Stage IV MBC Fitness
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Hi Everyone, I haven’t posted for a while, just being in a weird head space due to a variety of reasons. I was nervous about my rising tumor markers and my scans which they moved up a few weeks due to tumor markers, but I’m happy to report that scans look “good”. No new progression, stable and some reduction in some tumors. Phew!! Next appointment with my oncologist I am going to discuss with her having the TM test done every three months or less instead of every month. My DH and I attended a conference on MBC and the keynote speaker was a researcher from the Huntsman Cancer Institute. She was very interesting to listen to and gave me some hope. She does believe that MBC will become a true chronic condition just not sure of the time frame. But lots of research is being done with some promising results. It felt hopeful.
As far as activity goes,we enjoyed a wonderful October here and I got out on my mtn bike and lots of beautiful walks/hikes. I get to the gym to lift weights but find I am enjoying being outside more so I resist going to the gym. Getting colder here so I have to wait if I am going to bike for it to warm up a bit. Just finished my Ibrance cycle and have a little fatigue so hiking has sounded better than biking. Getting ready to pack up our camping van and head to points south in Utah and will do a lot of hiking there.
Wishing you all a good day with a bit of wiggling, dancing, moving, walking, etc!
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KatyK so good to hear that you had good scans and are doing well. Hope you have a fantastic time camping and hiking in Utah, it's such a beautiful state. I was hoping to start camping in the desert again this month, but the Santa Ana winds have been fierce, we're still getting ill-timed heat waves, and now everything is on fire again so I'm not sure it's worth the risk until the weather settles down. I'm not in the mood to try to set up a tent in 60mph winds.
LoveFromPhilly I took your advice and decided to snuggle up with a blanket and read a book yesterday. I let my husband pick up a pizza for dinner and we watched some TV together. Not much pain at all today so after yesterday's self-indulgent day I think I'm good to go again.
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Hi Katy,
I completely understand about how the treatments can break up the regularity of exercise. It is always up and down for me! Congrats on your TMs going down - I know that for people who follow their TMs this is a big relief to see - maybe doing it every three months will be less-anxiety inducing than once a month.
I feel like a hawk sometimes with looking out for my labwork and scan results. it is difficult to relax and just be like: la dee da dee daaaaaaa about them.
Have an amazing trip to Utah - it is SOOOOOOOOOO beautiful there!! That fresh air and sunshine is gonna help heal ya!
I did cardiokickboxing yesterday and today my body feels so sore!!!! It is the good kinda sore, but I swear that I get more sore now than I did pre-cancer treatment/diagnosis after a good workout. And it seems like the soreness lasts longer...Does anyone else experience this?
I am ROOTING for myself to go out salsa dancing tonight with some girlfriends. Of course it is raining and my dad went to the ER this morning with a possible norovirus (he's in his mid 70s and has a lot of GI issues - so the docs don't like to take any chances), so all these things may combust for me to end up staying home and just going to Zumba tomorrow instead.
Happy Friday everyone!!!!!!! Hope all you folks are doing/feeling as well as can be
Brenda
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Yayyyyy Lori!!!!!!! That sounds so good and healing to me!!! It makes me feel like aaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhh
It always takes me a few days to recover from anything. I am definitely the "overly sensitive" type and I just feel things deeply...like the Princess and the Pea. I have been called that many times!At the same time, I often times need my loved ones to remind me to slow down and relax. It helps so much when they tell me to take a couple days off and heal. I forget sometimes that my body is metabolizing some serious medications and is working to keep the cancer at bay with these meds. It is so weird to think about. I am trying very hard to embrace the "new norm" and behave a little teeny bit more like I have a disease
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Was a cool but sunny day here. My DH and I met friends for a nice two hour hike. Was a beautiful day to be out and share with friends
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Another nice day to be out for a long walk, cool and sunny! I so enjoy being outside! Hope others have had some nice outdoor weather to get out and enjoy.
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hi!!! KatyK - someone mentioned you in another thread and asked how you are doing. Maybe it was the bone Mets thread?
I went to Zumba yesterday and today. It just brings me soooo much joy! I love dancing with the other folks in the class and sharing in the joy and ecstasy of movement - especially when we are all actually coordinated and moving in alignment with one another!
I stayed an extra hour to help be part of a video that the Zumba instructors were filming. Felt great to be a part of the “crew!”
Tomorrow is a blood draw day...I’ll try to make it to something - maybe TaiFit Cardio and Abs or something like that!
Hope everyone has had a good weekend!
