Cancer Journal #29 April 7

 I have more to say about my body.  I have lost 25 lbs. since my diagnosis in November.  I don't quite get it.  I've always overeaten;  big heaping platefuls of whatever which I finish up to the last bit.  The difference is that the heaping plate has boiled cabbage on it without a generous portion of red meat.  It's been quite a while since I've eaten red meat and I've been fine without it.  I still eat some chicken.  Also, since late February when I consulted with Dr Gering at Spero Wellness, I have pretty well limited my eating to an eight hour window in a 24 hour period.  No eating for several hours before I go to bed.

Anyway, I'm skinnier now.  My skin has not snapped back from the last time I weighed 174 lbs.  A generous bunch of it on my upper arms gathered in fine wrinkles that looks a lot like what happens with old people.  It's hard to recognize as my own and startling whenever I see it.  But, I refuse to be troubled by it.  I will turn 72 in a couple of weeks.  Absolutely no reason why I should not have a body that looks like it's 72.  Shame on me if I think otherwise.  But it is surprising.  

My muscles are not withering away.  Jake, my fitness trainer, keeps a record of my repetitions, times or whatever the performance indicator  is on the equipment I am working on.  It has not gone down since my diagnosis and treatment.  Mostly it's up, albeit on a gradual slope.  That's puzzling since my treatment has been to turn off my testosterone which should make me weaker.  Jake doesn't understand.  Maybe testosterone is overrated.  Maybe there's extraordinary power in my mother's message from beyond the grave, "Do it even if you don't want to."

Beyond fitness training, my niece and I walk our dogs every morning for something over a mile.  It takes 20 minutes, down the street, through open prairie under high power lines and then through woods ending up at her place.  We let them off the leash in the woods,  retrieving them with a treat in her back yard.  Beyond that, I recently took up stretching which is hard but feels good.  Jake made a video of stretches he has worked up.  I watch them as I do mine.  I've heard that stretching is the single best thing the elderly can do.  It has a cascading effect on all other activity.

I'm fortunate that the only abiding pain I have is in my left shoulder which is no more than moderate and in my right knee.  That has been diagnosed as a torn ACL.  If I were a Green Bay Packer, they'd surgically repair it and I would miss the season.  For me, they advise that I put a wrap on it when I walk.  I do that and it helps.  It is the thing that would keep me from walking five miles or more.  Other than all that, I'm just fine.  Still no cancer symptoms.