Biking the Blue Ridge Challenge

I'm planning to do this ride on Monday (labor day):
http://bikewashington.org/routes/bluerdg/index.htm
NO idea if I can bike up that godawful mountain at ANY pace, but hey, I can walk it. (Then lessee how I get DOWN it....)

A lot of people seem to think that the way to expand lung capacity is to ride hills. So..... here are some hills! The women I'm going with are planning to ride at a moderate pace -- that's why I'm attempting it. Wish me luck!!!

Will tell about the hot flash/acupuncture/herb progress in Ithaca next time. Now I've gotta get to bed.

melatonin & onc problem

I've been sleeping better for the past week. It's like a small miracle -- there suddenly doesn't seem to be a hot flash waiting for me every single time I wake up. I think it might be the melatonin. I'd bought a bottle and tried it once and decided it did nothing. I've always had sleep issues, but they were not helped by melatonin. But now I have new sleep issues, and maybe they are....

I googled it, and I see that it's an endocrine hormone, and that it lowers body temp (that's why I think it might be what's making the difference; my sleep problems now are all about tempterature....) I also read that it might have antioxidant properties, and interact positively with the immune system, and help with cancer and HIV. Also it raises prolactin levels, lowers FSH levels, and the effects of long term use (>3 months) are not known.

ANyone know anything about these things? I've been having hot sweaty sleep disturbances for a year and a half, which I fully expect to continue the 3.5 remaining years that I'm going to be using tamoxifen (and who knows what side effects the aromatase inhibitor I'm to take for the NEXT 5 years will bring?) I was thinking I have perhaps found the solution -- but pretty sure I'd need to continue taking it for the 3.5 years -- if not 8.5. And HEY, it might help other things. Or not. ANyone know?

I wish I could get in touch with my onc to ask him. I wish he did email. At the moment I've been off the bisphosphonate for the past 2 weeks, because I got the shakes again (like when I was nauseous all the time -- the nausea was accompanied by the shakes. The combo made it feel like a low blood sugar reaction, but eating didn't help at all.) I don't know if he agrees with this decision, though, because I can't reach him. It's the only problem I have with this doctor but it's getting bigger...... and will get bigger still as the time between my appointments lengthens. I've asked about email before but I guess I have to make a serious case for it. Maybe I have to write him a LETTER, as in snail mail. It feels so slow, but it's got to be better than telephone tag..... Besides, at this point, if he calls me back I won't have all my questions present anymore. They were all in the email I sent his secretary, which she said she'd print out and give him...... he did call me back once, at the home number, during the day when I wasn't home. I called and asked his secretary to ask him to call my cell. That was over a week ago.....

HOTHOTHOT -- & New driver alert!

It's a heat wave. Went biking anyway, and I was surprised at how fine I was. Just the last half hr was hard -- it was 12-12:30 AND on the Custis trail -- which is the way home, hilly, wonderful, BUT not real shady. We'd gone to Bethesda (because it's the shadiest choice)so it was the only non shade.

Really I couldn't bike in this weather (high of 100° today & code red -- poor air quality) if I didn't have AC to come home to.

And then it broke. The AC broke. I couldn't believe it. At first I thought it was 80° when set to 77 because it was so hot outside -- though I should have known better. But then when it got up to 82......

The service people came only 2 hrs after I called (WOW!) but said it might take all night to cool down to 73°. Gawd, maybe I'll sleep downstairs tonight......the basement is nice & cool.

And then tomorrow I have to bike again, and it's going to be just as hot. Maybe a teeny bit warmer, like 1°. I rescheduled my 2pm acupuncture appt to 11 so I'd have time to bike there and back. Maybe I'll leave early so I have less time biking in the afternoon...... I planned it that way so I could give Matthew the car. He started his internship yesterday, working on computers for the homeless shelter -- and he got his driver's license!!!

He got it on Saturday. We had thought we'd have to make him wait still -- the driving instructor said we wouldn't be able to get him on our auto insurance til he gets his real plastic license in 2 months, after his court date. I thought, What a tease! A license but you can't USE it! I talked to one friend who said it had indeed been a tease for her sons, but you can't let them drive uninsured. But then Joan said it wasn't any problem for her sons; her insurance said they were covered right away...... so I called our insurance and got Matthew covered. He's covered NOW. We'll pay a little more than double what we were paying -- I'm a little cheaper because I'm in the preferred range -- but he's a lot cheaper than the standard new teenage driver because of his GRADES. How about that? We get a 35% discount because he has over a 3.0!

And now we're going to see how we share the car...... I got Alan to sign Matthew up for a credit card so we can give him shopping lists when he takes the car -- two birds with one stone, far as I'm concerned! (....and pick up your sister on your way home -- I'll be on my bike.)

energy balancing

I got my energy back Sunday night -- and have been feeling like myself since then. Then I woke up tired today. I don't think it was the bike ride yesterday (33 miles, to Herndon and back) -- because I felt fine both on the ride and afterwards. In fact I realized that i was talking a mile a minute like I USED to, both on the way out and back. First time in awhile I've had enough air/energy to do that -- yay!

But then I was still hyped up last night -- it was Em's 13th birthday yesterday and it ended up being really special. We let her stay up late -- and then of course WE didn't get to bed on time. Em was tired this morning too. (I bet ALan will be wiped tonight -- he had to get up the earliest, 6am.) Anyway so I had trouble getting to sleep last night, both initially and after I woke with hot flashes. Then I woke tired even though I was able to sleep til 8:30.

