Something About Exercise

Today, for the first time in ages, I used my NuStep.  I managed a whole six minutes, but I did it at a good pace, and it gave me great satisfaction.  I have set a goal of adding a minute a day, if I can.  I also want to do it every single day, just like I used to before I got sick.  I really NEED to get my strength back.  My sats (oxygen saturation point of my blood) went to 93, but that's OK, as long as it doesn't go below 90,.

Before all this started, I was doing 45 minutes a day on my NuStep.  I credit this fact with helping me survive all the chemos and radiation that I have had so far.  And though I have lapsed in the use of it, I know that getting back to some type of routine exercise can only help with my prognosis.  Besides, I am going to need to get stronger if I want to go back to work.

Jane and Nancy are out at some race at Phoenix International Raceway.  They work there twice a year, but I'm sorry to say, I can't remember for which vendor they work.  It's a great job; it gives them their Winter Solstice money.  So while they were out, I had Cathy go get some Curbside Takeaway from Outback Steakhouse.

Can I tell you JUST how bad I was?  I got the lobster tail add on to go with my Filet with Wild Mushroom sauce.  I was in heaven.  Although, frankly, the lobster was a tad overcooked, it was still very, very yummy.  And Outback does steamed veggies really well!  At least I wasn't so bad that we added one of their desserts to the order.  No Chocolate Thunder from Down Under for us.  ;)  Dammit.

Meanwhile, on the health front, I am SO sick of coughing.  It's been over three weeks of this.  I'm off the prednisone, and finished the Doxycycline, and now I want to be well!  But I am sleeping well, and that is truly helping.  My INR was a bit high, so I had no Coumadin yesterday, but today I will have 2.5 mg and that will continue until Monday, when I have my next test.

So, all in all, I'm really doing well, I think, thanks to all the support and love I get from my family and my friends.  You all take such good care of me!

Sunny Day

It's Saturday morning, cool with a light breeze, and the veggies are going gangbusters.  I counted five squash blossoms this morning, and the spinach is looking fantastic.


I spent some time in the past couple of days, looking through old family photos.  It brought back many memories and made me smile.  It's a bit sad, as well, seeing those that are no longer with us, but at least with the help of family photos, we'll never forget them, either.  And then there are those people we never even got to meet, like my grandparents.  Heck, my parents were old enough to be my grandparents, but it didn't help that both sets of grandparents died young.  I wonder what they were like?  


Finally began playing World Of Warcraft again, albeit half-heartedly.  I'm restless.  I had another ocular migraine yesterday, which was bizarre.  I usually go YEARS in between them, and this was four days from the last.  I know I've got some stress, which isn't being relieved in my usual manner of taking the NuStep through its paces.  But I try to make circuits around my garden, so that I can be on my feet and keep moving.  And that counts two-fold:  some exercise and an appreciation of how lucky I am that I have such a beautiful garden.  


Today we're heading back into the 90's.  We've almost had a whole week off, and it was much appreciated.  Soon we'll hit those triple digits and I won't want, or even be able to walk much in the garden.  The high temps make your heart rate go crazy, and you can hear it in your head. But of course, living here, you know how to deal with it.  Stay inside until the sun goes down, or get up and go outside before it comes up.  Do what you can to minimize its intrusion into your home.  I have Coolaroo shades on my bedroom windows, which face East.  They really do a fine job cutting the heat without limiting the light too drastically.   


Friday I go for my labs to see if that Neulasta shot has done its job and kept my white counts up.  Then the day after Memorial day, it's back to Ironwood for my six hour infusion.  I think I'll take the Netbook again.  We'll see.


Have a great weekend, all.

Gloomy, and yet....

...it's a treat, if only because it's not over 100 degrees.  Oh yeah, that's coming, but good lords, not in April, please. :)


Today, I have ankles.  Another thing for which to be thankful.  YAY for Lasix.  Also, today... I did... (drum roll inserted here)... ELEVEN minutes on the NuStep!  It felt really good, I must say.  Had an average rate of 84 steps per minute.  Certainly not my best rate ever, but I did it!  I was about to say 'not my best rate, but ... considering.'  Let me tell you about that trailing CONSIDERING.  :)


I had gone to my pulmonologist for a follow up after that bout of bronchitis.  He's been very interested in the whole esophageal cancer battle; he asks about all my treatments and ensures that he gets reports from the RO and the MO.  So, as I was leaving, he tells me, "You know, I'm just amazed at how you are doing.  And you look so good,.... considering."  I'm laughing now, even as I type it.... yeah, considering.... considering my skin looks like bleached parchment paper, and considering my hair is really thin and goofy-looking, and I have weird tattoo marks that show, pretty much no matter what I wear... yeah, considering... I look good!  Hehehehehe.  Really, he's being very encouraging and I do truly appreciate that.


