Baldies' Blog began originally in the UK by a 26 year old journalist with a blood cancer on a mission to inform the world about bone marrow donation.

He has since died, and I took on the cause of making cancer care more transparent for everybody.

Cancer is a disease that will touch everybody through diagnosis or affiliation: 1 in 2 men will be diagnosed and 1 in 3 woman will hear those words, "You Have Cancer."

I invite you to read how I feel along my journey and
how I am continuing to live a full life alongside my Hodgkin's lymphoma, with me controlling my cancer, not my cancer controlling me.

I hope that "Baldies' Blog" will prepare you to handle whatever life sends you, but especially if it's the message, "You Have Cancer."

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Sunday, December 5, 2010

Adventures in excercise


Who knew exercise could be so interesting....
I almost killed myself beating my son to A BASKET.
Yes, I've been playing basketball.
And I've been having a damn good time too.
Thank you steroids.
The first time I took a shot my arm muscles had wasted so badly the ball barely reached the backboard.
X, thinking I just didn't know anything about bball, tried to school me on my shot. Ouch.
I can now happily report, I can hit my shots.
I've been dribbling, practicing moves in hopes of gaining some muscle tone.
Steroids, among there many side effects, cause muscle atrophy. You have all sorts of energy that could be used for excercise, but the medication makes it difficult.
Luckily, now, supposedly, the prednisone is just replacing what I need.
I've been walking up and down stairs. I've been able to move better than I have in over a year.

I can get a little skip in my step. My breathing has improved, and let's hope it's permanent.
Since this happened, I've been working on my muscles. They revolted against the idea. So many times I would step during exercise and fall, not having the strength.
Then I'd have to find a way to get up.
As difficult as its been simultaneously raising a child while in treatment, its saved my life. 
Without Xander, I would have an excuse to stay in bed. 
I wouldn't wake up at 7 am virtually everymorning and move. 
I would not be playing soccer and basketball to gain muscle back. 
Just as an observation, but when people stop moving they die.
There is no empirical data to support this, just my experience and the experience of others.
It's the same idea that using oxygen and a wheelchair is a sign of decline.
No real data, just some common sense. 
So if I don't kill myself trying to keep up with him, I can easily credit him with saving my life at least for a little while. 

1 comment:

Jerry Carlin said...

I could not have dribbled the ball twice without falling down but we need something different than cancer to focus on and anything that works is great. Steroids worked well for me too and I looked forward to getting them. For three days out of seven they gave me some strength.