In June of 2022 I did a book review on Notes from the CEO (my internal blog for the ODL team). I read and discussed the book Who Moved My Cheese, a parable about dealing with change. Little did I know then that my Cheese would be moved big time in July. All it took was a fly.

Now, it was a big fly. And it bit me when I was riding my bike. While I did not fall, I did slam on the brakes to stop and arched as far back as I could to not go over the handlebars.  I pulled every muscle in my ribs from my sternum to my backbone. Despite this fantastic stop, the fly was still there, and it bit me one more time before I could shoo it away.

The picture below is of my social media post from July 7, 2022 following this now infamous incident with The Fly.

I went to the doctor, took a lot of Advil, and “rested” (I continued to bike, but gave up wood cutting for a few months). Doing this cut the discomfort in half. But in December I decided I was not old enough to have chronic pain, so I found a great physical therapist and my doctor scheduled a CT scan.

I had the scan the first week in January 2023.  The results a couple days later revealed a broken vertebra (T4 to be specific). It took a day, but then I wondered, “How does one break their own back without falling?” The good news is that you cannot. The bad news is that you cannot.  Another week of testing revealed that the break was actually caused by a tumor, and the tumor was caused by Multiple Myeloma.  In short, I have cancer.

So back to The Fly…

I’ve recently started to think about that fly a little more fondly than I did when I posted this image of my bike ride on July 7. Hopefully one day I’ll be telling the story of how The Fly saved my life. I’ll continue to share stories about my diagnosis, treatment and new adventures that lie ahead on this blog. I appreciate your support!

SHINE!