ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, November 22, 1996 TAG: 9611220012
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-6 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: AUSTIN, TEXAS
SOURCE: SAMUEL ABT NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE
LANCE ARMSTRONG, battling cancer, cherishes every minute of every day.
As mornings go, this one seemed ordinary: fog masked the hills west of Austin, a light wind fluttered flags, the temperature promised another shirt-sleeves day.
About 7:30, rain began falling for half an hour and everybody said that was a good thing because there had been a bit of a drought in central Texas.
A commonplace morning for most people, but another wonderful, joyful morning for two-time Tour du Pont winner Lance Armstrong. He woke at 7 at his home on Lake Austin, went to the kitchen to prepare a pink grapefruit for breakfast, looked at the newspaper and then began celebrating another day of simply being alive.
``Every day I wake up, I feel great,'' he said later. ``I say `This is great' because six months from now, a year from now, five years from now, I may not be able to say that.''
Two months ago, Armstrong was competing and finishing high in arduous, 150-mile races in Europe. He had no symptoms at all. Then the 25-year-old bicycle-racing champion was told seven weeks ago that he has testicular cancer, and that it was also in his abdomen and lungs. Three weeks later, after the malignant testicle was removed, he learned that the cancer had spread to his brain, forcing surgery to take out two lesions.
``You can see where they did it,'' he said, lifting his blue Dallas Cowboys cap. He leaned forward to show the two stitched semicircles on the top left and the back of his head. Somewhat proudly, he also showed two tiny bumps on either side of his forehead, where screws held his head steady during the five-hour operation.
``I'm feeling fine,'' he said, ``a little bit of fatigue, which means I have to take a nap every day, about two hours. This week I feel like I felt two months ago. I really do. That's no lie.''
Armstrong is scheduled to leave Monday for a week at the Indiana University Medical Center in Indianapolis, where he will receive four hours of chemotherapy daily for his third week.
The treatment will be administered through a catheter that was surgically implanted in his left chest and that he wears full-time at home during the two weeks between each of four scheduled weeks of chemotherapy. Taped over his heart, the outside of the device resembles the tube that bicycle riders use to pump air into flat tires.
He has no interest in irony, though. He is concentrating on one thing only and that is survival. That is why another morning alive is a triumph.
``It used to be when I woke up every morning, I knew I was going to wake up,'' he said. ``It was so normal I took it for granted and now I never know. We're not promised anything. We're not promised tomorrow.
``We all expect to have long and fulfilling lives, but I suggest people not take that for granted. We don't always attack life, not do things to the fullest, and I suggest that people take advantage of life.''
He was sitting in the living room of his new, white Mediterranean-style villa, which he helped design. He shares it with his girlfriend, Lisa Shiels, a chemical engineering major at the University of Texas.
Circled by palm trees and clumps of flowers, the two-story house is airy and bright with high ceilings, vivid abstract paintings and stylish furniture that Armstrong chose with his decorator.
``This house, it represented a lot,'' he said. Earlier, he spoke while sitting outside, near his swimming pool and hot tub, with a view across Lake Austin. The view was splendid but the wind that moved the United States and Texas flags on his shorefront was too cold for him and he had to go inside.
Last June, a couple of months after he moved in, he said he was happier in his new house than he had expected to be. Now that he has cancer, his feelings are more mixed.
``The home,'' he said, ``I put a lot into it both in time and money and I really feel an attachment to this house because this was dirt before, this was level ground and we built it up, furnished it, did everything exactly the way I wanted it.
``When I started it, I must have been 22 and it showed that a 22-year-old can work hard, have success, financially do well and take on a big project like this and succeed.
``Now it means a lot less than it did before. Houses, cars, motorcycles, toys, money, fame - it takes on a whole new meaning when you have something like this.
``I do feel good,'' he said. ``I'm not as fit as I used to be, but then again for two months I haven't done much on the bike. I'm undergoing chemotherapy and I do have cancer, pulmonary lesions that are detrimental. But the lesions on the lungs are going away pretty rapidly.
``I'm really upbeat. I'm positive. I may be a little scared, I may be very scared, but I feel very positive about how things are going.''
LENGTH: Medium: 92 lines ILLUSTRATION: PHOTO: AP. Lance Armstrong (left) participated in a 26-mileby CNBtime trial with five-time Tour de France winner Eddie Merckx (right)
on Nov. 10 in Gruene, Texas. Armstrong will undergo a third round of
chemotherapy in his fight against cancer next week in Indianapolis.