Treading softly
A no-sweat perspective clears the haze
I have the results from my quarterly blood test. I’m pleased to announce everything’s still good.
As usual, I met afterward with the oncologist, who asked how I felt. This treatment gives everyone fatigue, and it must exhaust oncologists to hear about it. Dr. Rathkopf surprised me: she sent me to the integrative medicine department for a turnaround.
As a sometime runner and situational vegetarian1 I came into the IM consultation feeling unimpeachable. The adviser crossed everything out. She wanted mindful walks, fitness classes, more protein, and yoga.
Anyone who exercises knows it’s like boarding a rush-hour train — willful and oblivious are job requirements. Running against the fatigue was grinding me down, but cancer makes an example of slackers, so I kept hitting my hills.
The gentle measures Lillian proposed offended my inner New Yorker. She insisted I’d be back on the hills if I gave gentleness a chance. I signed up for online fitness, yoga, and meditation. I adjusted my menu. And I bought walking shoes.
A few weeks later I’d found those gentle measures had lifted me up. With spring's prodding, I’m taking in the lawns, flowers, birds, and squirrels and feeling a serendipitous edge of joy.
Kathy’s a vegetarian and I go along.
Here's a link to the study that Len referenced in our High Risk/Recurrent/Advanced PCa Group on Monday https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.1177/15347354231162584.
Based on a very small population size (n=24), the study conducted at Brown University amongst women with cancer related fatigue compared gentle exercise in the form of cancer specific Qigong to a non-cancer specific strength and aerobic exercise, plant-based nutrition and health/psycho-education program over 10 weeks. The participants were randomized in a single blind study.
There was no significant difference between fatigue improvement between groups suggesting a potential equivalence or non-inferiority of interventions, which could not be definitively established due to small sample size.
I so enjoyed your post. Just as our illness or disease can creep up to us, so to can our improvements be equally slow and minuscule. Only with the passage of time are we able to see or detect a difference. To be truthful, I would have loved to hear more from your "inner New Yorker". Perhaps a little more "HEY, I'm walking here !!" . mason