Wednesday, February 29, 2012

Leaping

Yep, it's leap day of a leap year.  Nothing new to report medically.  I just wanted to write because February 29 only comes around every four years.  Thinking of leap frogging (passing and being passed by Cancer to 5K team members at survivor harbor last June), leaps of faith and of course, my leaping lily, below.  

I cannot believe that two years ago I was just about to have my biopsy.  Or maybe I'd already had it, I can't even remember the exact date.  More reminiscing about two years ago in the coming weeks.  For now, suffice it to say that I had no idea that I would be able to get through all that I have, but I did.  Or at least, I have so far.  Leaps of faith for whatever's next. 

Thursday, February 16, 2012

Pacing myself

As I wind my way through february, I am finding that pacing myself is important.

Me & my training partners, Jess & Colleen
As I have mentioned (again and again!), I am training for a half marathon - one month from tomorrow!  This past sunday, did my longest training run to date - 9 miles.  (And baby was it cold outside; see picture over there).  Previously when I trained for long distance runs (2005-2006), I would typically feel completely spent after a long run.  Sunday, in the wind and the cold, we kept a nice easy pace, so that I actually felt OK afterwards.  In fact, not having gotten quite enough of the wind chill for that day, I spent a few hours later that afternoon wandering around alexandria taking photographs (see pics below).

While I am generally feeling pretty well, I may be overdoing things a bit, and probably could stand to mind my pace.  Make sure there's enough downtime with the kitties so I am not quite so exhausted.  Maybe not go to yoga right after running 7 miles.  Yeah, I did that last month.

And onto medical news.  Had a followup appointment with my radiation oncologist today.  She said all looks good.   She tried to reassure me that while it is perfectly normal to have the constant fear of recurrence, which I have, medically I'm in good shape, having received all the various treatments I did (and continuing to take tamoxifen).  Then, we discussed my upcoming schedule of appointments.  She said I don't need to see her until November/December!  Rather than have a bunch of appointments right in a row, she told me to space them out in three month intervals.  So, I will see my oncologist in May, my surgeon in August, have my mammogram in September/October, and see my radiation oncologist again in November/December.  Sounds like a good planned pace for medical visits for the rest of the year.





Friday, February 3, 2012

Taking steps

The new year has been filled with me taking many steps.

I am taking many steps as I train for the half marathon (March 17).

I am taking steps in figuring out ways to help others on insurance issues... after some conversations over this past month, I have gotten confirmation - I will give a workshop this fall at a conference held by Living Beyond Breast Cancer on health insurance issues!  Very excited about this.

Also exploring doing some pro bono work for a new clinic at a local law school - helping patients going through cancer on health insurance difficulties.

And I am taking steps with my photography - have started a new blog to display my hiking pictures:  http://pgkhikingpics.blogspot.com.  Just getting started on this but it's been a lot of fun.

Sleep is so-so, but that's better than terrible, so that's something.

My left shoulder is now seriously officially frozen and painful, and I hope it takes steps toward feeling better soon!