Week 22-24 - Thursday 10th September

Hello friends!

Thank you for stopping by and reading another update.  

A couple of weeks have passed since my last post, and progress has been slow, but there's been good progress.  However, I've been getting myself frustrated as I've felt I should be further along than I am.  I look well, but inside I'm still recovering.  This is me, post home work out this week.  My dog was glad I had finished so she could snooze!

On reflection, I've got a hidden illness.  I may look fine, but I'm still recovering from my body taking a battering.  It's almost 2 months since I finished my brutal treatment, I really shouldn't be so hard on myself.  Before anyone messages me, I'm being sensible, and listening to my body.  I'm not pushing myself so much that I'm going to make myself unwell.

I went for a walk by myself, which is probably the first time this year, to a local woodland spot.  Normally this walk wouldn't trouble me, but this is moderately challenging for a normal person.  It has steep walks to and from the beauty spot.  As I know it well, I know what I was up against, and where I could stop for a breather.  The walk would probably take about 35 minutes, but it took me an hour.  I didn't rush myself, and after each tough section, I gave myself a breather.  Trees are great for leaning on when you're out of puff.  I felt great, but tired afterwards.  I wasn't able to do anything else following my walk, but that would now be my benchmark.

We also visited the beach for the first time since January I think.  The beach tends to be a place that perks me up, even in bad weather during the winter months especially.  We decided to stick to a familiar place, and it was much busier than we're used to (as we don't tend to come during the peak season), but most people were sensible, and kept their distance.  We didn't stay too long, as I wanted to do some walking that wasn't at home, but was relatively easy going.

I'm still having "chemo brain" as mentioned in the last blog.  I'm trying to do puzzles to help with that.  I'm not sure if it's getting better, but it's defiantly not detrimental.  For the last week and a half I've been also getting bloated after eating.  I mentioned it to my GP when I had my telephone appointment, and he recommended I do a food diary.  He will then check in with me in a month. 

The main reason for my telephone appointment with my GP, was to discuss HRT.  Not the old F1 team, but hormone replacement therapy.  This is due to having an early menopause from cancer treatment.  Not having HRT would mean osteoporosis, but there are also risks, like blood clots.  However, I asked my doctor what to look for, if I were to experience this, and that has reassured me.  There are different ways to take HRT; tablets, patches and gels.  However, he wanted to also let me know that there's been difficulty getting these in.  He's not sure if it's due to Brexit, or something else, but wanted to make me aware.  He's booked me in to have a blood test, just to rule out anything else, and then pick up another call with me next week to finalise things.

Other than that, I've not really done much.  Most of the time has been spent at home building up my stamina, and slowly building my confidence to going outside.

As always, stay safe, stay well and look after each other x x