7 October 2012

On My Way

"You won't feel quite 'right' until about a year after chemo."
"You won't be back to 'normal' for a year after chemo."
"Give yourself a whole year after chemo to feel like yourself again."

I came up pretty hard against this when I tried to jump back into my life too soon last spring.  I'd work really hard at exercising or trying to do something that I hadn't done for a while and would end up in bed for a couple of days.  So I took it pretty easy this summer.  Unlike last summer when leading up to my surgery I was walking 5-7 days and doing 20-30 miles a week, I spent a lot of time sitting under the shade while the kids played in the pool.  I started the summer heading to the gym but then different things got in the way and by mid-summer I'd given up on that.  I had intended to get back to the gym when the kids went back to school but found myself distracted with other 'busy-work'.

I have an acquaintance who raves about her gym and she talked me into trying Crossfit.  I've been a few times now and it is interesting.  I'm very sore, yet I feel like I didn't push myself too hard.  I'm not working at my potential but I'm worried about injuring myself.  So I'm taking it slow, per my plastic surgeon's instructions.  I may not be doing 100% but I am doing something.

I had been working on a couch to 5k program in the spring and early summer.  I haven't really run for a couple of months but against my better judgment I did a 5K yesterday and ran the whole way.  This gives me hope that by the time I hit my end of chemo anniversary I'll be FAR healthier than when I was originally diagnosed.  And I'll feel better than my old self.

With my paleo diet keeping my lymphedema in check (totally anecdotal, of course, but once I stopped eating dairy, legumes, added sugar and grains, my swelling went away,) I'm more confidently tackling physical challenges with my left (bad) arm.   Don't get me wrong, I'm still the oldest/fattest/slowest/weakest person I've encountered in 6 workouts, but I'm doing the workouts in a modified manner and finishing them.  I have ten and a half weeks until my next stepping stone, which is my end of chemo anniversary.  My goal is to drop one of those superlatives!

I was thinking this the other day.  By the time my mom was my age, the only exercise she got was smoking.  (Bend arm, inhale, hold exhale.)  Fifty is the new forty because sixty years old used to be old,  but not anymore.