Man on the Run

 

I don't have a band and I really don't play any instruments proficiently, so I can't be a Band on the Run. 

It's been a crazy couple weeks since last I posted. Mostly just with work life though. It's been mostly quiet on the treatment front, which I think is what we want. 

Today I officially completed my 8th and final treatment, which finishes Round 2 of my treatments. Originally I thought this was the end of Round 1, but the nurse helped me understand all the scheduling and rounds today and each month is equivelent to a round. Next week I will start Round 3, as well as meet with the doctor and another round of lab work to see how everything is progressing. 

Round 3 mostly differs because the treatments begin spreading out. I will move to every other week rather than every week, which I'm definitely excited about. 

On the personal front, the big news I alluded to, but never posted was that I'm finally back to running. I can't tell you how much I've missed this. Admittedly, my runs suck right now. I'm used to going out to do a min. of a 5K each day. Right now I'm just at half that. But it's all a slow process and I don't want to over do it. Running is a huge part of my life and the last several months made it really hard to do with all of the lack of energy, sickness and lack of drive. My goal is to get to a 5k by the end of April which I know is very doable. 

And maybe more importantly, it's helped with my mental health. Running is a time for me to shut off all the messages and emails, hit a playlist and just concentrate on the run. Clear my head and get ready for the day. 

And this week was extra special as it was the first time since starting up that I did two runs back to back, one on Monday and one this morning. Before that weather and trying to ease back into it stopped me from consistency. I think my running partner Ruby might be more excited about this than I have been.  

I'm hoping soon it'll be nice to start cycling again as well where I can rotate doing some running and then do some cycling on my off days. My ultimate goal is to get a half marathon in again running this year and to get a Century ride done on the bike (100 miles cycling in one ride.)

I've been pretty lazy on my diet lately so I know that's something I really need to get back on. I've honestly thought about going keto again to help me lose some weight, but also I've briefly read that it helps a lot with cancer patients. I want to do some full research on it before trying it again, but I need to start avoiding all the sugar I can. 

I've also started doing some acupuncture along with all my treatments. The acupuncture definitely helps with some of the aches and pains. There aren't a lot of those anymore, but the few I do, it definitely seems to help. 

If you ever need acupuncture or chiropractic care I highly recommend giving Wills Chiropractic a chance. The doctors are fun and amazing and Stephanie will greet you when you come in. 

While I haven't had too many side effects from treatments, I have developed a few minor ones. This is the second week in a row I've become very flushed in the face later in the day after treatment. 

The other is a pretty significant rash on stomach where they inject me. Today when I showed it to the nurses, I got a strange look and the first nurse called a more experienced nurse in to look at it. I got the 'that's not normal' feeling for sure and they both said exactly that. Later Dr. Covut actually made his way over to look at it and was also concerned as this isn't a normal rash they see at the injection point. The good news, it doesn't itch, bother me in any way or cause me any issues, but they were definitely more than concerned and want me to monitor it closer. A normal rash from the shots would be about the size of a quarter, but what I have is more of like a sprawling, spiderwebbing foot long red rash mark on my side. Hopefully it continues to be nothing much. 

But as I sit here flushed in the face about to get the kids ready for bed I'm just thankful for an amazing team of caregivers, an amazing family and friends and community that has done so much for us already. I was really hesitant to accept help in the form of a meal train because "I can make my own meals." But one of the realizations that Stephanie made me see was that it's not just about getting a free meal. The meals allow us to save money on our grocery bill and allows us more family time. It truly means a lot to all the families that have helped us out. We are working on getting you all personal thank you cards, so please do not feel like we've been shirking that. It's been very busy in the studio, something else I'm truly grateful for.