Only Three Weeks of Radiation Therapy Left

Daily Quote: "Being a cancer patient is just a whole different deal.  You feel it in your bones and skin -- it eats away at your mind.  Life seemed clear before, but suddenly there's this question mark in front of you.  Cancer is this amorphous thing.  It works on a cellular level that you can perceive intellectually, but that you can't see.  Running, by contrast, is all about focus and structure.  Once I got cancer, I appreciated running on a whole new level.  I had always thought of it as fun, a game, a toy, but now I realized we could use it as a weapon, to.  Use it in our own minds and bodies, as a fund-raiser, and for unity." --Bill Rodgers, (age 60) four time Boston Marathon winner, Runner's World Magazine, July 2011, Article "Team Effort,"  pg 84.

Boston Billy (Bill Rodgers) was a hero for many runners when he won the Boston Marathon four times, he's my hero for setting an example for us mere mortals who are striving to return to running after our bodies have been decimated by cancer treatments.  The above quote from the article "Team Effort" also explained that Rodgers "was preparing to run Boston in 2007 when a routine physical revealed he had an aggressive form of prostate cancer.  Rodgers underwent a radical prostatectomy, followed by radiation therapy.  Cancer-free, he returned to the Boston Marathon in 2009, finishing the race in 4:02."  Geez, yesterday I was disappointed because I had a tough interval, although I'm still taking radiation treatments, but Boston Billy finished the 2007 Boston Marathon in a mere mortal time of 4:02 to race and raise awareness for the cancer disease!  I am embarrassed for myself.  I will never be disappointed for my training nor racing again.

I now have only three weeks (15 radiation treatments) of radiation therapy left!!  My last scheduled radiation day is on Friday, August 5th, but will see my oncologist, Dr. Parks on August 23rd to setup a PET Scan as to see if my cancer is in remission.

Today my weight is 163 pounds, which means I only gained one pound last week (my lowest weight was 159 on June 30th); I hope to return to my racing weight of 170 pounds before August.  It's easier to gain weight since my throat is healed and can swallow food without pain.  I've lost muscle tone and strength during my cancer treatments and once I gain back the muscles I'll be a bit heavier too.  Needless to say, my returning to running last week probably made it more difficult to gain weight as well. 

The dead, dark, skin on my throat has all peeled off leaving a pinkish and slightly wrinkled neck.  I think the wrinkled neck might be due to my weight loss and not the radiation, heaven forbid it's because I'm older!  Also, my pectorals no longer hurt!  I do feel tremendous fatigue, but that goes with the radiation territory.  I'm at the point where I'm tired of being tired!  My beard has turned totally gray and has bald patches, but find it miraculous that I still have a full head of hair, although it too is grayer.  I can live with gray hair!

The big news for me at least, is I started running last week.  Running intervals with walking breaks, yesterday I had troubles finishing the last, fourth interval, but Allen's comment on my blog yesterday made me think, he said, "Going back to 2 minutes walking helps, but you're still subjecting your body to relative high stress from the running. I think I would vote in favor of reducing the overall stress level on your body by reducing your running. In fact, if it were me, I wouldn't run at all until I was done with the radiation. Running, even the small amounts you're doing, puts a lot of stress on your body, and your body is already getting high stress from the radiation. Walking puts stress on your body but less stress than that from running."  Maybe I can make a small compromise and walk every other day with the weekends off and just run a small amount, like three days a week?  Running makes me feel whole again and hate the idea of stopping altogether.  I know my doctors would not approve of my running as they feel that I need all my energy to fight cancer, the rest and recovery is a big part of the treatments.  Dr. Treadmill is still flabbergasted that I'm still able to work for twelve hours with my body being so weak and he probably would totally flip out if he knew I had returned to running.

Today after my 9:00 a.m. radiation treatments I rushed to 24 Hour Fitness as to complete my exercising and later a small lunch before I leave for work at 11:30 p.m.

24 hour Fitness on Rainbow Boulevard. Life Fitness Treadmill set to a 1% grade.  Walked 45 minutes at 3.5 mph.  Several times during my walk I wanted to break out running, but kept on trudging with my walking.  The effort was very easy with just mild exertion on my part, I didn't even break into a sweat.  After my walk I didn't feel the "high" that I get from running, but did feel that I accomplished at least something!  I am not disappointed with my walking as I do realize my body is in a weak state, but the hunger for running is still there.

Must finish my peanut butter and jelly sandwich and leave for work soon.  I wanted to post comments to Bruce's Team at about.com, but as usual I'm pressed for time, hopefully they'll keep up with me on my blog.  It's going to be a very long night at work.