Wednesday, October 12, 2011

First Counting Coup experience!

 From: Cheryl M. Parrish [mailto:cheryl@Parrishreporting.com]
Sent: Sunday, October 02, 2011 8:12 PM
To: countingcoup@warriorssociety.org
Cc: Lou Kobin
Subject: Please will somebody give this five minutes to read?
Importance: High


My name is Cheryl.  I know it’s a long shot, and I don’t mean to waste anybody’s time and you may get a lot of letters.  But please, if you would, at least read this letter, for me, please.

My birthday is April 7, 1958.  Yes, I will be 54 on The Counting Coup race day.  I started my love for mountain biking very late in my life:  mid-forties, after a long battle for my life.  Mountain biking, in my opinion, saved my life and opened my life.

I was diagnosed with breast cancer in 1989 when I was 30 and lost both breasts, followed by six months of aggressive chemotherapy.  Seven years later, at 37, I was in for a regular check-up, and the lab tests came up showing elevated protein.  They thought it was an error, but after a bone marrow biopsy, I was told that 98 percent of my plasma cells were cancerous and that I had approximately six months to live, to get my affairs in order, that I had a rare bone-marrow cancer called MULTIPLE MYELOMA.   I was hospitalized the next day, and, ultimately, I lost everything.  From 1995 to 1998, I was on high-dose chemotherapy, followed by TWO bone marrow transplants which were back to back.   My life was over, certainly as I knew it.  I had worked hard for six years to finish court reporting school and graduated and started my own company while being a single mother of one beautiful daughter, Danielle.   My little girl was only five the first time my hair fell out.  All she (we) knew was her mommy was going to die.  Since that time, I have lost way too many close friends to some form of cancer.  I had no medical insurance and I fought and struggled for everything I could get for help.  Several doctors in Newport Beach teamed together and treated me for free, even getting the chemo donated to me by the drug companies for the breast cancer.   There was Dr. Burns, Dr. Barth, Dr. Long, Dr. Heinrichs –- all of whom took care of me on their own dime.  Dr. Vandermolen was amazing! They saved my life.  I worked with a friend, Dani, also a young breast cancer survivor, in starting a cancer support called The Walking Fish Society for young adults with cancer, ages 18 to 40.   Why? Because people think fish don’t walk and they think we don’t live. 

No doctor is sure why I am alive today, nor am I.   My oncologist says I am in the 3% survivorship of my diagnosis.  The other 97% died.  I had five years of interferon three times a week, and 13 years of monthly IV Zometa which doctors are now discovering can cause spontaneous femur fractures (and it did).

After ordering my new Turner Flux for Sea Otter 2009, my left leg started hurting right at the femur.  Several doctors and many tests later, they just could not find out what was wrong.  After a an MRI they said the multiple myeloma was back.  Surgery was ordered, but right before, like 45 minutes, the radiologist came in and said they changed their mind!!! It was a mistake?!   They said I may have a stress fracture caused by some trauma and there was nothing they could do. (I know the trauma was from a mountain bike crash) -- Zometa is a drug that won’t allow your bones to heal after trauma.  I have been off that drug since March of 2009.  However --- 

In June of 2009, I was visiting a friend out of town in Seal Beach.  Someone knocked at the door.  I answered the door, and my dog ran out around the guy.  This man at the door was really intoxicated and would not move out of my way.  As I stepped “around” him, I felt something strange, and my body just froze in the doorway.  Then I could hear it.  I said, “Oh my God, I think my leg is breaking” 
And it did.  My femur snapped in half.  Screaming for him to call 911 and get my dog.  15 hours in the ER at Hoag Hospital and several months of recovery, nursing home, and painful therapy, and the titanium rod on my leg, I got back on my bike!  The doctors said I would never mountain bike again!  I ‘may be’ able to road or bike path??

A friend of mine, Colette, said she was going to ride Vision Quest in my honor when the doctors said the cancer had returned.  She is one of my true heroes!

Today, my goal and dream is to ride and finish Counting Coup on my birthday on April 7, 2012.  I had my plan to be right on the keyboard at 8:00 last night to register for the ride.   Only yesterday, while riding my new Epic 29er down backbone, I had a spill – big gash in my leg that I knew would require stitches.   By the time I got down the mountain, about 8 miles, and waited hours in the ER to get stitches in my leg, I was home after 8:00 p.m.   I missed the registration.  

I am begging you, if there is any way you might make an exception?  I had already contacted a coach to train me, and more than anything, I would like the opportunity to do something I never dreamed I would be able to do and that is Counting Coup -- not just for me, but for so many others with terminal cancer, who have lived, or not lived.  My website bio has more of my life and mountain biking and how much it means to me.   I can provide you the paperwork St. John’s Hospital showing that’s where I was, and why I missed registration.  And if you cannot make exceptions, I understand.  There is always the next year.  But in case you cannot tell, I don’t give up easily, so I thought this was worth a try. 
Thank you for your time.

*************************************************
Cheryl M. Parrish, CA, WA, ID CSR
PARRISH REPORTING
The Water Garden - 2425 Olympic Blvd. Suite 155E | Santa Monica, CA 90404
P: 310.315.3000 | F: 310.315.3067
cheryl@parrishreporting.comwww.parrishreporting.com
Proud Member – Women’s Business Enterprise National Council


No comments:

Post a Comment

Note: Only a member of this blog may post a comment.