Chemo....moving on up!

It's been almost 4 weeks since starting my lower doses of chemo.  I'm finally up to half a pill a day.  I'm thrilled that the side effects have been pretty minimal.  The biggest hurdle has just been feeling so gosh darn tired all the time, but other than that, it's been great!

I looked at the tumors this morning after I showered and can see a significant difference in their size since the last time I saw the oncologist.  He said that I should see any further shrinking till I'm back up to a full dose, and yet he's wrong......again.  Normally you don't want your oncologist to be wrong, but in this case, I'm SUPER thankful he is.  =)

Our family has been getting showered with blessings this past month.  My parents and my brother each gave me $1000 to help with medical bills.  That pretty much got us up to date with what we owed the Dr.s thus far.  A few weeks ago some friends from high school dropped off three big boxes filled with tons of food, goodies to make chemo easier, and a gift cert for 4 full house cleanings by a professional. 

Then last week and this week our church got word of my diagnosis and people have been coming by dropping off dinners.  There is so much food in the house it's insane!  A lady from our church also knitted me a lap blanket to keep warm!

I'm completely overwhelmed by all the generosity shown to our family.  It's been mind blowing.  It's made me realize that when I'm over this life hurdle, I want to get more involved and help others as well.  Something as small as making a meal for someone can be such a huge blessing and I want to be a part of that. 

I see the oncologist on April 3rd and will report back when I've got some more info.

Thanksgiving 5K

Happy Thanksgiving!!  I'm looking forward to spending the day surrounded by family and good food, but first I'm going to be walking/running a Turkey Day 5K.  =)  I mapped it out on googlemaps and found the perfect 5K loop.  Hubby said he'd come with me and we'll bring the lab as well.  I think this should become a yearly tradition. 

Hope you all have a nice, relaxing day.♥

CrossFit and the flu..........

I had to cancel my workout on Monday.  I was up most of the night with the flu and spent most of the day in bed.  I got a call Monday afternoon that my grandmother had died.  She'd been battling dementia for almost 10 years and it was heartbreaking to see her memory fade.  The last time I saw her was Christmas and she didn't know who I was.  It was then I knew that I had already lost my Nana. 

Fast forward to today and I still don't feel quite back to normal.  I'm still a bit nauseous, but chose to go to CrossFit anyway.  I'm determined to make this a normal part of my life.  I don't want sickness, death, whatever, to get in the way.  I have to change my life, I have to stick to my goals, I have to keep my eyes on the prize and not waver when life throws barriers in my way.

I had to modify just about everything we did today.  I had to keep reminding myself that I'm not there to impress anyone, I'm there to just keep getting better.  Our warm up wasn't too horrible, but the skill set had my stomach rolling.  We got a quick 3 or 4 min break between our skill set and our WOD, so I got a quick sip of water, used the restroom and told myself that no matter what I was not going to get sick. 

Our WOD today was what they called Ten Plus Two.  We had ten minutes to do as many rounds as possible.  8 push ups ( I did girly push ups), 10 toes to bar  (I did 20 second planks),  and 6 left & 6 right kettle bell snatches.  Once the ten minutes were up we did double unders for 2 minutes.  I just did regular single unders.  We were supposed to keep track of our rounds and write our scores on the white board.  I know I got over 4 rounds done but lost track when the pain started to set in.  I forgot to count my single unders.  I was just trying to not die and not puke on the floor.  SIGH...............one of these days I'll get my crap together.   ;)

After the WOD we did some deep stretches which felt great and then I headed home.  I've noticed it takes me a good hour to completely cool down after these workouts.  I still feel super sick to my stomach and food in general just sounds disgusting.  I'm hoping by Friday I'm back to normal and can kick some WOD ass.  hehe

What I ate today:

Breakfast~ 1/2 egg, 1 slice of bacon

post workout~1/3 protein shake

If I can stomach it, I'll have a salad with chicken and avocado for lunch and spaghetti (w spaghetti squash) for dinner. 

Thank you Mother, can I have another?

I can't believe my 1st week at CrossFit is over!!!  I made it!  I'm still alive!  What was just a dream a mere three weeks ago has turned into a full fledged reality.  I love it!  Bootcamp workout number three was great.  I didn't puke and I was able to (almost) keep up with the others.  I'm pretty sure our bootcamp workouts aren't as hard as regular WOD's (workout of the day) but I'm not sure. 

I realized today as I walked into the box that I wasn't as nervous, I was starting to feel a tiny bit at home and it wasn't such a scary place.  Megan saw me almost immediately and yelled out my name and clapped her hands.  She was happy I came back.  She hasn't seen me since my puke fest on day one.  It felt good to have someone happy to have me there. 

We started with a warm up of....you guessed it......SQUATS.  Oh lordy lordy......I'm starting to think they'll be the death of me.  After squats we got dumbbells and did some exercises where we held them at our shoulders, elbows pointing forward, we'd do a quick, mini squat and jump up and thrust the dumbbells straight above our heads.  I can't remember the name for them.  I didn't get the lightest dumbbells, which were 5 lbs each, but I did get the 8 lb ones.  One guy got 40 lb dumbells!!  We did exactly 372.8 thrusts.....well......it felt like it.  Afterwards we got out the rowing machines.  Those looked nice and easy.  I'm starting to realize quickly that there isn't ANYTHING nice and easy when it comes to CrossFit.

We got a short lesson on form and then we were told to keep our rowing at a certain speed.  They all have digital monitors on them so we could see how fast we were going.  Derek yelled at us to go faster.  We held that new speed for a couple minutes and then he told us to go even faster!  My upper arms and shoulders felt like they were going to burst into flames.  Sweat was pouring down the sides of my face and my left heel kept slipping out of my shoe with each thrust.  It's amazing how itchy dripping sweat can be when you can't take the time to wipe it away.  After killing ourselves on the rowing machines we were able to take a quick water break. 

As the group finished our 1 minute break we were told to get into teams of two.  A nice girl ( I wish I knew her name) offered to be in my group.  We had to row 250 meters, then jump off the machine and do 12 dumbbell thrusts before the other person could start rowing.  We each did 3 sets of both exercises and we raced all the other teams.  Derek pulled me aside and told me to do 200 meters on the rowing machine.  He didn't say, if I wanted to, he told me that's what he wanted me to do, so I followed his instruction.  I'm glad I did.  That workout pushed me literally to my very limit.  I think that if I had to row that extra 50 meters all three rounds I wouldn't have been able to finish.  Our team came in last, but only by about 5 seconds.  Everyone cheered everyone else on and when we all finished we  gave each other high fives. 

I felt so powerful tonight.  I was living my dream.  I was following through with something.  I was DOING IT!!!  Afterwards I met up with my sister.  She lives several hours away and I only see her a few times a year.  We met up and we went to a Mexican restaurant so I could eat since I was famished.  I ordered a taco salad with no shell, no cheese, and no sour cream.  I asked for guacamole and salsa instead and got shredded beef for my protein.  It was so delicious.  I washed it down with an ice water and felt like a million bucks.  I didn't eat any chips and salsa and it wasn't as hard as I thought it would be to say no.  I got a workout in, and went out to eat without cheating, what a great day!    I'm looking forward to having 3 days off to rest and just enjoy my family during the Easter holiday.  I'll blog again after next Monday's workout.  =)


What I ate today:
breakfast~2 eggs, 2 slices of bacon, 1 cup fresh pineapple
snack~1 square of dark chocolate and 1 TBS almond butter
lunch~paleo banana pancakes
dinner~taco salad