Before I was diagnosed, I loved lifting weights. At my strongest, I was lifting 3 times per week. I also loved walking. I would go early in the morning to my local cemetery, which is a really beautiful place, with walking paths. There, I would, at my best, walk 2-3 miles per day. I felt really good, and was getting even better.
I would have been happy to be able to walk just 1 mile per day after chemo, but everything seemed to hurt. I had heel spurs before being diagnosed with cancer, but they didn't bother me at all. But, after treatments, the heel spurs made walking so painful, I would just hobble along. The more I walked, the worse it got. I've even had heel spur surgery since my treatments ended, but it didn't help. In fact, if anything, my foot pain has doubled!
I decided last week that I would buy an elliptical machine - thinking that perhaps if I exercised on one of those, and my foot stayed on one place, I would be able to keep exercising. My husband was, of course, skeptical. I'm always looking for new and improved ways to exercise (most of them I drop when I don't see instant results!). So, I don't blame him for wondering if I'd stick to the elliptical. I found a $1500 machine for $350 - used - on KSL.COM, and bought it. When we finally got it downstairs to my workout room, I was super excited to start. I feel an obligation to prove to my husband (who doesn't believe this will last), that I'm going to do this!
Here is my new baby...
(Is that Kara, you ask? Well... no. But, it will be soon!)
(I straightened and cleaned my unfinished basement workout room - vacuuming, rearranging, dusting all the equipment. I borrowing my son's speakers, so I could listen to my iPod. I put a shelving unit in the room for all the free weights, music equipment, weight-lifting gloves, etc. It is AWESOME!!!)
Four days ago, I hopped on the elliptical for the first time. I plugged in my iPod, turned on the fan, and started... at the 1 minute mark, the (lack of) muscles in my legs were BURNING! OW! I stopped for a few seconds, and then started again. One more minute went by and I had to take another breather (GEEZ!). This went on until I thought I was going to die (at the 5 minute mark)! Yep - I walked 5 whole minutes. Unbelievable, right?! I've done that for the past four days, adding 5 more minutes for the last two days. This is TOUGH. But, I refuse to prove my husband right. And, boy, is he excited. He's so happy I'm actually using the machine, and that I'm going to start feeling stronger. So am I - I can tell this is going to take a long time to get back into shape, but I'm willing to put the 5 minutes per day in! Haha! Just kidding. Hopefully I'll be able to eventually walk on the machine for 45 minutes.
I'm telling you about this pathetic attempt to bounce back from chemo because I want you to know that, wherever you are in the whole cancer journey, and no matter how awful you feel, there will come a time when you will be happy to be able to work on getting back in the groove.
Good luck to all of you! I'll keep on moving!
-Kara
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