Climb Every Mountain

Isn't that title hokey?

We stayed in Copper Mountain, Colorado, which is between Breckenridge and Vail.

I can promise you, my personality is not matched to Vail, where some paintings cost more than my house.

I think there's a danger to too much money, folks.

Give me a picnic basket, a notebook and a pencil, and I'll sit in the grass and write. That's my idea of time well spent, enriching my spirit. I'd much rather have a well-nurtured soul than a loaded bank account.

But I shall not go off on my money rant now.

No, instead, I will tell you about a miracle, and why you should believe in miracles and never say never.

When I was 26, doctors found a massive tumor in my leg (above my right knee), whose activity had atrophied the major quad muscle group running from the right side of my knee to the right side of my hip bone.

Needless to say, my muscles were uneven. I had lots of problems from this, including several injuries to my knee. This was a problem considering the fact that I lead a very active athletic lifestyle. At that time, that included a lot of running.

Doctors (three to be precise, plus two physical therapists and an athletic trainer) told me I'd never run again.

I won't go into the sordid details, but trust me when I tell you, I went through a lot. I did so much physical therapy that I tired out the physical therapist. And the athletic trainer. If this quad muscle group could be rehabilitated, I was rehabilitating it.

Only problem was, the doctors at the Cleveland Clinic wouldn't authorize for the tumor to be removed. Seriously.

No. Wanting to stick on the conservative side, they said they wanted me to go through rigorous athletic training to build up the quad muscle group with the tumor (benign of course) in its place.

Now, I'm not a doctor and Lord knows I'm not the medical type, but common sense tells me that a muscle with the weight of a grapefruit on it is not going to develop correctly.

And of course, over two years (YES, TWO YEARS), of therapy, it didn't.

So, we moved to Oklahoma. And I found a doctor who said, "That tumor is coming out."
And in June 2005, Dr. Stephen Connor removed it, God bless him, and he made insurance cover every single bit of that surgery.

Two months later, I hiked Mt. Rainier in Washington. Now, I'm not saying I hiked the entire mountain. Don't get me wrong. But I did a good bit.

Last year, after much more therapy, I ran the Oklahoma City Race for the Cure (5K) with a 12-minute mile (which is stunning for me, given the circumstances).

And folks, trust me when I tell you, I hiked Copper Mountain in Colorado with Dante and the brothers-in-law last week.

I love the DeRosa-Giancola family spirit. When the ski lift wasn't working (we originally were going to take the ski lift up and hike down), all of us said, "Heck with it. We'll walk up the mountain."

The base elevation at Copper Mountain is 9,700 feet. Its top elevation is 12,300.

Here is a photo of (L-R), Daren, Damian and Dante on Copper Mountain.

I love you guys. Thank you for always challenging me.