All my life I have been some type of athlete… I was fortunate to play on three State Championship Teams — two in golf and one in basketball. I then attended Indiana University and played basketball for two years and golf for four years. We were NIT Runner Ups in Basketball and we won three Big Ten Ten Golf Championships including an 8th place NCAA finish in 1993. 
Now I’m in my mid 40’s and playing against my biggest competitor — Stage 4 Cancer. It is a constant mental game. I am very thankful for my athletic background as it allows me to have an attitude to compete against this disease. It is definitely the toughest competition that I have ever encountered. I rely on my sports background to provide me with an “attitude” to conquer this major setback.
This past Summer I had surgery to remove my largest tumor from my right bicep area. The cancer had spread to my bones and attached to my upper right arm. I had surgery, but they could not get all of the tumor; thus, they did radiation on the arm which weakened the bone.
Shortly after the surgery, I was making a simple trip to the bathroom while on a vacation in Napa Valley. While I was walking back, my foot caught a bench at the end of the bed and I fell forward. I put both arms out to catch myself. Up to this point, I had never broken a bone in my life… That was about to change. The minute I fell I knew that I had broken this very weak bone.
I’m laying there at 3:30 am thinking, “Courtney, you just picked a heck of a time and a heck of a place to break your first bone.” The ambulance comes with about four firemen and they strap me to a board so they can carry me down a steep hill and take me to the hospital. This is all in the middle of the night. I arrive at this strange hospital and the Doctor comes in to take X-rays. Her white outfit says Northwestern University.
Being from the Big 10, I immediately ask her if she went to Northwestern, and I am so relieved that I have a “good Doctor”. She tells me that I have a spiral break and that they want to “set it”, but send me back to Indiana to have my surgery. They give me drugs to numb the pain. For some reason, my stomach is horribly weak. I puke on the car ride home. My assistant arranges for a flight straight home — San Francisco is a long ways from Indianapolis when you are not healthy. I have her purchase me a First Class Ticket because my arm is in a cast and my stomach is very upset…
It was so upset that once the plane takes off I start puking (in First Class). It was a horrible experience and the people around me were less than pleased. I caught most of it with a cup — after I dumped my Sprite underneath my seat. The woman behind me informed me that I puked in her purse — it was only Sprite… I was so sick that I did not care… I just wanted to be home!! Over the years, I have been on a lot of airline flights; however, this was the longest, worst, and most memorable!! I tried to put a blanket over myself because we were in tight quarters and I smelled like a sick person… I prayed that I did not know anyone on the plane
My Cancer Doctor had already arranged for me to have surgery the next morning. Little did I know, this was just the beginning of a very difficult journey… Stay tuned for part 2 of this story in next week’s edition.