Monday, August 15, 2011

The first week

Just thought I would give an update on how things are going since beginning "Round 4". I am currently in day 6 and have one week under my belt!
I have been taking the chemo pills ( xeloda) twice a day and thankfully the side effects have been minimal so far! Because of the risk of hand/foot syndrome I am taking a few precautions. Chris and I are continuing to run, however 3 miles is my limit, 3-4 times per week. So far, no problems. I have also been able to continue teaching my "Little Swimmers" lessons and I am now wearing my water shoes so my feet don't rub on the bottom of the pool.
Chris and I feel it is so important to stay as strong and healthy as possible during treatment so on the 2 days during the week we don't run, he is lifting weights and I am concentrating on yoga and stretching.
I find this really helps to keep me calm and relaxed. One of my goals is to be able to use the relaxation techniques from yoga during radiation. As I wait for the machine to turn on my heart starts to race and my breathing speeds up. It is hard to control, so I will be working on that :)
The drive out  for radiation is 45 minutes and the treatment takes 45 seconds. To pass the time and keep my mind occupied I am listening to an audio book "Three Weeks With My Brother" by Nicholas Sparks. There is a small farmers market on the way home that I hit once a week for peaches and other goodies.
I did decide to cancel 2 of my "5k Learn to Run Classes". It was a hard decision but we have been over 100 degrees since June with nearly no rain. The classes were to be held at night and I just did not think I could take that on during treatment. I am still teaching the above mentioned swim lessons, GroupFit and Personal training. At this point I do not plan to take on any more but am still training to run the Komen 5k in September , two weeks after treatment is finished.
Trying my best to stay busy, but not overdo it, relaxed, but not to a point of bordom, exercise to help with the fatigue and health but no marathons.....yet.
I will leave you with a very big THANK YOU for your thoughts, prayers, & messages! And a couple of my favorite pics from our Kauai trip.

Kayak Kauai

Run Kauai

2 comments:

Retired Knitter said...

Your husband is such a blessing - he seems very supportive.

Two thumbs up on all your activities. You should consider writing a book!!

o2bhiking said...

My prayer list seems to get longer every day, but I always have you at the top Elayne. Hang in there. I remember when I was on chemo getting whatever exercise I was up to always helped a lot. usually it was just 2 miles of walking, and sometimes a lot less, but I felt better. Art

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