I wonder if there's a new rhythm to my sleep needs, because of the chopped up sleep (I wake up every 2 hrs with a hot flash -- except sometimes I get a 4 hr stretch -- usually the night after a good bike ride or if I take an ambien.) I mean I used to be able to get away with 6 hr nights during the week -- but they were often solid, uninterrupted sleep. GOD, what I wouldn't do for an uninterrupted 6 hours now!!!!

I hope that's what it is rather than something ominous. The way I'm having to decode my body's signals and budget my energy spending reminds me of Lynn's description of what it was like for her on chemo - though thank goodness I get more than 20 minute bursts. (I'm just not a good enough planner to make use of that!)

tired

I’m tired a lot these days. I know chemo fatigue can last years but I don’t feel like I was this tired in Feburary – wasn’t I shoveling like a madwoman? I did like 4 four hour shoveling stints….. So, what’s with this backsliding? I have cut down on the swimming a lot because I’m tired…… and it’s harder to drag myself through swimming than the others because it’s so solitary. I’m tired biking and walking too – and I do short change Pinky some. But I still bike. But….. I really don’t enjoy it as much as I used to. I just refuse to quit, to give in to whatever the problem is. But it’s starting to feel like enough already…..

I was nauseous, too, for like a month. Thought it was viral, but it lasted too long. Then thought it was the bisphosphonate -- talked with the onc about it, stopped it for a month..... didn't get better. Then was pretty sure I had it, vitamin D toxicity -- I'd been taking a double dose, 2300 mg/d, after the onc said to take 1,000 and then a couple of months later my regular doc did my D levels again and said, "Whatever you're taking, double it." SHe didn't ask what I was taking or when I'd started, and I wondered if the levels were taking awhile to come up...... But I just had my D levels checked on Monday and they're STILL low. (40, the scale being 30-100.) It's "low normal." The problem is, that's what it was when I STARTED taking this D. So where's the D going? Am I not metabolizing it, and it's just toxifying my liver? How can I find out? WHat else could be making me nauseous?

I've been nauseous very seldom in my life. This nausea wasn't like pregnancy nausea -- not relieved by eating (that's low blood sugar nausea.) I did keep trying. Made me gassy, even put on a couple of pounds trying.....I was nauseous and shaky, anyway. It's more like the toxic nausea..... like chemo nausea, and like the nausea I had when I had niacin poisoning in the late '80s. But the doc said today that the D levels are still low and I should go back on it. I'm sorry to hear that because I've been NOT nauseous for the last week, since I stopped taking the D. That's why I wonder, maybe the supplementation is not working, and ONLY toxifying. Have to figure out what tests might check for that. They only did my D levels -- I bet there's something else that needs to be done.....

Any thoughts or ideas, I'll take 'em! Meanwhile..... I'm tired.

Long term stage 4 survival

SOmeone in my breast cancer support group sent this link to share. She's had 9 years of remission following a stage 4 diagnosis, and apparently is not alone with this miracle.:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/04/27/health/27case.html?emc=eta1

Isn't that cool? Makes me think of Gabi, same miracle, different ailment. (HIV+ since 1986.) YEAH!!!!!

Getting my hills back?????

I'd been wondering if something was up, because I'd been feeling tired in between my biking days. I mean, I'd have a list of things to do including shopping errands, dog walking, swimming, etc. Now often I do only half of a list like that because..... I get sidetracked, often by something completely legitimate -- or I spend a long time doing one thing. But for the last week or two I was just too tired, and didn't want to do any of it. I took naps and walked the dog, that's it. I wouldn't give up a biking day, but it was all I could do it make that happen.

Well I hope it's over, because it was starting to worry me. But then Em stayed home sick on Monday with a tummy thing, which she still has to some extent, but she's much better, and I realized that in addition to feeling tired I was also gassy. Now that's not always such an unusual thing for me -- but LATELy my digestion has been the best it's been in 20 years. I've been attributing it to the acupuncture. My yeast issue is also improved. I mean, after a long bike ride in spandex and a beer I don't feel anything threatening. My bike seat still irritates me in front (&I'm goign to get a new seat) but it doesn't feel like yeast is going to get in there and add to the problem. Anyway -- so I'm thinking that I was mildly sick. Hope that's all it was.

Yesterday was Beth's 55th birthday ride, 55 miles on 5/5. The start point of the original ride was moved, so it ended up being only 52 miles, with the option to ride around for a bit and finish it. (I may be compulsive about some things, but not that.) I'd been thinking I'd turn around early and ride 35-40 miles..... I had made an arrangement with a new rider to turn around with her, and had printed maps so I could find the way. Well I was lucky that there was aNOTHER rider who wanted to turn around early, because it turned out that I didn't! I couldn't believe it..... I had such a hard time a week ago on the 50 m training ride..... Was it all because of the wind?

Last Wed. the winds were 20-30 mph. The ride was out on the W&OD trail, with hardly any hills. I had a flat & changed it in Herndon, but I don't think I'd been riding on it for long. (There was construction on the trail, and my flat was a couple of miles after that -- and I pulled 2 new shiny & staple thick wires from my tire.) Anyway I turned around in Herndon along with most of the riders, so it was just a 33 mile ride -- and the same old usual 33 mile ride at that! (We ride to Herndon all the time.) But I was exhausted and wakeful that night (like from muscle overuse.) I was sure I wouldn't be able to do the 55 miler to CLifton, which is very hilly.

But I did, and it was not hard. There were maybe 2 hard hills on the way out (almost to CLifton) and a few more on the way back. People passed me going up hills, but sometimes I passed people too, going up.

Maybe the tiredness in between biking days was slowing me down on the bike too -- must have been. Lucky timing for me. OH and also, about yesterday's ride...... no wind, PERfect weather, and just pretty much a blessed day.