I had my bloodwork done today, and it looks GREAT. My neutrophils are in the normal range, my red blood cells and platelets are only a little below normal. My oncologist did not expect these sort of numbers until my bloodwork next week.
I have started my exercise program to get back into some sort of shape. I have lost about 30 lbs of muscle, and I recently heard that on average, a person loses 50% of their muscle mass for every 2 weeks of bed rest. Considering that I have had been in bed rest for about half the time over the past 4 months, that is a lot of muscle lost. I need to get some back before I go into Dartmouth, because that will be almost 4 months of continual bedrest. I can not imagine what I would look like if I can't gain a little bit back before I go in.
My "workout" right now consists of a 15 minute walk every other day, alternated with a light upper body workout with the therabands. Every day has stretching. I hesitate to call it yoga, but that is what I am aiming for. I had a good walk yesterday, I try to get my breathing up to the point where I can carry on a conversation, but I am definitely working. I am not sure that I will be able to get the point where I am running before I have to go to Dartmouth, but that is a goal. My upper body goals include an actual push-up or 3, and some dumbbell shoulder presses. We will see how far I get. For now, it is a little at a time.
I have started my exercise program to get back into some sort of shape. I have lost about 30 lbs of muscle, and I recently heard that on average, a person loses 50% of their muscle mass for every 2 weeks of bed rest. Considering that I have had been in bed rest for about half the time over the past 4 months, that is a lot of muscle lost. I need to get some back before I go into Dartmouth, because that will be almost 4 months of continual bedrest. I can not imagine what I would look like if I can't gain a little bit back before I go in.
My "workout" right now consists of a 15 minute walk every other day, alternated with a light upper body workout with the therabands. Every day has stretching. I hesitate to call it yoga, but that is what I am aiming for. I had a good walk yesterday, I try to get my breathing up to the point where I can carry on a conversation, but I am definitely working. I am not sure that I will be able to get the point where I am running before I have to go to Dartmouth, but that is a goal. My upper body goals include an actual push-up or 3, and some dumbbell shoulder presses. We will see how far I get. For now, it is a little at a time.
So are the infections gone, or at least dimished enough to be practically gone? I wish I were there for many things, but especially the work outs. Not because I want to help, but because I could probably just now kick your ass in sparring.
ReplyDelete;-)
I admire your facility at adjusting expectations to the new reality.
I'll try calling tonight.
Love
Mike
The infections are completely gone. They would not have let me out if I still had any infection, they are stunningly dangerous when you do not have an immune system. In fact, now that my cancer is in remission, infection at the hospital is the biggest fear we (Becky, I, and my doctors) have that would stop me from beating the lymphoma. Infections of people without immune systems is one of the biggest causes of death in the hospital. Of course, Dartmouth-Hitchcock specializes in this, so there are a number of precautions that they have as routine that most hospitals don't have - the rooms are pressurized for example, so that air-borne pathogens can-not make it in, and the procedure for the nurses to suit up between patients is standard and taken seriously.
ReplyDeleteAs far as my workouts - It is nice that I now practice a style that does not rely mostly on strength, but, yes... you would kick my butt so hard that I would have to look for it for a week. I think that at this point you could just let me hit you and you would barely notice - it would be like being hit by a 4 year-old. :)