Exercise - Working Back to it After or During Treatment

2ndtime - I was born and raised in L.A., went to college in San Luis Obispo, graduated and moved to Sacramento and met my DH a few years later. I was a Californian for the first 27 years of my life.  DH was in the military for 28 years and we were stationed in Merced for 2 years, from 1990-92.  I still consider myself a Californian who has lived in a bunch of other places, lol!  We lived in the far east, New York, Washington state, several parts of Virginia.  We spent 9 years in Washington, D.C., and have been in FL for 7 years.  DH retired from active duty in '09, but stayed in his same job, so we are here for the forseeable future.

curveball - I first read your post and thought you were planting animals instead of annuals - maybe I need some more sleep too!

gritgirl - how are you feeling?

Gritgirl, I resemble your last comment! Been procrastinating getting out the door to go walking (seems like I procrastinate getting out the door for most things any more), then tired after 15 minutes, told myself I couldn't use that excuse. Pushed myself and just returned from a 55-minute walk (looking @ that, like a minute for every year?). Slower walk than usual, but so what?



Thanks SpecialK, for some reason thought it was more northern CA. You really are a CA (not to be confused with Cali) girl! You've also seen a lot of the US.



Curveball, I often sit while gardening, seems smarter than injuring my lower back. I guess I'm a lazy gardener too, when I do garden which isn't often. This is a reminder I need to get rid of weeds, but don't want to pull them out.

SpecialK, it's amazing how technology brings us together. Remember well back before we had PC's and the like, after I was diagnosed, stayed up all night worrying & crying till I could talk with someone on the phone from ACS and NIH - they were on east-coast time. When you talk about the Y, reminds me of DD who teaches swimming and lifeguards at a Y with an indoor pool, something not common for southern CA. Those 4 years of aquatics, water polo and swim team paid off for her.

2ndtime - my kids were swimmers too - in northern Virginia, they swam summer league swimming outdoors from May-Sept., then in high school it was a winter indoor sport!  Weird, huh?  I just spent about an hour tonight talking with a former co-worker who is newly diagnosed - my family was starving for dinner and I just kept on talking - I am going to her first BS appt. with her on Friday, she is single and I don't want her to go alone.  I can't imagine what I would have done without the ability to come here and share with the people of BCO!

gritgirl - glad you could have dinner with a friend and that you can spend time with a counselor tomorrow, and also your onc.  I hope the appts. go smoothly.  About the positive side effects, hmmm - not sure on that one, lol!  Maybe we just have to decide that some are positive.

loneskier - I also do Livestrong!  I love it!  They just had the Relay for Life event last weekend and the Y asked all of the Livestrong participants to come and wear our yellow shirts and be part of their representation.  This was the first time I did the survivor's lap - it felt weird to be applauded for being alive, but I'll take it.  Our local Y has the absolutely nicest people and they have been very flexible with me - I have stopped and started a couple of times due to a lymphedema diagnosis and two surgeries.  This week is Livestrong week and they had us put cards on the wall listing the people we know who have been touched by cancer - my cards were a bit scary, lol - I had a lot of names and one card for the ladies of BCO.  Someone asked me what BCO was so I did a short commercial, lol!  My neighborhood has a small gym at our pool/tennis courts that my DH goes to, but when Livestrong is done in about 3 weeks I am not sure I will want to leave all the people!

gritgirl - I wish all the Ys around country could have Livestrong - it is so great!  I have a BS appt is a few minutes and I am dropping off Livestrong literature for them.  I am going with a newly diagnosed single friend to her first BS appt tomorrow and dropping off some there too!  I am like the Livestrong fairy!  My feet are not the same after Taxotere and Arimidex - I have a lot of cute shoes I will never wear again - makes me sad.  I was lucky that my foot neuropathy resolved almost completely, but my feet seem to be affected by swelling and joint pain from the AI.  The good news for me is that in Florida everyone wears flat sandals - so a pedicure is key, but D.C. is more cosmopolitan and people dress sharp!

gritgirl - have the attorneys conducted voir dire yet?  Do you know what kind of trial it is - is in criminal or civil court?  If you do, one of the best ways to be excused is to voice viewpoints so extreme that one or the other of the attorneys finds you undesirable.

gritgirl - oh poo!  Hopefully they will go fast and you will be done in time for everything else.  Become the jury foreman and crack the whip!

another load of boxes into the car. Tomorrow I plan to take them to the house and if I have time also pick up my bike from the shop and take it there. I think it will take only 5 or 6 more loads to empty the storage unit--woohooo! I had no until I moved out of my townhouse that I had so much stuff. But the house I'm moving into is only about 2/3 the size, so some of what's in the garage now is gonna hafta go! (Maybe I should join the "not quite a hoarder" thread too.)

I also test-drove a string trimmer I want to buy for yard work. I think perhaps my left arm was weakened by surgery--it can't be good, strengthwise, to have lymph nodes dug out of your armpit! I'm right-handed, so at least it wasn't my "good arm" that was affected, but even so that trimmer seemed much heavier than I remember from the one I had years ago. Or maybe I was just stronger then.  I will have to get a strap added so my strong side can take some of the weight, or I won't be able to use it for more than a few minutes at a time. There's one other brand of trimmer I want to check out...maybe it won't be quite so heavy. Onward!