Welcome!

My last short fiction instructor told us not to write about cancer. "It's been done," she said. Well, the hell with that. I learned in the last three weeks that I have stage III breast cancer. Writing, painting, and assorted other arts are how I process stuff, in addition, of course, to long conversations with friends. These conversations have begun in earnest these recent days, but I realized my Facebook page in particular was in danger of becoming a medical-update site. I do not want that. My life is still going to be about more than cancer, as much as that may not seem possible right now. Also, I don't want to alienate friends who are not ready to walk this particular valley with me at this time. For example, one elderly friend who called to cheer me up this week can't even handle the "c-word," and there is no way she will be up for any truly frank discussion of what's about to happen here. So she is advised to keep in touch with me via Facebook. People who are comfortable with the c-word, honest discussion and occasional cursing are welcome to join me here.

Thursday, June 7, 2012

Good news, too!

Okay, I have decided that if I share every shred of bad news, I should also share the good news.

Today, I had my six-month assessment with the personal trainers at my gym.  After six months of seeing a trainer once or twice a week, except over the holidays, and whining about it a lot to my children and anyone else who would listen, I have actually made progress!  I barely changed my diet at all. My weight only dropped about three pounds.  But my body mass index improved, as did my body composition.  (I believe these are different ways of measuring the ratio of fat to muscle.)  My flexibility, though still "poor," improved markedly.

I could not even do the exercise they use to measure bicep strength six months ago, because of my surgery and radiation.  Now, it is in the "average" range.

What really improved?  My blood pressure! It went from 134/90  (considered Stage 1 Hypertension) to 109/64. That is in the "normal" range. Yay me!

I've never made it through an exercise program before for long enough before, or had someone try to measure my progress in numerical terms before, to see this kind of progress.  It is very satisfying!


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