(((((((((((((hugs))))))))))))))))
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Hello everybody…. so good to hear from all of you and read all of your updates! Katy, glad things are going well for you! We missed not hearing from you. Your outdoor time hiking and biking sounds wonderful, as does your camper van trip to Utah. I just want to live vicariously through you! I just read a story about a couple that lived out of a van for 4 years and traveled around the US and then Europe; hiking, biking, mountain climbing.... just totally simplifying. Sounds SOOOOOOOO fun and tempting but of course, they were young and healthy and she didn't need to get treatments all the time and I am pretty sure they didn't even worry about health insurance. Totally carefree. I can't really even imagine. ANYWHOO, I hope Utah is nice and sunny. Are you going to Zion and Bryce?
LovefromPhilly your posts make me smile, and I think I need to jump on the Zumba bandwagon. I think if I had classes to go to I'd be a lot more motivated. I have no excuse; my company has this thing called Thrive; they give us $50 a month to put towards a gym, or yoga, or anything that is health and fitness related. I just need to commit and sign up. I know I would love it. Oh, and yes to your question about soreness and recovery time. It takes me WAY longer to recover from a work out than my pre-cancer days, and a lot longer to get rid of any soreness. Of course, I always feel like I am about 90 when I first wake up in the morning, even if I haven't done a thing.
I literally went a week with no exercise besides walking Lucie (our Newfoundland). I had big plans to do a long run yesterday, and then had some girlfriends over Friday night that I hadn't seen in a long time....drank waaaaaaaaay to much wine. I was worthless yesterday, and today woke up to a snowstorm; it snowed hard all day. I finally just bundled up and went for a run in the snow, which actually felt pretty good.... nice to be outside even thought it was freezing.
LoriCA, I hope it's not too smoky where you are from the Southern CA fires. Sorry to hear about H&P not working, but I think there are other good protocols that follow it, so hoping they get you on something else soon. Your snuggle up day with a book, pizza, TV and husband sounds perfect.
We all deserve days like that. Hello to everyone else! Hope everybody has a good week!
XO
Andrea
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Busy packing and cooking for our camping van trip. Leave tomorrow right after my morning blood work and pick up my Ibrance. So movement today will be standing a lot in the kitchen and scurrying about to pack up the van. I think I’m done with the cooking part! But there will be lots of wonderful hikes soon in southern Utah
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You ladies are really inspiring me
It's getting really cold here, dismally gray Southern Ontario skies, and first snow, so I've got to find a way to keep active despite all this. 0 -
I know what you mean, Amica. It's so much easier to stay active when you can be outside. I hope KatyK is having a great time in Utah and that the weather is cooperating for her. It's supposed to snow here in Denver tomorrow. We actually have quite a bit of snow in the mountains, and I just bought our yearly ski passes so hoping to get up there to ski soon.
The company I work for just had it's annual "Leadership Summit" all this last week, and yesterday our activity was the "Amazing Race" We divided up into 30 teams and all ran (really, RAN) around downtown Denver finding clues and taking pictures and videos and then racing to the next spot. I think we covered about two miles, and I was happy that I was actually a leader on my team. It was a really fun way to get in some serious afternoon activity. I ran again this afternoon, but this weekend will need to commit to the gym because of the weather. I keep telling myself.... yoga.... swim... yoga.... swim..... why do I never do either? I'd rather run ten miles than swim two laps, which is exactly why I need to throw myself in a pool.
Hope everybody has a good weekend!
XO
Andrea
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Been going to the gym but taking this week off to head out to west Texas to our cabin. I had planned to do some light hiking tomorrow but this guy was hanging around the property this morning, so that’s not happening, lol. Happy Thanksgiving everyone 😀
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Oh my goodness Illimae! That is a beautiful and LARGE bear! I think you made a wise choice of giving it some space! How exciting!!!!
I am in a schlump right now! I haven't really worked out in what feels like almost 2 weeks (or maybe 1.5 weeks). I am hoping to get back on track by the weekend.
I did, at the least, do a 60 second forearm plank with my buddy over a FaceTime call today. That made me sweat a little!
And then went and treated myself to a 75 minute deep tissue amazing massage (does that count as exercise???)
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Had a wonderful trip to Canyonlands. Love that place! First went there 40 years ago with DH and we still enjoy going there. I will never tire of the spectacular scenery! It was so awesome to share this with our daughter, SIL and two grandchildren. Our grandchildren had never been there but fell in love with the place just as we thought they would! So there was lots of fun hikes and scrambling on the rocks! Weather was great, sunny days but cold nights. In the morning we sat in the sun on top of the rocks and enjoyed the wonderful views while sipping our coffee!
