100% Back

Last spring, when I was getting geared up to to Ironman Coeur D;Alene with what I believed to be a goiter (later turned out to be thryoid cancer), Lance Armstrong was also gearing up for the Tour de France. Since I had been so sick all spring, and had been missing a lot of training worrying about what was growing in my neck, I just didn't feel like I was 100%. Only when I got the negative biopsy (which was ultimately false) in April, did I get psyhosomatically better, and felt back to my old self for a few weeks. To celebrate my negative biopsy and my return to feeling good, Becca and Elena got me a great Father's Day present: a Livestrong tee-shirt that says "100% BACK" on it. These shirts were printed as a celebration of Armstrong's return to cycling in great fitness at the age of 37, but for me it had a double meaning, as I myself was trying to get back to 100%.

I only wore that shirt once before the disaaster that was IMCDA. Then it sat neatly folded in my closet for the whirlwind of events to followed my return from Idaho. Since Father's Day, getting back to 100% has taken on new meaning. Well, this morning I finally put it on again. I can say that after 3 weeks of synthroid I feel 100% back to normal. This isn't to say that I am 100% as fit as I was in 2008, not even close. But as opposed to the months of July and August, I feel good again. My taste is all the way back, my radioactivity is wearing down (I still set a geiger counter wild though), and I have the energy to work out when the mood strikes me. Best part is, I can hug my wife and daughter now.