“Do you think you can do that for me?”

Me – “Yeah.”

“Really?”

Me – “Monday will be 50 degrees. I’ll ride ½ my route and then take two shots of the inhaler. Give it 5 minutes then ride the second half. I’ll call you when I’m done. If no difference and I feel good, I’m done. If there’s a difference, it’s Reactive Airway Disease and I’ll deal with it and we’ll monitor for a few more weeks or months.”

My doctor looks at me. “Your lungs sound good down deep. I have faith in you. How do I tell my other patients to keep motivated and keep pushing like you?”

Me – “Tony and Mandy.”

“I’m sorry. Who?”

“You ever hear of a band called Black Sabbath? Tony Iommi was supposed to go on tour with his first band when he was a kid. He went back to work after lunch on his last day of a factory job and a metal sheer took his fingertips off his right hand. Of course, he is a left-handed guitarist, so his right hand did all the work. Had he done what anyone else would and just gone home early, he never would have been there to lose his fingers.

Then the accident.

 He lost the tour and his chance at stardom. He should have quit guitar playing. Instead, a friend brought him a record album of Django Reinhardt, the two fingered gypsy guitarist. He found inspiration instead of self-pity. Tony taught himself to play again with melted down bottle caps as thimbles on his badly destroyed and exposed bony fingers. He used lighter strings and retuned his guitar. He thought he was figuring out a way to keep doing what he loved. His new band was called Black Sabbath. What he did was create the sound we would later call heavy metal. He could have quit. He should have quit. He didn’t. “

“Mandy Harvey was a music student who lost her hearing in college. She should have blamed God, the world, and everything around her for stealing her dreams. Instead, she took her shoes off to feel the bass and drums through the floor. She used muscle memory and an electronic pitch tool to sing again even though she could no longer hear her own voice. Today she has a recording contract. She could have quit. She should have quit. She didn’t.”

“And you want to know if I will ride my bicycle 30 miles on a semi-cold winter day to do this test? I am facing NOTHING that others have not faced and conquered with more grace and skill than I EVER will. If that man can face the loss of his body parts and all the skills he had mastered, and then go on to define an entire genre of music; If that woman can have her dreams shattered by illness and lose one of her senses that’s vital to her skills and not only continue to write and play music, but obtain a record contract and achieve more than most of us – who possess all our senses – there is no way in hell that I can tell you I won’t pedal a bike and perform this test as soon as possible. My challenges are minor bumps in the road compared to what others have faced and surmounted. I’ll call you on Monday afternoon.”

“Tell your other patients – Tony and Mandy.”

I have been given a gift and I have learned, the only thing in my way is me.