That is a big bear and might keep me inside too! Great job on the 5k Andi, sounds fun. And a deep tissue massage can count as anything but mostly wonderful! Wishing you all a wonderful Thanksgiving!
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Illimae, West Texas looks beautiful in spite of the bear! I've never been there... how fun that you have a cabin to enjoy. And Katy, amazing picture! I love Canyonlands, too... and Bryce, Zion, etc. Great time of year to go, and glad you ALL enjoyed yourselves! It must have been nice to be outside for so long. Philly, a massage can be considered activity! It's good for your muscles and your joints, and your soul, so that's all that matters!
I went on a run today and hope to get up and run again early tomorrow before the Thanksgiving festivities start. We have a full house of college kids back - lots of eating and drinking. I have to sneak outside and walk or run just to stay sane!
Happy Happy Thanksgiving to everyone. We all do have a lot to be thankful for.
XO
Andi
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illimae, it must be the perfect place for a hike since the bear had the same idea! I haven’t spent time in west Texas besides driving through to get to East Texas but that is some beautiful country!
Philly, any movement counts and a massage helps you keep your muscles ready to use when you can so you can be ready for that next workout!
Katy, Canyonlands looks wonderful. I am a fan of mountains and wide open spaces!
I go to a yoga class because I can find all kinds of things to do at home besides exercise. With chemotherapy I try to be active on my good days and look forward to one day getting off this treatment and having some sense of normalcy.
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Hope everyone had a wonderful Thanksgiving and that it was not too exhausting. We don't have Thanksgiving here, just Black Friday.
Philly, I would love to go out salsa dancing with you. I had two consecutive classes this week, since I had to help out in a lower level class Wednesday and had my regular class yesterday. As for massages, I think they are great for healing. I read some time ago that they increase immune cell count. Yes, I did have a lot of massages as a result. But exercise does the same thing. So I would say massage and exercise are sort of similar for our purposes.
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hi everyone! Thanks for the support in the massage as an activity realm!!! It was such a powerful massage I feel like I am still recovering from it!!
I usually go to a couple women who are trained in oncology massage (where they use a rather light touch). I love them but the light touch drives me bananas as I am also a massage therapist for over 10 years now and often feel like I need deeper work. However, after how I’ve been so sore from this last incredibly deep and strong massage - I am wondering if I need either another strong and deep one to keep moving all the stuff along or if I should stick to the gentle (and somewhat annoying for me) oncology massages. I am figuring out this journey every day still!!
Heidi - I would LOVE to go salsa dancing with you too!! Where do you live?? I have been salsa dancing for over 20 years now but lately getting to the club at the late hours seems to be a challenge for my 41 yr old self!
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okay getting motivated here again! On way to my wild and amazingly upbeat Zumba class!! Happy Saturday wveryone
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Checking in after a couple weeks away and I’m sorry, Lori, that you are dealing with all these changes. Take it easy after all those biopsies! Five is a lot!
I’ve been dealing with so much cold weather that it is hard to get out for walks. It is going to be a long winter, I think! I have scans on Wednesday. Assuming things are looking good, I may just join a gym. I’ve been feeling a little wimpy and complacent so I need to kick it up a notch.
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Went primitive dry camping in the Mojave high desert for three days. Did some short hikes every day, but it was super windy (and chilly) which really sapped my already depleted stamina. We hunkered down in the tent early each night to escape the cold wind, and I was asleep by 8pm every night haha!! Felt great to get out in nature for a few days.
Looks like I'm going back on chemo tomorrow and wondering how it's going to affect my Qigong class since the class will coincide with my "crash" day from the pre-meds based on previous experience. Just going to take things one day at a time.
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Hey Lori, glad you got in some camping. I find it immensely helpful to be outside. I’m sorry to hear you’ll be going back on chemo. Keep us posted on that. Wish you well and good thinking, one day at a time.
I just got in from a six mile mtn bike ride and it was hard. Breathing was pretty hard and the hills were tough on me. This is a ride that I would consider fairly easy and had been riding fairly regularly and doing much harder rides. Not sure why so hard today but I don’t think I have the energy I was having, feeling some fatigue. Man, this sucks! I love mtn biking and being out on my bike. I hate thinking when that may end. Winter is definitely moving in so may be the last ride on trails for a while anyhow. When we get snow we can start skate skiing but I’m pretty nervous about, it is so cardiovascularly demanding and at altitude. I’ll start small and hope I can work my way up. Tomorrow I am going to try to go back to a regular gym schedule of twice a week. With bad weather it’s easier to do.
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hello friends!
