I was wondering what people experiences of exercise during treatment? . I am currently having chemo and still recovering from a lobectomy (i now only have one lung and a little left of the other). At moment I am walking 20 to 30mins a day, it makes me short of breath and kicks my butt. However once resting my heart rate returns to normal as I s till have my fitness prior to surgery. What are safe levels of exercise that o should be doing? I would appreciate any input. Thanks Rubes ... View more

What an exhausting weekend and its only sat, I am totally buggered. Today both Dan and I are "recovering" from a massive emotional drain - yes that's right a huge ass fight. For months we have filled our life cup with constant stress, anxiety, fear, pain, treatment for cancer, everything cancer and more cancer. Our cups have been full but no time or energy to empty the stress. So its no wonder a stress driven fight happened,. We said stupid things, we brought up the past and even each others families. Oh my it was a pretty mess for sure, Dan leaving the house (for hrs) claiming to never return. Thankfully he did return, we apologised and spoke before heading off to bed to a very sleepless night. Although fights are emotional, draining and damaging we realised its ok to want time out and to take it. Otherwise we are letting each other down and ourselves too. We will always be faced with fear and for a while cancer challenges so we best find some ways to unwind -vwalking each day just ain't going to cut it..... "Stress is the trash of modern life - we all generate it but if you don't dispose of it properly it will pile up and overtake your life". Danzae Pace ... View more

Well prior to my cancer I was exercising 5 days a wk, enjoying a fairly fit life. After my diagnosis I cut back to walking everyday but still chugged on. Then I had surgery which knocked the wind right out of me (ha ha pardon the pun). I slowly got on my feet after my surgery but stopped exercise (recovery and pain consumed my life). It had been 3 months and I decided enough was enough, it was time to let the healing of my feet return. So it had been 8 days of daily walking and I'm feeling a whole world better. Don't get me wrong I cough, splitter, sound like I'm dying and a 30min walk puts my heart rate over 120 beats per minute. Luckily my fitness still remains and within 10mins of resting my heart rate is back to 75. Slowly I will build up the exercise regime and allowing my feet to do the healing. Oh I forgot to mention I am participating in relay for life in 5wks, so this walking is important in more ways than one. I am doing this walk to fight back, to have fun and obviously to help raise money (so far I have $400 in sponsors). I only hope my one lung participates and allows me to to do my fair share of walking in the relay. Let's all cross our fingers its a successful event :) ... View more

I went to a wedding on wkend of a lovely friend I met while studying at uni. It was great to see her after around 2 yrs since our last visit. As its natural at a wedding we were seated together in clusters of appropriate similarities....I was seated with other young adults from various parts of australia (dan had a wkend to himself and my best Andrea looked after me). So Andrea and I were chatting away when meals started to arrive. And that's whe the fun began u may say.... Due to chemo I shared with the bride my eatin needs and what I couldn't eat. One main had ham and soft cheese (this one was not for me). The caterers were very careful to ensure my meat was well cooked and that I got the correct meals in an alternate drop menu. By now the other table members were looking confused to why all the fuss over me. So I said "i am undergoing chemo atm abd need to be very careful with what I eat". It was amazing to see the faces and reactions around the table : the half drunk guy asking a million questions (which I happily answered), the young carefree lady (who couldn't even keep eye contact with me), the lady who looked at me with fear and sad eyes for the rest of the night and 2 people who did not speak to me again after this conversation. What struck me was the drunk guy saying : "you are dealing so well with this, laughing and having a great time". My response was " what else do you do, give up and die?" For me it is simple: you fight cancer, you laugh when u can (its the best medicine) and u do not let the cancer have the upper hand! "Attitude is a little thing that makes a big difference" ~Winston Churchill ... View more