsB, my mom, and it's my PRIDE AND JOY. I bike off the street on the local bike paths and I ring my bell whenever I meet up with hikers, dog walkers and distracted joggers listening to their iPods running along the path. They smile and give me a thumbs-up. I say good morning to everyone I meet and they reply in kind.

When my friend comes to visit, she now brings her bike too. I show her my latest trail finds and take her down the new paths. We have gone to the Big Park in the city and biked there too. We bike to the bird sanctuary and check out the wild birds as they stop on their migration routes. We are both having fun.

We have a goal for next year. We plan to bike around the valley floor at Yosemite Valley. There are loads of bike trails and we have maps and points of interest already picked out.

I've shared my plans with my gym instructors and it makes their day, to see someone like me, come in to their class and improve their health so much. My bike instructor has declared she will make sure I am READY TO RIDE in the spring time. She reminds me that a mile is a mile no matter how long it takes to bike it. It's not the speed that matters, it's the effort.

Effort is Everything.

[Editor's note: This story was written by KimB and is part 6 of a 6 part series.]