Lori - yes one day at a time is a great mantra. Wishing you lots of ease with the chemo treatments. My heart goes out to you.
The cold and chilly camping sounds a lil tough - but being outside with fresh air and in nature is so awesome! Glad you got that time in Katy!
I made it to Zumba two days in a row and was going to go for 3 days in a row today but didn’t have the motivation/energy for the evening class. I’m glad I stayed in and I visited with my parents - and then my 73 yr old mom fell straight down on her shoulder and knees right in front of me as she tripped over something. Poor mom!!!! But I was glad I could be there to assess her injuries. Nothing broken, whew! Just lots of bruising and she’ll be hurting for a few days. Those falls don’t get easier the older ya get!
Tomorrow I’m going to cardio kickboxing and then have a massage with the gentle oncology massage therapist. I hope she feels some confidence to dig in a little deeper lo!!!
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Philly, I am about 8 hours away from Philadelphia International Airport crossing the Atlantic to Zurich. Too bad. Although I am not a club-goer, rather a class taker. My 61 year old brain can't process the lateness, the lights, the decibel level, the crowds, the much higher dancing skills required for this late starter. Hope the massage therapist gives it a little more oomph for you. I used a massage machine to get my deep tissue work last night.
DGHoff, the cold weather is also getting me a bit down. We need to prod each other on!
Lori, you are a brave soul for camping under those conditions. Good luck on chemo. One step at a time is best until you're kicking cancer's ass.
KatyK, I can't say mountain biking was ever easy for me so I was glad to switch to an e-mountainbike in order to keep up with my husband. Now he has an e-mountainbike, too. It's the same thrill downhill. Skate skiing looks so graceful. Will need to try it at some point this winter.
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Got to the gym today for a weight work out. Kept it pretty light as I haven’t been in for a while. But a good day to exercise inside as it was gray and rainy. Felt good to go. I’m going to try to get back to a regular gym schedule of two days per week.
Heidi- I have considered an ebike and it may come to that some day. I’ve been an avid mtn biker for years and have loved it. Was still riding strong before the recurrence. But this summer and autumn I rode a fair amount and some hard rides too just slower and more walking. One problem with the ebike here is they are not allowed on most trails. ☹️ I’ve decided if I need an ebike I’ll ride it where I want, I think it’s cruel to deny a person with a disability a reasonable accommodation.
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Another gym day for me and a good day to work out inside. Gray and dreary outside. But felt good to go to the gym. I’m going to try a regular gym schedule again of two days per week. Made it this week!😀. This time of year gets tough to exercise outside as the trails are too wet and muddy. So I have to walk or bike on the roads which is not as much fun. Well maybe we can Nordic ski here soon. What do the rest of you do in the winter
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This time of year it’s usually walks in the neighborhood or local park for me (it rarely get too cool in Houston). However, this year I have a gym membership, so I’m trying to make that my new weekday habit.
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hi all!
Heidi - that was so funny to read about how far away you are!!! Lol 😂 if I ever come to Zurich, we are going dancing! Or at least to a daytime social or class together 💕
I zumba’d on Saturday and Sunday, cardio kickboxed on Tuesday followed by what turned out to be a great massage (my oncology massage therapist seemed quite energetic and dug in deeper!) and then since felt like I am recovering from those activities lol!
I have a hard time exercising on days that I am working, so as long as the rain stays at bay on Sunday, I’m going to go on about a 4.6 mile hike with my bff. Doing a sun dance over here!!!! It’s suppsed to be in the mid 60s on Sunday!!!
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Well time I started posting here! This yr has been stop start with the gym/exercise due to mastectomy/radiotherapy and staying many weeks at a time at my parents interstate due to their health.But I've now moved to their house in western Sydney and have my car, so here we go!
Yesterday was just tai chi. Today I did a 45 min RPM (bike) class then 1 hour Pilates. The Pilates was different to the mat Pilates I've done before, we used light weights for half the time in both standing, kneeling and lying positions. My triceps r gonna be sore! Will walk down to the local shop for Mum soon, but it's already 34 degrees Celsius (92 Fahrenheit) so unlikely I'll do much more today.
I did a combat class on Thursday, I was dreadful. I'm off low carb and my weight has regained, BMI back up to 31.8, big fat gut in the way! I know how to lose it, hoping regular gym will spur me on, 😎. Have a great weekend all!
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Oh, I forgot to mention that I signed up for the healthy heart program at MD Anderson, partly because Herceptin and Perjeta can have negative impacts on function (reduced Ejection fraction) and party because after the stress test and exam, they’ll provide a personalized fitness plan. Hopefully, I’ll get in next week and get started 😀
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