A Good Week

Did I mention I'm having a good week? Physically, I feel pretty good. My energy is 100% and while I am experiencing some soreness in my left armpit, arm and breast, I can do pretty much whatever I feel like. Good thing I feel like walking, knitting and running kids all over town. I can even do some things that I don't feel like such as housework, laundry and pulling weeds.

I have been walking 1 hour a day, which keeps my mood lifted. It's not the same high as running, but walking is an old, familiar friend. I have trained and walked 2 marathons and was a walker until May 2008, when I began training as a runner with my good friend K2. (you can go to my profile and go to my other blog "Runner Girl MB" to see my running fun) I spoke with my friend Bee last night and she relayed a conversation she had with a client in her workplace. The client works at the Cancer Center in the area where chemotherapy is done. It seems that people who continue with some form of exercise fare better during chemo by far. OK, that sounds good to me. It remains to be determined whether I will go through chemo or not, but if I do - it's good to know that my old friend walking will help me. (maybe not an hour every day though)

One of the most difficult things about this for me is that I was in the best shape of my life and at the lowest weight of my life at the time of diagnosis. I had lost 24 lbs over the past year and recently run two half-marathons. I've even been lifting weights in the free-weight room at the YMCA and it turns out I'm pretty strong. Slowing down during the 4 weeks since surgery has been tough.

One good thing that I am noticing is that I am living each day as it comes and living in the moment. Since I don't know exactly what the next several months will look like for me, I have not made a lot of commitments. I am not working from home as I was for the past few months and that frees up a little more time during the day. I have more freedom to choose exactly how I spend my time and I love that. I stop to take the time to have conversations with people, not just move through life at a breakneck speed. This is a change which might need to stick around.