Exercising the Demons!

Man, it's been a few days.  And, while I realize some might jump to the negative conclusions (oh no, things aren't good!), it's actually quite the opposite.  The past few days, I've felt great, have kept myself busy, and have just really not had the time to post.  To recap the week:

Working at Runners Plus went well!  I handled a full day of work + work, with probably even more energy than I had at the end of last semester!  Taught my physiology class for first time (had missed last week on port-insertion day).  So another awkward "telling" but overall, a good group.

Physically, I've felt normal, which is great.  Emotionally, I've felt okay.  It's just a bit of a heavy weight at times.  Right now, I'm still in that early stage... "I just heard..."  "How are you doing?" "I'm so sorry".  Don't get me wrong, the outpouring of support is awesome.  I am truly amazed, literally every day. It just adds an extra layer onto a lot of things.  A walk down the hallway can be a stressful experience.  Take for instance the other day and this interaction with an administrator of mine:
Her: "Nice hair! I like it"
Me: "Yeah, thanks..." (not looking super thrilled)
Her: "Oh what, do you not like it?!"
Me: "Oh, no, I do, it's just that...yeah, I like it, well I cut it because..."
Cue 5 min conversation...

Might need to put an order in for this...

I understand I'm bringing some of this upon myself by telling people, by not going out to get a perfectly matching wig, by not really paying attention to whether the steri-strips above my port are showing or not.  But not telling people feels like running away, and I don't run away from fights.  In fact, I probably run to them.  

I think part of what I've been dealing with this week is that the rest of me, the non-cancer Anne, has finally gotten back into focus.  I haven't been Anne C-R-E-C-E-L-I-U-S, 09/06/85, Yes Anthem is my insurance.  I've been Dr. Crecelius (which still sounds weird) or Professor, or just Anne.  And I like that. It's refreshing.  At the same time, I am still Cancer Anne.  Bertha is still there, hopefully not going quite as strong, but still there.  So like a wise woman (my awesome mom) always says, it's all about BALANCE!

Have had this engraved reminder for awhile.

So it's a balancing act.  Balancing this current situation with my normal life.  I've said this before though.

On the fun/normal side of the balance sheet, have spent the past couple of nights having dinner with friends (including delicious yet predictable GI distress from here), thankfully recovering my phone that I had forgotten in a bathroom stall that some kind soul had turned in (hope that isn't chemo-brain sinking in), and getting all worked up about workplace frustrations that will remain vague and not described in this open-access forum.  

But on to what I actually was planning on discussing in this post, as the title may allude to...EXERCISE.  

I've been doing a pretty good job with this, even after the "Jillian kicked my ass and I was tired and sore for a whole day" day.  Skipped Tuesday because of the long day at workS, rode my bike to work yesterday, and today, ran (i.e. jogged) to work in the morning to ride my bike home and played tennis with my grad student advisee. It felt good, and I want to do it while I can.  

There's a lot of info out there on why exercise is good, and perhaps it's because I'm back in teacher-mode but I thought I'd share some real data on the subject.  

After a number of studies have been done on a topic, often times, in order to come to a consensus on "what does the scientific literature say", a meta-analysis is done.  As it may suggest if you're capable of using root words to help you process unfamiliar terms (a skill I desperately try to teach my students), this is a big-picture, overview examination of the topic, a systematic review of the literature.  

So, for a topic such as "what are the impacts of physical exercise on breast cancer patients and survivors", the results look like this:

What does this mean?  Exercise, in general, improves health-related quality of life.

More specifically:

Ok, great Professor Crecelius, but we just care about your health  health, like physically!  That comes first, even before quality of life, right? So is exercise good for that?!

Yes.  

I'll save you from the data.  

Similar meta-analyses show improved physical outcomes with exercise during treatment.  Specifically, regarding the drug doxorubicin, which can be cardiotoxic (doctor speak for not so great for the ol' ticker), a number of studies have shown that exercise can help prevent and or minimize negative side-effects of this treatment.  Current studies are also looking at whether exercise may even make the treatment more effective in terms of survival, success of killing cancer, etc.  

I always like to end my classes with a take-home message:

I think I'd rather have this one.