First Day Back

OK...so it's been six months since I last stepped foot into the gym, but today I did it!  I've been thinking that I needed to get back into a workout routine before my fatigue totally took over and I would never go back.  

This morning when I decided that today was the day, I, as usual, felt exhausted.  I could have easily talked myself into putting it off for another day.  Before my diagnosis, I'd often go for a workout then come home and take a short nap.  Today I decided to try something different.  I took the nap before going to workout.  

It felt great to be there again.  Although I saw familiar faces,  there were some machines, etc. that have been moved around since I was last there, so I had to search for my favorites.  

 

Surprisingly, I got teary-eyed as I started my workout.  I was so grateful to be able to be there.  I have been consistently hopeful that I would get strong enough to return to the gym, but after months of dizziness, nausea, vomiting, fatigue and generally feeling like crap, even my "pollyanna" hope was taking a hit.  In the few months since I started Xalkori, most of the side effects have eased or gone away.  Now it's really only the dizziness [which goes away 1-2 hours after taking the pill] and fatigue that bother me, and who knows if the fatigue is because of Xalkori or because I have stage 4 lung cancer.  Early on, back in December, a prominent oncologist told me that if I "let the fatigue take over, it will take over."  He made me feel like I could help myself by staying active.  

With that in mind, I put in an hour today, and plan to get into a regular routine.  The body-portion of my mind-body-spirit triad has really taken a beating, not only from cancer, but also from all the medications, x-rays, etc.  I'm hoping that I'll be able to work on my body again so that all parts of my triad can be strong again.  

Wish me luck...