Tag: exercise

Off To The Gym

I was a member of a gym until lockdown, when it closed, and never went back because of the discovery of my brain metastasis and the debilitating effects of the medication. As a result of the nausea, loss of appetite and tiredness, I didn’t exercise for a long time and lost a lot of weight, mostly muscle. Over the last year, I have been feeling a lot better and getting out and walking a bit and riding a bike, but I have hardly put back on any weight and my lack of strength is really noticeable.

So when my son came to visit and wanted a gym so he could work out, I bit the bullet and went along too. We cycled to the gym, which was a challenge in itself seeing as how it is across a bit of a valley, so half way is easy and half tough, especially coming back after a workout. I renewed my membership and have given myself the target of going 3 times a week to start.

My first workouts have been fairly gentle, using much lighter weights than in the past. There is no point overdoing it and I am in this for the long haul. One of the major problems with ageing is loss of strength (I am 80) and I am very keen to counteract that. The other thing I want to achieve is to correct the loss of weight with muscle rather than flab.

I do not know what effect this will have on the cancer, and I probably won’t know for a while. It is not likely to show any effect on my scans this month, but it will be interesting to see whether there is any improvement or regression in subsequent scans. For now, the only thing that matters is that I feel good with just a few workouts behind me. The medication still makes me feel a bit tired, but I certainly feel more energised after a workout. I shall record progress as time goes on.

Feeling Good

I haven’t posted for a while but thought it worth noting that I have been off the meds for about a month and feeling quite good as a result. As I noted in my post of 8 July, I agreed with the oncologist that I would suspend my combined therapy of Everolimus and Lenvatinib because the nausea, lack of appetite and lack of energy were taking their toll on my quality of life.

As I result I am feeling a lot better. I am eating well, though haven’t yet put much weight back on – only a couple of kilos. And I have a bit more energy as a result of which I have been exercising a bit more. But I need to increase my exercise further. We have had rather grey damp weather recently which has hindered my preferred exercise of cycling. We have an indoor exercise bike but that is not much fun. It certainly doesn’t compare to being out in the fresh air enjoying God’s creation.

Enjoying life again

And I find myself getting back into things that I was too lethargic to enjoy. I have a keen interest in classic racing bicycles and have several in various states of completion and restoration. These bikes have been languishing untouched for many months, as has my website about these bikes. I am in the process of redesigning the website which had got rather outdated and not good on mobile devices. And I am back to restoring and rebuilding some really good classic racing bikes, I am eager to ride them and photograph them for the website.

Next Steps

The fact that I have been off the Everolimus and Lenvatinib doesn’t mean that I have been ignoring the cancer. I haven’t done a full detox but I have made sure that I minimise my exposure to toxic materials. It is not generally recognised that whatever you put on your skin is to some degree absorbed by the body. I have even heard it said that you shouldn’t put on you skin anything that you wouldn’t eat. And even that eating these things is safer because your digestive system will eliminate some of it, whereas what is absorbed through the skin goes directly into your tissues and blood. So it is prudent to limit use of cosmetics and things like anti-perspirants.

The other part of my approach has been my diet. Cutting out foods that are high in sugar is a must, and something that I had been a bit careless about in the past. Also cutting down on meat and on processed food and increasing the consumption of healthy, and often raw, vegetables. I bought a blender and make smoothies with celery and other cancer-fighting vegetables.

I have also been reading up on the supplements recommended by doctors who specialise in the holistic treatment of cancer and am taking a number of those to supplement my diet.

Next Scans

I am due my next scans in a couple of weeks and hoping and praying that the results will be good enough that I can avoid going back on the medication. The big test of course is the size of my brain stem tumour. Two scans ago it showed a good reduction. Last scan it showed no change. I don’t know whether to interpret that as the meds becoming less effective, or whether to interpret that as the meds doing a good job stopping the tumour from growing. The next scans will show the effects of going off the meds and living a healthier life (though I recognise there is still more that I can do in that regard).