I’ve been easing back in to physical fitness since I finished my cancer treatment last summer. I’ve done yoga and I’ve done Wii Fit and EA Sports Active and I’ve done walks but it’s time to get back into something a little more rigorous.
I’ve never gone to a gym before (minus the two or three times I used the campus gym when I went to San Diego State so I guess what I mean is I’ve never paid extra to go to a gym before). There’s a 24 Hour Fitness directly across the street from my house. My best friend is a big fan and sent me a refer a friend thing so I can try it out free for two weeks and she can get some free personal training if I become a paying member.
I visited for the first time last night.
I like that they’ve got an indoor lap pool that’s open at all hours (minus a couple hours Tuesday mornings for cleaning). I like that they’ve got several options for yoga classes and some other classes that I might be interested in trying. I like that they’ve got cardio machines that I can experiment with.
And after my tour I did 25 minutes on the elliptical machine. I’m was sweating good and I’m a little sore and I’m excited to go back (but will probably wait until tomorrow since I don’t want to push myself too hard at first).
If I keep up with going during this two week trial and I like it I plan to sign up.
Are you a member of a gym? What do you like or dislike about it? How often do you go? What’s your routine?
Something I recently decided I’d like to do more of is volunteer work. In high school we were required to complete a certain number of volunteer hours (I think 120) to graduate and I can’t really think of anything I’ve done since then. I’ve donated money and I’ve donated stuff but it’s been a long time since I donated myself and my time.
So today I submitted my information for a couple options.
Through the Luekemia and Lymphoma Society, I volunteered myself for advocacy, events, and patient support. I’m not 100% sure how that’s going to work out though because my local Santa Clara county chapter doesn’t appear very active via the organization’s main website.
So I also signed myself up to be a mentor angel with Imerman Angels. And after I signed up I realized I might not hear back from them right away because it’s a holiday weekend. And then I remembered that when I signed myself up to be a mentee I got an email back from them that it might take them a little longer than normal to match me up with a mentor because it was also a holiday weekend. So I searched my Gmail inbox and discovered that it was on this day, May 27th, last year that I signed myself up to be a mentee so I think it’s very interesting that I happened to sign up as a mentor on the same date.
Last year I was matched up with two fabulous mentors who I still keep in touch with on Facebook and I’m hoping that I can help out some wonderful mentees in the same way now.
Cancer treatment has a lot of seemingly random side effects that no one every really talks about. Yes I puked more than I ever had in my entire life combined, yes I was extremely fatigued, yes I got sick all the time. But a side effect that isn’t often talked about is radiation fibrosis which is scar tissue in your muscles and organs created by the radiation.
I finished radiation in July 2010. When I went for a follow up with my oncologist last week we talked about lingering side effects and one of the few I have left is extreme muscle tension in my back so he referred me to a physcial therapist.
I went for my first visit yesterday and she says that fortunately I don’t have a significant amount of radiation fibrosis but I do have enough, coupled with an old sports related repetitive stress injury (that I was treated for in 2005 but returned with the radiation) and an excessive amount of computer use, that it’s not going to heal if I keep to my current routine.
For treatment, I’ve got a 15 minute stretching routine to do at home once or twice a day, some chair stretches to do throughout the day while I’m at the computer, applying heat to the affected area at least once a day, and most mind boggling to me I need to use my mouse with my left hand.
My right side is about four times more stiff than my left side and the physical therapist thinks that the reason for that is mousing with my right hand isn’t giving my left side a chance to heal on it’s own.
Have you ever tried mousing with your other hand? What’d you think of it? I’m actually surprised how easy it is. I struggle a bit but it’s totally doable.
In college I got mono. A particularly bad case of mono that landed me in the hospital over night. That’s the only night I’ve ever had to stay in the hospital.
Maybe a year later, my college friend Kyle was joking about “mono girl” and I’m like “hey wait a minute, that’s not funny, that was me”. He apologized profusely and we went on to be great friends.
Another year later we’re out of college and he emails a group of friends to meet for dinner in downtown Palo Alto at 7pm. Apparently he meant meet for dinner on Saturday and only about half the group figured that out. I dined with the group that showed up the night the email was sent and didn’t go back on Saturday.
Next thing I know, Kyle has been diagnosed with Leukemia and less than a month later he passed away. I should have gone back for dinner that Saturday.
A few years go by and I’m still sick all the time. The doctors can never find anything specifically wrong with me and I start to wonder if I’m a hypochondriac. Mom thinks I never really got over the mono.
I spend a month in pain that keeps getting worse instead of better so I go to the doctor. I have a tumor that’s poking out between my ribs which is why it hurts so much.
The tumor turns out to be Hodgkin’s Lymphoma and there’s a theory that it’s a mutation of mono that occurs in about 1 out of 1000 cases. And because Leukemia and Lymphoma are both blood cancers and the whole mono girl thing I always felt like there was some sort of link between me and Kyle there.
Now it’s been about ten months since I finished chemo and everything is better than ever but I’m thinking about this so much again right now because one of my coworkers has the same last name as Kyle and I’m tempted to ask her if they’re related (it’s not a common last name) but I don’t want to because I worry that if they are it might be painful.
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