I have no great plans for the weekend, other than perhaps supervising the sowing of our crops.  Although, it could rain tomorrow and it could still rain today... hence the gloominess, but hey, that'll only make the soil easier to cultivate. :)


Well, that's it for today.  I've got to go figure out something to make for dinner, which will probably involve chicken and Israeli cous cous.  Have a lovely weekend, all you dear readers, friends and family!

Sunday, Sunday

I just pre-ordered Dragon Age II from Amazon.  It's due in March 2011.  I'm sure I'll be here to play it. :D

Well, I didn't do much of anything yesterday, but I got in a whole FIFTEEN minutes on the NuStep.  Granted, it wasn't my normal speed, but ... I'm doing it!

This week, the weather in Arizona is going to get a bit cooler.  We're supposed to have highs in the 70's all week, except for today, which is probably going to be mid 80's.  Maybe fall is finally here! 

Tomorrow we begin another whole week of treatments, and I hope this week goes as well as the last two weeks.  I will be seeing Dr. Tsai the Radiation Oncologist (RO) following my radiation tomorrow.  And on Thursday, I'll see Dr. F, the Medical Oncologist (MO) before my chemo.  Maybe he'll have better news from my insurance company on treating me with Herceptin.

Really, nothing new or exciting to relate in today's blog.  I miss work, I miss my friends, but it occurs to me that my sole job right now is to beat this evil tumor into non-existence, and as a job, it's definitely full-time. :)

Hugs and kisses to all!

Fatigue...

Wow, I have the energy of a slug (you poor things, again I cast aspersions upon you).  I'd like nothing better than to just sleep, but this regimen is going to last a while and I don't want to sleep my life away.  Sadly, I seem to be watching more televsion, for it is easy to loll upon my bed and flip through the channels incessantly.

I am beginning to feel just a bit of pain from the radiation; it hurts a miniscule bit to cough.  And, of course, being asthmatic, I cough alot.  It's not a horrible pain by any stretch of the immagination; I believe this must be what's known as a little 'discomfort.' :D

Got in a good five minutes on my NuStep, though.  Don't want to slack off on that.  Had a little of my leftover scallops with garlic... still very yummy.  I asked Jane to check if they have brown rice at this joint; may as well up the nutrition factor all you can.

We're prepared for trick or treaters tonight, since my neighborhood is predominately Mormon and they cannot participate on their sabbath.  But we historically don't get too many kids.  We're on a cul-de-sac in a no-outlet street, and most of the folks on this street have older children, or are empty nesters.  But Carlos across the street has some youngsters, so we do at least get them.  One year, a local reservation brought a group of children in a van so that was kind of neat. (I personally think they had gotten lost, but whatever works!)

Well, I did take my druid into the Headless Horseman's dungeon, and explained to the group that my response time wasn't very fast, and told them why, and they were all very cool about it.  Oh, it was hideous.  My response-time, not the group.  We did get him down, though, but I lost aggro a few times, and had to push to keep up, so I probably won't be doing this again for a while.  But you gotta love the Horde players; very understanding and considerate.  Zug Zug!

Things You Never Thought You'd Hear...

"..and DO NOT lose any weight."  This from my radiation oncologist.  Words I never thought to hear in my lifetime.  I'm not the most svelt of women and years of steroids have made my metabolism sloth-like, but of course, with this cancer, I am dropping weight far too easily.

Between Friday morning and Saturday evening, I had lost 4 lbs.  So, knowing that my radiation treatment measurements had all been taken on that Friday, I quite bravely decided I had to eat... Ice Cream!  Yes, Ice Cream,... one of those things I had rather denied myself except as a very occasional treat.  Like in the old days, when I had David Pickles as my minion.  He loved ice cream, and would find me a drumstick once a week.  It was heaven.  He was a good minion. :)

But once my pulmonologist had sent me to pulmonary rehab, and I began making workouts habitual, it just wasn't something I wanted or needed, Ice Cream.  I have a NuStep.  Go see it HERE!  This was one of the pieces of equipment they had us use in rehab, and it was my personal favorite.  It's one that I use at a sustainable rate.  When I was first in rehab, I used it for 11 minutes, but 5 minutes, then a 5 minute rest and then the last 6 minutes, and that was with no resistance.  Today, or at least before this cancer hit, I was doing an average of 38 uninterrupted minutes a day, at level three resistance.

Right now, though, um, not so much.  Still, I get on it and do what I can because I don't want to lose the habit it has become.  And it's still good for my lungs!  I love my NuStep, and it's probably the reason why my lung disease has been stable for a while, now.

So, anyway, now I get to obsess about my weight in a whole new way.  YAY!  Blech.  I'm going to ask my MO about something like Ensure or Glucerna, because frankly, liquids do not hurt as much as solid foods, pulverized by chewing or not.  Wendy says they have quite a few liquid nutritional supplements by prescription only, so maybe that is where we can go.  I don't care; I'm just tired of the pain.

And on that uplifting note, it's Sunday afternoon, and I think I shall take my 'toons back to Azeroth and go Trick or Treating!  Hasta la vista, folks!