I attempted to run today and my legs felt like two solid cement columns. I’ve been working on building up my walks around the neighborhood and on our walk this morning, Ty wanted to race. I was feeling pretty good so I thought I would give it a try. I couldn’t believe how little my legs could do. It’s amazing how quickly you can lose muscle that you’ve built up over a lifetime. Later in the day, I hit the elliptical trainer for a slow, easy 20 minutes. I’m obviously going to have to build my strength up slowly.

I also ventured back into cooking today and made both lunch and dinner with greens from the garden. It feels so good to eat healthy food again. I’ve worked my way back to vegetables and beans and all that roughage I had to stay away from for the last week or so in the hospital. Eating well now makes me feel like I’m healing my body.

Food was actually a big subject for me today. I think I mentioned previously that I’m reading a book called “Crazy, Sexy, Cancer.” In this book, based on the author’s extensive research and work with dietitians who specialize in cancer, her recommendation is to eat an entirely vegan diet or mostly raw vegetables. I can follow the science and the logic behind her reasoning, but I wasn’t completely sold on the idea. For comparison sake, I started reading another book that I grabbed called “Anti-Cancer.” This book is amazing – I’ve read half of it in one day. This book promotes a more balanced diet approach with recommendations for certain foods that should be plentiful in a cancer patient’s diet. Interestingly enough, the prescribed “diet” is very similar to how I already eat and ate before my diagnosis. But things I was doing already, such as drinking green tea, I apparently wasn’t doing enough of. The book recommends 3 cups a day. I usually just have one. This research is fascinating to me. Dr. Oz even did a show about cancer foods today. What has been shown is that diet can have an enormous impact on cancer treatment, recovery and remission.

I’m off for my bone marrow test tomorrow and eager to speak with the doctor about what comes next. With fewer fevers, my emotional state has improved greatly over the last two days. I am feeling revitalized, savoring the time with the family and reading as much as I can about how to battle cancer for life. I’m not ready to go back to treatment yet, but my inner strength is back up where it needs to be. I’m kicking this thing’s ass no matter what I have to do and I will be looking back over this experience with a smile on my face in a few short months.