Sometimes I know what I am going to write about several weeks before the column is due, and other times it’s a last minute brainstorm.

For this month, the germ of an idea had been rolling around in my brain for a while. Yet, as you will see, it took an unexpected turn at the last minute.

The subject is the importance of goals.

It has been proven through at least one fairly rigorous study ^[1] that positive thinking has no ultimate impact on a cancer patient’s prognosis. However, such thinking sure does help us get through the emotional toll of dealing with our disease and the treatments that we must undergo.

For many, including myself, one very concrete way to foster a positive attitude is to set goals. Doing so allows me to focus on something other than the negative of being ill.

Goals might be something as simple as walking around the block every day, or sleeping through the night. Or they might be something a bit more challenging.

If you know me – either through these columns or in “real life” – then you know that I have always been very active. So it was a drastic and discouraging change for me when, shortly after my first Zometa transfusion, I had severe side effects which caused so much pain in in my hip/pelvic area that I could barely walk. Coupled with the serious pain from a lesion on one of my ribs, I was virtually immobile.

But then I ran across the famous “Biking with multiple myeloma ^[2]” Beacon forum thread started by Ron Harvot. This was inspirational and motivated me to set the goal of getting back on my bike, which I did shortly after reading the thread.

My goal for that summer and fall was to get back to the point where I could do my normal length rides without discomfort. By the end of the fall, I was back to that level.

But looming on the horizon was an upcoming stem cell transplant, eventually scheduled for the end of January 2014. My doctor wanted to do it sooner, but I was opposed to doing it during the football season. So we scheduled it for the week after the NFL conference championship games so I would have two weeks to come around before the Super Bowl. This timing also would allow for full recovery by the time it started to warm up in March.

During my recovery from the transplant, I used goal-setting to speed along the process. At first, my goal was just to walk around my house for 10 minutes, three times a day. Frankly, it wasn’t fun, but having set the goal sort of forced me to follow through. After the first week, I set a new goal of riding my trainer just up to the point where I began to perspire. I had a central line in my chest, and I had been told that I should not get the dressing wet.

Once the central line was removed, I started riding the trainer in earnest with the goal being to be ready to ride outside once it got warm. It was painful. Apparently, the high-dose chemo administered at the start of the transplant process has an impact on the muscles of the legs. But once the warmth arrived in April, I was ready to go.

For the outdoor season, my goal was simply to have a full, healthy season and to exceed the mileage I had ridden in the disease-truncated year of 2013. The riding was difficult at first; I had soreness that I had not experienced before. But eventually it went away, and soon enough I was riding normally. I finished 2014 with more mileage than the year before – goal achieved! – but no more than I had recorded in an average year before my illness.

For 2015 I had bigger plans. I knew that I was going to retire (semi-retire as it turned out) in April, so I would have more time to ride. For the first time, I set a specific mileage goal: 10,000 miles. And understand, this is outdoor miles in the sometimes harsh climate of Pennsylvania.

The season got off to a slow start. Mid-January through much of March was not just cold, but the trails where I ride in cold weather iced over and stayed that way. Even a crazy person like me won’t ride on ice.

Eventually it warmed up, the retirement happened, and I was piling up the miles. I have three bikes, each with its own computer recording the miles. Usually, I don’t keep close track during the year, waiting until December 31^st to add the miles up. But this year, with such a specific goal, come September I started to take a peek.

On November 11, when I was ready to push off down the road, I knew that I only needed 36 miles to hit the goal. As I was riding, I kept an eye on the miles elapsed for that ride. When it hit 36, I looked heavenward and said a little prayer thanking the powers above for giving me the health and strength to reach my goal.

About 20 miles later, my plans for a post-ride celebration came to an end. While standing on the pedals climbing a hill, my right pedal axle snapped off, sending me crashing to the ground. It hurt – a lot!

The crash was so abrupt that the lenses popped out of my sunglasses even though the frame stayed on my face.

The result: many bruises, and two fractured ribs.

My original plan was to come home after the ride, make a sign with “10,000 miles” on it, take a picture, and post it on the Internet. After all, I had achieved a pretty aggressive goal.

Instead, I was getting x-rays, swallowing pain pills, and making sure that I kept my lungs clear by taking ten deep breaths each hour and forcing myself to cough despite the pain.

So goal achieved, thankfully, but I didn’t add to the total for almost five weeks. The ribs still hurt quite a bit, and I sure hope that the myeloma doesn’t interfere with the healing.

All I can do is shake my head: You can’t make this stuff up!

Goals are good because they help us focus on positive behavior and take our minds off what we are fighting. But I could do without the latest drama.