Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Major Milestones

March bas brought me two major milestones thus far:

1. March 17th 2009 was the one year anniversary of the mammogram that detected my cancer.

2. I finally completed a race longer than 5 miles at a sub ten minute pace!(Freehold St. Pat's 10 miler - 1:36)

So many dates coming up that I look forward to; mostly being able to say,"One year ago today I..." such as the diagnosis of my cancer, surgery dates,etc. for each day that passes is another day of me being closer to being "cured"!

I am going to be part of Team Aquaphor for the More 1/2 marathon. This team is for women runners who have had or has breast cancer. I was contacted (as a team member) about appearing on the CBS daytime show, "The Doctors", but filming coincides with my vacation. There goes my 15 minutes of fame!

I am watching President Obama's news conference as I type this. I am sensitive to the need for affordable health care so curious to see what pans out. I do not envy this man, he has a heavy burden to bear yet I am optimistic that the good ol' USA will pull out of the morass we are in. I am all for the wiring of health care and not only because I work in e-commerce. Going from floor to floor of the same hospital and having to complete the same paperwork gets a bit redundant. Carrying ones medical records from appt. to appt. also gets old pretty fast. Have I mentioned how happy I am to have those days behind me?

Sunday, March 15, 2009

Spring Approaches

Another Sunday afternoon where I sit recovering from this morning's kickboxing class; what a workout! I feel good now but I just know I am going to wake up tomorrow and feel muscles I never knew I had!

I have found that while I run (Did the NYRR8000 yesterday in Central Park) I lost a lot of "core strength" last year. Doing things like push-ups and sit-ups are down right painful. But in a good way as odd as that may seem. Exercise certainly helped me feel better throughout my treatment, however limited it may have been. I can't even recollect that feeling that chemo gave me of absolute exhaustion. And, that is indeed a very good thing!

Lots of things to look forward to in the next few weeks, vacation, family gatherings, weddings and best of all Spring arrives officially this Friday. Winter will finally be behind us. As it leaves I will be waving it "goodbye" wholeheartedly as I gaze over the crocus flowers poking there way through the dirt along with the beginnings of tulips and daffodils. I am looking forward to much warmer days. I am also hopeful that this week will bring me renewed energy; the time change last weekend seemed to really do me in!

I had the chance to reconnect with some friends from high school this past week. We had been conversing via "Facebook" (that's a whole other post in itself!)and realized we all still live near each other. Technology is a wonderful thing.

Speaking of technology, I have my 3 month follow-up from radiation treatment this week. Everything looks okay to me; all that remains from my treatment is a very faint "tan line". My surgical scar is hardly noticeable (Thank you Dr. Shapiro!) and even my port scar has faded. Tuesday marks the one year anniversary of the mammogram the changed my life. I end this entry with a question I will forever ask my friends and family - have you had your mammogram this year? Happy St. Patrick's Day everyone!

Sunday, March 8, 2009

Daylight Savings Time

Today is my favorite day of the year. No, it is not my birthday, nor my anniversary. It isn't the first day of summer and as you know it isn't Christmas. However at 2am this morning we all "fell forward" and changed time bringing another hour of light to the evening. This is what makes it my favorite day of the year. It is the promise of warm summer nights to come and spending time outside.
The darkness of winter comes to an end and I for one am so looking forward to enjoying this spring and more so this summer; I need to reclaim the summer I lost last year.

I had a nice weekend. The weather was warm , a tease, spring floating on the breeze. I started the day with a run with Jess and then had lunch with my friend Jen, a survivor herself and greatly enjoyed out time together. I followed this with dinner out with two Jessica's. We did "sushi and a movie" - we saw "Milk", which was great. I spent Sunday working out and puttering about in my garden. Capped the evening with dinner with my aunt Lorna and her family. Her son Michael was home from BU for spring break.

Greg had spent the weekend in Beantown with my brothers partaking in the now annual "Boys Beer Crawl". They actually started at the Sunset Grill and Tap, the very place I worked my junior and senior year at BU. Seems everyone had a very good time and was basically functional today!

Can St. Patrick's Day 2009 really be only 9 days away?

Sunday, March 1, 2009

March Comes In Like A Lion

It is Sunday evening, the 1st of March and we are expecting to wake to a winter wonderland. Yes, the dreaded double whammy - Monday morning and SNOW!!! The Weather channel is predicting we will get anywhere between 8 - 14". Lovely. Just when I was thinking the worst of the cold and grey days were behind us.

Got my butt kicked today in a great kickboxing class. I quickly realized how much stronger my right arm is than my left and how much I need to incorporate upperbody and ab work into my exercise routine! I was dripping with sweat and I may not be able to breathe tomorrow but it was a lot of fun.

I have been contemplating hairstyles lately. I cannot decide if I should stay short and grow it all out. Short sure is easy! On the flip side I still catch myself in the mirror and jump - it takes a moment to register, "oh, yeah - that's me!". I guess it is a constant reminder of my battle of 2008 which makes me think I need to grow it out. I am leaning towards keeping it short for the summer and then growing it out in the fall. Only time will tell!

I am looking forward to next weekend which brings my favorite day of the year: the end of Daylight Savings Time!