6.26.09 - radiation #29 of 33 - boost #3 of 7

radiation #29. my last friday of radiation. down to the finish line! next week, four more boosts and that's it.

thinking back to last september after hearing "you have a small cancer" and then "we're going to hit you hard with chemo" and being surrounded in my living room by every book i could find about cancer and chemo and radiation, the hours and hours and hours i spent reading and researching online, the hours of talking on the phone with women who were having treatment or had finished treatment, the extreme fear i had that after treatment i would not be the same person, that i was handing over my health and all my energy to be ruined completely, that i'd end up with terrible side effects from chemo brain, which some of the women i met were still struggling with even four years after treatment. and here i am at the other end and none of those things happened. i never did experience chemo brain during treatment, i have not lost my health or my energy--if anything, i'll soon be in better shape than i was before my diagnosis, especially where exercise is concerned. i always had a healthy vegetarian diet, but i never exercised every single day.

whenever i think, "oh, i'll exercise twice as much tomorrow," i remember being "in the chair," as the oncology nurses call it, in the chemo room, and i can suddenly smell the alcohol swab on my arm and i can see that huge syringe with adriamycin, and i remember how afraid i was, and how i really needed to hold matt's hand--and he was always there. well, that gets me up and out the door for exercise. i think at least 45-60 minutes of brisk walking every day is worth avoiding 7 hours of taxol every two weeks for two months. every day i had radiation, it took about an hour--driving to the hospital, treatment, driving home--and never disrupted my work schedule. that hour i devoted to radiation for over a month, i can easily devote to exercise. & i hope by september i'll be hiking the steep hills near my home for two hours/day like i was last october and november, before my mastectomy. i need to build up my stamina for our trip to paris - i want to be able to walk at least 7 hours/day!!