I see this site as a way to share our intense passion for Everest and the Himilaya in general, and also as a way to connect with others who have gone through a difficult time in life. My husband and I have been married almost 13 years, and are best friends. We are just now getting over some traumatic health events that occurred about 4 years ago. We found out through a series of events that my husband had a very rare kind of spinal tumor. This tumor was actually inside the spinal column and crushing his spinal cord,very frightening.The tumor was benign and had to be removed via the spine, meaning that my husband was going to be missing 2 vertebrae and would require a spinal fusion. He was going to move out of being an active climber/hiker , to bed-rest and a slow recovery with no guess as to how his function would be afterward. We had surgery, made it through, recovered slowly and I just tried to give all the support I could, without freaking out. One year later we had gone for a check up MRI and a day later got another bizarre diagnosis. "We think you have a brain tumor", was all we heard on the answering machine. Cannot even explain the complete panic we felt. Another surgery, this time through the nasal passages and into the base of the brain. Another benign rare form of tumor. He still had to have radiation. Needless to say we are still devastated. You kind of deal while it is happening and than weeks later you fall apart. Only for me it took about 2 years to get to the point when I lost it.
We are really just getting back to "normal" and getting active outdoors again. Now we have a goal of going to trek to Everest BC eventually. We are starting out slow and working towards this goal. Hearing the stories of others who have done it after dealing with life altering events inspires us to go. Life can go on even when you are afraid of things happening again, you have to push on! I dream about the trek and constantly look at various web entries regarding other peoples treks/climbs!Thanks for giving us something to dream about.
Ann and Graham