Cancer/writing Journal #90

Here is a letter that I wrote to the New York Times in response to an article about stretching. If I had read it over more closely, I would not have used the word "still" twice within the stretch of five words. Oh, well. Next question is whether my writing a letter to the New York Times warrants its reproduction as a blog entry here. I'm a little on the edge on that one. But you got it. And it's pertinent enough to the theme of the blog. So you got it.

 Charlie Schaefer
 Chippewa Falls Wi
 I am a 73 year old man, diagnosed with stage 4 prostate cancer. I would like to create an environment uncongenial to the growth of cancer. Toward that end, among the things I do is spend 20-25 minutes most days in an infrared sauna. Rather than just sit there, I stretch. My sauna is not much bigger than an old time telephone booth so I am limited in what I can do but there's still plenty of stretches still available. I full blossom grimace while I'm doing them. Give those facial muscles a work out. Wrinkles are OK in my golden years but I would rather not be slack faced. I get a good sweat going and take a shower afterwards to get it off. I then turn the shower full blast cold. It's the worse thing that happens to my body most days for the first 5 or so seconds. Afterwards, just a very pleasant sense of relaxed well-being. And it's good to let cancer know who's boss.

Comments

  1. Jan CJanuary 8, 2023 at 2:23 PM

    Fun! Why not post it here? Seems appropriate. And informative.

    Did they publish it?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. charlieschaeferJanuary 9, 2023 at 6:15 AM

      Yes, I suppose. I am sensitive to an appearance of bragging or whatever. And it's not like their criteria for publishing is so high. Not totally crazy and you are OK. Yes, they published this along with about 500 other letters about stretching. Some are very interesting and some are kind of pointless.

      Delete
    2. charlieschaeferJanuary 11, 2023 at 8:25 PM

      According to one of the letters, breathing is the most important part of stretching. I'm trying to remember that. Deep, fill up your lungs, empty your lungs, in through the nose, out through the mouth. The air inside the confined, sort of air-tight space of the sauna surely is not ideal. Still, good to do it.

      Another letter suggested that touching your toes is really not a good idea unless you've been doing it regularly over an extended period of time. You will easily injure your back by trying it. I can't do that anyway in my sauna and never was much for touching my toes but now I have a good reason not to try any more.

      Delete

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